On this episode of Our American Stories, in a career spanning more than four decades and appearing in 149 movies, Western star Tim Holt could be seen on the big screen in films such as Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, and Swiss Family Robinson. Here to tell another Hollywood Goes to War story is Roger McGrath.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. In a career
spanning more than four decades and appearing in one hundred
and forty nine movies, Western star Tim Holt could be
seen on the big screen in films such as Stagecoach,
My Darling, Clementine, and Swiss Family Robinson. Here to tell
another Hollywood goes to War's story is Roger McGrath. McGrath
(00:33):
is the author of Gunfighters, High Women and Vigilantes, Violence
on the Frontier, a US marine and former history professor
at UCLA, Doctor McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel
documentaries and is a regular contributor here at Our American Stories,
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of the most handsome and recognizable faces from the movies,
especially westerns of the late nineteen thirties through the early
nineteen fifties, was Tim Holt. He appeared more than seventy movies,
several of them considered classics, including Stagecoach in nineteen thirty nine,
Swiss Family Robinson in nineteen forty, The Magnificent Ambersons in
(01:17):
nineteen forty two, My Darling Clementine in nineteen forty six,
and The Treasurer of the Sierra Madre in nineteen forty eight.
Audiences loved him in his supporting roles in these major productions,
but also in his leading man roles in dozens of
B westerns. What has generally forgotten about Tim Holt was
(01:41):
his World War II service as a B twenty nine Bamadeer,
for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the
Purple Heart, and four Air medals. Tim hold is born
Charles John Holt the Third in nineteen nineteen in Hills, California.
(02:01):
His father, known as Jack Holt, is a leading man
in silent films when Tim is born. Gifted with a
strong voice, Jack has no problem making the transition to talkies.
All the other he appears in some eighty silence and
then another eighty talkies, making him one of the most
prolific actors in the history of Hollywood. Tim Holt's mother
(02:26):
is the former Margaret Woods, the daughter of business tycoon.
Her father is so upset with her marrying an actor
that he disowns her. He later relents, well he should have,
because Jack and Margaret Holt stay married for thirty five
years until Jack dies of a heart attack. Although Tim
(02:50):
Holt grows up in Beverly Hills. As a son of
an actor, his childhood and that of his two sisters
is remarkably normal. He does everything typical Boys of the
nighteth teen twenties, nineteen thirties New Nonetheless, he also, whenever possible,
accompanies his dad on location, shoots, and appears as a
child actor in two movies. For high school, his father
(03:14):
sends him off to Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana.
The school has rigorous academic standards and strict discipline. Holp
plays on the football and polo teams and is also
a member of the school's famed Black Horse Troop. When
later called upon to ride a horse in Westerns, Tim
(03:35):
Holt is in his element, Holt excels in the classroom. Also.
For most of his time at Culver Military Academy, Holt's
roommate is Hal Roach Junior, son of the famous Hollywood
producer Hal Roach. Holroach Junior was no slouch either. He's
captain of the academy's football team that goes undefeated. Another
(03:57):
school chum of Tim Holtz is Bud Bettecker, who will
later direct dozens of Westerns. Betaker said, Holt walks in
the evenings down the dormitory hall wearing a six gun
and holster and practices quick draw. Betaker said, Holt Wood exclaim,
I'm going to be a Western star someday. Holt graduates
(04:21):
from Culver Military Academy in nineteen thirty six with honors,
ranking fourteenth in a class of one hundred and fifteen.
He returns to Beverly Hills and roles at UCLA. However,
he soon drops out of college and joins the Westwood
Theater Guild to develop his acting skills. Holt's a natural
(04:44):
and gets his first credited movie role Instell of Dallas
in nineteen thirty seven, storring Barbara Stanwick. The movie is
both a critical and commercial success. Holt plays one of
the suitors of Stanwick's daughter, and he received good reviews.
