December 19, 2025 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, John Ford was already shaping the Golden Age of film, the force behind classics like Stagecoach and The Informer, when World War II pulled him toward a different kind of frontier. At forty-seven, with Hollywood at his feet and a reputation as one of America’s greatest directors, Ford walked away from the studio lot and into the U.S. Navy. Historian and Wild-West expert Roger McGrath shares how a filmmaker known for mythic westerns ended up documenting a real war and why that decision changed John Ford’s legacy forever.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To subscribe to our podcasts, go to the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. And up next another
Hollywood Goes to War story with Roger McGrath. McGrath is
(00:31):
the author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
A US marine and former history.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Professor at UCLA, doctor McGrath has appeared on numerous History
Channel documentaries. He's a regular contributor for US. Here at
our American Stories, Here's McGrath.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
John Ford was arguably Hollywood's greatest director. When the brilliant
Orson Wells was asked the name is three favorite directors,
he replied, the old Masters, by which I mean john Ford,
john Ford and john Ford. John Ford directed one hundred
and forty movies. In documentaries, he won the Academy Award
(01:11):
for Best Director a record four times. Nine of his
movies were nominated for Best Picture and one of them wonted.
Two of his documentaries won Best Documentary, and he won
Best Director of a Documentary for one of them. John
Martin Feeney is born in eighteen ninety four in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
(01:34):
a small town near Portland. His father is John Augustin Feini,
a large and powerful man known for his feats of
strength and spellbinding storytelling, who had immigrated to America from Spittel,
a small town on the coast of Galway Bay in Ireland.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
His mother is.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
A former Barbara Curran, also an Irish immigrant, who had
come from the town of kil Roman on Innish More,
the largest of the Iren Islands, which lie at the entrance.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
To Galway Bay.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
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 eleven children, but
five die as infants. He spends his first several years
in Cape Elizabeth, and then the family moves to Monjoy Hill,
(02:27):
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, is
known as Jack. He excels in sports, especially football and track.
He's a tall, strapping youth, something over six feet and
(02:49):
one hundred and eighty pounds.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
He stars as.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A fullback on the varsity football team and earns the
nickname Bowl feene In his senior year, the team wins
the state championshi. He's also the school's top sprinter. After
winning a sprint against a rival school, Portland High's newspaper
said Phoene's form in the getaway and running was perfect and.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
His speed terrific.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Jack Feeney is also a voracious reader, partly helped by
a year he spent out of school, mostly in bed,
fighting diphtheria and clinging into life. An older sister read
book after book to him, and when he was strong enough,
he read book after book himself, although the diphtheria would
leave him with poor eyesight for the rest of his life.
(03:39):
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 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. Phoenie's performance in his classes varies
(04:03):
from poor to excellent, depending on whether he likes the
teacher and the material. Even when he applies himself, Phoene
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 peak his interest in movies. Jack Phoene especially likes
(04:28):
westerns produced by Thomas Ince for 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 nineteen eleven, the area could
pass for the Old West. Soon the collection of movie
(04:51):
sets he builds there is known as Innsville. Many of
the Western shot at Innsville are directed by Francis Ford,
the second oldest of the Feenie Boys. Francis had dropped
out of Portland High School in eighteen ninety eight to
fight in the Spanish American War. He later becomes an
actor on the stage in New York with the surname Ford.
(05:15):
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 Inse's films, but also directing them. Movie
(05:39):
historians generally credit Francis Ford with greatly increasing the quality
of the films produced by Ins, although Ince himself often
takes director credits for films directed by Francis Ford.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Back in Portland, Maine, Jack.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Feoeney is watching Ince's movies, which often star his brother.
When Jack graduates from high school in nineteen fourteen, instead
of accepting any of several college scholarships for football and track,
he boards a train for Los Angeles. By now, Francis
Ford is making movies for Universal Studios, eighty of them
(06:18):
from nineteen thirteen through nineteen sixteen. A month after Jack arrives,
his brother casts him in The Mysterious Rose as a
character named Dopey. Francis plays the male lead, Detective Phil Kelly.
