On this episode of Our American Stories, James Arness is recognized as one of America's most beloved actors. Generations have grown up watching him as Marshal Matt Dillon on television’s longest-running series, Gunsmoke. Here to share another “Hollywood Goes to War” story is Roger McGrath.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. James Arness is
recognized as one of America's most beloved actors. Generations have
grown up with him as Marshall Matt Dillon on TV's
longest running series, Gun Smoke. Here to tell another Hollywood
Goes to War's story is Roger McGrath. Wrath is the
(00:31):
author of Gunfighters, Howiman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier,
the US Marine, and former history professor at UCLA. McGrath
has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's a
regular contributor here at our American Stories. Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
McGrath love Johnny Carson, Joel.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Storry, Johnny Card, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And he's the star that new CBS show that's coming
up soon, gun Smoke. And here he is, mister Jim Arnest, Jim.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Everyone thinks of James R. Nest as Matt Dillon, the
brave and incorportible town marshal of a Dodge City in
the television series Gun Smoke. I think of him as
the father of one of my childhood friends. When you're
a young kid, all adults look big to you. James
Rness looked like a giant. He stood six foot seven
(01:32):
and weighed two hundred and thirty five pounds. Hit a
big bone frame, and was lean at that weight. Shaking
hands with him was like getting your hand caught in
the jaws of a giant beer of vice grips spider.
His great size, he could serve fairly well. His board
was nearly the size of a tandem board. Most people
(01:55):
don't think of James R. Nest in films, but it
was in thirty movies before Guns Smoke began its twenty
year run on television. He was the Thing in the
nineteen fifty one science fiction thriller The Thing from Another World,
which is hailed as a classic of the science fiction genre,
(02:18):
mostly though he played typical character roles in his other
movies such as Wagonmaster, Carbine Williams, and Horizons West. If
most people don't know of Arnessa's movie work prior to
television's Gun Smoke, they also generally don't know of his
service in World War Two, which shoined him a Bronze
(02:39):
Star and purple heart and left him with a slight
limp for the rest of his life. They also may
not know he was a staunch conservative and close friends
with John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. Jim Arness is born
in nineteen twenty three Napolis, Minnesota as James King Arness.
(03:03):
His father, Rolf, is half Norwegian and half German, and
his mother, Ruth is from German stock. His father sells
medical supplies, and his mother. Once Jim and his younger
brother Peter are grown, becomes a newspaper columnist. Arnest later
recalls his Minneapolis childhood is wonderful, although he says he
(03:25):
was a poor student and often skipped classes. He's not
averse to working part time as a teenager, though. His
jobs include being a courier for our wholesaler, loading at
unloading box cars at the railroad freight yards, and spending
one summer logging in Idaho. Jim Marness loves to hunt,
(03:46):
fish and sale. Fortunately for him, his father takes a
family on vacations to Ox Lake, a pristine body of
water some one hundred and sixty miles north of Minneapolis.
A family he stays in a redded cabin on an
island in the lake. Jim is designated wood Chopper. The
(04:07):
exercise in the fresh air must have been good for him.
By the time he's fourteen years old, he stands six
foot seven. He's teased regularly for his great height. His
mother sees how he's been made to feel like an
oddity and writes him a poem titled to a Young Giant,
assuring him that one day his height will be a
(04:29):
sign of distinction. In high school. When a good buddy,
Bill O'Brien moves to Fargo, North Dakota, Arness hops a
freight train to visit him. This is the beginning of
many adventures riding the rails.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I went to a school in minne Apps called the
West High School, and the Milwaukee Railroad line went right
past the school, and we knew there was a train
that would come by at a certain hour, so several
of us would dug out the back door and jump
on this freight train. And so my scholastic achievements were
(05:11):
not really all that great.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And high school, you know, Arnsts skips school on several
occasions and climbs in the box cars just to see
how far he can go. When he and a couple
of friends find themselves stranded one winter night four hundred
miles from home, they call their parents. The mothers think
they should wire the boys money for a bush ride.
(05:34):
Back home. The father's answer with him adamant no, seeing
the boys got themselves there without any help, and they
can darn well use their own ingenuity to get themselves back.
Other adventures include sailing the Caribbean on a freighter. Despite
(05:56):
a less than sparkling academic performance in high school, having
little interest in higher education and his mother's urging, Arness
applies to college. He's accepted at Beloit College in south
eastern Wisconsin for the fall semester in nineteen forty two.
