Watch BAND OF BROTHERS with George Luz.

in the first episode of Band of Brothers we all saw how Captain Sobel was fooled by e-company's comedian George Laz is shown to be quite the mimic but did Band of Brothers show the real George laws was he really a fighting comedian we're gonna ask his son while we watch clips from the show and we have the only interview ever filmed with George what happened to us and Normandy was uh I uh as we're flying in I happen to look out and I could see the beach [Music] hey welcome to Mark's game room and it's a special day here we have George Luz with us with all my great friends and we're gonna do a watch along of scenes from Band of Brothers our favorite World War II show and we're going to talk to George he's going to fill us in with some cool moments and give us maybe a different perspective on the show and help us answer the question is the portrayal of George laws your favorite paratrooper comedian accurate so did your dad talk a lot about the war growing up yeah I was really pretty fortunate you know we went to reunions as uh when we were kids yeah at 1965 was our very first reunion in Fort Campbell Kentucky so that's when I got a chance to meet the guys who my dad served with and over the years we went to more reunions and you got a better understanding of everything they kind of dealt with so he did share a lot of stories and and so I've been very blessed oh awesome well thanks for sharing it with us yeah that's amazing I had a grandfather who was in World War II but he wouldn't talk about it hardly ever same word same way with my dad he hardly ever talked about it I think that was pretty common yeah you know you know when you talk to guys that uh that didn't really want to talk about it you think they saw some awful things yeah yeah maybe they didn't want their kids to experience that right yeah yeah terrible stuff yeah all right well let's get on to Band of Brothers and see if um the portrayal is accurate all right [Music] so I am a barbed wire fence so please tell me that's true yeah yeah well that certainly is true it's in the story I remember as a kid and uh you know hearing that story and then reading it in the book and then fortunately enough we all had a chance to see it on it which is really neat to be able to do that um um you know they always talk about they always talk about SoMo and how well he was a trainer but he just really wasn't he wouldn't have been good and we all we all kind of learned that so um interesting story was I met his son Michael Sobel at the 2003 reunion in Phoenix wow yeah I was in Phoenix and he had come and I'm sure there was a certain amount of apprehension right with him coming to the reunion how his dad was portrayed exactly exactly so and as soon as he came and somebody said hey this is Michael Sobel so I quickly thought all right let me grab them and I'm going to bring them to the first the closest first guy that um somebody you know that knew us and they all knew it's that but uh there was a guy Bill winget who was a terrific guy and Bill always had a little bit of a different take on Sobel and I said I introduced myself brought him over to winget and he started talking to wing it and then from Wingate he went to Bill and then he went to to babe and buck and Don and Frank picani and on and on and on he talked to all of the guys in the unit and later on that evening he was the speaker at our event and it was great I think it provided him an opportunity to tell us about his dad in the way he viewed his dad which was refreshing for all of us plus I'm sure it really helped him yeah so that was really neat and then um how did he say his dad oh much different he said his dad was you know like the life of the party you know when they would get together with family events his dad was just a funny guy you know um did he have any criticism about the show for his portrayal well he didn't tell me that but I can imagine you don't you don't exactly come away from the show with a positive impression of Soul right I mean that's gonna be tough it's pretty brutal to see your dad like shown that way right to a certain degree with Michael is we had a little chat uh joking about you know my dad imitating major Hortons right we kind of chuckled about that but I'm not sure he chuckled as much as I do it was it was certainly kind of funny it was certainly kind of funny so your dad said he did that and was your dad a mimic why could he do these Impressions yeah he was very talented with things like that and uh so yeah he could tell jokes and I think everybody could tell jokes and but he could tell jokes and he had a way of diffusing difficult situations through humor yeah yeah one of those is coming up and something you shared with me all right major winners okay yeah yeah that's a good one too all right so yeah you've heard it here first in Mark's game room from George Luz that the cutting the fence scene is authentic yeah so that's good man we love it okay all right we're gonna move on to Normandy and I think on this one we're going to start with a clip from your dad from a reunion talking about being on the aircraft [Music] look at me all right behind me and to apologize for the airport in the video okay I'll never make the door he said okay would come if you just said there's a scene in Band of Brothers where you see Cobb gets shot in the aircraft presumably that was George Les's plane if you're invading friends you got to go big or go home [Music] that scene does show how badly George is playing got shot up but let's hear from him what he had to say about being on the plane and jumping what a Normandy was uh uh I uh we're flying