June 24, 2025 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Roger McGrath returns with another installment in our Hollywood Goes to War series. A U.S. Marine, former UCLA history professor, and author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier, Dr. McGrath has appeared in numerous History Channel documentaries. He’s also a regular contributor to Our American Stories, bringing his expert insight into the lives of Hollywood legends who served in America’s wars. This time, Roger shares the story of “Wild Bill” Wellman—Hollywood director, World War I fighter pilot, and all-around American original.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Here to tell another Hollywood goes to
Wars Story is our Own. Roger McGrath. McGrath is the
(00:33):
author of Gunfighters, Hogwymen and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier
a US Marine. A former history professor at UCLA, McGrath
has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, and he is
a regular contributor for US Here and Our American Stories.
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
William Wellman was one of Hollywood's greatest directors in a
career that spanned forty years. He directed eighty one movies,
including the first movie to win the Academy Award for
Best Picture, Wings. There could have been no better director
for Wings, a movie about the dairy new of World
War One fighter pilots, because that is exactly what Wellman
(01:17):
was and it was in the skies over France where
he earned his nickname wild Bill. Released in nineteen twenty seven,
Wings was the twelfth movie that Wellman directed, and it
would be followed by such classics as The Public Enemy,
The Call of the Wild, A Star Is Born, bo Jest,
(01:39):
The Oxbow Incident, A Story of Gi Joe Battleground across
the Wide Missouri Westward, The Women, The High End, The
Mighty Track of the Cat. The actors Wellman directed were
the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwick,
(02:02):
Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Gary Cooper, Janet Gainor, John Wayne,
Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Gregory Peck, Robert Taylor, Anne Baxter,
and Robert Mitcham. William Wellman is born in Brookline, Massachusetts,
in eighteen ninety six. His father, Arthur Wellman, can trace
(02:27):
his ancestry back to the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony
in sixteen forty. His mother, Cecilia McCarthy, arrives in America
in eighteen seventy two as a young child in an
Irish family. With a square jaw and strong chin and
flaming red hair, she can be mistaken for nothing but Irish.
(02:50):
Little Billy Wellman is the second son in the family.
His older brother is Arthur, who is called Arch. For
the first eight years of Bill's life if all goes well,
although his father begins to drink heavily. The drinking finally
causes his father lose his job with a brokerage firm
and he has to sell the family home. The family
(03:13):
moves to a neighboring town of Newton and rents a
house for the next several years. The father is in
and out of work, the mother is forced to go
to work at a newly created position, a probation officer
for women and children. She has great people skills and
excels at the job. Billy throws himself into sports at
(03:37):
Newton High School, lettering in football, baseball, and ice hockey.
The Boston Sunday Post calls him the best quarterback in
the history of Newton Eye, a semi pro ice hockey team,
wants him to drop out of high school and play
for them. Billy thinks about the offer, but decides he
(03:57):
owes it to his mother to stay in school and graduate. However,
his wild streak and fighting nature gets him into trouble
again and again. Just shy of graduation in his senior year,
he pulls his ultimate prank from the school's second story.
He drops a stink bomb on the head of the principal.
(04:20):
Billy Wellman is promptly expelled from school. He then works
at a variety of jobs, but as a pensant for
getting into fistfights and being fired. Ultimately, this redounds to
his benefit because he decides he'll never be able to
work at a regular job, and he signs with the
semi pro hockey team that had earlier made him an offer. Suddenly,
(04:45):
he's on the ice in Boston Arena, not only scoring
goals but also earning time in the penalty box for fighting.
He's a fan favorite. One of those fans is a
famous actor who is in b for a stage play,
Douglas Fairbanks. The actor tells Billy, if you ever need
(05:06):
a job, come out to Hollywood and look me up.
Another fan that Billy's ice hockey prowess is earl Avington,
a pioneer aviator, who invites Billy to an airfield outside
of Boston. Billy meets the pilots there, is taken on flights,
receives flying instruction, and listens to stories about the beginnings
(05:29):
of aviation. Now Billy begins dreaming of making a career
as a pilot, and the war in Europe is providing
an opportunity for those want in a fly if they
are willing to risk death. When the United States declares
war in Germany in April nineteen seventeen, twenty one year
(05:50):
old William Willman tries to enlist in the Army's flight program. However,
he doesn't have high school diploma and is rejected. He
then learns he can go to France and enlists in
the French Foreign Legion and then, if accepted, transfer into
the French Air Service, which has a unit for American pilots,
(06:12):
the Lafayette Flying Corps with its famous squadron, the Lafayette Esquadrille.
By In the May nineteen seventeen Bill Wellman assailing for France.
