February 28, 2024 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Ford was Hollywood’s greatest director (Rio Grande and The Searchers, for example). As WWII began, the 47-year-old Ford was at the top of his game when he quit Hollywood and joined the U.S. Navy. Roger McGrath is here to tell the story.
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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.
To subscribe to our podcasts, go to the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. And up next another
Hollywood Goes to War story with Roger McGrath. McGrath is
(00:31):
the author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier.
A US marine and former history professor at UCLA, doctor
McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a
regular contributor for US. Here at our American Stories, Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
John Ford was arguably Hollywood's greatest director. When the brilliant
Orson Wells was asked the name is three favorite directors,
he replied, the old Masters, by which I mean john Ford,
john Ford and john Ford. John Ford directed one hundred
and forty movies. In documentaries, he won the Academy Award
(01:11):
for Best Director a record four times. Nine of his
movies were nominated for Best Picture and one of them
won it. Two of his documentaries won Best Documentary, and
he won Best Director of a Documentary.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
For one of them.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
John Martin Feeney is born in eighteen ninety four in
Keep Elizabeth, Maine, a small town near Portland. His father
is John Augustin Feini, a large and powerful man known
for his feats of strength and spellbinding storytelling, who had
immigrated to America from Spittal, a small town on the
(01:49):
coast of Galway Bay in Ireland. His mother is a
former Barbara Curran, also an Irish immigrant, who had come
from the town of Kilronan on innish More, the largest
of the Iren Islands, which lie at the entrance to
Galway Bay. For both John and Barbara, their first language
is Gaelic. The young John Feeney, the future John Ford,
(02:14):
is called Johnny by his family. He's one of eleven children,
but five die as infants. He spends his first several
years in Cape Elizabeth, and then the family moves to
Monjoy Hill, a mostly Irish neighborhood in Portland. His father
works at various times as a farmer, fisherman, and saloon keeper.
(02:35):
By the time Johnny Feeney is attending Portland High School, is.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Known as Jack.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
He excels in sports, especially football and track. He's a tall,
strapping youth, something over six feet and one hundred and
eighty pounds. He stars as a fallback on the varsity
football team and earns the nickname Bowl Feenee. In his
senior year, the team wins the state champion whip. He's
(03:01):
also the school's top sprinter. After winning a sprint against
a rival school, Portland High's newspaper said, Phenie's form in
the getaway and running was perfect, and his speed terrific.
Jack Feenie is also a voracious reader, partly helped by
a year he spent out of school, mostly in bed,
(03:23):
fighting diphtheria and clinging into life. An older sister read
book after book to him, and when he was strong enough,
he read book after book himself, although the diphtheria would
leave him with poor eyesight for the rest of his life.
Years later, when in high school, a classmate says, every
time you'd see him, he'd have a book.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
In his hand, Shakespeare or something.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
He'd fight at the drop of a hat, but he
had a great mind and a great sense of humor.
Some would would tell him a funny story, and the
next day he'd retell it, adding all kinds of.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
New touches to it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Phoene's performance in his classes varies from poor to excellent,
depending on whether he likes the teacher and the material.
Even when he applies himself, Pheenie has little time to study.
All through high school. He drives a delivery wagon for
his older brother Pat's wholesale fish market. On weekends he
(04:21):
works at a theater, which helps peak his interest in movies.
Jack Phoene especially likes westerns produced by Thomas Ince for
Bison Studios at a location Ince developed at what would
become the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset
Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. When Ince arrives there in nineteen eleven,
(04:46):
the area could pass for the Old West. Soon, the
collection of movie sets he builds there is known as Innceville.
Many of the Western shot at Innsville are directed by
Francis Ford, the second oldest of the Feenie Boys. Francis
had dropped out of Portland High School in eighteen ninety
eight to fight in the Spanish American War. He later
(05:10):
becomes an actor on the stage in New York with
the surname Ford. Movie Makers liked his chiseled features and tall,
lanky frame and began using him in their films. When
movie production heads to Hollywood to avoid Thomas Edison's patent
monopoly in the East. Francis Ford goes too. He's soon
(05:33):
not only acting in Thomas Inse's films, but also directing them.
Movie historians generally credit Francis Ford with greatly increasing the
quality of the films produced by Ins, although Ince himself
often takes director credits for films directed by Francis Ford.
