September 1, 2026 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Ford was at the top of Hollywood. The director of Stagecoach, The Grapes of Wrath, and How Green Was My Valley had money, fame, power, and back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Director. Then, at forty-seven, he walked away from Hollywood and went on active duty with the U.S. Navy.
For our Hollywood Goes to War series, historian and Wild West expert Roger McGrath shares why Ford decided to take his cameras into the thick of World War II, filming under fire at Midway, parachuting behind enemy lines in Burma, and going ashore with American troops at Normandy.
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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, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier,
a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Dr.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a
regular contributor for us here at Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
John Ford was arguably Hollywood's greatest director. When the brilliant
Orson Welles was asked to name his three favorite directors,
he replied... The Old Masters, by which I mean John Ford,
John Ford, and John Ford. John Ford directed 140 movies
and documentaries. He won the Academy Award for Best Director
(01:13):
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 for one of them. John Martin
Feeney He was born in 1894 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
(01:34):
a small town near Portland. His father is John Augustine Feeney,
a large and powerful man known for his feats of
strength and spellbinding storytelling, who had immigrated to America from Spittle,
a small town on the coast of Galway Bay in Ireland.
His mother is a former Barbara Curran, also an Irish immigrant,
(01:56):
who had come from the town of Kilronan on Inishmore
the largest of the Aran 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, is called Johnny by his family. He's one
of 11 children, but five die as infants. He spends
(02:21):
his first several years in Cape Elizabeth, and then the
family moves to Munjoy Hill, a mostly Irish neighborhood in Portland.
His father works at various times as a farmer, fisherman,
and saloon keeper. By the time Johnny Feeney is attending
Portland High School, he's known as Jack. He excels in sports,
(02:43):
especially football and track. He's a tall, strapping youth, something
over 6 feet and 180 pounds. He stars as a
fullback on the varsity football team and earns the nickname
Bo Feeney. In his senior year, the team wins a
state championship. He's also the school's top sprinter. After winning
(03:04):
a sprint against a rival school, Portland High's newspaper said,
Feeney's form in the getaway and running was perfect and
his speed terrific. Jack Feeney is also a voracious reader.
Partly helped by a year he spent out of school
mostly in bed fighting diphtheria and clinging to life. An
(03:26):
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 in his hand, Shakespeare or something. He'd fight
(03:48):
at the drop of a hat, but he had a
great mind and a great sense of humor. Some would
tell him a funny story, and the next day he'd
retell it, adding all kinds of new touches to it.
Feeney's performance in his classes varies from poor to excellent,
depending on whether he likes the teacher and the material.
(04:10):
Even when he applies himself, Feeney 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
works at a theater, which helps pique his interest in movies.
Jack Feeney especially likes westerns, produced by Thomas Ince for
(04:31):
Bison Studios at a location Ince developed at what would
become the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset
Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. When Ince arrives there in 1911,
the area could pass for the Old West. Soon, the
collection of movie sets he builds there is known as Inceville.
(04:55):
Many of the westerns shot at Innsville are directed by
Francis Ford, the second oldest of the Feeney Boys. Francis
had dropped out of Portland High School in 1898 to
fight in the Spanish-American War. He later becomes an actor
on the stage in New York with the surname Ford.
(05:16):
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 not only
acting in Thomas Ince's films, but also directing them. Movie
(05:39):
historians generally credit Francis Ford with greatly increasing the quality
of the films produced by Ince, although Ince himself often
takes director credits for films directed by Francis Ford. Back
in Portland, Maine, Jack Feeney is watching Inces movies, which
(05:59):
often star his brother. When Jack graduates from high school
in 1914, 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 for Universal Studios,
80 of them from 1913 through 1916. A month after
(06:19):
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, who is now billed as
(06:41):
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. This is
(07:31):
Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And all
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
If you can't get to.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and
terrific online courses.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Go to hillsdale.edu. That's hillsdale.edu. And we continue with.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Our American Stories and with Roger McGrath, who's telling the
story of the great John Ford.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He appears in another 15 movies before he begins directing
them himself in 1917.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
He directs 12 movies.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
In 1917, three of them starring himself and a half
dozen starring Harry Carey, who Ford helps establish as one
of the leading actors in Westerns. Carey's wife, Olive, described
what the 23-year-old Jack Ford was like in 1917. He
(08:50):
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 Three Mounted
(09:13):
Men in 1918, 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 the
(09:33):
way of artistically chosen locations. In 1920, Ford marries Mary
McBride Smith and buys a house on four acres of
land in the Hollywood Hills.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
In 1921, they.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
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 County Galway for the first
time since he was a child when he went with
his father. Ford's trip is paid for by his new employer,
Fox Studios. In 1921, Ireland's war for independence is still raging,
(10:16):
and a special unit of British soldiers is known as
the Black and Tans, are on patrols throughout Galway. Ford's
Feeney relatives are without houses, which the British have burned down.