Less than two weeks later, he's in parrass waiting to
begin training with the French Foreign Legion. While walking along
the Seine River, he spies a young woman dressed in
(06:33):
black and perched on a bridge. Suddenly, she leaps and
crashes into the water far below. Wellman strips off his
boots and jacket, dives into the sin and swims to
the spot where she hit the water. He sees her
head bob to the surface, then disappear. He dives after her,
brings her to the surface, and tows her to a
(06:55):
nearby pier.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to a heck of his story
Haul by Roger McGrath about Billy Wellman wants to fly,
gets rejected by the US Army. And what does Billy do.
He goes to France and joins the French Foreign Legion
so he can fly. And that's the American spirit right there.
You don't take no for an answer. When we come
(07:19):
back more of this remarkable story. While Bill Wellman Hollywood
goes to Wars series with Roger McGrath continues here on
our American Stories. Here at our American Stories, we bring
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
(07:39):
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to our American Stories dot Com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot Com. And we returned to our American
(08:11):
Stories and to Roger McGrath and his Hollywood Goes to
War series and story about World War One pilot wild
Bill Wellman. We last left off with Wellman saving a
young woman in Paris who was drowning. Let's return to McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
She never stopped struggling. Wellman later said, I thought she
was trying to get away from me. I was a
fine swimmer, had been bought how to save a person
under these conditions, so I called cocter. She became limp
and I was able to get her to the beer
and pull her upon it. Bystanders think Wellman is a hero,
(08:49):
but the woman he saves stares at him with, as
he described it, frozen hatred. She is one of the
many French women who commits suicide or attempted when they
learn their husband has died fighting at the front. By
the end of June nineteen seventeen, Wilman is training at
(09:09):
a French Foreign Legion camp in the south of France.
Conditions are horrible, but Willman's spirits are buoyed by several
Americans in training with him, all hoping to make their
way into the Lafayette Flying Corps. There are even two
Willman knows from back home in Massachusetts. Woman trains in
(09:31):
a series of airplanes, each one more advanced training. Accidents,
mostly due to weather or mechanical failures, leave many a
would be pilot injured or dead, including friends of Wellman.
At the end of September, Wellman graduates from the basic
flight class and is sent to Advanced Fighter School for
(09:53):
training the arobatics in gunnery. The new training school in
the shadow of the Pyrenees has far bet are accommodations
and food, but demands far more of pilots in the air.
Wellman excels throughout the advanced training, the school's commander writes
on Wellman's graduation certificate. In November, A born pilot, but crazy,
(10:19):
Wellman is now sent to an airfield thirty miles from
Paris for his final training before combat. On the wintry day,
he is returning to his airfield with clouds above and
thick ground fog below. The usual landmarks are obscured with
thick fog, and he can't see the ground, let alone
the runway. He dives through the fog and tries to
(10:39):
level out, but he's so close to the ground that
his landing gear gets entangled and rolls of barbed wire
on an old battlefield full of trenches. The plane lurches
to a stop, damaged but repairable. Same for the pilot,
Bill Wellman. December nineteen seventeen. Wellman finally gets what he
(11:00):
wants and is sent to Esquadrille number eighty seven of
the Lafayette Flying Corps to replace a pilot recently killed.
He's now a corporal Wellman and volunteers to fly a
mission the day after he arrives. He's told the strafe
and bomb a German airfield and do not make more
than two passes at the field, otherwise he will run
(11:23):
out of gas on the return flight. By flying at
tree top level, Willman surprises the Germans at dawn. His
strafs and bombs planes, soldiers, and hangars on his first
pass without any return fire. On his second pass, bullets
are whizzing by his head and others hitting his plane. Nonetheless,
(11:47):
he inflicts more damage on the enemy, and because he
has some ammunition left, he can't resist a third pass.
Return Fire, this time is thick and bullets tear all
through his plane. With ammo expended, he heads for home.
Back at his airfield, his fellow pilots are aware that
(12:09):
Welman has been gone too long. Just when they are
beginning to give him up for lost, they spot a
tiny speck in the sky. It's soon identified as Wellman's plane,
but it's moving slowly. There's a reason for that. Wellman
is out of gas and is gliding in. He just
(12:29):
barely clears nearby hilltops and then skims trees at the
end of the runway. His dead stick landing is perfect.
Cheering in applauding pilots run out to him. His captain
christens him wild Bill. As December wears on, weather becomes
(12:50):
more and more of a problem. Returning from a mission
on Christmas Day, Wellman finds the runway covered with snow.