(05:55):
Back in Portland, Maine, Jack Feeney is watching Ince's movies,
which often star his brother. When Jack graduates from high
school in nineteen fourteen, instead of accepting any of several
college scholarships for football and track, he boards a train
for Los Angeles. By now, Francis Ford is making movies
(06:15):
for Universal Studios, eighty of them from nineteen thirteen through
nineteen sixteen. A month after Jack arrives, his brother casts
him in The Mysterious Rose as a character named Dopey.
Francis plays the male lead, Detective Phil Kelly. The Mysterious
Rose is a humble beginning in Hollywood for Jack Feeney,
(06:39):
who is now billed as Jack Ford.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of John Martin Feeney who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
a small town in the northeast, almost as small as
you can get in that part of the country. Who
would think that the man who made epic westerns for
a living would come from a Northeast coastal state. He
(07:03):
won Best Director four times. No one has touched it.
He had nine Best Picture nominations. When we come back
the rest of the story of John Martin Feeney, that
is John Ford. Here on our American Stories. Here are
(07:31):
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 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,
(07:53):
give a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with
our American Stories and with Roger McGrath, who's telling the
(08:13):
story of the great John Ford. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
He appears in another fifteen movies before he begins directing
them himself in nineteen seventeen. He directs twelve movies in
nineteen seventeen, three of them starring himself, and a half
dozen starring Harry Carey, who Ford helps establish as one
of the leading actors in westerns. Carrie's wife, Olive, described
(08:44):
what the twenty three year old Jack Ford.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Was like in nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
He had a magnificent sense of humor, and he was
very graceful when he walked. He was imaginative, didn't miss
a trick, a fantastic eye for the camera. He lined
up all the shots. He was fascinated with everything. The
trade papers regularly praised the young director. Reporting on Ford's
(09:12):
three Mounted Men in nineteen eighteen, one of the papers declares,
you can always bank on Jack Ford producing a good picture.
When you add a good cast to it, then he
is bound to produce a knockout. Still another notes that
his movies always have much to please the eye by
(09:33):
the way of artistically chosen locations. In nineteen twenty, Ford
Mary's Mary McBride smith and buys a house on four
acres of land.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
In the Hollywood Hills.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
In nineteen twenty one, they have a son Patrick and
a year later a daughter, Barbara. Seven months after Patrick's birth,
Ford makes a trip to Ireland to visit family in
count Galway for the first time since he was a
child when he went with his father. Ford's tripp is
paid for by his new employer, Fox Studios. In nineteen
(10:12):
twenty one, Ireland's war for Independence is still raging an
a special unit of British soldiers known as the Black
and Tans, are on patrols throughout Galway. Ford's Feeney relatives
are without houses which the British had burned down.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The Fighting Age. Feeney Men are volunteers in.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The IRA, the Irish Republican Army, and are hiding in
the Connamera Mountains between missions. Their cousins, the Thornton Boys,
who have also had their homes burned down, are with them.
It's not by accident that in John Ford's blockbuster nineteen
fifty two film The Quiet Man, John Wayne's character is
(10:54):
Sean Thornton. Avoiding the Black and Tans, Ford meets with
his cousin mart and Feeni, a member of the IRA's
East Connomera Brigade. Ford hands him a bundle of cash
for the IRA, possibly sixty thousand or more dollars in
today's money. Shortly afterwards, the Black and Tans catch up
(11:15):
with Ford and take him into custody. Ford is interrogated
and roughed up, but it reveals nothing. After only four
days in Ireland, Ford is forced onto a ship and
told never to return. Once back in California, Ford continues
his non stop movie making, cranking out twenty three movies
(11:36):
from nineteen twenty two through nineteen twenty eight. His best
movie of the era is The Iron Horse, starring George O'Brien.
It's the story of the building of the first trans
continental railroad, and a shot on location in Nevada, there's
a cast of thousands. Bad weather causes the chute to
(11:58):
fall far behind schedule and a run well over budget.
Fox Studios threatens to shut down production. Ford hangs tough
and finishes the movie at a cost of two hundred
and eighty thousand dollars, a fantastic sum for a movie
in nineteen twenty four, but the movie makes more than
(12:19):
two million dollars and even more fantastic sum. Halfway through
nineteen twenty eight, Ford makes his first talkie, and his
transition to talkies is seamless. His nineteen thirty one movie
Aerosmith is a blockbuster and receives four Academy Award nominations.