The Fighting Age Feeney men are volunteers in the IRA,
the Irish Republican Army, and are hiding in the Connemara
(10:36):
Mountains between missions. Their cousins, the Thornton boys, who have
also had their homes.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Burned down, are with them. It's not by accident.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
That that in John Ford's blockbuster 1952 film, The Quiet Man,
John Wayne's character is Sean Thornton. Avoiding the black and tans,
Ford meets with his cousin, Martin Feeney, a member of the.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
IRA's East Connemara Brigade. Ford hands him a bundle of
cash for the IRA.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Possibly $ 60, 000 or more in today's money. Shortly afterwards, the
Black and Tans catch up with Ford and take him
into custody. Ford is interrogated and roughed up, but he
reveals nothing. After only four days in Ireland, Ford is
forced onto a ship and told never to return. Once
(11:30):
back in California, Ford continues his non-stop movie-making, cranking out
23 movies from 1922 through 1928.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
His best movie of the era is The Iron Horse,
starring George O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
It's the story of the building of the first transcontinental
railroad and a shot on location in Nevada. There's a
cast of thousands. Bad weather causes the shoot to fall
far behind schedule and to run well over budget. Fox
Studios threatens to shut down production. Ford hangs tough. and
(12:08):
finishes the movie at a cost of $ 280, 000, a fantastic
sum for a movie in 1924.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
But the movie makes more than $ 2.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Million, an even more fantastic sum. Halfway through 1928, Ford
makes his first talkie, and his transition to talkies is seamless.
His 1931 movie, Aerosmith, is a blockbuster and receives four
Academy Award nominations. Ford wins the Academy Award for Best
(12:43):
Director for his 1935 movie, The Informer, and the movie
is nominated for Best Picture. In 1939, Ford produces and
directs the movie Stagecoach, which is nominated for Best Picture,
and he is 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 and
into feature films. Ford wins the Academy Award for Best
(13:26):
Director for his 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath. He
wins Best Director again for his 1941 film, How Green
Was My Valley, and the movie wins Best Picture. John
Ford is at the top of his game and at the.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Top of Hollywood. He has money, fame, and power. He's
47 years old. So what does he do?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
He quits Hollywood and goes on active duty in the Navy.
Back in 1934, Ford, who owned a yacht and had
been sailing since his childhood, was commissioned a lieutenant commander
in the Naval Reserve. For the next six years, he
sailed the California and Mexican coasts and quietly photographed and
(14:12):
made notes on Japanese shipping activity and Japanese settlements. He
filed the photos and the notes with the 11th Naval
District and in 1940 received a commendation for his initiative
in securing valuable information. Even before the Japanese sneak attack
(14:32):
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Ford proposes creating
a unit to film and photograph the U.S.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Navy.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
The Navy tentatively accepts Ford's proposal, and during the fall
of 1941, 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 skills in the making
of movies. As the unit is taking shape, it's put
(15:05):
under the command of William Donovan, the head of the
Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. Ford's unit now becomes
the field photographic branch of the OSS. A World War
I hero, who was awarded the Medal of Honor while
Bill Donovan, gives Ford great latitude in independence, exactly what
(15:30):
the contrary and crusty Ford likes. Ford gets an office
in Washington, D.C. and a generous budget. Ford doesn't spend
much time in Washington and will soon be found on
battlefronts around the world. After assignments to Pearl Harbor, Iceland,
and the Panama Canal, Ford is aboard the carrier Hornet
(15:53):
in April 1942 to document Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo.
In early June, Ford is at Midway Atoll when the
epic Battle of Midway erupts. Standing atop the power plant
on Eastern Island, Ford films the arrival of the first
Japanese planes and continues filming throughout the attack. At one point,
(16:18):
he's knocked out when a bomb explodes and sends a
chunk of concrete flying into him.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
He regains consciousness and continues filming. Minutes later, he's.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Knocked flat by another Japanese bomb and suffers shrapnel wounds
to his left arm. 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.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And my goodness, what a thing to do.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
He's just won two Oscars for Best Director year after year.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
When's the last time that's happened?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Best Director for The Grapes of Wrath in 1940. Best
Director for How Green Was My Valley in 41.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
And then what does he do?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
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 Albert, giving up lucrative
careers at the height of their fame to serve their
(17:27):
country at war. When we come back, more of John
Ford's remarkable story. It continues here on Our American Stories.