In nineteen thirty eight, he appears in five movies, including
(05:07):
The Law West of Tombstone, in which he shares the
lead with Harry Carey. Nineteen thirty nine is another five
movie year for Tim Holt. In the Spirit of Culver,
he plays an officer in a story about the very
school he himself graduated from the Covert Military Academy. His
(05:29):
most memorable performance in nineteen thirty nine, though is impossibly
the greatest Western ever made. John Ford's Stagecoach Holt is
the young, handsome cavalry officer, Lieutenant Blanchard, who leads a
troop of cavalry accompanying the stagecoach for part of its journey.
(05:49):
Had a bit more than thirty one minutes into the movie,
there's a fork in the road. A stage coach takes
the right fork, which is the way to Lordsburg. Following orders,
the cavalry takes the left fork. Tim Holt halts his
horrors and watches the stagecoach as it rolls away. He
(06:10):
takes off his hat and, with a wide smile on
his face, vigorously waves his hat at the departing stagecoach.
Luise Platt, playing missus Mallory, the pregnant wife of one
of Holt's fellow cavalry officers, leans out a side window
in the stage, smiles, and waves her handkerchief back at hold.
(06:33):
The broad smile on Halt's face slowly fades as he
watches the stage move farther away, knowing it will soon
be beyond the cavalry's protection. Now with an expression of
concern on his face, Holt firmly pulls his hat back
down on his head and adjusts his holster as if
(06:54):
to say it's back to business, and rides off to
catch up with the cavalry troop. Fating at the same
time is the music that is the theme of the
stagecoach throughout the movie, the melody of will Bury Me
Not on the Lone Prairie. It's a scene that can
(07:15):
be watched over and over again. Another John four jem,
It's a Tim Holt gem as well. He plays his
part with subtlety and nuance. It's four movies for Tim
Holton in nineteen forty including starring roles and three of
the movies Laddie, the Fargo Kid and Wagon Train, and
(07:38):
a strong supporting role in Swiss Family Robinson. His production
increases to seven movies in nineteen forty one, six of
them as the lead in Westerns. Nineteen forty two is
Tim Holt's banner year. Not only does he star as
(07:58):
the lead in seven westerns, but his strong supporting role
in the highly acclaimed The Magnificent Ambersons shows off his
acting chops in an unlikely role as the spoiled son
of a wealthy family. Tim Holt certainly is the Western
action star he told Bud Betteker back at the Culver
(08:21):
Military Academy he would someday be. But he's also an
accomplished actor. By the end of nineteen forty two, Tim
Holt is still only twenty three years old, yet he's
one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, having appeared in
more than thirty movies. However, he's also an American patriot,
(08:43):
and after he appears in four movies in nineteen forty three,
he says goodbye to Hollywood and joins the Army Air
Forces As a graduate of the Culver Military Academy, it's
not surprising he excels an officers and has commissioned a
second lieutenant. He then goes to fight school. The dime
(09:05):
he finishes his training, the Army Air Forces is in
desperate need Obamadier's for its newest plane, the B twenty
nine super Fortress. Holt now goes through intensive training on
the Norden bomb site.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Western star Tim Holt and what a career he
had seven movies alone in nineteen forty one. By the
age of twenty three. He'd start in two classics, John
Ford's Stagecoach and Orson Wells's Magnificent Ambersom's and he dropped that,
(09:41):
left that behind, like so many stars and directors of
his day, to head off to America's armed forces. When
we come back, more of Tim Holt's story, more of
our Hollywood goes to War series. Here on our American stories,
(10:09):
and we continue with our American stories. After starring in
some of the greatest motion pictures of its day, tim
Holt said goodbye to Hollywood, joined the Army Air Forces
and became a bamadeer on their newest plane, the B
twenty nine super Fortress. Holt went through training on the
Norden bomb site, the same sighting mechanism used to aim
(10:30):
the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. Jordan's
production effort was on a similar scale to the Manhattan Project.
The overall cost was one point one billion dollars. Let's
return to McGrath and the story of Tim Holt.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The Nordon bomb site is said to be so accurate
that Abambaedeer again drop a bomb in a pickle barrel
from twenty thousand feet. The bombsite is a top secret
instrument is removed after each flight and kept under guard.