He gets into Beloit only because so many other boys
(06:17):
have left the college to enlist in the military following
Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Arbor. Arness thinks that if
he can complete two years of college, he will become
eligible for the naval flight program. However, his dreams are
dashed when he learns he exceeds the height limit for
(06:37):
the flight program by five inches. He now loses whatever
little interest he has in studying, and after completing one
semester at Beloit, he writes his draft board in Minneapolis
requesting induction.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I'd been initiated into a fraternity there and they were
having a going away party almost every night for some
guy that was going in the service, so I couldn't
wait to get my notice.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
In March nineteen forty three, Arness is ducted into the
Army at Fort Snelling on the southeastern edge of Minneapolis.
After processing, he shipped to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for basic training.
He sails through the training, describing himself as lean and mean,
(07:28):
nothing but boone muscle and sinew. Not an ounce of
fat on me, and I could knock off one of
those twenty mile hikes like it was nothing. He becomes
a rifleman assigned to the infantry. A few months later,
Arness is landing in Casablanca, Morocco. Has a replacement.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Which was kind of funny because while I was in
basic training one Sunday afternoon, I was walking around the
base and they have a little theater there and it
says the movie cast Soblanca was landing. So I went
in and saw a Castle blanct was so great, you know.
So we went across the Atlantic in a big convoy
(08:11):
and we wound up landing at Castle Blanca. So I
was going to look around for Rick's Cafe and all that. Well,
it wasn't like the movie, believe me.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
He undergoes more training but sees no action. Nonetheless, there
are casualties. When our Nests and his fellow soldiers received passes,
they are worn to visit only certain areas and to
never approach Arab women. However, Arab women seductively approached them.
(08:43):
A few soldiers succumbed to the temptation and wander off
with the women. The soldiers are later found with their
pockets empty and their throats cut. In December nineteen four, three,
Arnests and his fellow replacements are loaded aboard a ship
(09:04):
at Oran, Algeria and transported to Naples, Italy. Naples was
seized by the Allies two months earlier. Arnests and the
others are truck twenty miles to a camp in the
hills above the town San Pietro. Into the camp come
veterans from the front, and the looks on their faces
and their stories of combat or sobering. Until now, Arnest
(09:28):
says it was all high adventure for him. He begins
to have second thoughts.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of James RNs And it's when he's watching troops returning
from the front that he realizes this is more than
anything he had ever ever planned on. When we come
back more of the story of James Arnest part of
our Hollywood Goes to War series. Here on our American stories,
(10:09):
and we continue with our American stories and James Arness's
story and his service to our country during World War two.
Part of our Hollywood Goes to War series. Let's return
to doctor Roger McGrath.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
James Arness is assigned to second Platoon, Company E, second Battalion,
seventh Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division. He occasionally sees the
bodies of dead Americans strapped to mules coming back from
the front. Arnst leader says, my enthusiasm for adventure was
(10:45):
waning rapidly. In January nineteen forty four, Arness's outfit is
moved back to Naples and begins training for amphibious landings,
practicing on the beaches the island of Capri and also
at Salerno. After three weeks of this, they are headed
(11:06):
to the harbor for still another training day when they
find the harbor packed with ships. Something big is up.
A few mornings later, Arneests and his buddies are preparing
for another training day when a jeep pulls up to
them and out jumps Brigadier General John O'Daniel, second in
(11:27):
command of the third Infantry Division, known throughout the army
as Iron Mike O'Daniel, the general is a highly decorated
and wounded veteran of World War One who, in one battle,
stayed in the fight for twelve hours after being hit
in the face by a machine gun bullet. Now in
World War Two, O'Daniel has already commanded regiments in the
(11:50):
thick of fighting in North Africa, Sicily, and Salerno. He's
famous for leading from the front. Arnest says he's a
rough and read guy with a powerful presence. He gives
the men, in Arnest's words, a marvelous pep talk. The
next day, January twenty two, nineteen forty four, our Nest
(12:12):
finds himself in a landing craft headed to the beach
at Anzio, some thirty miles south of Rome. A sergeant
gives our Nest an extra load to carry a burlap
sack with T and T charges and says, you'll go
first down the ramp on the beach. That way we
can check the water depth. If you go under, we
(12:35):
know we have to move closer to shore. Good luck,
our nest goes into waste high water and wades ashore.
Other troops follow until fifteen thousand of them are standing
on the beach, stunned that not a shot has been fired.
