Moving back to California during the War Years

During World War II, my father wasn’t accepted by the Armed Services because he had a curvature of the spine. His back had never given him any discomfort, but the Navy wasn't taking any chances. So my father moved back to Hollywood to supervise the production of training films for the U.S. Army Air Forces (under the command of a young Captain Ronald Reagan) from 1943-1945. My mother and I (their bundle of joy born that January) went to California with him, and we lived in the Silver Lake district. During the war years, Hardie, Pruett Carter and Mrs. Chouinard had the idea of sending artists to the Veteran's Hospital to sketch portraits of wounded servicemen, as Bob Perine recalled in 1985 in his book, Chouinard: An Art Vision Betrayed. Hardie recalled that the artists tried to minimize the boys' wounds in their drawings. They'd make the soldiers look as handsome as possible so that they would have something special to send home to their families. Doppy noted that he also taught a class at Chouinard, and she would often cook up meals for the students Hardie would bring home. At the end of the war, an art director at one of the studios hired Hardie to do sketches for the Ernie Pyle movie, "G.I. Joe," and he enjoyed this new experience so much.