in I happen to look out and I could see the beach and uh when they stand stand up and hook up uh I asked the guys uh one of the crew chiefs retirement he said it's 1 30. so we stood up and hooked up and it there's a box above the door when the red light comes on you'll hook up it's going it's going guys when the green light comes on you go exploding and it shorted out the box oh wow it would go on red green red green and we were waiting yeah finally the Navigator came out from the cockpit and said what are you guys doing in here we were about let's say three to four minutes late wow that put you a long way back when we landed I expected to see you know at least three or four guys around me yeah but I was all alone wow uh that was I went out it's about 1 30. and I didn't get back to my company in part of the gate in the morning before they all night all night and The Invasion when I started shooting the the Navy I swear to hell I saw those shelves it was so huge yeah and uh I teamed up with another officer from headquarters company and we going over the Hedgerow and we finally went up and met him that's a crazy story wow yeah he said the Flack was so thick and then and then he said you know when you were coming down man you could see the German you could see the traces you know killing your buddies terrible geez and that that was his first combat jump yeah right yeah well the first time he experienced black and jump into fire like that wow do you know how many of the other guys he was with had jumped before or were they all all uh new well they all just jumped qualified because they have you know everyone was a Brand New Concept right and uh so this was there for us this was there for us jump into combat for all these guys I think I think it's kind of strange for us because we're used to like a very professional military like all these guys were just normal guys who volunteered because that's what everyone was doing right he says in the opening clip that your dad landed because of the problem with the jump lights they were way off course yeah he was alone he finds his way to the company at eight o'clock and so the famous scene that we all know and love right attacking the guns or break Cormier and he's not there that's correct that's correct yeah because he's not they probably didn't need a radio man either I'm not sure they probably could have used this his comedy right he didn't need a radio yeah all right but you shared with me and all of us a clip from Buck Compton which is really kind of cool because when I listened to the clip and then I watched the Breakheart gun scene it just gave me a little uh a little cool perspective on the hand slot before and so I just want to play it we can all see it shortly you guys maybe and you just want to focus on Compton and his his gun sure but we're going to start with this so thanks again for sharing this was this from the book opening or from yes this was from the book opening all right so here we go about Compton Thompson submachineas and uh I said look I said I haven't got a weapon you're better off with Alan the Germans get you that I was refused of shooting and if the Medics gets you won't need it give me a gun I didn't have a chance to shoot it all night you know the first time I had a chance to shoot him I was gonna do one of these Jimmy changing things ejected live around without a broken firing here foreign [Music] [Music] check the equipment you found it's cool how they put that detail in there though it didn't make a big deal of it you know it's just no it's just a moment right but it's in there so I keep watching it's kind of cool like you'll see he keeps trying to fix it through the whole scene look he's trying to fix the gun yep oh all right that's awesome [Music] so I guess you know George my kind of questions you know in that scene you see Joe toy I've got twice you know Popeye gets shot in the butt and Malarkey goes and chases after a little girl that's not there now did you meet all these people did you know oh sure yeah if uh in the series all of the guys who survived I knew most all of those guys that went to reunions I was really blessed uh the ones that came to reunions you know she had Don Malarkey you had Walter Gordon uh Winters shift the Earl McClung Wild Bill luck uh Buck Compton and I was always blessed to be able to you know when my dad that died I was able to kind of reconnect with all the other guys and they um I wasn't lost but but I was lost as kid right and they filled the void they really I don't know if they understood I certainly didn't at the time but they filled the big void you know when my dad was killed and I kind of bringing me into there individually bringing me into themselves and sharing stuff and just being there when I called wow and so that was the really neat thing being able to connect with them you know my dad he loved these guys and they loved him yeah so the Band of Brothers extended to you right yeah yeah nice did your dad bring back any kind of souvenirs well uh I I could kind of get a story about that but uh there was a famous picture at the end of the war if you remember in caproon they were up against the side and in this big field and and all of the guys were there was like the final company picture so somebody says Hey so where's your dad this was like well he wasn't in that picture why wasn't he in the picture well what had happened was my dad um just about the end of the war they were in uh they were in the Burgess Garden capoon area and so he's walking down the road and here comes a German on a motorcycle so he levels his gun and he tells the German to get off the bike now the German is