He sets the plane down as gently as possible, but
the wheels dig into the snow and send the plane
cartwheeling down the buried runway. The plane is demolished, but
(13:10):
Wild Bill walks away from the spectacular crash. Whenever weather permits,
Wellman's in the air, shooting down enemy planes and attacking
enemy airfields. He's awarded the coveted Quahda Guir and is
promoted a surgeon. In March nineteen eighteen, he flies for
(13:31):
the first time in support of American forces the forty
second Infantry known as the Rainbow Division. The forty second
is to lead a major attack into German lines. Willman,
in the other pilots of Esker Drill number eighty seven
are told under no conditions will allow an enemy's machine
to fly over the French and American lines. If they
(13:53):
attack and your machine gun jams ram your opponent circling
over the back, Wellman wishes he were wearing an American
uniform rather than a French From below, an American artillery
barrage begins, and Wellman watches American soldiers of the Rainbow
(14:14):
Division scramble out of trenches and move forward. Almost at
the same time, German planes arrive. Without hesitation, wild Bill
dives his plane into them, shooting down one with the
initial burst of his machine gun. Before the air battle ends,
he shoots down a second enemy plane and damages a third,
(14:35):
forcing it to land. Wild Bill is awarded another palm
leaf for his quadagueir, signifying a second award. On March
twenty one, nineteen eighteen, Wellman is flying a reconnaissance mission
into enemy territory when he sees a small French village
with a German flag flying over it and German soldiers
(14:59):
lounging about. Break on mission or not, well Bill can't
resist strafing the enemy. He kills several before they can
reach cover. On subsequent passes, his bullets cause a fire
and explosion in an AMMO dump and knock down the
pole flying the German flag. With his plane full of
(15:19):
holes and his engines sputtering, Welman heads for home. He's
some miles from the village when an ear craft shell
hits his plane. The explosion knocks Wellman silly, but he
doesn't lose consciousness. With blood running out of his ears
and nose, he tries to control what's left of his
(15:39):
plane as it plummets to the earth. He's fast approaching
a thick forest and reckons his end is near. Miraculously,
august of wind dramatically slows the fall of the plane
into the tree tops. The impact throws him out of
the plane and he crashes treelimb by treelimb to the ground.
(16:03):
Wild Bill wakes up in a French hospital and learns
that a patrol of French soldiers found him unconscious and
brought him back to friendly territory. He has broken his
back in two places, as shrapnel in his face, and
is suffering from internal bleeding, but he's alive. On March
twenty ninth, nineteen eighteen, Sergeant William Willman is discharged from
(16:26):
the Lafayette Flying Corps. He leaves with four confirmed aerial
victories and three probables and dozens of enemy plants destroyed
on the ground. On his chest is the quada Ghre
with tu palm, the Grand Gear, and the Verdunn Medal.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
wild Bill Wellman as a part of our Hollywood Goes
to War series. And my goodness, he does that crazy
thing Americans do. It's is he wants to fly so
badly in defense of his nation that he he joins
the Allies and ultimately down the road there he is
(17:04):
in nineteen eighteen with the Lafayette Air Corps leading the
Americans as they attack the German positions. And my goodness,
what crazy stories about this man? A born pilot. His
graduation certificate reads but crazy. And that's what you're hearing,
(17:25):
stories about a born pilot who is crazy. When we
come back, more remarkable stories about wild Bill Wellman brought
to us by Roger McGrath, a part of our Hollywood
Goes to War series. Here on our American stories, and
(18:08):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
while Bill Wellman as told by Roger McGrath. And this
is a continuing part of our Hollywood Goes to War series.
Let's pick up where Roger last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
After more than a month of rehabilitation in France, Wilman,
we're in a back brace, steps off a ship at
New York. The next day, newspapers in New York and
Boston runs stories on him. Sergeant William Wilman arrives with
coveted Quada gear, says the New York Tribune. Wounded flier
(18:46):
glad to see New York again. But here's call a battlefront,
says the Boston Globe. Several other stories and Willman echo
these themes. When he arrives back on the Newton massachue,
there are throngs of people waiting to greet him. For
more than two months, Wellman is on the war hero circuit,
(19:08):
giving speeches and interviews. He doesn't enjoy it in the least. However,
he does get to spend time with former President Theodore
Roosevelt in his home at Oyster Bay. What Wellman really
wants is a commission in the US Army Air Service
and a return to the battlefront, but he knows his
(19:29):
injured back will cause him to fail a physical. Then
he gets a call from an officer in Washington whom
he knew from the Lafayette Esquadrille. The officer is organizing
a unit of combat veteran pilots to be instructors in
dog fighting for Army pilots. Wellman is overjoyed, but expresses
(19:50):
his doubts about passing physical. Don't worry, says the officer.
Wellman fails a physical, but strings are pulled and he's
missioned a first lieutenant in order to rock well Field
on North Island in San Diego Bay. Bill Wellman is
delighted to be a commissioned officer in the U. S
(20:10):
Army and to be flying again. He's respected and admired
by the pilots he's training, and he's determined to prepare
them for aerial combat. After a month of instructing in
mock dogfights, though he grows restless he misses the adrenaline
rush of combat. He wonders if he can somehow get
orders cut for duty again at the front in France.