The Mysterious Rose is a humble beginning in Hollywood for
(06:38):
Jack Feeney, who is now billed as Jack Ford.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of John Martin Feeney, who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
a small town in the northeast, almost as small as
you can get in that part of the country. Who
would think that the man who made epic westerns for
a living would come from a Northeast coastal state. He
(07:03):
won Best Director four times. No one has touched it.
He had nine Best Picture nominations. When we come back
the rest of the story of John Martin Feeney, that
is John Ford here on our American Stories, Leehabib here,
(07:31):
as we approach our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
I'd like to remind you that all the history stories
you hear on this show brought to you by the
great folks at Hillsdale College, and Hillsdale isn't just a
great school for your kids or grandkids to attend, but
for you as well. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
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on Communism is one of the finest I've ever seen. Again,
(07:53):
go to Hillsdale dot edu and sign up for their
free and terrific online courses. And we continue with our
American Stories and with Roger McGrath who's telling the story
(08:14):
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 fifteen movies before he begins directing
them himself in nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
He directs twelve movies.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
In nineteen seventeen, three of them starring himself, and a
half dozen starring Harry Carey, who Ford helps establish as
one of the leading actors in westerns. Carrie's wife, Olive,
described what the twenty three year old Jack Ford was
like in nineteen seventeen. He had a magnificent sense of humor,
(08:52):
and he was very graceful when he walked. He was imaginative,
didn't miss a trick, a fantastic ode 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 Men in nineteen eighteen, one of the
(09:15):
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 way of artistically chosen locations. In nineteen twenty,
(09:40):
Ford Mary's Mary McBride Smith and buys a house on
four acres of land in the Hollywood Hills in.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
They have a son, Patrick and a year later a daughter, Barbara.
Seven months after Patrick's birth, Ford makes a trip to
Ireland to visit family in counter to Galway for the
first time since he was a child when he went
with his father. Ford's tripp is paid for by his
new employer, Fox Studios. In nineteen twenty one, Ireland's war
(10:14):
for Independence is still raging an a special unit of
British soldiers known as the Black and Tans, are on
patrols throughout Galway. Ford's Feeney relatives are without houses which
the British have burned down. The Fighting Age Feeney Men
are volunteers in the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, and
(10:34):
are hiding in the Connamera Mountains between missions. Their cousins,
the Thornton Boys, who have also had their homes burned down,
are with them. It's not by accident that in John
Ford's blockbuster nineteen fifty two film The Quiet Man, John
Wayne's character is Sean Thornton. Avoiding the Black and Tans,
(10:58):
Ford meets with his cousin, Martin Feene, a member of
the IRA's East Connema Brigade. Ford hands him a bundle
of cash for the IRA, possibly sixty thousand or more
dollars in today's money. Shortly afterwards, the Black and Tans
catch up with Ford and take him into custody. Ford
is interrogated and roughed up, but he reveals nothing. After
(11:23):
only four days in Ireland, Ford is forced onto a
ship and told never to return. Once back in California,
Ford continues his non stop movie making, cranking out twenty
three movies from nineteen twenty two through nineteen twenty eight.
His best movie of the era is The Iron Horse,
(11:43):
starring George O'Brien. It's a story of the building of
the first trans continental railroad and a shot on location
in Nevada. There's a cast of thousands. Bad weather causes
the Choote to fall far behind schedule and a run
well over budget. Fox Studios threatens to shut down production.
(12:06):
Ford hangs tough and finishes the movie at a cost
of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars, a fantastic sum
for a movie in nineteen twenty four, but the movie
makes more than two million dollars and even more fantastic
sum Halfway through nineteen twenty eight, Ford makes his first talkie,
(12:29):
and his transition to talkies is seamless. His nineteen thirty
one movie Aerosmith is a blockbuster and receives four Academy
Award nominations. Ford wins the Academy Award for Best Director
for his nineteen thirty five movie The Informer, and the
movie is nominated for Best Picture. In nineteen thirty nine,
(12:53):
Ford produces and directs the movie Stagecoach, which is nominated
for Best Picture and he's nomine native for Best Director.