When American forces move inland, though, the Germans open up,
(12:58):
and the fighting's intense day after day. In firefight after firefight,
bullets in shrap, though, wound or kill those around Jim
Arness and splatter him with their flesh and blood, But
again and again he emerges without a scratch. How our
target that large can be missed while smaller men around
(13:21):
our nests are dying is something of a mystery. Near
the end of January, Arnetts in his platoon come upon
a farmhouse. All looks peaceful enough until a German machine
gun opens up from the second story window and pins
down the platoon. Arneests and another soldier are ordered to
(13:43):
see if they can make their way to the rear
of the farmhouse and attack from there. They crawl through
shrubs and grass, hoping they're not spotted, while a machine
gun intermittent belches fire at the platoon's position. Arnests and
his partner reach position behind the farmhouse and see an
outside staircase leading to an open door on the second floor.
(14:08):
Says ar Nests. We crept up the stairs, threw in
a couple of hand grenades, and ducked. The second they exploded,
we rushed through the door and spray the room with gunfire.
The German machine gun was now a piece of twisted metal,
and three gunners lay sprawled around the small room. On
the moonless night of February one, Arnest's platoon is ordered
(14:32):
to recognoiter the area between the American lines and those
of the Germans as quietly as possible. The Americans move
out ar Nest's walking point for the squad. It's so
dark he has trouble seeing his own feet. After some
twenty minutes of the walk in the dark, our Nest
(14:53):
comes upon a vineyard, pauses and strains to hear some
sounds in the distance, voices German voices. Just then a
German machine gun opens up. A bullet rips into Arnest's
lower leg, shattering his tibia. While the pain is extruciating,
(15:15):
he throws himself over some vines into a ditch. Other
Americans trailing him are also hit. Harness is only semi
conscious when a medic bends over him, cuts open his
pant leg, pours sofa powder into the wound, wraps the leg,
and shoots Arnest with morphine. Harness lies there in a
(15:39):
semi conscious state for what seems to him like hours.
He begins to fear he's been forgotten. Terrible pain is
coming back as the effects of the morphine shot begin
to subside. He's almost given up hope when another medic
comes upon him and gives him another shot. Stretcher bearers
(16:01):
arrive and begin to carry him back towards the American Lions.
They slept crossing a ridge and pick Jim. Arnest tumbles
off a litter and rolls down a hillside. They raced
to his side. Very he sustains further damage, says our nests.
I told them to forget it. I was, of course
(16:22):
in no pain. Our Nest is eventually taken to an
evacuation hospital on the beach. After ten days of fighting.
His war is over.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I felt very fortunate to have been to get out
that lucky. And you think of all the guys who
didn't you know, Well, that's all was stayed in my head.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Jim and House spends nearly a year in hospitals, undergoes
several surgeries and almost loses his leg until a new drug, penicillin,
stops an infection. He's finally discharged at the end of
January nineteenth forty five at the rank of corporal with
a disability pension and a bronze star and a purple heart.
(17:08):
Arness returns home and takes a course in radio announcing.
His voice is strong, clear, and well modulated. He gets
a job at a local radio station, but surprises management
when he leaves to take a trip to California with
a friend who is interested in acting. The friend has
a buddy in Santa Monica. He introduces them to the
(17:30):
beach and to bodysurfing. Arness loves the ocean and the
waves and is hooked for life. Soon he tries surfing
with a board, and now he's even more stoked. His
first board is twelve feet long and made of red wood.
It weighs one hundred and twenty five pounds. Arness enrolls
(17:52):
in an acting class and gets apart in a play.
His good looks, size, strong voice, in the ability to
deliver lines in a natural manner soon have Hollywood talent
scouts taking him to the studios for interviews.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
And I wound up with a part and a play,
and an agent saw it one night and he said,
ask me afterward if I had an agent. I said no,
so he said both. Let me take you to on
an interview tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
actor James Arness, and by the way, you're also listening
to James Rness as well. And what a life and
what an adventure he's embarked on in this World War
two battle that finds him well, being wounded and seriously wounded,
(18:45):
semi conscious, jabbed with morphine, and almost loses a leg,
but for the advent of penicillin he would have and
he spent a year in and out of hospitals, and
as he said, I felt fortunate to get out that lucky.
And when he returns home, he's awarded a bronze star
(19:06):
and a purple heart, I mean, advanced to the rank
of corporal and then began his quest west to pursue
his career in acting. When we come back more of
the story of James Arness and our Hollywood goes to
War series here on our American stories, and we returned
(19:38):
to our American stories and the story of actor James Arness,
and let's pick up where we last left off. You're
going to be hearing from doctor Roger McGrath. But first
here's Arness himself.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
So I went with him over to our Chao studios
on this interview and wound up with a part in
this picture. It was like providential, you know. I just
came in out of nowhere and they were making a
picture called The Farmer's Daughter about this family of farmers,
(20:15):
Scandinavian farmers from Minnesota. I don't know, I don't know
how this they ever have the time out, but I
wound up He had played one of the brothers of
Loretta Young.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
In his picture, Young will win the Oscar for Best Actress.
