"MONTY'S" DOUBLE LOOKING FOR JOB

Chronicle (Levin), 3 May 1947, Page 2

"MONTY'S" DOUBLE LOOKING FOR JOB

. It's not all honey being a great : man 's double. You ltnow the story ot the Royal Army Pay Corps lieutenant wh'o imperstjnated Field-Marshal Mont-. gomery and fooled the Germans over i zero hour for D day invasion., Impressed ' by his likeness to the British C.-in-C., Whitehall sent him to the Mediterrancan on a special mission of bluff. The Germans thought the attack on Hitler 's Atlantic wall could not be imminent while Monty .was gallivanting so far away from the 'invasion base. But D day dawned a few hoars after. How f ares the man who pulled off one. of the biggest bluffs of the war? Mr. M. E. Clifton- J ames, Monty 's double, demobilised last June, is now out of work and looking for a i'ob. Remember that many great men have had doubles — Lloyd George, Churchill, Joe Chamberlain, Roosevelt. You can add to the list Clifton- James, actor for with Fred Kamo, shine for a while in the reflected glory of another man's fame. But he soon realised that while great men remain great their doubles are apt all too quickly to slide baek into ob scurity. Whitehall has to thiuk twice when the name of Monty 's double is mentioned. A Bad Patch Interviewed at his home at Worthing he said he had struck a very bad patch. "I have had only three day's work since I was demobbed. When i got back into civvies my ambition was to return to the stage, but 1 found that no theatrical manager would engage me. "The reason? They gave the excqse that my presence on the stage wGuld be a disturbing influenee and that people would go to the threate just to see Monty 's double aud that sQniehow this wmuld detract from the play it self . ' ' He has turned down big money offers to appear in person to recite cliapters from the D day drama, on the ground that such engagements would be distasteful and would offend the diguity of his official mission. "I had a wonderful welcome everywhere I went when I wore battle dress. No actor ever got more publicity than I did as Monty 's double. Theatrical managers and others rushed to greet me, set me on a pedestai as it were for all to see, but not one of them thought of offeriug me a job. Embarrassing "I have written a book about myself which I have placed with an American agency and I have done some iilui work. I know something about accountancy from my expenence in the i£rmy Pay Corps. 0 . "But today you see me unemployed' and 1 am about to sign on at the employment exchange for the sake of my wife and two children. "" Life as an ordinary citizen is a trifle embarrassing to Clifton- James. In the trains between Worthing and Victoria, in siiops, in the street and at the bank the glamour of being Monty 's double still persists. He canuot shake it off. It clings to his civi lian suit. Well Learnt Such is the plaiu tale of a soldier who served in two world wars, who played his part faithfully under the Official Secrets Act down to the last written instruction, who was trained to speak and look and walk and salute like the Field-Marshal and who learned his master's tricks at invasion' rehearsals on the South Coast. He recalled the -day when the "North African air was tliick with salut.es for the imitation Monty, and when he exchanged handshakes with brigadiers and colonels who'called him "Sir" — a great impersonation that afterwards aroused . great . expectations that have uot- "been fulfilled. "If Viscount Montgomery himself, ' ' he added, "were to walk through the streets of my home town — not wearing his £2000 squirrel-lined coat, of course — I am pretty sure people would say: 'That's not Monty; tliat's CliftonJames'."