Although Ford directed dozens of westerns in the Silent era,
this is his first Western in the sound era.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Stagecoach is also.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
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 Director for his nineteen forty film The Grapes
of Wrath. He wins Best Director again for his nineteen
forty one film How Green Was My Valley, and the.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Movie wins Best Picture.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
John Ford is at the top of his game and
at the top of Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
He has money, fame, and power.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
He's forty seven years old, So what does he do?
He quits Hollywood and goes on active.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Duty in the Navy.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Back in nineteen thirty four, Ford, who owned a yacht
and had been saying since his childhood, was commissioned a
lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. For the next six years,
he sailed the California Mexican coasts and quietly photographed and
made notes on Japanese shipping activity and Japanese settlements. He
(14:16):
filed the photos and the notes with the eleventh Naval
District in a nineteen forty received a commendation for his
initiative in securing valuable information. Even before the Japanese sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one,
(14:37):
Ford proposes creating a unit to film and photograph the U. S. Navy.
The Navy tentatively accepts Ford's proposal, and during the fall
of nineteen forty one, it begins organizing the Naval Motion
Picture and Field Photographic Unit. Ford's recruits come from Hollywood,
(14:57):
and they are each chosen for their particular skill in
the making of movies, as a unit is taking shape.
It's put under the command of William Donovan, the head
of the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS Ford Unit
now becomes the Field photographic branch of the OSS, A
(15:21):
World War One hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
While Bill Donovan gives Ford great latitude in independence exactly
what the contrary and krusty Ford likes. Ford gets in
the office in Washington, d C. And a generous budget.
Ford doesn't spend much time in Washington and will soon
(15:42):
be found on battle fronts around the world. After assignments
to Pearl Harbor, Iceland, and the Panama Canal, Ford is
board the carrier Hornet in April nineteen forty two to document.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Jimmy Doolivels raided on Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
In early June, Ford is at Midway Act All when
the epic Battle of Midway erupts. Standing atop the power
plant on Eastern Island, Ford films the arrival of first
Japanese planes and continues filming throughout the attack. At one point,
he's knocked out when a bomb explodes and sends a
(16:21):
chunk of concrete flying into him. He regains consciousness and
continues filming. Minutes later, he's knocked flat by another Japanese
bomb and suffers shrapnel wounds.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
To his left arm.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
In pain and bleeding, he struggles to his feet and
continues filming.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of john Ford. It's a part of our Hollywood Goes
to War series, and my goodness, what a thing to do.
He's just won two Oscars for Best Director year after year.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
When's the last time that's happened?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Best Director for The Grapes of Wrath in nineteen four,
Best Director for How Green Was My Valley in forty one?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
And then what does he do? Well?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
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, Henriefonda, and Eddie Albert giving up lucrative careers
at the height of their fame to serve their country
(17:28):
at war. When we come back more of john Ford's
remarkable story, it continues here on our American stories, and
(18:08):
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 The Battle
of Midway. He has actors from his movies Donald Crisp,
Jane Darwell, Henry Fonda narrate, and has a musical score
that includes America's favorites anchors Away, Red River Valley, the
(18:43):
Marines Hymn, the StarSpangled Banner, Onward, Christian Soldiers, My Country
tis of thee. Before the documentary is released, there are
those who think it's too emotionally evocative to be released
as it is footage, narration and the music pluck every
(19:04):
chord in the American heart. Ford says, it's released as
it is, or it's not released at all, and it
goes into theaters without further editing. It wins the Academy
Award for Best Documentary Feature. In November and December nineteen
forty two, Ford is at the battlefront with the Army's
(19:27):
thirteenth Armored Regiment in Algeria and Tunisia and leads his
photographic unit into the thick of the action. General O'Donovan,
in a letter to the Director of Naval Intelligence, says
Ford inspires a real devotion among his men. He has
evidenced his leadership and his courage in his photographic work
(19:50):
with a fleet in the Pacific, as well as with
the invading forces in Tunisia. Both as a man and
as an officer, I consider command under Ford superior and outstanding.
