When the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, he began announcing the Coca-Cola “Spotlight Bands” program from various military bases around America.
After several months covering Parliament meetings and conducting personal interviews, he was assigned on February 10, 1945 to General George S. Patton's Third Army which was in eastern France preparing to move into Germany for the final offensive.
After the war ended in Europe, he spent the next several months in Germany and then in Norway conducting interviews with German citizens and American soldiers before returning home in Wilmette, Illinois.
After President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, Bartholomew wrote a screenplay for the movie Countdown in Dallas, which afforded him the opportunity of interviewing Marina Oswald.
At the time of his death on June 1, 1983, he was in the process of writing his autobiography, which included many of his most noteworthy broadcasts from World War II like “Scots at Buchenwald,” “Churchill at Selfridges at Two A.M.,” and “Patton says 'Who Will Take This Hill.