The NOORDAN consists of a telescopic site and a mechanical
(11:08):
calculator that computes bomb trajectory, accounting for the plane's speed
altitude in drift. Also, and importantly, the site is linked
to the plane's automatic pilot by what is called automatic
flight Control Equipment or AFCEE. As bombedeer operates the Nerdon
(11:30):
bomb site, he is through the AFCE flying the plane.
Holt impresses his superiors, who keep him stateside for several
months as an instructor, and then more months working with
both the Navy and the Marines on bombing tactics. In
April nineteen forty five, Holt, now a first lieutenant, is
(11:53):
off to the Pacific as a bombadier on a B
twenty nine in the sixty second bombard Squadron, part of
the thirty ninth Bombardment Group. By May, he's flying off
airstrips on Guam to bomb the Home Islands of Japan.
It's a three thousand mile round trip, and the B
(12:15):
twenty nines not only have to deal with Japanese fighters
over the Home Islands, but also with engine fires and
mechanical and electrical failures on the long flight. Altogether, the
Army Air Forces lose more than four hundred B twenty
nines in the long distant raids. Ault flies twenty two missions.
(12:38):
His first is against the Otaki oil refinery on Japan's
main island on Shoe. His last is against industrial sites
in the city of Isasaki, also on Hanshoe. On that
final flight, he drops his bombs early on the morning
of August fourteen, Japan surround Later that day, when the
(13:03):
surrender is announced, Holts B twenty nine, with almost six
feet of its left wing shot away and one hundred
and seventy five bullet holes in its fuselage, is limping
home to Guam. Holt and several other crew members are
nursing wounds. Late in the fall of nineteen forty five,
Holt returns home. His decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross,
(13:27):
the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal with three oak
leaf clusters. In January nineteen forty six, is released from
active service. Within a few months, tim Holt is back
to acting. When john Ford begins shooting My Darling Clementine
during the spring of nineteen forty six, Holt is hired
(13:49):
to play Virgil Irb in a dramatic and highly fictionalized
version of the urban Clanton feud in Tombstone, Arizona, culminating
in the shootout at the Ok Corral. Plain Wyatt Earp
in the lead role is Henry Fonda. Victor Mature plays
Doc Holliday, and Ward Bond is Morganer. Walter Brennan plays
(14:14):
old Man Clainton. A big budget western, My Darling Clementine,
is both a box office and critical success. In nineteen
forty seven, Tim Holt stars in three B westerns. Towards
the end of the year, he begins to work on
a movie that will be released in January nineteen forty eight,
(14:37):
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Holt plays Humphrey Bogart's
mining partner in the Tale of Gold, Greed and Treachery
in the Mountains of Mexico.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Not for a moment, did I haven't tend to rob
you do you any harm?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Just like I said, I'd fight for you and yours.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's the same as I'd fight for the old mans.
It really may not give me back my gun, my pal.
It's going to be better the way things are to
separate tomorrow or even tonight. I would suit you, fine,
wouldn't it? Why me more than you say? You could
fall on me from behind, sneak up and shoot me
in the back. All right, I'll go first and wait
(15:20):
for me on the trail, ambush me. Why wouldn't I
do it right here now? If I meant to kill you,
I'll tell you why, because you're yeller. You haven't got
nerve enough to pull the trigger while I'm looking here
straight in the eye. If you think like that, there's
nothing to do with to tie you up every night.
I'll tell you what. I'll make you a little bet.
Three times thirty five is one hundred and five. I'll
bet you one hundred and five thousand dollars you go
(15:41):
to sleep before I do.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
The movie will be nominated for Best Picture and John
Houston will win Oscars for Best Director in Best Writing.