The fall of nineteen forty three finds Ford with Donovan
in Chung King with Chang Kai Shek and his Chinese
(20:12):
Nationalist forces. Among other photographic missions, Ford takes aerial reconnaissance
flights over Japanese positions in Phillip's.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Japanese Air Raids.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Then John Ford undertakes a mission that is like something
out of one of his movies. The forty nine year
old director leaps out of a C forty seven in
parachutes behind enemy lions into a Burmese jungle on the ground.
Ironevus with Father James Stewart, an Irish priest who had
(20:47):
served with the IRA and then as a medical missionary
in Burma and is now leading a catch and guerrilla
band against the Japanese. By the end of January nineteen
forty four, Ford is in India and eventually back to
the United States by way of Africa and Brazil. Ford's
(21:10):
not home for long before he's 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 landings begin, Ford
(21:35):
leaves the safety of the ship and climbs aboard a
landing craft and heads for the beach. Ford wades the
shore and begins moving inland with the American troops. One
of Ford's directors is crouched low behind a hedgerow when
he spies Ford standing tall and calmly observing the fighting
in front of him. Many later said Ford not only
(21:59):
seen fearless, he actually seemed deleted, the happiest they had.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Ever seen him.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Here's John Ford in the nineteen sixty six interview with
the BBC.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I've tried to figure it out.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
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 try to prove
that I was not a coward. But after all over,
I still knew that. I still know that I was
a coward. I've always found out. The little, quiet, little
(22:36):
man but nobody pays at attention to usually has more guts.
They use guts, and BBC sure has more guts and
courage than the big BLOWHRD, the big noisy, outspoken fellow.
It's a little man that doesn't courageous scene.
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, dew and sacrifice
of the Pet boats in the Philippines during nineteen forty two.
(23:21):
In February nineteen forty five, Ford begins shooting. They were
expendable in Florida. By the end of May, filming is
finished and post production begins. At the end of June,
Ford is promoted to Captain. Ford's thoughts now turn to
the Pacific and the anticipated invasion of Japan. However, the
(23:45):
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the war in August
and avoid what would have been a monumental bloodbath. At
the end of September, his Field Photographic Unit is decommissioned
and john Ford is released from active duty. His decorations include,
(24:05):
among many others, the Legion a Merit, and the Purple Art.
His officer's Fitness report says personnel of his organization performed
with outstanding distinction and valor in clandestine operations in combat
in the world's battlefronts. This record of high accomplishments results
(24:27):
from Captain Ford's outstanding ability. His devotion to duty is
loyalty to and love for his subordinates. The discipline of
his organization was outstanding, their accomplishment superb. This could result
only from great leadership. Ford remains in the Naval Reserve,
(24:48):
and the law fifty six years old is called the
active duty. During the Korean War, he spends several months
in Korea making the documentary This Is Korea. He gets
along especially well with Chesty Puller, the salty and honery
and highly decorated marine legend. Upon Ford's return to the States,
(25:12):
is promoted to Rear Admiral and retired from the Navy.
Mark Armistead, a veteran of the Field Photographic Unit who
was with Ford again in Korea, said the famous director
was probably more proud of the admiral stripe than he
was of all his oscars combined. From the late nineteen
(25:35):
forties into the nineteen sixties, john Ford continues to make
movies that both critics in the American public love, including
Ford Apache She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, A
Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers. John Ford dies
(25:57):
in nineteen seventy three is Bury Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California. On his headstone, he is identified not
as an actor, director or producer, but as Admiral john Ford.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And a terrific job by Greg Hangler on the production
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath for telling the
story of john Ford and what john Ford did during
World War Two, including my goodness getting an oscar for
the Battle of Midway, but more importantly the way he
served his country doing it, the risks he took, and
(26:35):
then the self effacement to know that he wasn't exactly
calling himself a hero, giving that credit and the credit
of courage to the many others who fought every day
on the ground, every day until they got to Berlin,
or until those bombs were dropped over Nagasaki in Hiroshima.