(18:08):
And we continue here with Our American Stories and the
story of John Ford as told by Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Ford puts the footage from his filming together with footage
taken by another cameraman to create the documentary.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
The Battle of Midway.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
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 Marine's Hymn,
A Star-Spangled Banner, Onward, Christian soldiers, my country tis of thee.
(18:51):
Before the documentary is released, there are those who think
it's too emotionally evocative to be released as it is.
The footage, narration, and the music pluck 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
(19:12):
theaters without further editing. it wins the Academy Award for
Best Documentary Feature. In November and December 1942, Ford is
at the battlefront with the Army's 13th Armored Regiment in
Algeria and Tunisia and leads his photographic unit into the
(19:34):
thick of the action. General 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. work with the fleet
in the Pacific as well as with the invading forces
(19:54):
in Tunisia. Both as a man and as an officer,
I consider Commander Ford superior and outstanding.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
The fall of 1943 finds Ford with Donovan.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
In Chungking with Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Nationalist Forces.
Among other photographic missions, Ford takes aerial reconnaissance flights over
Japanese positions.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
And films Japanese air raids.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Then John Ford undertakes a mission that is like something
out of one of his movies. the 49-year-old director leaps
out of a C-47 and parachutes behind enemy lines into
a Burmese jungle. On the ground, he rendezvous with Father
James Stewart, an Irish priest who had served with the
(20:48):
IRA and then as a medical missionary in Burma, and
is now leading a Kachin guerrilla band against the Japanese.
By the end of January 1944, 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
(21:12):
off to England to prepare his photographic unit for the
landings at Normandy. 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 cruiser Augusta. Once the
(21:33):
landings begin, Ford leaves the safety of the ship and
climbs aboard a landing craft and heads for the beach.
Ford wades ashore and begins moving.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Inland with the American troops.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
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
only seemed fearless, he actually seemed elated, the happiest they
had ever seen him. Here's John Ford in a 1966
(22:07):
interview with the BBC.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I don't know, I've tried to figure it out. I
am a... I am really a coward. I know I am.
So that's why I did foolish things. And I was
decorated eight or nine times. trying to prove that I
was not a coward. But after all over, I still
knew that I still know that I was a coward.
(22:34):
I've always found that the little quiet little man that
nobody pays any attention to usually has more guts. They
use guts in BBC. Sure, has more guts and courage
than the big blowhard, the big noisy outspoken fellow. It's
(22:56):
a little man that does a courageous thing.
Speaker 3 (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 do and sacrifice
of the P.T. boats in the Philippines during 1942. In
(23:19):
February 1945, Ford begins shooting P.T. 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
(23:42):
invasion of Japan. However, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and the war in August and avoid.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
What would have been a monumental bloodbath.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
At the end of September, his field photographic unit is
decommissioned and John Ford is released from active duty. His
decorations include, among many others, the Legion of Merit.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
And the Purple Heart.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
His officer's fitness report says, Personnel of his organization performed
with outstanding distinction and valor in clandestine operations.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
In combat in the world's battlefronts.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
This record of high accomplishments results from Captain Ford's outstanding ability,
his devotion to duty, his 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
(24:46):
remains in the Naval Reserve, and although 56 years old,
is called.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
To active duty during the Korean War.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
He spends several months in Korea making the documentary, This
is Korea, and gets along especially well with Chesty Puller,
the salty and ornery and highly decorated Marine legend. Upon
Ford's return to the States, he's promoted to rear admiral
(25:14):
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's stripe than he was of all his Oscars combined.