During the production, Harness has the time of his life
and is making four hundred dollars a week, something like
eight thousand a week in today's money. He can't believe
his good fortune when the shoot wraps, though he's out
(20:53):
of work at first, this is fine with him. There's
plenty of time to hang out at the beach and surf.
As the months go by with no more parts come
in his way, and begins to think of paths in
life other than acting. Then he gets a part in
a play and meets Virginia Chapman, who is dedicated to
(21:14):
her acting career and thinks Arness should show the same
dedication to his own career. They fall in love and
get married. She brings to the marriage her eighteen month
old son, Craig Arness, adopts Craig and now Jim Arness.
The beach Bump fully commits himself to acting. His new
(21:36):
dedication pays off. In the late nineteen forties, he gets
parts in the movies Roses are Red, The Man from Texas,
and Battleground, and then he appears in four movies in
nineteen fifty, including Wagonmaster.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Things just came along. I had the same agent one day,
said I got an interview for over at RKO and
Culver City and some guys doing a movie that he
took me over there, and he ushered me into this
office here with John Ford's and he looked me over
(22:17):
for a couple of minutes. I wound up getting a
part in this movie that he was making at the time.
It was called wagon Master, and I had a good
part in that. But these kind of things just sort
of came along. I didn't have to hunt them down, really,
just the thing sort of providentially came along.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
By nineteen fifty one is all the work you can handle,
appearing in seven movies, including the science fiction classic The
Thing from Another World. During the next four years, he's
in fourteen more movies. His roles are ever more substantial
and evermore varied. He works with John Wayne in Big
(23:01):
Jim McLean, Island in the Sky, Hondo, and The Sea Chase.
In nineteen fifty five, he's offered the lead role in
what will become one of the longest running television series
in history, Gun Smoke.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I was making a movie and John Wayne had loaned
me out to this company, and they started calling me.
And I had heard that they were going to do
this television show out of Gunsmoke. I had heard it
on the radio many times in all, and they were
(23:38):
looking at a whole bunch of pea, practically every actor
in town, you know. They called me one evening. We
were still on the side of this picture, and I said, well,
thank you very much, but I think I'm going to
pass it, you know, And so I guess they called Duke. See,
(24:00):
I was still under contract to him. So he called
me in and he said, look, he said, you'd be
crazy not to take this thing. He said, it'd be
just like it was with me when I was a
young actor. He said, he played in those cereals that
ran on Saturday afternoon all and I'd seen him in
(24:21):
a number of those. We used to go up to
the theater and Saturday afternoon and see his cereals and
Buck Rogers and all those things, you know. And he
really talked turkey to me, and he was thinking of
my best good and it turned out he was totally right.
(24:42):
I would have been crazy to pass that up.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
It turned into a forty year job for me here
you know, good evening.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
My name's Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before,
I hope. So I've been kicking around Hollywood a long time.
I've made a lot of pictures out here, all kinds,
and some of them have been Westerns. And that's what
I'm here to tell you about tonight, a Western, a
new television show called gun Smoke. No I'm not in it.
