HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Doug Mishler, as journalist Ernie Pyle, reads the column for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 at last weekend's annual Chautauqua held at the Pahrump Valley Winery. HORACE LANGFORD, JR. / PVT Doris Dwyer, a history professor at Western Nevada Community College, portrays Margaret Bourke-White, one of World War II's most notable photographers, at last weekend's Chautaqua. Advertisement

On an only slightly chilly Friday evening last week, a short walk across the Pahrump Valley Winery's lawn took you smack in the middle of World War II.

Never mind that the 1940s were decades ago, the sounds of Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller wafting through the air ensured the annual Chautauqua put on by the Pahrump Arts Council, the Pahrump Museum and Nevada Museum captured the ambience of the time perfectly.

The theme "War Was Hell" hit home with force for everyone who attended, with the personal testimonies of Margaret Bourke-White and Ernie Pyle, two famous journalists who covered the war.

Bourke-White was portrayed by Doris Dwyer, a history professor at Western Nevada Community College and a Chautauqua veteran.

She walked on to the stage a little late Friday evening lugging her large, accordion-like "press box" camera, explaining that she had been on assignment.

Through what felt more like a dinner-party chat, residents on lawn chairs and benches, some huddled under blankets, learned about the first female war correspondent's preference for larger cameras, (she only used a 35-millimeter when absolutely necessary).

She made Russian dictator Joseph Stalin smile by dropping her "peanut" flashes before a scheduled shoot of him. The two shots snagged while she was on the ground picking up the flashes rolling around the floor were destined to become a now-famous cover of Time magazine.

The mood turned decidedly somber, however, when she spoke about being one of the first Americans to see the ravages of a concentration camp, an experience that lay at the root of one several books she wrote.

Bourke-White/Dwyer spoke of world leaders from Gandhi to Roosevelt, but personal anecdotes, such as her Reno wedding, maintained the feeling of chatting with an old friend.

Doug Mishler, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, came onto the stage next as Ernie Pyle, acting perhaps a little drunk -- Pyle was a raging alcoholic -- and more than a little bitter about the ravages of war he'd seen.

The audience learned how the man who immortalized "G.I. Joe" lugged his typewriter on a bombing mission, "the insanity of night marches," and even found some of the humor in war.

They were told how he came to write about the personal effects of soldiers left on the Normandy beaches after the D-Day invasion and about how living with the soldiers taught him to cuss and drink.

Pyle/Mishler learned to cuss so effectively, in fact, that one of the front-row attendees actually packed up his folding chair and stalked off grumbling, "I can't stand the language."

"If sobriety is the first casualty of war," said Pyle/Mishler, "then language is the second."

There was a glimpse of Pyle's personal torment as well when he answered a question about his wife, who was chronically suicidal and mentally ill.

Stepping out of character before his second performance on Saturday night, Mishler explained how he had to get into an appropriately somber mental state before becoming Pyle on stage.

"He was so tortured and pained," Mishler said. "His life is one of the great dramas of our time. His wife is suicidal, when he does comes home he finds out she's tried to kill herself ... when he's not on the lines, he's lost, but being on the lines torments him."

Mishler, who has been a Chautauqua performer since 1997, said he first discovered Pyle when he found out there was a World War II theme.

"I didn't want to be a general," Mishler explained. "Somebody told me about Ernie Pyle and I got addicted."

The fact that Pyle's columns focused on the average soldier was one of the things about the newspaperman that appealed to Mishler most.

"I like the slice of life," Mishler said. "It's not pure politics, he doesn't talk about that."

Chautauqua was dedicated to the memory of deceased Army Col. Bill Burns, who during his retirement in Pahrump was an active member of the community and an avid supporter of the arts.

As Phil Huff explained prior to the show, Burns was always at memorial or veterans' events, "wearing his World War II jodhpurs and his cavalry uniform."

Money raised at Chautauqua will go to create a sculpted bust of Burns.