(20:34):
Wild Bill is still wild Bill, a Hollywood producer, hosts
an dinner party in honor at the Hotel del Coronado,
a world famous hotel on the Coronado Peninsula close to
rockwell Field. This was my introduction to a new wonder world,
the land of the cinema, said Willman. There were a
(20:55):
lot of strange new people there, actors and actresses. And
they me in the uniform and the medals, and I
was very humble, and my limp was eye catching. Whether
it's the limp, the uniform or the medals, Welman catches
the eye of the young actress. They are soon dating
on weekends, either in Hollywood or San Diego. Wellman's mood improves,
(21:21):
not with a thrill of combat, but with a thrill
of romance. Early in November nineteen eighteen, the Army puts
on an air shot at rockwell Field. With the war
in Europe drawing to a close, the Army is eager
to show off its air base and its planes to
ensure the general public and politicians will continue to support
(21:43):
funding for the Army's air service. It's a grand event
which includes static displays of planes and weapons, and pilots
meeting and greeting, and the Army marching ban entertains the crowd,
which includes generals and other eyes ranking officers, as well
as prominent politicians and businessmen and San Diego City officials.
(22:07):
Into a beautiful blue San Diego sky goes the Army's
finest planes in squadron order. The pilots make passes over
the airfield informations and then perform various standard aerobatics to
thrill the spectators. After landing, the pilots are greedy, with
loud applause and shouts of approval over a loud speaker,
(22:31):
and Air Service officer announces the grand finale of the
air show. Ladies and gentlemen, this is our best chase machine,
a spad S thirteen, flown by our top instructor, Lieutenant
William Willman, a decorated fighter pilot performing a series of
spectacular stunts. I told them to show you something you
(22:54):
hadn't seen before. Taken away while Bill Wellman performs spectacular
stunt after stunt, punctuated by low passes over the crowd.
The crowd is awe struck. He decides on one final stunt,
performed as close to the ground as possible. All goes
well until his final maneuver, when a wing tip clips
(23:17):
the ground in the plane cartwheels to a stop. Welman
is pulled from the wreck and taken to a hospital. Miraculously,
he has nothing but three small fractures and two knocked
out teeth. His first words are, well I showed him
something they hadn't seen before. Within days, Wellman is ready
(23:39):
to fly again, but the war ends with the armistice
on November eleventh, and Lieutenant Wellman is mustard out of
the army. He recalls Douglas Fairbanks, telling him to look
him up if he gets to Hollywood. He also recalls
that Fairbanks sent him a congratulatory telegram when he received
the quad. Again, Wellman hears about a lavish polo party.
(24:04):
Fairbanks and his wife Mary Pickford will be hosting. The
who's who of Hollywood and beyond will be there. Well
Bill Wilman makes his entrance to the party at one
hundred and thirty five miles per hour in a Spad fighter,
flying low over the polo field, then climbing to a
higher altitude and performing stunts. The party goers watch in awe,
(24:28):
thinking this is a special treat courtesy of Fairbanks and Pickford.
Wilman comes in and lands. He climbs out of the cockpit,
and in his metal bedecked uniform, walks up to Douglas Fairbanks.
Remember me, mister Fairbanks, says Wellman, you said if I
ever came to Hollywood to look you up. Fairbanks turns
(24:52):
to his wife and says, Mary, I'd like you to
meet wild Bill Wellman. He's a hell of a hockey
player and a war hero. Wellman spends the next forty
years in Hollywood, first as an actor, then primarily as
a director, but also as a writer. It's as a
(25:14):
writer that wins an Oscar for Best Writing a regional
story for A Star is Born. He also directs the
movie and is nominated for Best Director. In fact, he's
nominated three times for Best Director. After several short lived marriages,
(25:35):
Wellman marries freckle faced Dorothy Coonan in nineteen thirty four.
She's an answer who has appeared in ten movies, but
is only nineteen. He's thirty eight. Everyone predicts this will
be another of wild Bill's short lived marriages. But the
Wellmans have seven children and remain happily married until he
(26:00):
eyes at seventy nine. Late in nineteen seventy five, Wilman
is diagnosed with leukemia. Wellman rejects various treatments, saying he'd
rather spend his last days at home and not in
a hospital. Three months later, he's lying on his deathbed
(26:20):
at home. A priest administers last rites and wild Bill
tells his oldest son to take care of his mother
and says, don't feel sorry for me. I've lived the
life of one hundred men.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
And a terrific job on the production and the editing
and storytelling by Greg Hangler and his special thanks as
always to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes
Violence on the Frontier, and what a story this was.
I particularly love the way he made his debut with
Douglas Fairbanks. What a stay gentrance that led to a
(27:01):
prolific career, three Oscar nominations as Best Director, wrote A
Star Is Born and directed it, and My Goodness, Public
Enemy and so many more. By the way, have your
kids watched these old black and white films, because you
can't understand the new ones without having seen the Old Ones.