(25:17):
I wish I were, though, because I think it's the
best thing of its kind that's come along. It's honest
it's adult, it's realistic. Well, when I first heard about
the show Gun Smoke, I knew there was only one
man to play in it, James Arness. He's a young
fella and may be new to some of you, but
(25:38):
I've worked with him, and I predict you'll be a
big star, so you might as well get used to
him like you've had to get used to me. And
now I'm proud to present my friend, Jim Arness.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I've been thinking about you. Grigel had decided you're not
fit to live. Marshall.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
You got nothing on me.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I kill those two men in self defense. Sure thery
no court in the world to convict me.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
I'm an innocent man.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I'm not talking about hanging you. Well, what are you
talking about? Care we go, I'm going out in the
street and I'm gonna wait for you. What then.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I'm gonna kid you. As Marshall Matt Dillon, he appears
in six hundred and thirty five episodes. Somehow he finds
the time to appear in three more movies after he's
begun the series.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I watched the old shows now all the time, every day,
at least half or more of the shows that we
did six hundred and twenty five episode. I have never
seen at the time we made them. The first number
of years we were on on Saturday Night and I
was out somewhere else and on through the years, I
(27:06):
never saw. So it's a real treat for me to
see today. I realize why it was that we stayed
on for so long, and we're popular, had an audience
for that length of time.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Meanwhile, in January nineteen fifty, our Nest moves his family
into a newly built house in Pacific Palisades. In the spring,
his wife, Virginia gives birth to their daughter, Jenny. Less
than two years later, a second son, Rolf, is born Ralph,
(27:45):
who win a surfing championship in nineteen seventy. James Arnest
dies in twenty eleven at eighty eight years old.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
My overall remembrance of my whole career right the Farmer's Daughter,
was that I've had a sense of providentiality spanning a
period of fifty years there as in the case with Gunsmog,
and it's still out there John every day and gets
(28:16):
a large audience, just as one of the luckiest guys
that ever came through the business. That's all had a
marvelous life.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Shortly before his passing, he describes his wife like an
ocean voyage and says, I've experienced my share of heavy weather,
but mostly it's been smooth sailing with fair winds and
following seas. He also says I was honored to have
(28:49):
served in the army for my country.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I don't know, Dan, I have knowledge approve how fast
yard the jaw?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Would you tell me?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Kids? You go to ben All right, Jenny, kids, this
is Marshall, Matt Dillon, a gun smoke talking to you.
I'll get to bed early and get some rest because
you don't want to miss my new CBS television show,
And good night all that We got the kids, and
bet it's safe to tell the adults the show's docs
a Saturday night on CBS at ten o'clock Eastern time. Right,
that's smoke. So thank you very much, Marshall, Thank thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And a terrific job by the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, High Wyman and Vigilantes Violence
on the Frontier. He's a US marine, former history professor
at UCLA and a regular on the History Channel and
also a regular contributor here at Our American Stories. And
(29:46):
what another great chapter in our Hollywood Goes to War series.
As he put it, he had a sense of the providential.
I bet his life in this work and his life
as an actor, and of course he dies at the
age of eighty eight and twenty eleven. And as he said,
I had a marvelous life, and no doubt he did
(30:10):
the story of Marshall Matt Dillon aka James Arness here
on Our American Stories
And we continue with our American Stories. James Arness is
recognized as one of America's most beloved actors. Generations have
grown up with him as Marshall Matt Dillon on TV's
longest running series, Gun Smoke. Here to tell another Hollywood
Goes to War's story is Roger McGrath. Wrath is the
(00:31):
author of Gunfighters, Howiman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier,
the US Marine, and former history professor at UCLA. McGrath
has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's a
regular contributor here at our American Stories. Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
McGrath love Johnny Carson, Joel.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Storry, Johnny Card, you know.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
And he's the star that new CBS show that's coming
up soon, gun Smoke. And here he is, mister Jim Arnest, Jim.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Everyone thinks of James R. Nest as Matt Dillon, the
brave and incorportible town marshal of a Dodge City in
the television series Gun Smoke. I think of him as
the father of one of my childhood friends. When you're
a young kid, all adults look big to you. James
Rness looked like a giant. He stood six foot seven
(01:32):
and weighed two hundred and thirty five pounds. Hit a
big bone frame, and was lean at that weight. Shaking
hands with him was like getting your hand caught in
the jaws of a giant beer of vice grips spider.
His great size, he could serve fairly well. His board
was nearly the size of a tandem board. Most people
(01:55):
don't think of James R. Nest in films, but it
was in thirty movies before Guns Smoke began its twenty
year run on television. He was the Thing in the
nineteen fifty one science fiction thriller The Thing from Another World,
which is hailed as a classic of the science fiction genre,
(02:18):
mostly though he played typical character roles in his other
movies such as Wagonmaster, Carbine Williams, and Horizons West. If
most people don't know of Arnessa's movie work prior to
television's Gun Smoke, they also generally don't know of his
service in World War Two, which shoined him a Bronze
(02:39):
Star and purple heart and left him with a slight
limp for the rest of his life. They also may
not know he was a staunch conservative and close friends
with John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. Jim Arness is born
in nineteen twenty three Napolis, Minnesota as James King Arness.
(03:03):
His father, Rolf, is half Norwegian and half German, and
his mother, Ruth is from German stock. His father sells
medical supplies, and his mother. Once Jim and his younger
brother Peter are grown, becomes a newspaper columnist. Arnest later
recalls his Minneapolis childhood is wonderful, although he says he
(03:25):
was a poor student and often skipped classes. He's not
averse to working part time as a teenager, though. His
jobs include being a courier for our wholesaler, loading at
unloading box cars at the railroad freight yards, and spending
one summer logging in Idaho. Jim Marness loves to hunt,
(03:46):
fish and sale. Fortunately for him, his father takes a
family on vacations to Ox Lake, a pristine body of
water some one hundred and sixty miles north of Minneapolis.