And that humility comes through. And of course that tombstone
(26:56):
says it all with what it doesn't say. It merely says,
admire the story of John Ford, the story of so
many who served in World War Two. Here on our
American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
To subscribe to our podcasts, go to the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts. And up next another
Hollywood Goes to War story with Roger McGrath. McGrath is
(00:31):
the author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
A US marine and former history.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Professor at UCLA, doctor McGrath has appeared on numerous History
Channel documentaries. He's a regular contributor for US. Here at
our American Stories, Here's McGrath.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
John Ford was arguably Hollywood's greatest director. When the brilliant
Orson Wells was asked the name is three favorite directors,
he replied, the old Masters, by which I mean john Ford,
john Ford and john Ford. John Ford directed one hundred
and forty movies. In documentaries, he won the Academy Award
(01:11):
for Best Director a record four times. Nine of his
movies were nominated for Best Picture and one of them wonted.
Two of his documentaries won Best Documentary, and he won
Best Director of a Documentary for one of them. John
Martin Feeney is born in eighteen ninety four in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
(01:34):
a small town near Portland. His father is John Augustin Feini,
a large and powerful man known for his feats of
strength and spellbinding storytelling, who had immigrated to America from Spittel,
a small town on the coast of Galway Bay in Ireland.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
His mother is.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
A former Barbara Curran, also an Irish immigrant, who had
come from the town of kil Roman on Innish More,
the largest of the Iren Islands, which lie at the entrance.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
To Galway Bay.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
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 eleven children, but
five die as infants. He spends his first several years
in Cape Elizabeth, and then the family moves to Monjoy Hill,
(02:27):
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, is
known as Jack. He excels in sports, especially football and track.
He's a tall, strapping youth, something over six feet and
(02:49):
one hundred and eighty pounds.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
He stars as.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
A fullback on the varsity football team and earns the
nickname Bowl feene In his senior year, the team wins
the state championshi. He's also the school's top sprinter. After
winning a sprint against a rival school, Portland High's newspaper
said Phoene's form in the getaway and running was perfect and.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
His speed terrific.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Jack Feeney is also a voracious reader, partly helped by
a year he spent out of school, mostly in bed,
fighting diphtheria and clinging into life. An older sister read
book after book to him, and when he was strong enough,
he read book after book himself, although the diphtheria would
leave him with poor eyesight for the rest of his life.
(03:39):
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 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. Phoenie's performance in his classes varies
(04:03):
from poor to excellent, depending on whether he likes the
teacher and the material. Even when he applies himself, Phoene
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 peak his interest in movies. Jack Phoene especially likes
(04:28):
westerns produced by Thomas Ince for 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 nineteen eleven, the area could
pass for the Old West. Soon the collection of movie
(04:51):
sets he builds there is known as Innsville. Many of
the Western shot at Innsville are directed by Francis Ford,
the second oldest of the Feenie Boys. Francis had dropped
out of Portland High School in eighteen ninety eight to
fight in the Spanish American War. He later becomes an
actor on the stage in New York with the surname Ford.
(05:15):
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 Inse's films, but also directing them. Movie
(05:39):
historians generally credit Francis Ford with greatly increasing the quality
of the films produced by Ins, although Ince himself often
takes director credits for films directed by Francis Ford.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Back in Portland, Maine, Jack.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Feoeney is watching Ince's movies, which often star his brother.
When Jack graduates from high school in nineteen fourteen, instead
of accepting any of several college scholarships for football and track,
he boards a train for Los Angeles. By now, Francis
Ford is making movies for Universal Studios, eighty of them
(06:18):
from nineteen thirteen through nineteen sixteen. A month after Jack arrives,
his brother casts him in The Mysterious Rose as a
character named Dopey. Francis plays the male lead, Detective Phil Kelly.
