Tom of Their Lives

In New York, friends applaud Hanks's homegrown gumption. 
 
Tom Hanks--at ease.  "If I had known I would make movies with Steven Spielberg and he would say the things he said tonight, I'd have been much more relaxed for the better part of two decades," said Hollywood's Everyman, after a 21-gun salute at the American Museum of the Moving Image gala in his honor at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria.  

Bosom buddies Ron Howard, Sally Field and Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell came to praise 
the officer and the gentleman.   "Tom is from that old-time America," said Spielberg, 
"when tradition and pride in your country were things you didn't scoff at."  

Hanks summed up the evening with gee-whiz abandon:  "This was great.  It's being honored by a museum, for God's sake!" 

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