MILITARY RECORDS OF THE STARS ARCHIVES OPEN WINDOW ON SERVICE OF CELEBRITIES.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Before bad-boy actor Steve McQueen's ``Great Escape,'' there was his great AWOL escapade.

It was only a day and a night's disappearance from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and legend has it a woman was involved. But according to military records, the King of Cool spent 30 days in the brig in late 1949, also paying a $90 fine for being a ``straggler.''

McQueen's Marine Corps arrest report and sentencing documents are among more than 1.2 million pages of military personnel files the National Archives and Records Administration plans to open to the public Saturday in St. Louis.

While the vast majority of the records belong to enlisted personnel in the Navy and Marine Corps between 1885 and 1939, the Archives also released scores of files belonging to deceased celebrities like Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda and Burt Lancaster.

Jack Valenti, former president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said the records open a window into a bygone time when Hollywood was eager to serve.

``It was a different era,'' said Valenti, who flew combat missions in World War II.

``It wasn't a poor man's war. You had Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart. They could have gotten out. They didn't because this was a war (in which) our country was under attack, and, by God, if you were an American citizen you went out to fight,'' he said.

Valenti said the military service of celebrities in turn endeared Hollywood to the public.

``Everybody in this country who was a moviegoer felt good to know that Gable and Stewart didn't flinch,'' he said.

By the time he enlisted in 1942, Gable was already a megastar. His Army enlistment records show that he was living in Encino when he signed up as a private, later graduating officers candidate school as a second lieutenant and completing training at gunnery school.

Yet while Gable flew operational missions over Europe, the records also show that he was not always treated like the average serviceman. One memo approves travel by ``privately owned conveyance'' for Gable while at gunnery school.

Another asks that Gable's cameraman be trained as an aerial gunner ``who may make pictures of Gable in various theaters of operations'' to be shown later at training centers.

Lt. Henry Fonda's records show the Bronze Medal awardee to have been highly regarded by his commanding officers in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Recommending Fonda for a promotion in 1945, Vice Adm. J.H. Hoofer reported ``The Grapes of Wrath'' star was ``intelligent, determined, zealous, loyal and thoroughly cooperative in all and every respect.'' All in all, he said, ``an outstanding officer.''

As for McQueen, who would later become famous in classics like ``The Great Escape'' and ``Bullit,'' making his home between Brentwood and Palm Springs, his AWOL incident was just a part of his Marine Corps picture.

McQueen also won a commendation for rescuing five Marines in a training accident.

As the story of the rescue goes, McQueen jumped into icy Canadian waters and helped others to shore when a boat capsized during a training incident.

``He seems to have been both a morale problem and a hero as well,'' said Christopher Sandford, a Seattle-based author who wrote ``McQueen: The Biography.''

``He was pretty bad when things were going normally, but when there was a crisis, he snapped to it,'' Sandford said. ``You really got the DNA of the mature Steve McQueen in his military career.''

In addition to records of Hollywood celebrities, the newly released archives also include those of dozens of politicians, sports figures, writers and musicians.

Records for much of the Kennedy family will be made public as well as those for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Jimmy Hendrix is in the mix, as is ``The Great Gatsby'' author F. Scott Fitzgerald and tennis great Arthur Ashe.

Valenti said the celebrity files also carry a lesson for today.

``Even the most rich and most famous people among us served their country,'' Valenti said. ``When the country said 'we need you,' they showed up.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

THE DETAILS

To order a copy of a military record, write to: The National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Ave., St. Louis, Mo., 63132-5100. All requests must be in writing, signed and mailed. The National Archives will not accept e-mailed requests.

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(1 -- color) Elvis Presley is probably being asked for his autograph by fellow soldiers on his last day of service in the Army in this photo taken at Fort Dix, N.J., on March 5, 1960.

Lee Lockwood/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

(2 -- 4) Actor Steve McQueen, shown in a scene from the 1963 movie ``Soldier in the Rain,'' spent 30 days in the Marine Corps brig in late 1949 after going AWOL and also paid a $90 fine for being a ``straggler.'' Yet the future star also won a commendation for rescuing five Marines in a training accident.

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THE DETAILS (see text)