(25:34):
From the late 1940s and into the 1960s, John Ford
continues to make movies that both critics and.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
The American public love, including.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, The
Quiet Man, Mr.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Roberts, and The Searchers. John Ford dies in 1973.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
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 Hengler 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 II, including, my goodness, getting an.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oscar for the Battle of Midway.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
But more importantly, the way he served his country doing it,
the risks he took, and then the self-effacement to know
that he wasn't exactly calling himself a hero, but 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 and Hiroshima.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And that humility comes through.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And of course, that tombstone says it all with what
it doesn't say. It merely says, Admiral, the story of
John Ford, the story of so many who served in
World War II, 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, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier,
a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Dr.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries. He's a
regular contributor for us here at Our American Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Here's McGrath.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
John Ford was arguably Hollywood's greatest director. When the brilliant
Orson Welles was asked to name his three favorite directors,
he replied... The Old Masters, by which I mean John Ford,
John Ford, and John Ford. John Ford directed 140 movies
and documentaries. He won the Academy Award for Best Director
(01:13):
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 for one of them. John Martin
Feeney He was born in 1894 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
(01:34):
a small town near Portland. His father is John Augustine Feeney,
a large and powerful man known for his feats of
strength and spellbinding storytelling, who had immigrated to America from Spittle,
a small town on the coast of Galway Bay in Ireland.
His mother is a former Barbara Curran, also an Irish immigrant,
(01:56):
who had come from the town of Kilronan on Inishmore
the largest of the Aran 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, is called Johnny by his family. He's one
of 11 children, but five die as infants. He spends
(02:21):
his first several years in Cape Elizabeth, and then the
family moves to Munjoy Hill, a mostly Irish neighborhood in Portland.
His father works at various times as a farmer, fisherman,
and saloon keeper. By the time Johnny Feeney is attending
Portland High School, he's known as Jack. He excels in sports,
(02:43):
especially football and track. He's a tall, strapping youth, something
over 6 feet and 180 pounds. He stars as a
fullback on the varsity football team and earns the nickname
Bo Feeney. In his senior year, the team wins a
state championship. He's also the school's top sprinter. After winning
(03:04):
a sprint against a rival school, Portland High's newspaper said,
Feeney's form in the getaway and running was perfect and
his speed terrific. Jack Feeney is also a voracious reader.
Partly helped by a year he spent out of school
mostly in bed fighting diphtheria and clinging to life. An
(03:26):
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 in his hand, Shakespeare or something. He'd fight
(03:48):
at the drop of a hat, but he had a
great mind and a great sense of humor. Some would
tell him a funny story, and the next day he'd
retell it, adding all kinds of new touches to it.
Feeney's performance in his classes varies from poor to excellent,
depending on whether he likes the teacher and the material.
(04:10):
Even when he applies himself, Feeney 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
works at a theater, which helps pique his interest in movies.
Jack Feeney especially likes westerns, produced by Thomas Ince for
(04:31):
Bison Studios at a location Ince developed at what would
become the intersection of the Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset
Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. When Ince arrives there in 1911,
the area could pass for the Old West. Soon, the
collection of movie sets he builds there is known as Inceville.
(04:55):
Many of the westerns shot at Innsville are directed by
Francis Ford, the second oldest of the Feeney Boys. Francis
had dropped out of Portland High School in 1898 to
fight in the Spanish-American War. He later becomes an actor
on the stage in New York with the surname Ford.
(05:16):
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 not only
acting in Thomas Ince's films, but also directing them. Movie
(05:39):
historians generally credit Francis Ford with greatly increasing the quality
of the films produced by Ince, although Ince himself often
takes director credits for films directed by Francis Ford. Back
in Portland, Maine, Jack Feeney is watching Inces movies, which
(05:59):
often star his brother. When Jack graduates from high school
in 1914, 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 for Universal Studios,
80 of them from 1913 through 1916. A month after
(06:19):
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, who is now billed as
(06:41):
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. This is
(07:31):
Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And all
of our history stories are brought to us by our
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Speaker 2 (07:46):
If you can't get to.
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Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and
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Go to hillsdale.edu. That's hillsdale.edu. And we continue with.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Our American Stories and with Roger McGrath, who's telling the
story of the great John Ford.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
He appears in another 15 movies before he begins directing
them himself in 1917.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
He directs 12 movies.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
In 1917, three of them starring himself and a half
dozen starring Harry Carey, who Ford helps establish as one
of the leading actors in Westerns. Carey's wife, Olive, described
what the 23-year-old Jack Ford was like in 1917. He
(08:50):
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 Three Mounted
(09:13):
Men in 1918, 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 the
(09:33):
way of artistically chosen locations. In 1920, Ford marries Mary
McBride Smith and buys a house on four acres of
land in the Hollywood Hills.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
In 1921, they.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
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 County Galway for the first
time since he was a child when he went with
his father. Ford's trip is paid for by his new employer,
Fox Studios. In 1921, Ireland's war for independence is still raging,
(10:16):
and a special unit of British soldiers is known as
the Black and Tans, are on patrols throughout Galway. Ford's
Feeney relatives are without houses, which the British have burned down.