The story of wild Bill Wellman part of our Hollywood
(27:21):
Goes to War series. Here on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app, to Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Here to tell another Hollywood goes to
Wars Story is our Own. Roger McGrath. McGrath is the
(00:33):
author of Gunfighters, Hogwymen and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier
a US Marine. A former history professor at UCLA, McGrath
has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, and he is
a regular contributor for US Here and Our American Stories.
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
William Wellman was one of Hollywood's greatest directors in a
career that spanned forty years. He directed eighty one movies,
including the first movie to win the Academy Award for
Best Picture, Wings. There could have been no better director
for Wings, a movie about the dairy new of World
War One fighter pilots, because that is exactly what Wellman
(01:17):
was and it was in the skies over France where
he earned his nickname wild Bill. Released in nineteen twenty seven,
Wings was the twelfth movie that Wellman directed, and it
would be followed by such classics as The Public Enemy,
The Call of the Wild, A Star Is Born, bo Jest,
(01:39):
The Oxbow Incident, A Story of Gi Joe Battleground across
the Wide Missouri Westward, The Women, The High End, The
Mighty Track of the Cat. The actors Wellman directed were
the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwick,
(02:02):
Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Gary Cooper, Janet Gainor, John Wayne,
Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Gregory Peck, Robert Taylor, Anne Baxter,
and Robert Mitcham. William Wellman is born in Brookline, Massachusetts,
in eighteen ninety six. His father, Arthur Wellman, can trace
(02:27):
his ancestry back to the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony
in sixteen forty. His mother, Cecilia McCarthy, arrives in America
in eighteen seventy two as a young child in an
Irish family. With a square jaw and strong chin and
flaming red hair, she can be mistaken for nothing but Irish.
(02:50):
Little Billy Wellman is the second son in the family.
His older brother is Arthur, who is called Arch. For
the first eight years of Bill's life if all goes well,
although his father begins to drink heavily. The drinking finally
causes his father lose his job with a brokerage firm
and he has to sell the family home. The family
(03:13):
moves to a neighboring town of Newton and rents a
house for the next several years. The father is in
and out of work, the mother is forced to go
to work at a newly created position, a probation officer
for women and children. She has great people skills and
excels at the job. Billy throws himself into sports at
(03:37):
Newton High School, lettering in football, baseball, and ice hockey.
The Boston Sunday Post calls him the best quarterback in
the history of Newton Eye, a semi pro ice hockey team,
wants him to drop out of high school and play
for them. Billy thinks about the offer, but decides he
(03:57):
owes it to his mother to stay in school and graduate. However,
his wild streak and fighting nature gets him into trouble
again and again. Just shy of graduation in his senior year,
he pulls his ultimate prank from the school's second story.
He drops a stink bomb on the head of the principal.
(04:20):
Billy Wellman is promptly expelled from school. He then works
at a variety of jobs, but as a pensant for
getting into fistfights and being fired. Ultimately, this redounds to
his benefit because he decides he'll never be able to
work at a regular job, and he signs with the
semi pro hockey team that had earlier made him an offer. Suddenly,
(04:45):
he's on the ice in Boston Arena, not only scoring
goals but also earning time in the penalty box for fighting.
He's a fan favorite. One of those fans is a
famous actor who is in b for a stage play,
Douglas Fairbanks. The actor tells Billy, if you ever need
(05:06):
a job, come out to Hollywood and look me up.
Another fan that Billy's ice hockey prowess is earl Avington,
a pioneer aviator, who invites Billy to an airfield outside
of Boston. Billy meets the pilots there, is taken on flights,
receives flying instruction, and listens to stories about the beginnings
(05:29):
of aviation. Now Billy begins dreaming of making a career
as a pilot, and the war in Europe is providing
an opportunity for those want in a fly if they
are willing to risk death. When the United States declares
war in Germany in April nineteen seventeen, twenty one year
(05:50):
old William Willman tries to enlist in the Army's flight program. However,
he doesn't have high school diploma and is rejected. He
then learns he can go to France and enlists in
the French Foreign Legion and then, if accepted, transfer into
the French Air Service, which has a unit for American pilots,
(06:12):
the Lafayette Flying Corps with its famous squadron, the Lafayette Esquadrille.
By In the May nineteen seventeen Bill Wellman assailing for France.
Less than two weeks later, he's in parrass waiting to
begin training with the French Foreign Legion. While walking along
the Seine River, he spies a young woman dressed in
(06:33):
black and perched on a bridge. Suddenly, she leaps and
crashes into the water far below. Wellman strips off his
boots and jacket, dives into the sin and swims to
the spot where she hit the water. He sees her
head bob to the surface, then disappear. He dives after her,
brings her to the surface, and tows her to a
(06:55):
nearby pier.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And you've been listening to a heck of his story
Haul by Roger McGrath about Billy Wellman wants to fly,
gets rejected by the US Army. And what does Billy do.