(12:41):
Ford wins the Academy Award for Best Director for his
nineteen thirty five movie The Informer, and the movie is
nominated for Best Picture. In nineteen thirty nine, Ford produces
and directs the movie Stagecoach, which is nominated for Best
Picture and he's nominated for Best Director. Although Ford directed
(13:04):
dozens of westerns in the Silent era, this is his
first western in the sound era. Stagecoach is also the
first Western that Ford shoots in Monument Valley, and it's
the movie that takes John Wayne out of b westerns.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And into feature films.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Ford wins the Academy Award for Best Director for his
nineteen forty film The Grapes of Wrath. He wins Best
Director again for his nineteen forty one film How Green
Was My Valley, and the movie wins Best Picture. John
Ford is at the top of his game and at
the top of Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
He has money, fame, and power.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
He's forty seven years old, So what does he do?
He quits Hollywood and goes on active.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Duty in the Navy.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Back in nineteen thirty four, Ford, who owned a yacht
and had been sales since his childhood, was commissioned a
lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. For the next six years,
he sailed the California Mexican coasts and quietly photographed and
made notes on Japanese shipping activity and Japanese settlements. He
(14:16):
filed the photos and the notes with the eleventh Naval District,
and in nineteen forty received a commendation for his initiative
in securing valuable information. Even before the Japanese sneak attack
on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one, Ford
(14:37):
proposes creating a unit to film and photograph the U. S.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Navy.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The Navy tentatively accepts Ford's proposal, and during the fall
of nineteen forty one, it begins organizing the Naval Motion
Picture and Field Photographic Unit. Ford's recruits come from Hollywood,
and they are each chosen for their particular skill.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
In the making of movies.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
As a unit is taking shape, it's put under the
command of William Donovan, the head of the Office of
Strategic Services. The oss Ford Unit now becomes the Field
photographic branch of the OSS, a World War One hero
who has awarded the Medal of Honor. While Bill Donovan
(15:26):
gives Ford great latitude in independence, exactly what the contrary
and krusty Ford likes. Ford gets in the office in Washington,
d C. And a generous budget. Ford doesn't spend much
time in Washington and will soon be found on battle
fronts around the world. After assignments to Pearl Harbor, Iceland,
(15:50):
and the Panama Canal, Ford is board the carrier Hornet
in April nineteen forty two to document Jimmy Doolivels raided
on Tokyo. In early June, Ford is at Midway Act
All when the epic Battle of Midway erupts. Standing atop
the power plant on Eastern Island, Ford films the arrival
(16:12):
of first Japanese planes and continues filming throughout the attack.
At one point, he's knocked out when a bomb explodes
and sends a chunk of concrete flying into him.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
He regains consciousness and continues filming.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Minutes later, he's knocked flat by another Japanese bomb and
suffers shrapnel wounds.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
To his left arm.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
In pain and bleeding, he struggles to his feet and
continues filming.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of john Ford. It's a part of our Hollywood Goes
to War series, and my goodness, what a thing to do.
He's just won two Oscars for Best Director year after year.
When's the last time that's happened? Best Director for The
Grapes of Wrath in nineteen four, Best Director for How
(17:01):
Green Was My Valley in forty one? And then what
does he do? Well? He goes active duty in the
Navy and becomes a part of the OSS, and he
goes into combat to film what's really happening with all
of our men and women overseas. And we've told similar
stories about Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, and Eddie
(17:22):
Albert giving up lucrative careers at the height of their
fame to serve their country at war. When we come
back more of john Ford's remarkable story, it continues here
on our American stories. And we continue here with our
(18:09):
American stories and the story of john Ford as told
by Roger McGrath. Let's pick up where we last left home.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Ford puts the footage from his filming together with footage
taken by another cameraman to create the documentary The Battle
of Midway. He has actors from his movies Donald Crisp,
Jane Darwell, Henry Fonda narrate and has a musical score
that includes America's favorites anchors Away, Red River Valley, the
(18:43):
Marines Hymn, the Star Spangled Banner, Onward Christian Soldiers, My
Country tis of thee. Before the documentary is released, there
are those who think it's too emotionally evocative to be
released as it is footage, narration and the music pluck
(19:03):
every chord in the American heart. Ford says, it's released
as it is, or it's not released at all, and
it goes into theaters without further editing. It wins the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In November and December
nineteen forty two, Ford is at the battlefront with the
(19:26):
Army's thirteenth Armored Regiment in Algeria and Tunisia and leads
his photographic unit into the thick of the action. General O'Donovan,
in a letter to the Director of Naval Intelligence, says
Ford inspires a real devotion among his men. He has
evidenced his leadership and his courage in his photographic work
(19:50):
with a fleet in the Pacific as well as with
the invading forces in Tunisia. Both as a man and
as an officer, I consider Commander Ford superior and outstanding.