The Fighting Age Feeney men are volunteers in the IRA,
the Irish Republican Army, and are hiding in the Connemara
(10:36):
Mountains between missions. Their cousins, the Thornton boys, who have
also had their homes.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
Burned down, are with them. It's not by accident.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
That that in John Ford's blockbuster 1952 film, The Quiet Man,
John Wayne's character is Sean Thornton. Avoiding the black and tans,
Ford meets with his cousin, Martin Feeney, a member of the.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
IRA's East Connemara Brigade. Ford hands him a bundle of
cash for the IRA.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Possibly $ 60, 000 or more in today's money. Shortly afterwards, the
Black and Tans catch up with Ford and take him
into custody. Ford is interrogated and roughed up, but he
reveals nothing. After only four days in Ireland, Ford is
forced onto a ship and told never to return. Once
(11:30):
back in California, Ford continues his non-stop movie-making, cranking out
23 movies from 1922 through 1928.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
His best movie of the era is The Iron Horse,
starring George O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
It's the story of the building of the first transcontinental
railroad and a shot on location in Nevada. There's a
cast of thousands. Bad weather causes the shoot to fall
far behind schedule and to run well over budget. Fox
Studios threatens to shut down production. Ford hangs tough. and
(12:08):
finishes the movie at a cost of $ 280, 000, a fantastic
sum for a movie in 1924.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
But the movie makes more than $ 2.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Million, an even more fantastic sum. Halfway through 1928, Ford
makes his first talkie, and his transition to talkies is seamless.
His 1931 movie, Aerosmith, is a blockbuster and receives four
Academy Award nominations. Ford wins the Academy Award for Best
(12:43):
Director for his 1935 movie, The Informer, and the movie
is nominated for Best Picture. In 1939, Ford produces and
directs the movie Stagecoach, which is nominated for Best Picture,
and he is 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 and
into feature films. Ford wins the Academy Award for Best
(13:26):
Director for his 1940 film The Grapes of Wrath. He
wins Best Director again for his 1941 film, How Green
Was My Valley, and the movie wins Best Picture. John
Ford is at the top of his game and at the.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
Top of Hollywood. He has money, fame, and power. He's
47 years old. So what does he do?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
He quits Hollywood and goes on active duty in the Navy.
Back in 1934, Ford, who owned a yacht and had
been sailing since his childhood, was commissioned a lieutenant commander
in the Naval Reserve. For the next six years, he
sailed the California and Mexican coasts and quietly photographed and
(14:12):
made notes on Japanese shipping activity and Japanese settlements. He
filed the photos and the notes with the 11th Naval
District and in 1940 received a commendation for his initiative
in securing valuable information. Even before the Japanese sneak attack
(14:32):
on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Ford proposes creating
a unit to film and photograph the U.S.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Navy.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
The Navy tentatively accepts Ford's proposal, and during the fall
of 1941, 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 skills in the making
of movies. As the unit is taking shape, it's put
(15:05):
under the command of William Donovan, the head of the
Office of Strategic Services, the OSS. Ford's unit now becomes
the field photographic branch of the OSS. A World War
I hero, who was awarded the Medal of Honor while
Bill Donovan, gives Ford great latitude in independence, exactly what
(15:30):
the contrary and crusty Ford likes. Ford gets an office
in Washington, D.C. and a generous budget. Ford doesn't spend
much time in Washington and will soon be found on
battlefronts around the world. After assignments to Pearl Harbor, Iceland,
and the Panama Canal, Ford is aboard the carrier Hornet
(15:53):
in April 1942 to document Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo.
In early June, Ford is at Midway Atoll when the
epic Battle of Midway erupts. Standing atop the power plant
on Eastern Island, Ford films the arrival of the first
Japanese planes and continues filming throughout the attack. At one point,
(16:18):
he's knocked out when a bomb explodes and sends a
chunk of concrete flying into him.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
He regains consciousness and continues filming. Minutes later, he's.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Knocked flat by another Japanese bomb and suffers shrapnel wounds
to his left arm. 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.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And my goodness, what a thing to do.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
He's just won two Oscars for Best Director year after year.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
When's the last time that's happened?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Best Director for The Grapes of Wrath in 1940. Best
Director for How Green Was My Valley in 41.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
And then what does he do?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
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 Albert, giving up lucrative
careers at the height of their fame to serve their
(17:27):
country at war. When we come back, more of John
Ford's remarkable story. It continues here on Our American Stories.