He goes to France and joins the French Foreign Legion
so he can fly. And that's the American spirit right there.
You don't take no for an answer. When we come
(07:19):
back more of this remarkable story. While Bill Wellman Hollywood
goes to Wars series with Roger McGrath continues here on
our American Stories. Here at our American Stories, we bring
you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love.
Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to
(07:39):
be told. But we can't do it without you. Our
stories are free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love our stories in America like
we do, please go to our American Stories dot Com
and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot,
help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our
American Stories dot Com. And we returned to our American
(08:11):
Stories and to Roger McGrath and his Hollywood Goes to
War series and story about World War One pilot wild
Bill Wellman. We last left off with Wellman saving a
young woman in Paris who was drowning. Let's return to McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
She never stopped struggling. Wellman later said, I thought she
was trying to get away from me. I was a
fine swimmer, had been bought how to save a person
under these conditions, so I called cocter. She became limp
and I was able to get her to the beer
and pull her upon it. Bystanders think Wellman is a hero,
(08:49):
but the woman he saves stares at him with, as
he described it, frozen hatred. She is one of the
many French women who commits suicide or attempted when they
learn their husband has died fighting at the front. By
the end of June nineteen seventeen, Wilman is training at
(09:09):
a French Foreign Legion camp in the south of France.
Conditions are horrible, but Willman's spirits are buoyed by several
Americans in training with him, all hoping to make their
way into the Lafayette Flying Corps. There are even two
Willman knows from back home in Massachusetts. Woman trains in
(09:31):
a series of airplanes, each one more advanced training. Accidents,
mostly due to weather or mechanical failures, leave many a
would be pilot injured or dead, including friends of Wellman.
At the end of September, Wellman graduates from the basic
flight class and is sent to Advanced Fighter School for
(09:53):
training the arobatics in gunnery. The new training school in
the shadow of the Pyrenees has far bet are accommodations
and food, but demands far more of pilots in the air.
Wellman excels throughout the advanced training, the school's commander writes
on Wellman's graduation certificate. In November, A born pilot, but crazy,
(10:19):
Wellman is now sent to an airfield thirty miles from
Paris for his final training before combat. On the wintry day,
he is returning to his airfield with clouds above and
thick ground fog below. The usual landmarks are obscured with
thick fog, and he can't see the ground, let alone
the runway. He dives through the fog and tries to
(10:39):
level out, but he's so close to the ground that
his landing gear gets entangled and rolls of barbed wire
on an old battlefield full of trenches. The plane lurches
to a stop, damaged but repairable. Same for the pilot,
Bill Wellman. December nineteen seventeen. Wellman finally gets what he
(11:00):
wants and is sent to Esquadrille number eighty seven of
the Lafayette Flying Corps to replace a pilot recently killed.
He's now a corporal Wellman and volunteers to fly a
mission the day after he arrives. He's told the strafe
and bomb a German airfield and do not make more
than two passes at the field, otherwise he will run
(11:23):
out of gas on the return flight. By flying at
tree top level, Willman surprises the Germans at dawn. His
strafs and bombs planes, soldiers, and hangars on his first
pass without any return fire. On his second pass, bullets
are whizzing by his head and others hitting his plane. Nonetheless,
(11:47):
he inflicts more damage on the enemy, and because he
has some ammunition left, he can't resist a third pass.
Return Fire, this time is thick and bullets tear all
through his plane. With ammo expended, he heads for home.
Back at his airfield, his fellow pilots are aware that
(12:09):
Welman has been gone too long. Just when they are
beginning to give him up for lost, they spot a
tiny speck in the sky. It's soon identified as Wellman's plane,
but it's moving slowly. There's a reason for that. Wellman
is out of gas and is gliding in. He just
(12:29):
barely clears nearby hilltops and then skims trees at the
end of the runway. His dead stick landing is perfect.
Cheering in applauding pilots run out to him. His captain
christens him wild Bill. As December wears on, weather becomes
(12:50):
more and more of a problem. Returning from a mission
on Christmas Day, Wellman finds the runway covered with snow.