The fall of nineteen forty three finds Ford with Donovan
in Chung King with Chang Kai Shek and his Chinese
(20:12):
Nationalist forces. Among other photographic missions. Ford takes aerial reconnaissance
flights over Japanese positions in Phillip's Japanese Air Raids. Then
John Ford undertakes a mission that is like something out
of one of his movies. The forty nine year old
director leaps out of a C forty seven and parachutes
(20:36):
behind enemy lions into a Burmese jungle on the ground,
ironevus with father James Stewart, an Irish priest who had
served with the IRA and then as a medical missionary
in Burma and is now leading a catch and guerrilla
band against the Japanese. By the end of January nineteen
(21:02):
forty four, Ford is in India and eventually back to
the United States by way of Africa and Brazil. Ford's
not home for long before he's off to England to
prepare his photographic unit.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
For the landings at Normandy.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
He assigns his cameramen to different waves in the landing
and even rigs some of the landing craft with cameras
that automatically start rolling when the ramps drop. Ford himself
coordinates everything from the cruise of Augusta. Once the landings begin,
Ford leaves the safety of the ship and climbs aboard
(21:38):
a landing craft and heads for the beach. Ford wades
a shore and begins moving inland with the American troops.
One of Ford's directors is crouched low behind a hedgerow
when he spies Ford standing tall and calmly observing the
fighting in front of him. Many later said Ford not
(21:59):
only seems fearless, he actually seemed deleted, the happiest they had.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Ever seen him.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Here's John Ford in the nineteen sixty six interview with
the BBC.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I've tried to figure it out. I am a.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I am really a coward.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
I know I am. So that's why I did foolish
things and I was decorated eight or nine times try
to prove that I was not a coward. But after
all over, I still knew that. I still know that
I was a coward. I've always found out. The little, quiet,
little man but nobody pays at attention to, usually has
(22:41):
more guts. They use guts, and BBC sure has more
guts and courage than the big blowhard, the big noisy,
outspoken fellow. It's a little man that does a courageous scene.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
After more than two months on the battlefront, with brief
periods in London, Ford is back in Washington in September.
By October, Ford and the Navy are in serious discussions
about making a movie honoring the daring, dew and sacrifice
of the PT boats in the Philippines during nineteen forty two.
(23:21):
In February nineteen forty five, Ford begins shooting. They were
expendable in Florida. By the end of May, filming is
finished and post production begins. At the end of June,
Ford is promoted to Captain. Ford's thoughts now turn to
the Pacific and the anticipated invasion of Japan. However, the
(23:45):
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the war in August
and avoid what would have been a monumental bloodbath At
the end of September, his Field Photographic Unit is decommissioned
and John Ford is released from active duty. His decorations include,
(24:05):
among many others, the Legion a Merit, and the Purple Art.
His officer's Fitness report says personnel of his organization performed
with outstanding distinction and valor in clandestine operations in combat
in the world's battlefronts. This record of high accomplishments results
(24:27):
from Captain Ford's outstanding ability. His devotion to duty is
loyalty to and love for his subordinates. The discipline of
his organization was outstanding, their accomplishment superb. This could result
only from great leadership. Ford remains in the Naval Reserve,
(24:48):
and the law fifty six years old is called the
active duty. During the Korean War, he spends several months
in Korea making the documentary This is Korea. It's Along,
especially well with Chesty Puller, the salty and honery and
highly decorated marine legend. Upon Ford's return to the States,
(25:12):
is promoted to Rear admiral and retired from the Navy.
Mark Armistead, a veteran of the Field Photographic Unit who
was with Ford again in Korea, said the famous director
was probably more proud of the admiral stripe than he
was of all his oscars combined. From the late nineteen
(25:35):
forties into the nineteen sixties, john Ford continues to make
movies that both critics in the American public love, including
Ford Apache She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, A
Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers. John Ford dies
(25:57):
in nineteen seventy three. He is buried at Holy Cross
Cemetery in Culver City, California. On his headstone, he is
identified not as an actor, director, or producer, but as
Admiral john Ford.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And a terrific job by Greg Hangler on the production
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath for telling the
story of john Ford and what john Ford did during
World War Two, including my goodness getting an oscar for
the Battle of Midway, but more importantly the way he
served his country doing it, the risks he took, and
(26:35):
then the self effacement to know that he wasn't exactly
calling himself a hero, giving that credit and the credit
of courage to the many others who fought every day
on the ground, every day until they got to Berlin,
or until those bombs were dropped over Nagasaki in Hiroshima,
And that humility comes through. And of course that tombstone
(26:55):
says it all. With what it doesn't say, It merely says,
admire the story of John Ford, the story of so
many who served in World War Two. 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.