The Mysterious Rose is a humble beginning in Hollywood for
(06:38):
Jack Feeney, who is now billed as Jack Ford.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of John Martin Feeney, who grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine,
a small town in the northeast, almost as small as
you can get in that part of the country. Who
would think that the man who made epic westerns for
a living would come from a Northeast coastal state. He
(07:03):
won Best Director four times. No one has touched it.
He had nine Best Picture nominations. When we come back
the rest of the story of John Martin Feeney, that
is John Ford here on our American Stories, Leehabib here,
(07:31):
as we approach our nation's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
I'd like to remind you that all the history stories
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American Stories and with Roger McGrath who's telling the story
(08:14):
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 fifteen movies before he begins directing
them himself in nineteen seventeen.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
He directs twelve movies.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
In nineteen seventeen, three of them starring himself, and a
half dozen starring Harry Carey, who Ford helps establish as
one of the leading actors in westerns. Carrie's wife, Olive,
described what the twenty three year old Jack Ford was
like in nineteen seventeen. He had a magnificent sense of humor,
(08:52):
and he was very graceful when he walked. He was imaginative,
didn't miss a trick, a fantastic ode 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 Men in nineteen eighteen, one of the
(09:15):
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 way of artistically chosen locations. In nineteen twenty,
(09:40):
Ford Mary's Mary McBride Smith and buys a house on
four acres of land in the Hollywood Hills in.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Nineteen twenty one.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
They have a son, Patrick and a year later a daughter, Barbara.
Seven months after Patrick's birth, Ford makes a trip to
Ireland to visit family in counter to Galway for the
first time since he was a child when he went
with his father. Ford's tripp is paid for by his
new employer, Fox Studios. In nineteen twenty one, Ireland's war
(10:14):
for Independence is still raging an a special unit of
British soldiers known as the Black and Tans, are on
patrols throughout Galway. Ford's Feeney relatives are without houses which
the British have burned down. The Fighting Age Feeney Men
are volunteers in the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, and
(10:34):
are hiding in the Connamera Mountains between missions. Their cousins,
the Thornton Boys, who have also had their homes burned down,
are with them. It's not by accident that in John
Ford's blockbuster nineteen fifty two film The Quiet Man, John
Wayne's character is Sean Thornton. Avoiding the Black and Tans,
(10:58):
Ford meets with his cousin, Martin Feene, a member of
the IRA's East Connema Brigade. Ford hands him a bundle
of cash for the IRA, possibly sixty thousand or more
dollars in today's money. Shortly afterwards, the Black and Tans
catch up with Ford and take him into custody. Ford
is interrogated and roughed up, but he reveals nothing. After
(11:23):
only four days in Ireland, Ford is forced onto a
ship and told never to return. Once back in California,
Ford continues his non stop movie making, cranking out twenty
three movies from nineteen twenty two through nineteen twenty eight.
His best movie of the era is The Iron Horse,
(11:43):
starring George O'Brien. It's a story of the building of
the first trans continental railroad and a shot on location
in Nevada. There's a cast of thousands. Bad weather causes
the Choote to fall far behind schedule and a run
well over budget. Fox Studios threatens to shut down production.
(12:06):
Ford hangs tough and finishes the movie at a cost
of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars, a fantastic sum
for a movie in nineteen twenty four, but the movie
makes more than two million dollars and even more fantastic
sum Halfway through nineteen twenty eight, Ford makes his first talkie,
(12:29):
and his transition to talkies is seamless. His nineteen thirty
one movie Aerosmith is a blockbuster and receives four Academy
Award nominations. Ford wins the Academy Award for Best Director
for his nineteen thirty five movie The Informer, and the
movie is nominated for Best Picture. In nineteen thirty nine,
(12:53):
Ford produces and directs the movie Stagecoach, which is nominated
for Best Picture and he's nomine native for Best Director.
Although Ford directed dozens of westerns in the Silent era,
this is his first Western in the sound era.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
Stagecoach is also.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
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 Director for his nineteen forty film The Grapes
of Wrath. He wins Best Director again for his nineteen
forty one film How Green Was My Valley, and the.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
Movie wins Best Picture.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
John Ford is at the top of his game and
at the top of Hollywood.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
He has money, fame, and power.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
He's forty seven years old, So what does he do?