(18:08):
And we continue here with Our American Stories and the
story of John Ford as told by Roger McGrath.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Ford puts the footage from his filming together with footage
taken by another cameraman to create the documentary.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
The Battle of Midway.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
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 Marine's Hymn,
A Star-Spangled Banner, Onward, Christian soldiers, my country tis of thee.
(18:51):
Before the documentary is released, there are those who think
it's too emotionally evocative to be released as it is.
The footage, narration, and the music pluck 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
(19:12):
theaters without further editing. it wins the Academy Award for
Best Documentary Feature. In November and December 1942, Ford is
at the battlefront with the Army's 13th Armored Regiment in
Algeria and Tunisia and leads his photographic unit into the
(19:34):
thick of the action. General 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. work with the fleet
in the Pacific as well as with the invading forces
(19:54):
in Tunisia. Both as a man and as an officer,
I consider Commander Ford superior and outstanding.
Speaker 4 (20:05):
The fall of 1943 finds Ford with Donovan.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
In Chungking with Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Nationalist Forces.
Among other photographic missions, Ford takes aerial reconnaissance flights over
Japanese positions.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
And films Japanese air raids.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Then John Ford undertakes a mission that is like something
out of one of his movies. the 49-year-old director leaps
out of a C-47 and parachutes behind enemy lines into
a Burmese jungle. On the ground, he rendezvous with Father
James Stewart, an Irish priest who had served with the
(20:48):
IRA and then as a medical missionary in Burma, and
is now leading a Kachin guerrilla band against the Japanese.
By the end of January 1944, 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
(21:12):
off to England to prepare his photographic unit for the
landings at Normandy. 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 cruiser Augusta. Once the
(21:33):
landings begin, Ford leaves the safety of the ship and
climbs aboard a landing craft and heads for the beach.
Ford wades ashore and begins moving.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Inland with the American troops.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
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
only seemed fearless, he actually seemed elated, the happiest they
had ever seen him. Here's John Ford in a 1966
(22:07):
interview with the BBC.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I don't know, I've tried to figure it out. I
am a... I am really a coward. I know I am.
So that's why I did foolish things. And I was
decorated eight or nine times. trying to prove that I
was not a coward. But after all over, I still
knew that I still know that I was a coward.
(22:34):
I've always found that the little quiet little man that
nobody pays any attention to usually has more guts. They
use guts in BBC. Sure, has more guts and courage
than the big blowhard, the big noisy outspoken fellow. It's
(22:56):
a little man that does a courageous thing.
Speaker 3 (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 do and sacrifice
of the P.T. boats in the Philippines during 1942. In
(23:19):
February 1945, Ford begins shooting P.T. 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
(23:42):
invasion of Japan. However, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and the war in August and avoid.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
What would have been a monumental bloodbath.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
At the end of September, his field photographic unit is
decommissioned and John Ford is released from active duty. His
decorations include, among many others, the Legion of Merit.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
And the Purple Heart.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
His officer's fitness report says, Personnel of his organization performed
with outstanding distinction and valor in clandestine operations.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
In combat in the world's battlefronts.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
This record of high accomplishments results from Captain Ford's outstanding ability,
his devotion to duty, his 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
(24:46):
remains in the Naval Reserve, and although 56 years old,
is called.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
To active duty during the Korean War.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
He spends several months in Korea making the documentary, This
is Korea, and gets along especially well with Chesty Puller,
the salty and ornery and highly decorated Marine legend. Upon
Ford's return to the States, he's promoted to rear admiral
(25:14):
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's stripe than he was of all his Oscars combined.
(25:34):
From the late 1940s and into the 1960s, John Ford
continues to make movies that both critics and.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
The American public love, including.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, The
Quiet Man, Mr.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
Roberts, and The Searchers. John Ford dies in 1973.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
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 Hengler 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 II, including, my goodness, getting an.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Oscar for the Battle of Midway.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
But more importantly, the way he served his country doing it,
the risks he took, and then the self-effacement to know
that he wasn't exactly calling himself a hero, but 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 and Hiroshima.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
And that humility comes through.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
And of course, that tombstone says it all with what
it doesn't say. It merely says, Admiral, the story of
John Ford, the story of so many who served in
World War II, here on Our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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