Tyrone Power: Hollywood Goes to War

On this episode of Our American Stories, We’ve heard the stories of Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart. Today McGrath will be treating us to the story of Hollywood legend, Tyrone Power.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And now it's
time for another of Roger McGrath's Hollywood Goes to War stories.
Here's McGrath with the story of Torone Power. The great
heart throb for female movie goers in the late nineteen
thirties and early nineteen forties was Torone Power. He was young,

(00:32):
strikingly handsome, and casting rolls designed to make the women swoon,
whether it was as the male lead in Thin Ice,
Cafe Metropole, Second Honeymoon in Old Chicago, Marie Antoinette Jesse James,
a Yank in the raf The Mark of Zoro or

(00:53):
Blood and Sand. Power was a dashing and romantic character
second to none. He came from a long line of actors,
beginning with his Irish great grandfather of the same name,
Torone Power, who is one of the most famous stage
actors of Ireland, England, and the United States during the
eighteen twenties and thirties. There were several other actors besides

(01:18):
his great grandfather, not only in his paternal line, but
also on his maternal side. Perhaps there was Torone Power's
genetic destiny to become an actor before he died at
the young age of forty four. Power appeared in numerous
plays and in fifty two movies. Torone. Edmund Power is

(01:42):
born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in May nineteen fourteen. He is
Irish and English on his father's side, and French and
German on his mother's. Both his parents are actors. His
tall and ruggedly handsome father is famous for his work
on the stage and his tours of the United States, Britain,

(02:02):
and Australia. Shortly after Power is born, the family settles
in Los Angeles, and the father begins his career in
silent films, eventually appearing in forty one silence in one
talkie The Big Trail starring John Wayne in nineteen thirty.
Blessed with a deep and resonant voice, it's likely the

(02:24):
father would have continued to make movies in the sound era,
but he dies of a heart attack in nineteen thirty one,
a year and a half after a tyrone Power is born,
his sister Anne is born. The parents feel blessed and
the family is a tight knit unit. However, the father
is often away from home, not only making movies but

(02:47):
appearing on stage in New York. The long absences finally
prove too much and the parents divorce in nineteen twenty.
In nineteen twenty one, seven year old Torone appears on
stage in a play along with his mother. He's a new,
oable child and at home on the stage, but no

(03:08):
one is thinking that fifteen years hence he will be
one of Hollywood's leading men. In nineteen twenty three, with
Torone and Anne and Tow, the mother moves back to
Cincinnati to be close to her parents. She becomes a
drama and voice coach at the prominent Schuster Martin School
of Drama. At home, she coaches Torone in voice in dramatics.

(03:33):
Both Toron and Anne go to Catholic parochial schools. After
grammar school, Torone is sent to a Catholic preparatory school
operated by the University of Dayton on its campus and
staffed by the brothers of Mary and Marianus Priests. The
school is commonly referred to as Dayton Prep. It's more

(03:54):
than fifty miles from home, and he boards there. After
a year, he decides he wants to live back at home,
both the spear of the family, the expense of Dayton Prepp,
and to be able to work part time as an
usher at a movie theater close to his family home
in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, dur Own Power

(04:17):
enrolls in Purcell High School in the East Walnut Hills.
Like Dayton Prepp, Purcell is marianist. Bower thrives academically and athletically,
stars in plays, and works part time as an usher.
Working as an usher enables him to watch movies for free.

(04:38):
Seeing each film that comes to the theater several times,
he begins writing reviews in a notebook, analyzing plot structures
and critiquing actors. He's educating himself and getting paid at
the same time. Bower graduates from Purcell High School just
after turning seventeen in nineteen thirty one. His description in

(05:02):
the school's yearbook reads, Tie came to Pursille from Dayton
Prep and in a short time became a favorite with
the students and teachers alike. Tie is a good student,
but his acting makes him the logical successor of John Barrymore.
The summer following graduation, Power joins his father and watches

(05:25):
him at work on the stage and on sets for
a movie. Power drives to absorb everything and opos that
his father will open doors for him. However, his father
suddenly becomes ill while on the set of a movie shoot.
He has to excuse himself. That night, at home with
his son, he has a massive heart attack. Seventeen year
old Tie is holding him in his arms when the

(05:47):
older Power dies their own. Power stays in Hollywood, but
nineteen thirty two gets only a bit part in one
movie and a walk on in another. He decides the
best way into Hollywoo is through the stage in New York.
His acting and plays in New York causes movie scouts
to invite him to California for screen tests. He's back

(06:10):
in Hollywood by nineteen thirty six and looks and sounds
good in his tests. He's signed to a contract by
twentieth Century Fox and has small roles in two movies.
Everyone likes what they see. The prominent director, Henry King
is particularly impressed with Power and wants him for the
male lead in his next movie, Lloyd's of London. Darryl Zanik,