To subscribe to our podcasts, go to the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. And up next another
Hollywood Goes to War story with Roger McGrath. McGrath is
(00:31):
the author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier.
A US marine and former history professor at UCLA, doctor
McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a
regular contributor for US. Here at our American Stories, Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
John Ford was arguably Hollywood's greatest director. When the brilliant
Orson Wells was asked the name is three favorite directors,
he replied, the old Masters, by which I mean john Ford,
john Ford and john Ford. John Ford directed one hundred
and forty movies. In documentaries, he won the Academy Award
(01:11):
for Best Director a record four times. Nine of his
movies were nominated for Best Picture and one of them
won it. Two of his documentaries won Best Documentary, and
he won Best Director of a Documentary.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
For one of them.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
John Martin Feeney is born in eighteen ninety four in
Keep Elizabeth, Maine, a small town near Portland. His father
is John Augustin Feini, a large and powerful man known
for his feats of strength and spellbinding storytelling, who had
immigrated to America from Spittal, a small town on the
(01:49):
coast of Galway Bay in Ireland. His mother is a
former Barbara Curran, also an Irish immigrant, who had come
from the town of Kilronan on innish More, the largest
of the Iren Islands, which lie at the entrance to
Galway Bay. For both John and Barbara, their first language
is Gaelic. The young John Feeney, the future John Ford,
(02:14):
is called Johnny by his family. He's one of eleven children,
but five die as infants. He spends his first several
years in Cape Elizabeth, and then the family moves to
Monjoy Hill, a mostly Irish neighborhood in Portland. His father
works at various times as a farmer, fisherman, and saloon keeper.
(02:35):
By the time Johnny Feeney is attending Portland High School, is.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Known as Jack.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
He excels in sports, especially football and track. He's a tall,
strapping youth, something over six feet and one hundred and
eighty pounds. He stars as a fallback on the varsity
football team and earns the nickname Bowl Feenee. In his
senior year, the team wins the state champion whip. He's
(03:01):
also the school's top sprinter. After winning a sprint against
a rival school, Portland High's newspaper said, Phenie's form in
the getaway and running was perfect, and his speed terrific.
Jack Feenie is also a voracious reader, partly helped by
a year he spent out of school, mostly in bed,
(03:23):
fighting diphtheria and clinging into life. An older sister read
book after book to him, and when he was strong enough,
he read book after book himself, although the diphtheria would
leave him with poor eyesight for the rest of his life.
Years later, when in high school, a classmate says, every
time you'd see him, he'd have a book.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
In his hand, Shakespeare or something.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
He'd fight at the drop of a hat, but he
had a great mind and a great sense of humor.
Some would would tell him a funny story, and the
next day he'd retell it, adding all kinds of.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
New touches to it.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Phoene's performance in his classes varies from poor to excellent,
depending on whether he likes the teacher and the material.
Even when he applies himself, Pheenie has little time to study.
All through high school. He drives a delivery wagon for
his older brother Pat's wholesale fish market. On weekends he
(04:21):
works at a theater, which helps peak his interest in movies.
Jack Phoene especially likes westerns produced by Thomas Ince for
Bison Studios at a location Ince developed at what would
become the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset
Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. When Ince arrives there in nineteen eleven,
(04:46):
the area could pass for the Old West. Soon, the
collection of movie sets he builds there is known as Innceville.
Many of the Western shot at Innsville are directed by
Francis Ford, the second oldest of the Feenie Boys. Francis
had dropped out of Portland High School in eighteen ninety
eight to fight in the Spanish American War. He later
(05:10):
becomes an actor on the stage in New York with
the surname Ford. Movie Makers liked his chiseled features and tall,
lanky frame and began using him in their films. When
movie production heads to Hollywood to avoid Thomas Edison's patent
monopoly in the East. Francis Ford goes too. He's soon
(05:33):
not only acting in Thomas Inse's films, but also directing them.
Movie historians generally credit Francis Ford with greatly increasing the
quality of the films produced by Ins, although Ince himself
often takes director credits for films directed by Francis Ford.
(05:55):
Back in Portland, Maine, Jack Feeney is watching Ince's movies,
which often star his brother. When Jack graduates from high
school in nineteen fourteen, instead of accepting any of several
college scholarships for football and track, he boards a train
for Los Angeles. By now, Francis Ford is making movies
(06:15):
for Universal Studios, eighty of them from nineteen thirteen through
nineteen sixteen. A month after Jack arrives, his brother casts
him in The Mysterious Rose as a character named Dopey.