yelling at him in German probably telling them hey buddy the war's over but maybe that doesn't speak German and he doesn't speak English so he gets the guy off the bike he my dad gets on the bike it took him about 20 minutes to figure out how to write because you know he grew up in a depression they he didn't have any motorcycles probably didn't even have a bicycle so he's ambling on down the road and then here comes a couple of German girls yell yell his way and he turns and he looks back and for that Split Second he took his eyes off the road and hit this bridge above him oh no yeah he hit this bridge above me and ended up in a big crumple and the MPS came and picked him up and he ended up in the hospital and if the war was just about over so he went in the hospital and you know you get in the hospital they cut all your stuff off you close and then they patching you up and you're laying there for all that time and then his you know his Foot Locker probably a rifle through I mean Elizabeth isn't going to be back for a while right at all so he came back with absolutely nothing actually he came back with a packing paddle which is a little wooden paddle like this big but this you know thick and you know just you know a quarter of an inch and that's how they got the the knots out of the string of the line yeah but anyway all right yeah all right let's move on with the wars Band of Brothers Here everybody let's see all right so we got next don't steal a bike Karma will get you yeah all right all right that's right this is a big combat scene just did he talk about this particular thing did he talk about combat at all I mean a lot of times for veterans they don't really want to talk about combat yeah he didn't really talk about uh you know and a lot of guys always added humor to most of everything they talked about um so yeah so he didn't talk a lot about that particular part of it uh he did tell me one story uh I think he was with uh Spears and and I can't remember exactly where it was it could have been here and I'm not sure exactly but he talked about coming up to a German uh who was was wounded and uh so uh they're trying to interrogate them or just get some information out of them so he he calls them the German called him domkov and Spears figured okay I guess I'm not going to get anything out of him so so he had his tommy gun down you know down uh pointing to the ground and he just riddled the guy from his toes to his head and just you know that was it so that was the one story that he did tell me now he I'm trying to think if he inferred that it was Spears I'm not exactly sure yeah all right I guess well I just wanted a quick comment here I read on your advice uh David Webster's Book parachute infantry and there is a chunk where he talks about your dad and one thing he said was in his dealing with your dad that your dad was the same whether he was in Garrison or whether he was in combat right that he always had that kind of fun attitude yeah he said he whether he was in Garrison or combat he was always the same right crazy crazy I do have a question um do you know how he became a radio man in the first place like how to get picked for the job or end up in it you know I'm not sure I think in the army they just decide I think they do yeah yeah they're like oh you're you're a uh four-star Chef you're a radio man you're a mechanic you're a chef you know that's a good question I think the series itself for me provided me with more questions unanswered because I know a lot of the I knew a lot of the stories right right and then you know having read the book and stuff like that but when the series came out it's like oh golly I wish dad was here I could I could just cover them with all kinds of cool questions oh sure yeah that's sad so in episode 7 George Luz gets caught in an artillery barrage outside of Bastone where two of his fellow members of easy company are killed terrified oh okay strikes get one of these real quick yeah your dad a smoker oh yeah no actually I brought I brought him cigarettes yeah and I went to the set who the actor yeah he gave me that lighter all right yeah that is cool that's uh so well um obviously this is another big scene with your dad so is that is that how it went down do you know well Shifty actually put it a good way he said you know George it might have happened it just might not have happened that way but in this particular case it was a little bit of drama right we all know muck and pinkalic are killed and I can talk a lot about that but in this particular case here my dad had actually written about how it went down and I could I can kind of read that to you after the attack we moved up to a different position it was late in the afternoon we started to dig in I was told to go back to Battalion to get some big shovels what took place after I got back was unbelievable two buddies of mine muck and pigalla had dug in a hole six feet long by six feet wide by two feet deep not having a whole dug they asked if I wouldn't mind sharing theirs but being a thick-headed Portuguese I refused I finally dug a slit trench six feet long by one foot feet then came the artillery shells falling all around then once Almighty close as daylight came someone asked me to wake up mocking Piccola I looked in the hole and saw nothing but dirt I jumped in the hole and started digging with my hands I felt their sleeping bags and pulled them both out dead they took a direct hit I'll always thank God for my thick hat [Music] well that was the second time right like he changed his place with Cobb and the airplane doesn't get shot sure he doesn't stay with these guys it's like your dad was