James Thurber wrote the short story, "THE GREATEST MAN IN THE WORLD" in the early 1930s, and it still has a tremendously effective kick to this day. Basically the story deals with the following problem: what happens when the man who is a hero turns out not to have the right character? I don't think Thurber was aiming any particular darts at Lindbergh, who was made into a national God in 1927 by his act of bravery in flying the Atlantic alone and successfully between New York and Paris. Lindbergh's later pro-Nazi point of view was not known in 1931. Instead, Thurber was basing his story on the following. Whatever defects Lindberg, or polar explorer Richard Byrd, or other notable heroes of the day had these defects were well hidden, or of a relatively trifling nature (i.e., Byrd's drinking), that the public could just admire their outward manifestations of courage, chivalry, modesty, friendliness, etc. But this could not always be guaranteed for all people who made great achievements.
In this tale, Jimmy Schmurch (Brad Davis plays him) is a daredevil who pilots a juiced-up airplane using an engine designed by a madman (Russell Horton), to fly non-stop around the globe. When the plane lands, Smurch is exhausted and collapses. He is taken to a hospital to recuperate. In the meantime a newspaper editor (Howard De Silva), has sent his reporter out to find background on the incapacitated hero. The reporter discovers that Smurch is an abusive, nasty individual - a heavy drinker - who has had more adulterous affairs than one can shake a stick at. He also is a close friend of bootleggers (the story is set in the Prohibition period), and his mother and family have had plenty of run-ins with the law. De Silva realizes that the public can't have a hero like this. He informs the government, so that the Secretary of State (William Prince) is put in charge. Due to the national prestige involved, Prince puts it succinctly: "This is the biggest national crisis since the sinking of the Lusitania").
Unfortunately, the idiot reporter is one of those idealists who feel that if the public knows everything, everything will work out right. Despite De Silva's well-meant warnings to let wiser people handle this, the reporter decides to got to poor Jack Smurch. Smurch has actually recovered (he only needed a night or two of sleep) and he now wants to get some booze and to get his main squeeze into bed. Leading the idiot reporter on, the latter gets him out of the hospital to a car hoping to have the interview of his career. Instead Smurch knocks him out and takes off. The reporter is subsequently fired for his stupidity.
Smurch is captured and brought back. He is told that there will be a meeting he must attend. He goes to a room full of political bigwigs, including the President. They are lecturing him on how he will act from now on. Smurch sneers - he knows the power of his position. They want him to keep quiet and behave? Well, it could be arranged, if they pay him big money.
How the crisis is finally resolved is the final irony of this wonderful story.
This was one of a series of dramatizations of short stories by American Authors that were made in the early 1980s. They were shown on Channel 13. As far as I know they have not been shown in the quarter century since then. Pity, because most of them were quite good. Maybe one day they will be revived.
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