Walter Houston will be awarded an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The movie is a hit in every way and remains
one of the top movies ever made. Holt stars in
(16:09):
five B Westerns in nineteen forty eight and another five
in nineteen forty nine, nineteen fifty through nineteen fifty two
would be more of the same, although he has a
strong supporting role in nineteen fifty one in His Kind
of a Woman, a big budget film starring Robert Mitchum
(16:30):
and Jane Russell. After nineteen fifty two, Tim Holt appears
in only three more movies. One is The Monster That
Challenged the World, a science fiction yard about a deadly
creature from the sea invading waterways in California. Holt stars
as a Navy officer who is tasked with tracking now
(16:52):
in the Monster. By the early nineteen fifties, tim Holt
simply stops caring much about Hollywood. In the late nineteen forties,
he had bought a ranch in Oklahoma, near the town
of Hera. He escapes to his ranch as often as
he can. In nineteen fifty two, he marries his third wife,
(17:13):
and by the next year the two of them are
living on the ranch full time. They will have three
children together. Holt also has one child from his first marriage.
Holt is now living the life he dreamed of for
years while working in Hollywood. He rides in rodeos, becomes
(17:36):
the general manager of a country in Western music station,
and buys an interest in a traveling rodeo show. After
twenty years what he considers an idyllic life, is struck
by cancer and dies. In nineteen seventy three, the Governor
of Oklahoma declares a Tim Holt Day in the town
(17:58):
of Hera names one one of its roads, tim Holt Drive.
Although Tim Holt had strong supporting roles and occasionally starring
roles and movies that were not Westerns, He's best remembered
as a Western hero. However, that was all play acting.
In real life, he was a real hero, flying twenty
(18:21):
two missions over Japan, facing heavy anti aircraft fire and
swarms of Japanese fighters, and coming home with the Distinguished
Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and four Air Medals.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Had a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath who was a frequent contributor here on our
American Stories. And what a story he told about actor
Tim Holt. And the greatest part of his life was
the real life part he played helping commandeer and bomb
(18:59):
into mission of the Japanese war Machine, four Air Medals,
a Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart, and of course
his movie parts, the most memorable, hands down, his Work
and Treasure of the Sierra Madre playing Humphrey Bogart's mining partner.
(19:19):
The story of Tim Holt, the Western star part and
the war hero part. Here on our American stories.
And we continue with our American Stories. In a career
spanning more than four decades and appearing in one hundred
and forty nine movies, Western star Tim Holt could be
seen on the big screen in films such as Stagecoach,
My Darling, Clementine, and Swiss Family Robinson. Here to tell
another Hollywood goes to War's story is Roger McGrath. McGrath
(00:33):
is the author of Gunfighters, High Women and Vigilantes, Violence
on the Frontier, a US marine and former history professor
at UCLA, Doctor McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel
documentaries and is a regular contributor here at Our American Stories,
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
One of the most handsome and recognizable faces from the movies,
especially westerns of the late nineteen thirties through the early
nineteen fifties, was Tim Holt. He appeared more than seventy movies,
several of them considered classics, including Stagecoach in nineteen thirty nine,
Swiss Family Robinson in nineteen forty, The Magnificent Ambersons in
(01:17):
nineteen forty two, My Darling Clementine in nineteen forty six,
and The Treasurer of the Sierra Madre in nineteen forty eight.
Audiences loved him in his supporting roles in these major productions,
but also in his leading man roles in dozens of
B westerns. What has generally forgotten about Tim Holt was
(01:41):
his World War II service as a B twenty nine Bamadeer,
for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the
Purple Heart, and four Air medals. Tim hold is born
Charles John Holt the Third in nineteen nineteen in Hills, California.
(02:01):
His father, known as Jack Holt, is a leading man
in silent films when Tim is born. Gifted with a
strong voice, Jack has no problem making the transition to talkies.
All the other he appears in some eighty silence and
then another eighty talkies, making him one of the most
prolific actors in the history of Hollywood. Tim Holt's mother
(02:26):
is the former Margaret Woods, the daughter of business tycoon.
