PROFILES
CHLOE MELAS LUCK OF THE DRAW: MY STORY OF THE AIR WAR IN EUROPE BY FRANK MURPHY By deVorah rose Donald Miller’s book Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the War Against Nazi Germany. The series, produced by Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, and Gary Goetzman, is also informed by Luck of the Draw. It was fascinating speaking to Chloe and finding out more about this very special project. Did you ever anticipate that your grandfather would be one of the star characters in such a high-profile project? There were rumblings for nearly a decade that Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg would follow up their successful shows Band of Brothers and The Pacific with a story about the air war over Europe during WWII. Over the last decade, I got very involved with various WWII veterans’ organizations and through that I began to meet people from Hanks’s production company. They were doing research and interviews with the last surviving veterans, and I became friends with the head writer, John Orloff. He eventually told me that grandpa would be a supporting character, and I was shocked. I tried my best to be cool about it, but I was ecstatic. I’d give anything to tell my grandpa that he will be immortalized on screen by Hollywood’s greatest filmmakers. Chloe Melas, an entertainment reporter for CNN, is the force behind the republishing of Luck of the Draw by Frank Murphy (out in early January). Murphy, Melas’s grandfather who died in 2007, was a former navigator with the 100th Bombardment Group. He survived being shot out of his plane and being held a prisoner in a German POW camp during World War II. An actor will play Frank Murphy in Masters of the Air, an Apple TV+ series set to debut in 2023. The series is based on
What did it feel like the first time you read Tom Hanks’s recommendation of your grandfather’s book? Tears. I wasn’t having a very good day and when I opened my email to find a note from Mr. Hanks, I was overwhelmed with beautiful emotion. My grandfather would be shocked and beyond humbled to have such a glowing endorsement from someone he admired so much. I immediately called my mom and grandma and read them the quote. We were all silent for a few moments, just trying to appreciate this incredibly Social Life