(06:34):
head of production at Fox, is worried about Power in
a lead role with so little experience. Zanek need not
have worried. Both the movie and Power are hits. It's
said Tyrone. Power walked into the movie and Unknown and
walked out a star in nineteen thirty seven. Power stars

(06:55):
in five films for Fox, four in nineteen thirty eight,
five in nineteen thirty nine, and then nine more from
nineteen forty to nineteen forty three. Two of the movies
he stars in are nominated for Best Picture. By nineteen
thirty nine, he is the number two box office straw
in movies, and by nineteen forty two number one. He's

(07:19):
making two or three million dollars a year in today's money.
He's the star of twentieth century Fox. His leading ladies
include Loretta Young, Myrna Lloyd, Dorothy Lamore, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grabell,
Jean Tyranny, and Marine O'Hara. On a movie set in

(07:39):
nineteen thirty eight, Power meets Suzanne Sharpontier, a blonde French
beauty who goes by the stage name Annabella. They fall
madly in love and are married. In nineteen thirty nine.
Power has it all a beautiful and talented wife, money
and fame, But in Law nineteen forty two, the twenty

(08:02):
eight year old her own Power joins the Marines, finishing
the war movie crash Dive to Lay's boot camp form
until January nineteen forty three. Power says he wanted to
join quote right after the Japs bomb Pearl Harbor, but
movie contracts interfered. It's while making crash Dive that he

(08:23):
decides on the Marines. Quote. I kept stacking them up,
the different fellows in uniform, and it seemed to me
that of those I met, the finest type of men
were in the Marines. In boot camp at San Diego,
Powers challenged to a fight by another recruit. So you're
the big movie star, the recruit proclaims, No, I'm just

(08:47):
a private like you, says Power. Then the guy takes
a swing at Power. Bob Workman, who went through boot
camp with Power, said Power decked the guy with a
quick combination. Power's strong and fast in could box And
you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Torone Power, and what a story it is number one

(09:09):
in the box office in nineteen forty two. And what
does he do? He joins the Marines. When we come
back more of McGrath and the story of Torone Power.
This is our American stories, and we continue with our

(09:40):
American stories and Roger McGrath telling the story of Torone Power.
When we last left off, Power had joined the Marines,
and he had been number one in the box office
in nineteen forty two, but at the age of twenty
eight there he was at boot camp in January of
nineteen forty three. Let's continue with McGrath. A drill instructor

(10:03):
made a similar mistake, said Workman, when he made a
crack about Annabella Power's wife. Power told the di I,
you may say anything you like about me and all
take it, but my wife is off limits. When the
di I persisted, Power decked him. To the dei's critic,

(10:24):
he did not mention the incident. The DII may have
felt he had gone too far, and he knew that
several recruits had heard his profane remarks about Power's wife. Workman,
who was later badly wounded on Tarawa, said Power quickly
proved himself to be one of the guys. The famous

(10:44):
actor is soon serving as right guide of the platoon
in calling cadence. Like a seasoned d I, Power shoots
expert on the rifle range, finishing with the highest score
of any recruit in boot camp. His presentative certificate by
the Colonel of the Recruit Training Battalion for his efforts.

(11:04):
Power also excels in all written in physical tests. He
graduates as Platoon honor Man, having earned superior readings and
training and already a licensed pilot when he entered the Corps.
Power is sent to OCS at Quantico after boot camp.
His commissioned a second lieutenant in June nineteen forty three,

(11:26):
but then has held at Quantico while waiting to get
into flight training. Having just completed both boot camp and OCS.
The Corps now uses Power to help train officer candidates
Champion at the BIT. Power is finally sent to an
accelerated flight training course at Corporate Secrisity, Texas in September.

(11:48):
By mid April nineteen forty four, he passes his final
check ride and earns his wings. He's also promoted to
first Lieutenant. Lieutenant. Powers then off to a Naval Air
Station Atlanta, Georgia for an Advanced Instrument flight course. Bower's
instructor there is Lieutenant Jerry Taylor, who said I instructed

(12:14):
her own Power a very popular movie idol at the time.
He was an excellent student, never forgot a procedure. I
showed him or anything I told him. After completing the
two month course, Bower is ordered to the Marine Corps
Air Station at Cherry Point, North Carolina, where he's assigned

(12:34):
to a Transport Squadron VMR three fifty two. He wanted fighters,
but he's now thirty years old and the Corps thinks
he's too old for dog fights. Bower gets type rated
in the R five C Curtis Commando, known more commonly
by its Army designation C forty six. It's a twin

(12:59):
engine cargo and troop paular. It's the largest and heaviest
twin engine plane to World War Two. It becomes famous
for flying the Hump from India over the mountains to China.
Its twin Pratt and Whitney engines developed two thousand horsepower each,
enabling the plane to cruise at one hundred and seventy

