The Vietnam Interview: A Date with Chris Noel
By Claudia Gary and David T. Zabecki |
Vietnam |
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 Chris Noel during her 1966 - 1970 helicopter tours in VietnamWhen Hollywood turned stridently against the war and the men who fought it, Chris Noel stuck with the GIs—and she’s still with them.
A model turned actress in the early 1960s, Chris Noel was a young blonde bombshell with a number of movies and TV guest appearances under her belt when she first started entertaining the troops in Vietnam. She received the Distinguished Vietnam Veteran award in 1984 from the Veterans Network for her work during the war. In an interview, Noel recalls her life-altering experiences and her ongoing efforts in support of Vietnam veterans.
Vietnam: Tell us a little about your Hollywood career before Vietnam.
Chris Noel: When I first went to Hollywood, I was put under contract to Universal for one month, and then they fired me. Their head of casting said I had the worst voice in the world, and said to “send that girl back where she came from, she’s atrocious.” So I cried a lot, until three weeks later I was under contract to MGM. In the first film I did I played the girlfriend opposite Steve McQueen, in Soldier in the Rain. Jackie Gleason and Tuesday Weld were in the film. I guest-starred in almost all of the television shows of that year. I did a lot of beach movies and motorcycle movies, and just a little bit of everything.
And before Hollywood?
When I was in Florida as a young girl, at the age of 16, I was on the cover of Good Housekeeping magazine with a little baby, posing as a young mother. I was also the Kodak girl. There were wonderful posters that were done on the beach with me in a hammock, and with a beach ball, and that sort of thing. But I just knew that I had to do something more with my life, so I went to New York. A television writer did an article where they picked the three top women in television commercials and three top guys, and I was one of the three girls. Then I was also one of the Rheingold [beer] girls in New York, and on the cover of the New York Post and New York Mirror. But I always wanted to go to California.
What was the turning point for you?
The 1965 Christmas tour that I made with California’s Governor Pat Brown and various celebrities. That year, my boyfriend was over in Vietnam with Bob Hope. Then I had the opportunity to go to the VA hospitals. When I went into the gangrene ward of double and triple amputees, I was stunned. I remember the very first guy I saw there said something really nasty to us. Then Sandy Koufax took and threw a ball to a guy who had only one arm, and he reached up and caught the ball. He was laughing, and the other guys were laughing. I thought, “Wow, I have to find a way to learn to make them happy.” My girlfriend and I sang “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” and we were absolutely terrible, but it was kind of cute. When I walked out of the ward, I was still very, very stunned. Those moments changed my life and made me realize that I had to make a difference.
How did you get the disk jockey job with Armed Forces Radio?
My boyfriend came back from his tour and he had to put in Reserve time. He was at Armed Forces Radio and Television Service in Hollywood, and he found out that they were looking for someone to put on the radio. So I called, made my appointment, went in and did my interview—and they chose me. I started off doing a show called Small World with George Church III. I became really popular. The colonel called me in one day, and said, “Well, Chris, I hate to tell you this, but you’ve been fired.” I said, “Fired? What did I do wrong?” And he said, “Well, you’ve been fired, but you’ve been hired to do your own show.” It was pretty exciting. They came up with the name, A Date With Chris. They would record it to be put on 33-1/3 records, which would be sent to all the outlets throughout the free world.
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31 Comments to “The Vietnam Interview: A Date with Chris Noel”
Thanks for the fascinating article. I’d never heard of Ms Noel before. The fact that I know everything about Jane Fonda’s involvement in Vietnam but nothing about Ms Noel says so much about what our main stream media choices to cover. Thanks for this article!
By WestPointer on Jun 14, 2008 at 12:29 am
A wonderful person with a giving and honest character that is not seen much in today’s culture, nor during the Viet Nam area.
By Jepson on Jun 14, 2008 at 7:58 am
Thank you Ms. Noel. You are beautiful inside and out!