Her father is so upset with her marrying an actor
that he disowns her. He later relents, well he should have,
because Jack and Margaret Holt stay married for thirty five
years until Jack dies of a heart attack. Although Tim
(02:50):
Holt grows up in Beverly Hills. As a son of
an actor, his childhood and that of his two sisters
is remarkably normal. He does everything typical Boys of the
nighteth teen twenties, nineteen thirties New Nonetheless, he also, whenever possible,
accompanies his dad on location, shoots, and appears as a
child actor in two movies. For high school, his father
(03:14):
sends him off to Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana.
The school has rigorous academic standards and strict discipline. Holp
plays on the football and polo teams and is also
a member of the school's famed Black Horse Troop. When
later called upon to ride a horse in Westerns, Tim
(03:35):
Holt is in his element, Holt excels in the classroom. Also.
For most of his time at Culver Military Academy, Holt's
roommate is Hal Roach Junior, son of the famous Hollywood
producer Hal Roach. Holroach Junior was no slouch either. He's
captain of the academy's football team that goes undefeated. Another
(03:57):
school chum of Tim Holtz is Bud Bettecker, who will
later direct dozens of Westerns. Betaker said, Holt walks in
the evenings down the dormitory hall wearing a six gun
and holster and practices quick draw. Betaker said, Holt Wood exclaim,
I'm going to be a Western star someday. Holt graduates
(04:21):
from Culver Military Academy in nineteen thirty six with honors,
ranking fourteenth in a class of one hundred and fifteen.
He returns to Beverly Hills and roles at UCLA. However,
he soon drops out of college and joins the Westwood
Theater Guild to develop his acting skills. Holt's a natural
(04:44):
and gets his first credited movie role Instell of Dallas
in nineteen thirty seven, storring Barbara Stanwick. The movie is
both a critical and commercial success. Holt plays one of
the suitors of Stanwick's daughter, and he received good reviews.
In nineteen thirty eight, he appears in five movies, including
(05:07):
The Law West of Tombstone, in which he shares the
lead with Harry Carey. Nineteen thirty nine is another five
movie year for Tim Holt. In the Spirit of Culver,
he plays an officer in a story about the very
school he himself graduated from the Covert Military Academy. His
(05:29):
most memorable performance in nineteen thirty nine, though is impossibly
the greatest Western ever made. John Ford's Stagecoach Holt is
the young, handsome cavalry officer, Lieutenant Blanchard, who leads a
troop of cavalry accompanying the stagecoach for part of its journey.
(05:49):
Had a bit more than thirty one minutes into the movie,
there's a fork in the road. A stage coach takes
the right fork, which is the way to Lordsburg. Following orders,
the cavalry takes the left fork. Tim Holt halts his
horrors and watches the stagecoach as it rolls away. He
(06:10):
takes off his hat and, with a wide smile on
his face, vigorously waves his hat at the departing stagecoach.
Luise Platt, playing missus Mallory, the pregnant wife of one
of Holt's fellow cavalry officers, leans out a side window
in the stage, smiles, and waves her handkerchief back at hold.