Francis plays the male lead, Detective Phil Kelly. The Mysterious
Rose is a humble beginning in Hollywood for Jack Feeney,
(06:39):
who is now billed as Jack Ford.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of John Martin Feeney who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
a small town in the northeast, almost as small as
you can get in that part of the country. Who
would think that the man who made epic westerns for
a living would come from a Northeast coastal state. He
(07:03):
won Best Director four times. No one has touched it.
He had nine Best Picture nominations. When we come back
the rest of the story of John Martin Feeney, that
is John Ford. Here on our American Stories. Here are
(07:31):
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 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,
(07:53):
give a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we continue with
our American Stories and with Roger McGrath, who's telling the
(08:13):
story of the great John Ford. Let's pick up where
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
He appears in another fifteen movies before he begins directing
them himself in nineteen seventeen. He directs twelve movies in
nineteen seventeen, three of them starring himself, and a half
dozen starring Harry Carey, who Ford helps establish as one
of the leading actors in westerns. Carrie's wife, Olive, described
(08:44):
what the twenty three year old Jack Ford.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Was like in nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
He had a magnificent sense of humor, and he was
very graceful when he walked. He was imaginative, didn't miss
a trick, a fantastic eye for the camera. He lined
up all the shots. He was fascinated with everything. The
trade papers regularly praised the young director. Reporting on Ford's
(09:12):
three Mounted Men in nineteen eighteen, one of the papers declares,
you can always bank on Jack Ford producing a good picture.
When you add a good cast to it, then he
is bound to produce a knockout. Still another notes that
his movies always have much to please the eye by
(09:33):
the way of artistically chosen locations. In nineteen twenty, Ford
Mary's Mary McBride smith and buys a house on four
acres of land.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
In the Hollywood Hills.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
In nineteen twenty one, they have a son Patrick and
a year later a daughter, Barbara. Seven months after Patrick's birth,
Ford makes a trip to Ireland to visit family in
count Galway for the first time since he was a
child when he went with his father. Ford's tripp is
paid for by his new employer, Fox Studios. In nineteen
(10:12):
twenty one, Ireland's war for Independence is still raging an
a special unit of British soldiers known as the Black
and Tans, are on patrols throughout Galway. Ford's Feeney relatives
are without houses which the British had burned down.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
The Fighting Age. Feeney Men are volunteers in.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
The IRA, the Irish Republican Army, and are hiding in
the Connamera Mountains between missions. Their cousins, the Thornton Boys,
who have also had their homes burned down, are with them.
It's not by accident that in John Ford's blockbuster nineteen
fifty two film The Quiet Man, John Wayne's character is
(10:54):
Sean Thornton. Avoiding the Black and Tans, Ford meets with
his cousin mart and Feeni, a member of the IRA's
East Connomera Brigade. Ford hands him a bundle of cash
for the IRA, possibly sixty thousand or more dollars in
today's money. Shortly afterwards, the Black and Tans catch up
(11:15):
with Ford and take him into custody. Ford is interrogated
and roughed up, but it reveals nothing. After only four
days in Ireland, Ford is forced onto a ship and
told never to return. Once back in California, Ford continues
his non stop movie making, cranking out twenty three movies
(11:36):
from nineteen twenty two through nineteen twenty eight. His best
movie of the era is The Iron Horse, starring George O'Brien.
It's the story of the building of the first trans
continental railroad, and a shot on location in Nevada, there's
a cast of thousands. Bad weather causes the chute to
(11:58):
fall far behind schedule and a run well over budget.
Fox Studios threatens to shut down production. Ford hangs tough
and finishes the movie at a cost of two hundred
and eighty thousand dollars, a fantastic sum for a movie
in nineteen twenty four, but the movie makes more than
(12:19):
two million dollars and even more fantastic sum. Halfway through
nineteen twenty eight, Ford makes his first talkie, and his
transition to talkies is seamless. His nineteen thirty one movie
Aerosmith is a blockbuster and receives four Academy Award nominations.
(12:41):
Ford wins the Academy Award for Best Director for his
nineteen thirty five movie The Informer, and the movie is
nominated for Best Picture. In nineteen thirty nine, Ford produces
and directs the movie Stagecoach, which is nominated for Best
Picture and he's nominated for Best Director. Although Ford directed
(13:04):
dozens of westerns in the Silent era, this is his
first western in the sound era. Stagecoach is also the
first Western that Ford shoots in Monument Valley, and it's
the movie that takes John Wayne out of b westerns.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And into feature films.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Ford wins the Academy Award for Best Director for his
nineteen forty film The Grapes of Wrath. He wins Best
Director again for his nineteen forty one film How Green
Was My Valley, and the movie wins Best Picture. John
Ford is at the top of his game and at
the top of Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
He has money, fame, and power.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
He's forty seven years old, So what does he do?