By Eric Weider on Jun 14, 2008 at 10:37 am
Chris was a heroine to all of us in ‘67-’68 and she still is. And she’s right on that nothing’s changed. The anti-military types have found that spitting on vets and calling them babykillers doesn’t get traction anymore. So now it’s support the troops by turning them into some sort of victim they can be patronizing to. Same old song; different words.
By Jonathan Hayes on Jun 14, 2008 at 7:14 pm
As a Canadian army officer at the time of Chris
Noel’s stint with AFRTS (Vietnam) I think she is a U.S. national treasure. A tireless worker for vets when many would have “retired” from that “duty” years ago. Chris was “the girl next door” for many battle-weary troops. Worth a brigade herself…….just in morale boosting! Three cheers for Chris! Frank.
By Frank McKellar on Jun 16, 2008 at 3:16 pm
It is amazing to see how can Ms. Noel still fails to grasp the utter policy failure tend heart wrenching waste of lives that was Vietnam. The troops and the public were sold a lie, that it was better to fight the Commies in the jungles of Vietnam rather than on the beaches of California.
The whole premise of the War was to stop communism from spreading across Asia; ignoring the specific issues at play in Vietnam, that had little to do with East v. West Cold War politics. Just like Jane Fonda and other anti-war protesters predicted, the war was an issue to be resolved by the Vietnamese themselves. the North Vietnamese proved that they were not puppets of China or Russia (their 1979 border war with Communist China and Hanoi’s lukewarm relations with Moscow proved that).When the Vietnamese did march into Cambodia in 1978 to fight the murderous regime of Pol Pot, they did so with the almost universal approval of the international community, including the US.
The situation in Iraq painfully mirrors that of Vietnam: the internal, ancient religious and ethnic conflicts between Iraqis have nothing to do with the so-called war on terror. 58,000 dead Americans could not stop the unification of Vietnam; likewise, regardless of how many Americans fight and die in Iraq, the future of Iraq will be decided not by the Pentagon or the neo-cons in Washington, but by Shia mullahs of Najaf and Karbala, Sunni sheiks of Anbar and Kurdish leaders in the Mosul and Kirkuk.
By Reality Check on Jun 17, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Chris Noel is an ANGEL! She will forever occupy a place in my heart for all she’s done for Vietnam vets.
I lost track of her when I rotated back to “the world” in 1970. May GOD BLESS CHRIS NOEL!
Love, Tom Knight
By Tom Knight on Jun 18, 2008 at 1:16 am
This is a comment on a comment, I guess. “Reality Check” said succinctly exactly what I was (and have been for years) thinking. Of course I agree with Miss Noel that holding individual soldiers responsible for Vietnam is (and was) wrong, but I disagree about the current situation. I believe and hope that the American public has gone beyond that, and now recognize that the soldiers only carry out orders, no matter how misguided and stupid.
By Frank Eskridge on Jun 18, 2008 at 8:20 am
To Frank…. it is indeed interesting that whatever the outcome of the War in Vietnam was, we did not see any additional countries in South East Asia become socialist or have ties with USSR/China. So, maybe those 54K who died, did die for a purpose…. a line was drawn in the sand and the Russians/Chinese chose not to cross it.
By Romando Echovarde on Jun 18, 2008 at 10:31 pm
wow, great article. Thank god for people like Chris Noel.
By Steve lee on Jun 20, 2008 at 11:21 am
For those who were sent with orders for westpac ground forces and served their tours - we thank you.
For those who did not and have not served their country - then you have no say here.
For Mr. Reality check to come forward and give his pro left ideas - are just that ideas.
Its very easy for folks such as him to arm chair quarter back with the ” weak kneed - joint smokers type attitudes”.
Just think if we always had the benefit to sit out and pick your fight - in this world.
That’s a beneift we would all like but in all
REALITY we don’t have.
Thank you.
Gene Spanos
Lieutenant Retired RPD
Marine Vietnam Combat Veteran
Member of the Marine Corps League Det # 553
Police-Marines
Park Ridge, IL
USA
By Gene Spanos on Jun 21, 2008 at 3:27 pm
The real truth is Chris Noel, Bob Hope and others
were there for the Officers, white soldiers and
media I served two tours in Viet-Nam. I do not have a good feeling for her.In fact I never saw her.
