286 SERGEANT YORK
By stealthy maneuvering, York manages to flank the main enemy trench and picks
off Germans with deadly accurate sniper fire, causing the survivors to surrender.
At gunpoint, York also forces a prisoner (Charles Esmond) to demand the surren-
der of German forces mid- battle in a dif fer ent part of the line. He and his fellow
survivors capture a cohort of 132 German soldiers. York is subsequently awarded
the Medal of Honor and celebrated for his heroism. When Major Buxton questions
why he proceeded in the way that he did, York says that his only goal was to save
the lives of his fellow soldiers. Upon his arrival in New York City, York is feted
with a ticker tape parade and handed a key to the city before being lodged at the
elegant Waldorf- Astoria hotel. Congressman Cordell Hull (Charles Trowbridge)
gives him a tour of the city and informs him that he has lots of offers for endorse-
ment deals totaling $250,000. York mentions the land he wanted to purchase
before the war began, and Hull confirms that he could use the money for the
property. However, York turns away the money, saying that he did his duty during
the war, but was not proud of his actions. York returns to Tennessee and discovers
that his neighbors and fellow residents have bought the land for him and built
him a house.Reception
Sergeant York had its world premiere at the 1,141- seat Astor Theatre at Broadway
and West 45th Street, New York City, on the Wednesday before the July Fourth
weekend in 1941. Alvin York attended the screening, accompanied by Jesse Lasky
and Hal Wallis and greeted by a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) band and a Ten-
nessee state del e ga tion headed by Col. George Buxton, York’s former commanding
officer. Gary Cooper also attended. The film went into wide release on 27 Septem-
ber 1941 and did phenomenal box office business; it was the top- grossing film of
1941 with $16,361,885 in ticket sales ($427 million in 2017 dollars) and was still
in theaters when the Japa nese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December, which fur-
ther boosted ticket sales. Sergeant York also excelled in the awards department,
garnering 11 Acad emy Award nominations and posting 2 wins: a Best Actor Oscar
for Gary Cooper and a Best Editor Oscar for William Holmes. Con temporary
reviews were almost uniformly adulatory.Reel History Versus Real History
At the insistence of Alvin York, Sergeant York achieved an impressive degree of his-
torical accuracy. The movie does, however, indulge in some truth- bending and
sheer fabrications. A 39- year- old playing a man a de cade younger, Cooper was three
inches taller than York and did not much resemble him. Nor did he attempt to
replicate York’s somewhat higher voice and thick Southern drawl. Furthermore,
the script indulges in country bumpkin stereotyping that makes Cooper’s Alvin
York more childlike and naïve than he really was. York was one of 11 children but
in the interest of narrative streamlining, the movie depicts only two siblings. Joan
Leslie’s Gracie Williams is far prettier and more spirited than the real Gracie. The
movie does not whitewash York’s youthful propensity for booze and brawling, but
it does elide the fact that Grace Williams’ parents forbade their courting, so they
had to meet in secret. To make its story more palatable to a general audience, the