He quits Hollywood and goes on active.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Duty in the Navy.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Back in nineteen thirty four, Ford, who owned a yacht
and had been sales since his childhood, was commissioned a
lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. For the next six years,
he sailed the California Mexican coasts and quietly photographed and
made notes on Japanese shipping activity and Japanese settlements. He
(14:16):
filed the photos and the notes with the eleventh Naval District,
and in nineteen forty received a commendation for his initiative
in securing valuable information. Even before the Japanese sneak attack
on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one, Ford
(14:37):
proposes creating a unit to film and photograph the U. S.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Navy.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
The Navy tentatively accepts Ford's proposal, and during the fall
of nineteen forty one, it begins organizing the Naval Motion
Picture and Field Photographic Unit. Ford's recruits come from Hollywood,
and they are each chosen for their particular skill.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
In the making of movies.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
As a unit is taking shape, it's put under the
command of William Donovan, the head of the Office of
Strategic Services. The oss Ford Unit now becomes the Field
photographic branch of the OSS, a World War One hero
who has awarded the Medal of Honor. While Bill Donovan
(15:26):
gives Ford great latitude in independence, exactly what the contrary
and krusty Ford likes. Ford gets in the office in Washington,
d C. And a generous budget. Ford doesn't spend much
time in Washington and will soon be found on battle
fronts around the world. After assignments to Pearl Harbor, Iceland,
(15:50):
and the Panama Canal, Ford is board the carrier Hornet
in April nineteen forty two to document Jimmy Doolivels raided
on Tokyo. In early June, Ford is at Midway Act
All when the epic Battle of Midway erupts. Standing atop
the power plant on Eastern Island, Ford films the arrival
(16:12):
of first Japanese planes and continues filming throughout the attack.
At one point, he's knocked out when a bomb explodes
and sends a chunk of concrete flying into him.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
He regains consciousness and continues filming.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Minutes later, he's knocked flat by another Japanese bomb and
suffers shrapnel wounds.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
To his left arm.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
In pain and bleeding, he struggles to his feet and
continues filming.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of john Ford. It's a part of our Hollywood Goes
to War series, and my goodness, what a thing to do.
He's just won two Oscars for Best Director year after year.
When's the last time that's happened? Best Director for The
Grapes of Wrath in nineteen four, Best Director for How
(17:01):
Green Was My Valley in forty one? And then what
does he do? Well? He goes active duty in the
Navy and becomes a part of the OSS, and he
goes into combat to film what's really happening with all
of our men and women overseas. And we've told similar
stories about Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, and Eddie
(17:22):
Albert giving up lucrative careers at the height of their
fame to serve their country at war. When we come
back more of john Ford's remarkable story, it continues here
on our American stories. And we continue here with our
(18:09):
American stories and the story of john Ford as told
by Roger McGrath. Let's pick up where we last left home.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Ford puts the footage from his filming together with footage
taken by another cameraman to create the documentary The Battle
of Midway. He has actors from his movies Donald Crisp,
Jane Darwell, Henry Fonda narrate and has a musical score
that includes America's favorites anchors Away, Red River Valley, the
(18:43):
Marines Hymn, the Star Spangled Banner, Onward Christian Soldiers, My
Country tis of thee. Before the documentary is released, there
are those who think it's too emotionally evocative to be
released as it is footage, narration and the music pluck
(19:03):
every chord in the American heart. Ford says, it's released
as it is, or it's not released at all, and
it goes into theaters without further editing. It wins the
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In November and December
nineteen forty two, Ford is at the battlefront with the
(19:26):
Army's thirteenth Armored Regiment in Algeria and Tunisia and leads
his photographic unit into the thick of the action. General O'Donovan,
in a letter to the Director of Naval Intelligence, says
Ford inspires a real devotion among his men. He has
evidenced his leadership and his courage in his photographic work
(19:50):
with a fleet in the Pacific as well as with
the invading forces in Tunisia. Both as a man and
as an officer, I consider Commander Ford superior and outstanding.