(13:21):
five miles per hour and to hit a maximum speed
of two seventy It can haul forty troops or thirty
wounded men on stretchers, or fifteen thousand pounds a cargo.
After logging three hundred and forty hours of flying time
at Cherry Point, Powers ordered to Marine Corps Air Station

(13:43):
at El Centro, California for staging for the war in
the Pacific. Is now a member of a new transport squadron,
VMR three fifty three. Early in nineteen forty five, he
flies with a squadron for the al Centro to Hawaii
to Quaduland, which has been rested from the Japanese a

(14:06):
year earlier. For several days, the pilots and the cruise
rest while the planes are serviced. Lieutenant Power and a
squadron then fly to Saipan and the Marianas, which i've
been taken from the Japanese six months earlier. A major
airfield was constructed so B twenty ninons could use it
as a base for bombing missions to Japan. This was

(14:29):
a round tripped flight of twenty nine hundred miles, and
many a crippled B twenty nine didn't make it back
to Saipan. US strategists think an island halfway between Saipan
and Japan would be perfect for emergency landings of B
twenty nines. The island is Iwo Jima, a small volcanic

(14:50):
island with Mount Suribachi at its southern end. However, the
Japanese already thought it would be perfect also for defense
of Japan's home islands. They built three dirt air strips
on the island and packed twenty one thousand cracked troops
into tunnels and caves to defend the outpost. On February nineteenth,

(15:14):
nineteen forty five, Marines land on volcanic sand beaches at
the southeastern end of the island, in the shadow of Suribachi.
The Marines take horrific casualties the day they land in
every day afterwards for six weeks, hospital ships offshore are

(15:35):
overwhelmed by the number of wounded Marines. As soon as
the Marines take one of Ewu's air fields, VMR three
fifty three goes into action to ron Power is one
of the first from a squadron to land on the strip.
Supplies from his plane are off loaded, and two dozen

(15:56):
stretchers with wounded Marines are onloaded or flight to a
naval hospital on Guam, one hundred and thirty miles south
of Saipan in the Marianas. Nearly every time Power lands
or takes off on Ewo, he's under fire, occasionally heavy fire.
Many days he's in the air for ten hours. On

(16:18):
March twenty sixth the Marines declare Iwo Jima secured. Lieutenant
Power doesn't have much time to rest because on April first,
the Marines in the Army invade Okinawa. Early in the campaign,
two Japanese airfields are taken, and VMR three fifty three
is back in action, faring in supplies and evacuating wounded.

(16:43):
Again and again. Power in his plane are under fire.
The Japanese use a new tactic, suicide squads with bomb
packs who run under the air strips to blow up
planes in themselves. One of the planes in Power Squadron
falls victim to the suicide bombers. The battle for Okinawa

(17:06):
continues until June twenty second, and its brutal, in bloody
to the very end. No one knows it, but Okinawa
will be the last battle. Power spends July carrying in
supplies to staging areas for the coming invasion of Japan itself.

(17:27):
He's relieved when the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima Nagasaki
in August caused the Japanese to do the unthinkable surrender.
Japan announces her surrender on August fifteenth, and the articles
of surrender are formally signed aboard the battleship Missouri on

(17:48):
September second. Shortly afterwards, Power flies into Japan in lands
on the airfield outside of Tokyo eat another pilot are
able to drive a chief about the countryside and into Yokohama.
He writes home to Annabella, we had a most wonderful
sea around the countryside and got a little more the

(18:11):
feeling of the people. If there is one thing of
which I am sure in this world, it is that
they hate us. You can feel it in the air,
you can see it on their faces when they pass
you on the street. They don't do anything outwardly, but
you can sense that it is deep down inside. If

(18:31):
you meet their gaze, they turn their eyes away. Just
little things like that, but if you see enough of them,
it all adds up to the big fact that they
hate us. After what he saw an eogim in Okinawa
and now a he seas in Japan, Power is thankful
America doesn't have to fight the Japanese on their home islands.

(18:56):
Late in November nineteen five, Power returned to the United States.
He's logged eleven hundred hours, has pilot in command, and
has been decorated with two Bronze stars. He's separated from
active duty in January nineteen forty six, but remains in
the reserves. He's promoted to captain in nineteen fifty one

(19:20):
and the major in nineteen fifty seven. Power stars in
twenty one movies after his return from the Pacific, before
he dies of a heart attack in nineteen fifty eight.
He's buried with full military honors, conducted by a Marine
honor Guard. Lawrence Olivier recites the poem high Flight and

(19:45):
a plane Flies overhead Tyrone. Power was one of the
greatest of movie stars, but he also was a marine,
and great job on that piece, as always to Greg
Hengler and especial thanks to Roger McGrath. Very is remarkable

(20:07):
and consistently good work. The story of Torone Power here
on our American Stories