He sets the plane down as gently as possible, but
the wheels dig into the snow and send the plane
cartwheeling down the buried runway. The plane is demolished, but
(13:10):
Wild Bill walks away from the spectacular crash. Whenever weather permits,
Wellman's in the air, shooting down enemy planes and attacking
enemy airfields. He's awarded the coveted Quahda Guir and is
promoted a surgeon. In March nineteen eighteen, he flies for
(13:31):
the first time in support of American forces the forty
second Infantry known as the Rainbow Division. The forty second
is to lead a major attack into German lines. Willman,
in the other pilots of Esker Drill number eighty seven
are told under no conditions will allow an enemy's machine
to fly over the French and American lines. If they
(13:53):
attack and your machine gun jams ram your opponent circling
over the back, Wellman wishes he were wearing an American
uniform rather than a French From below, an American artillery
barrage begins, and Wellman watches American soldiers of the Rainbow
(14:14):
Division scramble out of trenches and move forward. Almost at
the same time, German planes arrive. Without hesitation, wild Bill
dives his plane into them, shooting down one with the
initial burst of his machine gun. Before the air battle ends,
he shoots down a second enemy plane and damages a third,
(14:35):
forcing it to land. Wild Bill is awarded another palm
leaf for his quadagueir, signifying a second award. On March
twenty one, nineteen eighteen, Wellman is flying a reconnaissance mission
into enemy territory when he sees a small French village
with a German flag flying over it and German soldiers
(14:59):
lounging about. Break on mission or not, well Bill can't
resist strafing the enemy. He kills several before they can
reach cover. On subsequent passes, his bullets cause a fire
and explosion in an AMMO dump and knock down the
pole flying the German flag. With his plane full of
(15:19):
holes and his engines sputtering, Welman heads for home. He's
some miles from the village when an ear craft shell
hits his plane. The explosion knocks Wellman silly, but he
doesn't lose consciousness. With blood running out of his ears
and nose, he tries to control what's left of his
(15:39):
plane as it plummets to the earth. He's fast approaching
a thick forest and reckons his end is near. Miraculously,
august of wind dramatically slows the fall of the plane
into the tree tops. The impact throws him out of
the plane and he crashes treelimb by treelimb to the ground.
(16:03):
Wild Bill wakes up in a French hospital and learns
that a patrol of French soldiers found him unconscious and
brought him back to friendly territory. He has broken his
back in two places, as shrapnel in his face, and
is suffering from internal bleeding, but he's alive. On March
twenty ninth, nineteen eighteen, Sergeant William Willman is discharged from
(16:26):
the Lafayette Flying Corps. He leaves with four confirmed aerial
victories and three probables and dozens of enemy plants destroyed
on the ground. On his chest is the quada Ghre
with tu palm, the Grand Gear, and the Verdunn Medal.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
wild Bill Wellman as a part of our Hollywood Goes
to War series. And my goodness, he does that crazy
thing Americans do. It's is he wants to fly so
badly in defense of his nation that he he joins
the Allies and ultimately down the road there he is
(17:04):
in nineteen eighteen with the Lafayette Air Corps leading the
Americans as they attack the German positions. And my goodness,
what crazy stories about this man? A born pilot. His
graduation certificate reads but crazy. And that's what you're hearing,
(17:25):
stories about a born pilot who is crazy. When we
come back, more remarkable stories about wild Bill Wellman brought
to us by Roger McGrath, a part of our Hollywood
Goes to War series. Here on our American stories, and
(18:08):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
while Bill Wellman as told by Roger McGrath. And this
is a continuing part of our Hollywood Goes to War series.
Let's pick up where Roger last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
After more than a month of rehabilitation in France, Wilman,
we're in a back brace, steps off a ship at
New York. The next day, newspapers in New York and
Boston runs stories on him. Sergeant William Wilman arrives with
coveted Quada gear, says the New York Tribune. Wounded flier
(18:46):
glad to see New York again. But here's call a battlefront,
says the Boston Globe. Several other stories and Willman echo
these themes. When he arrives back on the Newton massachue,
there are throngs of people waiting to greet him. For
more than two months, Wellman is on the war hero circuit,
(19:08):
giving speeches and interviews. He doesn't enjoy it in the least. However,
he does get to spend time with former President Theodore
Roosevelt in his home at Oyster Bay. What Wellman really
wants is a commission in the US Army Air Service
and a return to the battlefront, but he knows his
(19:29):
injured back will cause him to fail a physical. Then
he gets a call from an officer in Washington whom
he knew from the Lafayette Esquadrille. The officer is organizing
a unit of combat veteran pilots to be instructors in
dog fighting for Army pilots. Wellman is overjoyed, but expresses
(19:50):
his doubts about passing physical. Don't worry, says the officer.
Wellman fails a physical, but strings are pulled and he's
missioned a first lieutenant in order to rock well Field
on North Island in San Diego Bay. Bill Wellman is
delighted to be a commissioned officer in the U. S
(20:10):
Army and to be flying again. He's respected and admired
by the pilots he's training, and he's determined to prepare
them for aerial combat. After a month of instructing in
mock dogfights, though he grows restless he misses the adrenaline
rush of combat. He wonders if he can somehow get
orders cut for duty again at the front in France.