By J Paul Alston on Jun 21, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I don’t give a crap what your views were-God bless Chris and others like her for giving our boys a taste of home…
By Joe Messore on Jun 22, 2008 at 10:20 pm
It’s Frank McKellar again (see comment 6 above). Romando does have a valid point about “a line in the sand.” We will never know the total “good” done. I recall a Russian Officer saying you (Americans) scared the s–t out of them. They did not know you were so tough…..had such endurance! What did that war prevent that we will never know? But, another “Yay” for Chris Noel! Frank McKellar.
By Frank McKellar on Jun 25, 2008 at 11:15 am
41 years ago to the day I arrived in Korea Aco. 1/72 Armor 2nd. Infantry Division Camp Rose. I extended my tour of duty to serve 17 months.June 25,1967 to Nov.17,1968. Thank you Doesnot begin to express my Thanks God Bless You and again Thankyou Very Much !
By Ruben Garcia on Jun 25, 2008 at 10:35 pm
what most people seem to forget/not realize, then and now, was the US was a part of the SEATO Treaty (SouthEast Asia Treaty Organization), entered into under the Eisenhower Administration, and therefor obligated to come to the aid of South Vietnam when they asked for it, whether we wanted to or not. So to compare the current situation in Iraq with Vietnam is flawed from the start. While I have never served, my father spent two tours in Vietnam, first as an advisor, then as as a rifle company commander in the 9th Infantry Division. Based on his stories when he was assigned to a South Vietnamese unit, they were none too pleased with Americans being there (my father spoke Vietnamese, so they would speak French around him so he wouldn’t know what they were discussing). So the troops that served in Vietnam got it from “both sides”.
By armand on Jun 27, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Having known Chris and also working with her the past few years, I can say she truely believes in what she has done and will do in the future. She pours her heart out for the soldiers of yesterday and the new veterans of today. As a major donor to her Ceasefire House project, the Namknights MC of Palm Beach County and our Rock and Roll Sunday event fund raiser, know what energy and enthusiasm she puts forth in her personal quest for the veterans of today. God bless Chris and all others like her.
By LL on Jun 30, 2008 at 5:33 am
i think that chris noel is really cool i meen that’s jus twaesome that she actually did all that while still at a young age how awesome is that!!!
By secret on Jul 7, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I remember Chris’ show very well - loved it. She would open her show by saying, “Hi Love” and end her show by saying, “bye Love” and of course with my name being Love, I always said she was talking to me.
By CWO Love Army Ret on Jul 22, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Wow! after all these years emotions are still stirred. regardless of the point of view you have now, or that matter, then, we can all agree that that era was real. We are a stronger country and a more enlightened society as a result of the Viet Nam conflict.
I am a soldier so I will not attempt to spar with the academics, or the experts on what were the core reasons we entered into that fray. What I can say with absolute certainty is that while we were in that most foriegn of places, it was a god-send to have Chris Noel, Bob Hope and Wally what’s his name fly into our madness for a little while and add some degree of normalcy to a totally screwed up environment. Actually, J. Paul was somewhat on the target when he said most of those shows never made it to where the “boonie” soldiers were. But!!! there were DoNut Dollies that came out pretty regularly and some of them were as pretty as Chris and stayed longer, so to those of you that actually saw Chris in the field… Good for you. For those of us that didn’t, well be grateful for her courage and dedication to the fighting men that did have that moment of sanity and hopefully, happiness in looking upon a true American Girl Next Door! Thank you Chris and all the Red Cross girls that left their sophomore year in college to visit us when we needed you the most.
By CSM (Ret) Lee Ingram on Jul 22, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Chris (nee Sandra) is my step-niece and I am as proud of her today as I was back when she was growing up in W. Palm Beach.
By R. E. on Aug 7, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I served with the 458th PBR’s in Cat-Lai, RVN, and I remember listening to Miss Noel and seeing her photos’ she is as beautiful now as then and her support of us and our troops now is great. I always felt that Hanoi Jane should have been tried for treason.