He quits Hollywood and goes on active.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Duty in the Navy.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Back in nineteen thirty four, Ford, who owned a yacht
and had been saying since his childhood, was commissioned a
lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. For the next six years,
he sailed the California Mexican coasts and quietly photographed and
made notes on Japanese shipping activity and Japanese settlements. He
(14:16):
filed the photos and the notes with the eleventh Naval
District in a nineteen forty received a commendation for his
initiative in securing valuable information. Even before the Japanese sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty one,
(14:37):
Ford proposes creating a unit to film and photograph the U. S. Navy.
The Navy tentatively accepts Ford's proposal, and during the fall
of nineteen forty one, it begins organizing the Naval Motion
Picture and Field Photographic Unit. Ford's recruits come from Hollywood,
(14:57):
and they are each chosen for their particular skill in
the making of movies, as a unit is taking shape.
It's put under the command of William Donovan, the head
of the Office of Strategic Services. The OSS Ford Unit
now becomes the Field photographic branch of the OSS, A
(15:21):
World War One hero who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
While Bill Donovan gives Ford great latitude in independence exactly
what the contrary and krusty Ford likes. Ford gets in
the office in Washington, d C. And a generous budget.
Ford doesn't spend much time in Washington and will soon
(15:42):
be found on battle fronts around the world. After assignments
to Pearl Harbor, Iceland, and the Panama Canal, Ford is
board the carrier Hornet in April nineteen forty two to document.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Jimmy Doolivels raided on Tokyo.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
In early June, Ford is at Midway Act All when
the epic Battle of Midway erupts. Standing atop the power
plant on Eastern Island, Ford films the arrival of first
Japanese planes and continues filming throughout the attack. At one point,
he's knocked out when a bomb explodes and sends a
(16:21):
chunk of concrete flying into him. He regains consciousness and
continues filming. Minutes later, he's knocked flat by another Japanese
bomb and suffers shrapnel wounds.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
To his left arm.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
In pain and bleeding, he struggles to his feet and
continues filming.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And we've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of john Ford. It's a part of our Hollywood Goes
to War series, and my goodness, what a thing to do.
He's just won two Oscars for Best Director year after year.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
When's the last time that's happened?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Best Director for The Grapes of Wrath in nineteen four,
Best Director for How Green Was My Valley in forty one?
Speaker 2 (17:04):
And then what does he do? Well?
Speaker 1 (17:05):
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, Henriefonda, and Eddie Albert giving up lucrative careers
at the height of their fame to serve their country
(17:28):
at war. When we come back more of john Ford's
remarkable story, it continues here on our American stories, and
(18:08):
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 The Battle
of Midway. He has actors from his movies Donald Crisp,
Jane Darwell, Henry Fonda narrate, and has a musical score
that includes America's favorites anchors Away, Red River Valley, the
(18:43):
Marines Hymn, the StarSpangled Banner, Onward, Christian Soldiers, My Country
tis of thee. Before the documentary is released, there are
those who think it's too emotionally evocative to be released
as it is footage, narration and the music pluck every
(19:04):
chord in the American heart. Ford says, it's released as
it is, or it's not released at all, and it
goes into theaters without further editing. It wins the Academy
Award for Best Documentary Feature. In November and December nineteen
forty two, Ford is at the battlefront with the Army's
(19:27):
thirteenth Armored Regiment in Algeria and Tunisia and leads his
photographic unit into the thick of the action. General O'Donovan,
in a letter to the Director of Naval Intelligence, says
Ford inspires a real devotion among his men. He has
evidenced his leadership and his courage in his photographic work
(19:50):
with a fleet in the Pacific, as well as with
the invading forces in Tunisia. Both as a man and
as an officer, I consider command under Ford superior and outstanding.