(20:34):
Wild Bill is still wild Bill, a Hollywood producer, hosts
an dinner party in honor at the Hotel del Coronado,
a world famous hotel on the Coronado Peninsula close to
rockwell Field. This was my introduction to a new wonder world,
the land of the cinema, said Willman. There were a
(20:55):
lot of strange new people there, actors and actresses. And
they me in the uniform and the medals, and I
was very humble, and my limp was eye catching. Whether
it's the limp, the uniform or the medals, Welman catches
the eye of the young actress. They are soon dating
on weekends, either in Hollywood or San Diego. Wellman's mood improves,
(21:21):
not with a thrill of combat, but with a thrill
of romance. Early in November nineteen eighteen, the Army puts
on an air shot at rockwell Field. With the war
in Europe drawing to a close, the Army is eager
to show off its air base and its planes to
ensure the general public and politicians will continue to support
(21:43):
funding for the Army's air service. It's a grand event
which includes static displays of planes and weapons, and pilots
meeting and greeting, and the Army marching ban entertains the crowd,
which includes generals and other eyes ranking officers, as well
as prominent politicians and businessmen and San Diego City officials.
(22:07):
Into a beautiful blue San Diego sky goes the Army's
finest planes in squadron order. The pilots make passes over
the airfield informations and then perform various standard aerobatics to
thrill the spectators. After landing, the pilots are greedy, with
loud applause and shouts of approval over a loud speaker,
(22:31):
and Air Service officer announces the grand finale of the
air show. Ladies and gentlemen, this is our best chase machine,
a spad S thirteen, flown by our top instructor, Lieutenant
William Willman, a decorated fighter pilot performing a series of
spectacular stunts. I told them to show you something you
(22:54):
hadn't seen before. Taken away while Bill Wellman performs spectacular
stunt after stunt, punctuated by low passes over the crowd.
The crowd is awe struck. He decides on one final stunt,
performed as close to the ground as possible. All goes
well until his final maneuver, when a wing tip clips
(23:17):
the ground in the plane cartwheels to a stop. Welman
is pulled from the wreck and taken to a hospital. Miraculously,
he has nothing but three small fractures and two knocked
out teeth. His first words are, well I showed him
something they hadn't seen before. Within days, Wellman is ready
(23:39):
to fly again, but the war ends with the armistice
on November eleventh, and Lieutenant Wellman is mustard out of
the army. He recalls Douglas Fairbanks, telling him to look
him up if he gets to Hollywood. He also recalls
that Fairbanks sent him a congratulatory telegram when he received
the quad. Again, Wellman hears about a lavish polo party.
(24:04):
Fairbanks and his wife Mary Pickford will be hosting. The
who's who of Hollywood and beyond will be there. Well
Bill Wilman makes his entrance to the party at one
hundred and thirty five miles per hour in a Spad fighter,
flying low over the polo field, then climbing to a
higher altitude and performing stunts. The party goers watch in awe,
(24:28):
thinking this is a special treat courtesy of Fairbanks and Pickford.
Wilman comes in and lands. He climbs out of the cockpit,
and in his metal bedecked uniform, walks up to Douglas Fairbanks.
Remember me, mister Fairbanks, says Wellman, you said if I
ever came to Hollywood to look you up. Fairbanks turns
(24:52):
to his wife and says, Mary, I'd like you to
meet wild Bill Wellman. He's a hell of a hockey
player and a war hero. Wellman spends the next forty
years in Hollywood, first as an actor, then primarily as
a director, but also as a writer. It's as a
(25:14):
writer that wins an Oscar for Best Writing a regional
story for A Star is Born. He also directs the
movie and is nominated for Best Director. In fact, he's
nominated three times for Best Director. After several short lived marriages,
(25:35):
Wellman marries freckle faced Dorothy Coonan in nineteen thirty four.
She's an answer who has appeared in ten movies, but
is only nineteen. He's thirty eight. Everyone predicts this will
be another of wild Bill's short lived marriages. But the
Wellmans have seven children and remain happily married until he
(26:00):
eyes at seventy nine. Late in nineteen seventy five, Wilman
is diagnosed with leukemia. Wellman rejects various treatments, saying he'd
rather spend his last days at home and not in
a hospital. Three months later, he's lying on his deathbed
(26:20):
at home. A priest administers last rites and wild Bill
tells his oldest son to take care of his mother
and says, don't feel sorry for me. I've lived the
life of one hundred men.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
And a terrific job on the production and the editing
and storytelling by Greg Hangler and his special thanks as
always to Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes
Violence on the Frontier, and what a story this was.
I particularly love the way he made his debut with
Douglas Fairbanks. What a stay gentrance that led to a
(27:01):
prolific career, three Oscar nominations as Best Director, wrote A
Star Is Born and directed it, and My Goodness, Public
Enemy and so many more. By the way, have your
kids watched these old black and white films, because you
can't understand the new ones without having seen the Old Ones.
The story of wild Bill Wellman part of our Hollywood
(27:21):
Goes to War series. Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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