lucky too yeah yeah you got to be lucky was he ever wounded at all over there besides crashing into her cars [Laughter] well you know he was he was wounded several times yeah he did get a purple heart and he was wounded several times one of the times he was his foot got run over by I think they were in Holland yeah not soon after they got into Holland his foot got run over by a horse-drawn carriage so that wasn't good and then another time he was getting he got KP for doing something you know because you know in the military a lot of guys would do something and they would rip Stripes off and then they would put stripes back and I didn't rip Stripes so it was one of those kinds of things he had did something stupid like went out on leave him and ganier went out on leave and he um he ended up getting some sort of KP Duty where he had to light some sort of a some sort of a gas stove and he reached on in there and tried to light the thing it would light up and then boom it lit up all at one time all his eyelashes got burned his eye got burned and stuff like that so he got he got wounded in many different ways an exciting variety so uh yeah but um some of the interesting little details with that is and this is for me this is the toughest episode to watch um I remember watching a rough cut of this at the final U.S Premiere which was in New Orleans of the Gordon girls had gotten the copy of the of episode seven and we watched that one and that was yeah that was the toughest episode to watch because you know got killed who would get killed um you know bucket shot and all this other stuff and you know a lot of guys get killed in that one yeah he got near an Ephron I mean Garnier and told you to lose the legs yeah best known was the toughest episode 8 is also fairly grim and there's a short scene where George is handing out Hershey bars 10 15 bucks Juicy Fruit happy but listen for this Short Line about a house I want you to lay a few bazooka rounds into a house across the river I think we could get at least one Hershey bar your first platoon yeah all right then I'll join you where are we going to the house I got a bless Captain winners gonna be with him geez what I don't know maybe even smokes it's got a blast the house it's a really interesting scene I kind of want to remember that line and it's just like it's gonna blast the house right but then we started chatting there's a whole deal behind that isn't there well it's a the amazing thing is you know when you read Webster's Book he describes it really quite well and I'll kind of read it so they were in hagenoir and they were placed in this Outpost uh clearly visible from my solar window about a hundred yards away in enemy territory was a silent and presumably unoccupied house thinking no one lived there we raised and lowered our blackout shutters every night and every morning until we realized that theirs are open and closed too so so they noticed that they've got neighbors the undesirable neighbors so so anyway they decided to remedy this evil immediately since the house was too close to our lines for our indirect modifier artillery fire so we call for a bazooka the company comedian ability portagee named Luz who was then playing bazooka man trotted down from company headquarters and ran out from behind a fence post opposite the enemy house laughing and shouting shot three rounds into the basement stimulating the occupants and permanently opening up the shutters so so having traveled to hagano many times I've often wondered where is that house so I I got a Facebook message from a young kid named Tom frying his his lovely girlfriend a wife Marion and he said he's from hagenoff and I said you wouldn't happen to know what else that is and he said I do and I said holy moly so so we we talked about it so he explained where op3 is so directly across the world P3 across this river is a series of houses so he went to this one house he went to the houses and he found his little old lady this 90 year old lady who said when we came back in February of um and uh 45 February of 45. the interior of the house was blasted to bits courtesy of Georgia so so anyway so I met Tom on my last trip with Chris Anderson and Stephen Ambrose and so we went right to the spot right next to the fence post and it had a nice view over this little Bridge right to uh right to the place all right so yeah Town fry it's amazing um you know these young historians these he's a police officer and a historian and they they appreciate history they appreciate the sacrifice of the the men and women of World War II and and because of him I was able to close the loop on that story that's awesome that's really cool that's some real in-person research yeah yeah in episode 10 they characterized George's life after the war George laws became a handyman in Providence Rhode Island as a testament to his character 1600 people attended his funeral in 1998. so amazing I mean I think when when they wrote this right these guys were still alive and they in the scene it talks about that you've got to have a sense that you know they were still with us but now we know they're gone you know um so your dad he's just not a handyman right but I understand correct well I remember the phone call that we we got from HBO Eric genderson I think was was one of the guys that I called and I and it had to be a Wednesday night because I used to go to Mom and Dad's for Wednesday um it was Prince spaghetti tonight laundry day yeah you know Mom would do my laundry phone right spaghetti so the phone rang and it was Eric and uh I talked to him very briefly and then I gave the call to my mom and then she talked to him and I remember