A family he stays in a redded cabin on an
island in the lake. Jim is designated wood Chopper. The
(04:07):
exercise in the fresh air must have been good for him.
By the time he's fourteen years old, he stands six
foot seven. He's teased regularly for his great height. His
mother sees how he's been made to feel like an
oddity and writes him a poem titled to a Young Giant,
assuring him that one day his height will be a
(04:29):
sign of distinction. In high school. When a good buddy,
Bill O'Brien moves to Fargo, North Dakota, Arness hops a
freight train to visit him. This is the beginning of
many adventures riding the rails.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
I went to a school in minne Apps called the
West High School, and the Milwaukee Railroad line went right
past the school, and we knew there was a train
that would come by at a certain hour, so several
of us would dug out the back door and jump
on this freight train. And so my scholastic achievements were
(05:11):
not really all that great.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And high school, you know, Arnsts skips school on several
occasions and climbs in the box cars just to see
how far he can go. When he and a couple
of friends find themselves stranded one winter night four hundred
miles from home, they call their parents. The mothers think
they should wire the boys money for a bush ride.
(05:34):
Back home. The father's answer with him adamant no, seeing
the boys got themselves there without any help, and they
can darn well use their own ingenuity to get themselves back.
Other adventures include sailing the Caribbean on a freighter. Despite
(05:56):
a less than sparkling academic performance in high school, having
little interest in higher education and his mother's urging, Arness
applies to college. He's accepted at Beloit College in south
eastern Wisconsin for the fall semester in nineteen forty two.
He gets into Beloit only because so many other boys
(06:17):
have left the college to enlist in the military following
Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Arbor. Arness thinks that if
he can complete two years of college, he will become
eligible for the naval flight program. However, his dreams are
dashed when he learns he exceeds the height limit for
(06:37):
the flight program by five inches. He now loses whatever
little interest he has in studying, and after completing one
semester at Beloit, he writes his draft board in Minneapolis
requesting induction.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I'd been initiated into a fraternity there and they were
having a going away party almost every night for some
guy that was going in the service, so I couldn't
wait to get my notice.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
In March nineteen forty three, Arness is ducted into the
Army at Fort Snelling on the southeastern edge of Minneapolis.
After processing, he shipped to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for basic training.
He sails through the training, describing himself as lean and mean,
(07:28):
nothing but boone muscle and sinew. Not an ounce of
fat on me, and I could knock off one of
those twenty mile hikes like it was nothing. He becomes
a rifleman assigned to the infantry. A few months later,
Arness is landing in Casablanca, Morocco. Has a replacement.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Which was kind of funny because while I was in
basic training one Sunday afternoon, I was walking around the
base and they have a little theater there and it
says the movie cast Soblanca was landing. So I went
in and saw a Castle blanct was so great, you know.
So we went across the Atlantic in a big convoy
(08:11):
and we wound up landing at Castle Blanca. So I
was going to look around for Rick's Cafe and all that. Well,
it wasn't like the movie, believe me.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
He undergoes more training but sees no action. Nonetheless, there
are casualties. When our Nests and his fellow soldiers received passes,
they are worn to visit only certain areas and to
never approach Arab women. However, Arab women seductively approached them.
(08:43):
A few soldiers succumbed to the temptation and wander off
with the women. The soldiers are later found with their
pockets empty and their throats cut. In December nineteen four, three,
Arnests and his fellow replacements are loaded aboard a ship
(09:04):
at Oran, Algeria and transported to Naples, Italy. Naples was
seized by the Allies two months earlier. Arnests and the
others are truck twenty miles to a camp in the
hills above the town San Pietro. Into the camp come
veterans from the front, and the looks on their faces
and their stories of combat or sobering. Until now, Arnest
(09:28):
says it was all high adventure for him. He begins
to have second thoughts.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
And you've been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story
of James RNs And it's when he's watching troops returning
from the front that he realizes this is more than
anything he had ever ever planned on. When we come
back more of the story of James Arnest part of
our Hollywood Goes to War series. Here on our American stories,
(10:09):
and we continue with our American stories and James Arness's
story and his service to our country during World War two.