The fall of nineteen forty three finds Ford with Donovan
in Chung King with Chang Kai Shek and his Chinese
(20:12):
Nationalist forces. Among other photographic missions. Ford takes aerial reconnaissance
flights over Japanese positions in Phillip's Japanese Air Raids. Then
John Ford undertakes a mission that is like something out
of one of his movies. The forty nine year old
director leaps out of a C forty seven and parachutes
(20:36):
behind enemy lions into a Burmese jungle on the ground,
ironevus with father James Stewart, an Irish priest who had
served with the IRA and then as a medical missionary
in Burma and is now leading a catch and guerrilla
band against the Japanese. By the end of January nineteen
(21:02):
forty four, Ford is in India and eventually back to
the United States by way of Africa and Brazil. Ford's
not home for long before he's off to England to
prepare his photographic unit.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
For the landings at Normandy.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
He assigns his cameramen to different waves in the landing
and even rigs some of the landing craft with cameras
that automatically start rolling when the ramps drop. Ford himself
coordinates everything from the cruise of Augusta. Once the landings begin,
Ford leaves the safety of the ship and climbs aboard
(21:38):
a landing craft and heads for the beach. Ford wades
a shore and begins moving inland with the American troops.
One of Ford's directors is crouched low behind a hedgerow
when he spies Ford standing tall and calmly observing the
fighting in front of him. Many later said Ford not
(21:59):
only seems fearless, he actually seemed deleted, the happiest they had.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Ever seen him.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Here's John Ford in the nineteen sixty six interview with
the BBC.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
I've tried to figure it out. I am a.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
I am really a coward.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
I know I am. So that's why I did foolish
things and I was decorated eight or nine times try
to prove that I was not a coward. But after
all over, I still knew that. I still know that
I was a coward. I've always found out. The little, quiet,
little man but nobody pays at attention to, usually has
(22:41):
more guts. They use guts, and BBC sure has more
guts and courage than the big blowhard, the big noisy,
outspoken fellow. It's a little man that does a courageous scene.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
After more than two months on the battlefront, with brief
periods in London, Ford is back in Washington in September.
By October, Ford and the Navy are in serious discussions
about making a movie honoring the daring, dew and sacrifice
of the PT boats in the Philippines during nineteen forty two.
(23:21):
In February nineteen forty five, Ford begins shooting. They were
expendable in Florida. By the end of May, filming is
finished and post production begins. At the end of June,
Ford is promoted to Captain. Ford's thoughts now turn to
the Pacific and the anticipated invasion of Japan. However, the
(23:45):
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the war in August
and avoid what would have been a monumental bloodbath At
the end of September, his Field Photographic Unit is decommissioned
and John Ford is released from active duty. His decorations include,
(24:05):
among many others, the Legion a Merit, and the Purple Art.
His officer's Fitness report says personnel of his organization performed
with outstanding distinction and valor in clandestine operations in combat
in the world's battlefronts. This record of high accomplishments results
(24:27):
from Captain Ford's outstanding ability. His devotion to duty is
loyalty to and love for his subordinates. The discipline of
his organization was outstanding, their accomplishment superb. This could result
only from great leadership. Ford remains in the Naval Reserve,
(24:48):
and the law fifty six years old is called the
active duty. During the Korean War, he spends several months
in Korea making the documentary This is Korea. It's Along,
especially well with Chesty Puller, the salty and honery and
highly decorated marine legend. Upon Ford's return to the States,
(25:12):
is promoted to Rear admiral and retired from the Navy.
Mark Armistead, a veteran of the Field Photographic Unit who
was with Ford again in Korea, said the famous director
was probably more proud of the admiral stripe than he
was of all his oscars combined. From the late nineteen
(25:35):
forties into the nineteen sixties, john Ford continues to make
movies that both critics in the American public love, including
Ford Apache She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, A
Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers. John Ford dies
(25:57):
in nineteen seventy three. He is buried at Holy Cross
Cemetery in Culver City, California. On his headstone, he is
identified not as an actor, director, or producer, but as
Admiral john Ford.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And a terrific job by Greg Hangler on the production
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath for telling the
story of john Ford and what john Ford did during
World War Two, including my goodness getting an oscar for
the Battle of Midway, but more importantly the way he
served his country doing it, the risks he took, and
(26:35):
then the self effacement to know that he wasn't exactly
calling himself a hero, giving that credit and the credit
of courage to the many others who fought every day
on the ground, every day until they got to Berlin,
or until those bombs were dropped over Nagasaki in Hiroshima,
And that humility comes through. And of course that tombstone
(26:55):
says it all. With what it doesn't say, It merely says,
admire the story of John Ford, the story of so
many who served in World War Two. Here on our
American stories.
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