The fall of nineteen forty three finds Ford with Donovan
in Chung King with Chang Kai Shek and his Chinese
(20:12):
Nationalist forces. Among other photographic missions, Ford takes aerial reconnaissance
flights over Japanese positions in Phillip's.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
Japanese Air Raids.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Then John Ford undertakes a mission that is like something
out of one of his movies. The forty nine year
old director leaps out of a C forty seven in
parachutes behind enemy lions into a Burmese jungle on the ground.
Ironevus with Father James Stewart, an Irish priest who had
(20:47):
served with the IRA and then as a medical missionary
in Burma and is now leading a catch and guerrilla
band against the Japanese. By the end of January nineteen
forty four, Ford is in India and eventually back to
the United States by way of Africa and Brazil. Ford's
(21:10):
not home for long before he's 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 landings begin, Ford
(21:35):
leaves the safety of the ship and climbs aboard a
landing craft and heads for the beach. Ford wades the
shore and begins moving inland with the American troops. One
of Ford's directors is crouched low behind a hedgerow when
he spies Ford standing tall and calmly observing the fighting
in front of him. Many later said Ford not only
(21:59):
seen fearless, he actually seemed deleted, the happiest they had.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
Ever seen him.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Here's John Ford in the nineteen sixty six interview with
the BBC.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
I've tried to figure it out.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
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 try to prove
that I was not a coward. But after all over,
I still knew that. I still know that I was
a coward. I've always found out. The little, quiet, little
(22:36):
man but nobody pays at attention to usually has more guts.
They use guts, and BBC sure has more guts and
courage than the big BLOWHRD, the big noisy, outspoken fellow.
It's a little man that doesn't courageous scene.
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, dew and sacrifice
of the Pet boats in the Philippines during nineteen forty two.
(23:21):
In February nineteen forty five, Ford begins shooting. They were
expendable in Florida. By the end of May, filming is
finished and post production begins. At the end of June,
Ford is promoted to Captain. Ford's thoughts now turn to
the Pacific and the anticipated invasion of Japan. However, the
(23:45):
atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the war in August
and avoid what would have been a monumental bloodbath. At
the end of September, his Field Photographic Unit is decommissioned
and john Ford is released from active duty. His decorations include,
(24:05):
among many others, the Legion a Merit, and the Purple Art.
His officer's Fitness report says personnel of his organization performed
with outstanding distinction and valor in clandestine operations in combat
in the world's battlefronts. This record of high accomplishments results
(24:27):
from Captain Ford's outstanding ability. His devotion to duty is
loyalty to and love for his subordinates. The discipline of
his organization was outstanding, their accomplishment superb. This could result
only from great leadership. Ford remains in the Naval Reserve,
(24:48):
and the law fifty six years old is called the
active duty. During the Korean War, he spends several months
in Korea making the documentary This Is Korea. He gets
along especially well with Chesty Puller, the salty and honery
and highly decorated marine legend. Upon Ford's return to the States,
(25:12):
is promoted to Rear Admiral and retired from the Navy.
Mark Armistead, a veteran of the Field Photographic Unit who
was with Ford again in Korea, said the famous director
was probably more proud of the admiral stripe than he
was of all his oscars combined. From the late nineteen
(25:35):
forties into the nineteen sixties, john Ford continues to make
movies that both critics in the American public love, including
Ford Apache She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, A
Quiet Man, Mister Roberts, and The Searchers. John Ford dies
(25:57):
in nineteen seventy three is Bury Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City, California. On his headstone, he is identified not
as an actor, director or producer, but as Admiral john Ford.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
And a terrific job by Greg Hangler on the production
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath for telling the
story of john Ford and what john Ford did during
World War Two, including my goodness getting an oscar for
the Battle of Midway, but more importantly the way he
served his country doing it, the risks he took, and
(26:35):
then the self effacement to know that he wasn't exactly
calling himself a hero, giving that credit and the credit
of courage to the many others who fought every day
on the ground, every day until they got to Berlin,
or until those bombs were dropped over Nagasaki in Hiroshima.
And that humility comes through. And of course that tombstone
(26:56):
says it all with what it doesn't say. It merely says,
admire the story of John Ford, the story of so
many who served in World War Two. Here on our
American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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