Part of our Hollywood Goes to War series. Let's return
to doctor Roger McGrath.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
James Arness is assigned to second Platoon, Company E, second Battalion,
seventh Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division. He occasionally sees the
bodies of dead Americans strapped to mules coming back from
the front. Arnst leader says, my enthusiasm for adventure was
(10:45):
waning rapidly. In January nineteen forty four, Arness's outfit is
moved back to Naples and begins training for amphibious landings,
practicing on the beaches the island of Capri and also
at Salerno. After three weeks of this, they are headed
(11:06):
to the harbor for still another training day when they
find the harbor packed with ships. Something big is up.
A few mornings later, Arneests and his buddies are preparing
for another training day when a jeep pulls up to
them and out jumps Brigadier General John O'Daniel, second in
(11:27):
command of the third Infantry Division, known throughout the army
as Iron Mike O'Daniel, the general is a highly decorated
and wounded veteran of World War One who, in one battle,
stayed in the fight for twelve hours after being hit
in the face by a machine gun bullet. Now in
World War Two, O'Daniel has already commanded regiments in the
(11:50):
thick of fighting in North Africa, Sicily, and Salerno. He's
famous for leading from the front. Arnest says he's a
rough and read guy with a powerful presence. He gives
the men, in Arnest's words, a marvelous pep talk. The
next day, January twenty two, nineteen forty four, our Nest
(12:12):
finds himself in a landing craft headed to the beach
at Anzio, some thirty miles south of Rome. A sergeant
gives our Nest an extra load to carry a burlap
sack with T and T charges and says, you'll go
first down the ramp on the beach. That way we
can check the water depth. If you go under, we
(12:35):
know we have to move closer to shore. Good luck,
our nest goes into waste high water and wades ashore.
Other troops follow until fifteen thousand of them are standing
on the beach, stunned that not a shot has been fired.
When American forces move inland, though, the Germans open up,
(12:58):
and the fighting's intense day after day. In firefight after firefight,
bullets in shrap, though, wound or kill those around Jim
Arness and splatter him with their flesh and blood, But
again and again he emerges without a scratch. How our
target that large can be missed while smaller men around
(13:21):
our nests are dying is something of a mystery. Near
the end of January, Arnetts in his platoon come upon
a farmhouse. All looks peaceful enough until a German machine
gun opens up from the second story window and pins
down the platoon. Arneests and another soldier are ordered to
(13:43):
see if they can make their way to the rear
of the farmhouse and attack from there. They crawl through
shrubs and grass, hoping they're not spotted, while a machine
gun intermittent belches fire at the platoon's position. Arnests and
his partner reach position behind the farmhouse and see an
outside staircase leading to an open door on the second floor.
(14:08):
Says ar Nests. We crept up the stairs, threw in
a couple of hand grenades, and ducked. The second they exploded,
we rushed through the door and spray the room with gunfire.
The German machine gun was now a piece of twisted metal,
and three gunners lay sprawled around the small room. On
the moonless night of February one, Arnest's platoon is ordered
(14:32):
to recognoiter the area between the American lines and those
of the Germans as quietly as possible. The Americans move
out ar Nest's walking point for the squad. It's so
dark he has trouble seeing his own feet. After some
twenty minutes of the walk in the dark, our Nest
(14:53):
comes upon a vineyard, pauses and strains to hear some
sounds in the distance, voices German voices. Just then a
German machine gun opens up. A bullet rips into Arnest's
lower leg, shattering his tibia. While the pain is extruciating,
(15:15):
he throws himself over some vines into a ditch. Other
Americans trailing him are also hit. Harness is only semi
conscious when a medic bends over him, cuts open his
pant leg, pours sofa powder into the wound, wraps the leg,
and shoots Arnest with morphine. Harness lies there in a
(15:39):
semi conscious state for what seems to him like hours.
He begins to fear he's been forgotten. Terrible pain is
coming back as the effects of the morphine shot begin
to subside. He's almost given up hope when another medic
comes upon him and gives him another shot. Stretcher bearers
(16:01):
arrive and begin to carry him back towards the American Lions.
They slept crossing a ridge and pick Jim. Arnest tumbles
off a litter and rolls down a hillside. They raced
to his side. Very he sustains further damage, says our nests.
I told them to forget it. I was, of course
(16:22):
in no pain. Our Nest is eventually taken to an
evacuation hospital on the beach. After ten days of fighting.
His war is over.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
I felt very fortunate to have been to get out
that lucky. And you think of all the guys who
didn't you know, Well, that's all was stayed in my head.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Jim and House spends nearly a year in hospitals, undergoes
several surgeries and almost loses his leg until a new drug, penicillin,
stops an infection. He's finally discharged at the end of
January nineteenth forty five at the rank of corporal with
a disability pension and a bronze star and a purple heart.