her saying something about you know he was really handy around the house and stuff and you know when he was uh you know she was just describing you know what he did and stuff like that so he was handy he wasn't a handyman you know handyman was a guy with a station wagon full of stuff right with a with a ladder lash to the roof you know when he's doing you know and he's you know putting up curtain rods and you know handyman in today's business is making good money yeah back in the day handyman but anyway yeah so it wasn't a handyman he worked for the government he worked for um he worked for the government he worked for the State of Rhode Island um and uh he built houses he was a painter he was a handy guy for sure right you know he was a handy guy for sure and a quick story about with Rick in the dog tags no and not only did he give me the cigarette lighter but he gave me a pair of his dog Jacks oh the actor Rick um yeah Rick Gomez yeah yeah yeah so he did that what do you think of his performance oh he did a fabulous job but so proud of Rick the work that he did and um because you know he didn't have my dad as a resource yeah right but he did have Webster's Book he had the book Band of Brothers and then what he would do is he would talk to Frank he would uh he could talk to Frank ricani he could talk to Wild Bill and he could talk to these guys because those guys all had you know um veterans that they could talk with yeah and um and and I know when my wife and I went my wife Susan and I went to the set and it was really cool for me to visit with all these young actors who were playing guys that I knew and it was really special for me to meet them and uh and now I think in a certain sort of way they got a kick out of you know me loves his kid but but it was really neat to meet them and um for guys that I knew and how proud they were and how great ambassadors they offered not just the Easy Company guys but for those veterans in general when they they continue to do stuff um with that in mind and uh so it's uh it's been pretty cool ride that's great so um getting to kind of answer our initial question George like how true of a portrayal is this I want to start by saying so the reason one of the reasons you're here right is because your family grew up 20 minutes from my family yeah right and like I wish I had known you guys when I was younger I know that I know because your enthusiasm for history is incredible and when I was watching band of Rose the very first time I remember this as the show went on I kept saying to myself God that guy loves feels so familiar to me he just did for some reason of all the characters you know his look yeah and I realized at the end when it says he was in Providence Rhode Island yeah just went off I was like oh of course like he looks like my friends who are all Portuguese Americans he thought he's a bullying character like my friends were Portuguese Americans and so and then we we were able to connect yeah I mean you know of all the people I would love to do what we're doing it's with you in Georgia laws because essentially we're neighbors yeah right yeah for sure in that part of the world for sure and so I the feeling I get because of that is I think the portrayal is pretty good what do you think oh no I agree I agree um Rick did a fabulous job and uh you know writers a great writers and actors a great actress so um and uh you know hey they wrote some additional funny lines he had some good material um and uh and we're very very happy yeah you know and then uh you know my I think what my dad would think about the series coming out would be hopefully a lot of the other guys who served in World War II the 16 million men and women who serve had their nieces and nephews and brothers and and Sons and Daughters maybe ask them a question maybe they could share some of their stories because we all know everybody who served that a story yeah no I think that's the the biggest takeaway for me is that he would really hope that that would have happened to many many more of the men um you know we were just we're here in DC and he always used to Lament The fact when are they going to build the monument for the World War II veterans he would always ask that question and you know there was always there was always these causes to to go to donate money and things like that and then to raise money and he just couldn't figure it out he said what in the world I mean it is pretty crazy it took so long it took so long I know it's the biggest war I mean guys yeah it doesn't make much sense there but but yeah and hey I can't thank you enough for it right I mean to hang out with you guys all right yeah this is super fun well thanks for watching we hope you enjoyed our time with George he's really great and just a little plug if you're interested in going to Band of Brothers tours George is hooked up with Steven Ambrose tours you can go and tour with him and I'm sure it's totally fantastic so thanks for watching Mark's gamer we'll catch you next time take care bye bye

Channel: Mark's Game Room

Views: 823,051

Keywords: wargame, skirmish wargames, mark's game room, little wars tv, fireball forward, normandy, world war two, world war two wargame, wwii, wargame ww2, ww2, world war two battles, d-day wargame, d-day, normandy invasion wargame, band of brothers, band of brothers review, George Luz, battle of carentan, battle of carentan wargame, easy company, band of brothers interview, ww2 veteran, ww2 veteran interview, george luz interview, band of brothers hbo, band of brothers reaction

Id: SU_xHM9Ki6s

Length: 37min 10sec (2230 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023