By Chris Poteat on Aug 17, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Chris Noel is the “Mother Theresa” of the Vietnam vets, of which I am one. May God bless you, lady. After 34 years in the military and 3 wars in which I was shot at in each and every one, I have come to this conclusion. Only two people have ever volunteered to die for me, Jesus Christ, who died for my sins and the American fighting man who died for my many freedoms. Among those freedoms, shared by all of us, is the freedom to sit comfortably behind that computer screen in the greatest country in the world (I’ve been to 42)and pass judgement on foreign policy, political policy and war management of which none of us know anymore than what our “slanted” and un-objective media wishes to cover. To my warrior brethren who suffer the scars of their experience, you are in my prayers. To those others who have not served, yet care to criticize, remeber this quote from a Marine chaplain:
It is the soldier and not the journlist who gave you the freedom of the press. It is the soldier and not the organizers who gave you the freedom to assemble. And it is the soldier, who salutes our flag and whose coffin is draped with the flag that gave you the right to burn that flag.
By Mike Higgins on Aug 22, 2008 at 9:30 am
I listened to chris noel while in Vietnam 67/68 I wrote her a letter and she sent me a autographed picture in a striped bikini. It is one of the only things I brought home me and I still have . She was such a beautiful person and is one of the only real ggod memories I have of that Hell-hole thank you Chris
By Jim Wiley on Sep 7, 2008 at 12:02 am
I am proud to know Chris, be her friend, and to try and help her raise funds for her shelter VETSVILLE CEASE FIRE HOUSE located on 291 NE 19th Avenue, Boynton Beach, Florida. She continues to work tirelessly to help homeless Vets. Show your support by writing Chris and helping if you can.
Nick SP4 USAR 1963-1969
By Nick Papayani on Sep 12, 2008 at 9:58 am
To Realtycheck and his ilk, you spew that left wing rhectoric without facts. We were asked to go into South Viet Nam because of the insurgency by the North. It was the North that were committing atrocities and killing innocent villagers for not coming over to their side. We never lost a battle in Viet Nam but thanks to the likes of your liberal socialist leaders (Hanoi Jane Fonda and Walter Conkrite and the left wing media) our country gave up on the war and its soldiers. It was the likes of Conkrite, the media and Hanoi Jane that embolden the Communists to fight on. It was the media and Conkrite that kept telling the American public that the troops could not win the war. HOW SHAMEFUL. Just google Gen. Giap and he tells the exact story in his memomoirs. He states that the North was ready to surrender after TET. Your’r right about Iraq being like Viet Nam, again you left wing liberals and the media putting down and talking down our troops which only embolden the ensurgents to fight on. Do you people not learn from history, but then again you only think with emotions and not with common sense. Another fact is that when American solders go back to revisit they are welcomed with opened arms and get more thanks from the South Viet Namese than when they came home 40 some years ago. They thank us for what we tried to do. Even the old NVA solders commend the American toops for their toughness. Pass your BS on some other liberal site. And a big thank you to Chris for her unselfish deeds for Veterans.
By wounded Viet Nam Vet on Oct 10, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Wow, I was thrilled to see Chris Noel is still supporting our vets. I was in a hospital in Viet Nam at Christmas time when this beautiful lady came to visit. It was a field med unit and I can’t remember the name of it, but I remember thinking this is one brave woman to be be here for us since it wasn’t too safe of an area. I’ll never forget her and how happy the guys and I were to see her. God Bless Chris Noel.
By Joseph Didia on Oct 17, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Chris Noel was not heard on AFVN out of Saigon during my tour
in 1969-70. She was known to me though as the stateside
newspapers covered her time in Vietnam before I arrived in-
country. We are all grateful for her service. She is a true legend of
the Vietnan War.
By Jim Dugan on Nov 2, 2008 at 3:44 pm
where the hell can i find a website that i can plug in a specific date and see the event that happened that day in the Vietnam war.
By Danielle on Nov 18, 2008 at 5:59 pm
this is good info
By ouiipyt on Nov 18, 2008 at 6:00 pm