(06:33):
The broad smile on Halt's face slowly fades as he
watches the stage move farther away, knowing it will soon
be beyond the cavalry's protection. Now with an expression of
concern on his face, Holt firmly pulls his hat back
down on his head and adjusts his holster as if
(06:54):
to say it's back to business, and rides off to
catch up with the cavalry troop. Fating at the same
time is the music that is the theme of the
stagecoach throughout the movie, the melody of will Bury Me
Not on the Lone Prairie. It's a scene that can
(07:15):
be watched over and over again. Another John four jem,
It's a Tim Holt gem as well. He plays his
part with subtlety and nuance. It's four movies for Tim
Holton in nineteen forty including starring roles and three of
the movies Laddie, the Fargo Kid and Wagon Train, and
(07:38):
a strong supporting role in Swiss Family Robinson. His production
increases to seven movies in nineteen forty one, six of
them as the lead in Westerns. Nineteen forty two is
Tim Holt's banner year. Not only does he star as
(07:58):
the lead in seven westerns, but his strong supporting role
in the highly acclaimed The Magnificent Ambersons shows off his
acting chops in an unlikely role as the spoiled son
of a wealthy family. Tim Holt certainly is the Western
action star he told Bud Betteker back at the Culver
(08:21):
Military Academy he would someday be. But he's also an
accomplished actor. By the end of nineteen forty two, Tim
Holt is still only twenty three years old, yet he's
one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, having appeared in
more than thirty movies. However, he's also an American patriot,
(08:43):
and after he appears in four movies in nineteen forty three,
he says goodbye to Hollywood and joins the Army Air
Forces As a graduate of the Culver Military Academy, it's
not surprising he excels an officers and has commissioned a
second lieutenant. He then goes to fight school. The dime
(09:05):
he finishes his training, the Army Air Forces is in
desperate need Obamadier's for its newest plane, the B twenty
nine super Fortress. Holt now goes through intensive training on
the Norden bomb site.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of Western star Tim Holt and what a career he
had seven movies alone in nineteen forty one. By the
age of twenty three. He'd start in two classics, John
Ford's Stagecoach and Orson Wells's Magnificent Ambersom's and he dropped that,
(09:41):
left that behind, like so many stars and directors of
his day, to head off to America's armed forces. When
we come back, more of Tim Holt's story, more of
our Hollywood goes to War series. Here on our American stories,
(10:09):
and we continue with our American stories. After starring in
some of the greatest motion pictures of its day, tim
Holt said goodbye to Hollywood, joined the Army Air Forces
and became a bamadeer on their newest plane, the B
twenty nine super Fortress. Holt went through training on the
Norden bomb site, the same sighting mechanism used to aim
(10:30):
the two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan. Jordan's
production effort was on a similar scale to the Manhattan Project.
The overall cost was one point one billion dollars. Let's
return to McGrath and the story of Tim Holt.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The Nordon bomb site is said to be so accurate
that Abambaedeer again drop a bomb in a pickle barrel
from twenty thousand feet. The bombsite is a top secret
instrument is removed after each flight and kept under guard.
The NOORDAN consists of a telescopic site and a mechanical
(11:08):
calculator that computes bomb trajectory, accounting for the plane's speed
altitude in drift. Also, and importantly, the site is linked
to the plane's automatic pilot by what is called automatic
flight Control Equipment or AFCEE. As bombedeer operates the Nerdon
(11:30):
bomb site, he is through the AFCE flying the plane.
Holt impresses his superiors, who keep him stateside for several
months as an instructor, and then more months working with
both the Navy and the Marines on bombing tactics. In
April nineteen forty five, Holt, now a first lieutenant, is
(11:53):
off to the Pacific as a bombadier on a B
twenty nine in the sixty second bombard Squadron, part of
the thirty ninth Bombardment Group. By May, he's flying off
airstrips on Guam to bomb the Home Islands of Japan.
It's a three thousand mile round trip, and the B
(12:15):
twenty nines not only have to deal with Japanese fighters
over the Home Islands, but also with engine fires and
mechanical and electrical failures on the long flight. Altogether, the
Army Air Forces lose more than four hundred B twenty
nines in the long distant raids. Ault flies twenty two missions.
(12:38):
His first is against the Otaki oil refinery on Japan's
main island on Shoe. His last is against industrial sites
in the city of Isasaki, also on Hanshoe. On that
final flight, he drops his bombs early on the morning
of August fourteen, Japan surround Later that day, when the
(13:03):
surrender is announced, Holts B twenty nine, with almost six
feet of its left wing shot away and one hundred
and seventy five bullet holes in its fuselage, is limping
home to Guam. Holt and several other crew members are
nursing wounds. Late in the fall of nineteen forty five,
Holt returns home. His decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross,
(13:27):
the Purple Heart, and the Air Medal with three oak
leaf clusters. In January nineteen forty six, is released from
active service. Within a few months, tim Holt is back
to acting. When john Ford begins shooting My Darling Clementine
during the spring of nineteen forty six, Holt is hired
(13:49):
to play Virgil Irb in a dramatic and highly fictionalized
version of the urban Clanton feud in Tombstone, Arizona, culminating
in the shootout at the Ok Corral. Plain Wyatt Earp
in the lead role is Henry Fonda. Victor Mature plays
Doc Holliday, and Ward Bond is Morganer. Walter Brennan plays
(14:14):
old Man Clainton. A big budget western, My Darling Clementine,
is both a box office and critical success. In nineteen
forty seven, Tim Holt stars in three B westerns. Towards
the end of the year, he begins to work on
a movie that will be released in January nineteen forty eight,
(14:37):
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Holt plays Humphrey Bogart's
mining partner in the Tale of Gold, Greed and Treachery
in the Mountains of Mexico.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Not for a moment, did I haven't tend to rob
you do you any harm?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Just like I said, I'd fight for you and yours.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's the same as I'd fight for the old mans.
It really may not give me back my gun, my pal.
It's going to be better the way things are to
separate tomorrow or even tonight. I would suit you, fine,
wouldn't it? Why me more than you say? You could
fall on me from behind, sneak up and shoot me
in the back. All right, I'll go first and wait
(15:20):
for me on the trail, ambush me. Why wouldn't I
do it right here now? If I meant to kill you,
I'll tell you why, because you're yeller. You haven't got
nerve enough to pull the trigger while I'm looking here
straight in the eye. If you think like that, there's
nothing to do with to tie you up every night.
I'll tell you what. I'll make you a little bet.
Three times thirty five is one hundred and five. I'll
bet you one hundred and five thousand dollars you go
(15:41):
to sleep before I do.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
The movie will be nominated for Best Picture and John
Houston will win Oscars for Best Director in Best Writing.
Walter Houston will be awarded an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The movie is a hit in every way and remains
one of the top movies ever made. Holt stars in
(16:09):
five B Westerns in nineteen forty eight and another five
in nineteen forty nine, nineteen fifty through nineteen fifty two
would be more of the same, although he has a
strong supporting role in nineteen fifty one in His Kind
of a Woman, a big budget film starring Robert Mitchum
(16:30):
and Jane Russell. After nineteen fifty two, Tim Holt appears
in only three more movies. One is The Monster That
Challenged the World, a science fiction yard about a deadly
creature from the sea invading waterways in California. Holt stars
as a Navy officer who is tasked with tracking now
(16:52):
in the Monster. By the early nineteen fifties, tim Holt
simply stops caring much about Hollywood. In the late nineteen forties,
he had bought a ranch in Oklahoma, near the town
of Hera. He escapes to his ranch as often as
he can. In nineteen fifty two, he marries his third wife,
(17:13):
and by the next year the two of them are
living on the ranch full time. They will have three
children together. Holt also has one child from his first marriage.
Holt is now living the life he dreamed of for
years while working in Hollywood. He rides in rodeos, becomes
(17:36):
the general manager of a country in Western music station,
and buys an interest in a traveling rodeo show. After
twenty years what he considers an idyllic life, is struck
by cancer and dies. In nineteen seventy three, the Governor
of Oklahoma declares a Tim Holt Day in the town
(17:58):
of Hera names one one of its roads, tim Holt Drive.
Although Tim Holt had strong supporting roles and occasionally starring
roles and movies that were not Westerns, He's best remembered
as a Western hero. However, that was all play acting.
In real life, he was a real hero, flying twenty
(18:21):
two missions over Japan, facing heavy anti aircraft fire and
swarms of Japanese fighters, and coming home with the Distinguished
Flying Cross, the Purple Heart and four Air Medals.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Had a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath who was a frequent contributor here on our
American Stories. And what a story he told about actor
Tim Holt. And the greatest part of his life was
the real life part he played helping commandeer and bomb
(18:59):
into mission of the Japanese war Machine, four Air Medals,
a Distinguished Flying Cross and Purple Heart, and of course
his movie parts, the most memorable, hands down, his Work
and Treasure of the Sierra Madre playing Humphrey Bogart's mining partner.
(19:19):
The story of Tim Holt, the Western star part and
the war hero part. Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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