(17:08):
Arness returns home and takes a course in radio announcing.
His voice is strong, clear, and well modulated. He gets
a job at a local radio station, but surprises management
when he leaves to take a trip to California with
a friend who is interested in acting. The friend has
a buddy in Santa Monica. He introduces them to the
(17:30):
beach and to bodysurfing. Arness loves the ocean and the
waves and is hooked for life. Soon he tries surfing
with a board, and now he's even more stoked. His
first board is twelve feet long and made of red wood.
It weighs one hundred and twenty five pounds. Arness enrolls
(17:52):
in an acting class and gets apart in a play.
His good looks, size, strong voice, in the ability to
deliver lines in a natural manner soon have Hollywood talent
scouts taking him to the studios for interviews.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
And I wound up with a part and a play,
and an agent saw it one night and he said,
ask me afterward if I had an agent. I said no,
so he said both. Let me take you to on
an interview tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
actor James Arness, and by the way, you're also listening
to James Rness as well. And what a life and
what an adventure he's embarked on in this World War
two battle that finds him well, being wounded and seriously wounded,
(18:45):
semi conscious, jabbed with morphine, and almost loses a leg,
but for the advent of penicillin he would have and
he spent a year in and out of hospitals, and
as he said, I felt fortunate to get out that lucky.
And when he returns home, he's awarded a bronze star
(19:06):
and a purple heart, I mean, advanced to the rank
of corporal and then began his quest west to pursue
his career in acting. When we come back more of
the story of James Arness and our Hollywood goes to
War series here on our American stories, and we returned
(19:38):
to our American stories and the story of actor James Arness,
and let's pick up where we last left off. You're
going to be hearing from doctor Roger McGrath. But first
here's Arness himself.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
So I went with him over to our Chao studios
on this interview and wound up with a part in
this picture. It was like providential, you know. I just
came in out of nowhere and they were making a
picture called The Farmer's Daughter about this family of farmers,
(20:15):
Scandinavian farmers from Minnesota. I don't know, I don't know
how this they ever have the time out, but I
wound up He had played one of the brothers of
Loretta Young.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
In his picture, Young will win the Oscar for Best Actress.
During the production, Harness has the time of his life
and is making four hundred dollars a week, something like
eight thousand a week in today's money. He can't believe
his good fortune when the shoot wraps, though he's out
(20:53):
of work at first, this is fine with him. There's
plenty of time to hang out at the beach and surf.
As the months go by with no more parts come
in his way, and begins to think of paths in
life other than acting. Then he gets a part in
a play and meets Virginia Chapman, who is dedicated to
(21:14):
her acting career and thinks Arness should show the same
dedication to his own career. They fall in love and
get married. She brings to the marriage her eighteen month
old son, Craig Arness, adopts Craig and now Jim Arness.
The beach Bump fully commits himself to acting. His new
(21:36):
dedication pays off. In the late nineteen forties, he gets
parts in the movies Roses are Red, The Man from Texas,
and Battleground, and then he appears in four movies in
nineteen fifty, including Wagonmaster.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Things just came along. I had the same agent one day,
said I got an interview for over at RKO and
Culver City and some guys doing a movie that he
took me over there, and he ushered me into this
office here with John Ford's and he looked me over
(22:17):
for a couple of minutes. I wound up getting a
part in this movie that he was making at the time.
It was called wagon Master, and I had a good
part in that. But these kind of things just sort
of came along. I didn't have to hunt them down, really,
just the thing sort of providentially came along.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
By nineteen fifty one is all the work you can handle,
appearing in seven movies, including the science fiction classic The
Thing from Another World. During the next four years, he's
in fourteen more movies. His roles are ever more substantial
and evermore varied. He works with John Wayne in Big
(23:01):
Jim McLean, Island in the Sky, Hondo, and The Sea Chase.
In nineteen fifty five, he's offered the lead role in
what will become one of the longest running television series
in history, Gun Smoke.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I was making a movie and John Wayne had loaned
me out to this company, and they started calling me.
And I had heard that they were going to do
this television show out of Gunsmoke. I had heard it
on the radio many times in all, and they were
(23:38):
looking at a whole bunch of pea, practically every actor
in town, you know. They called me one evening. We
were still on the side of this picture, and I said, well,
thank you very much, but I think I'm going to
pass it, you know, And so I guess they called Duke. See,
(24:00):
I was still under contract to him. So he called
me in and he said, look, he said, you'd be
crazy not to take this thing. He said, it'd be
just like it was with me when I was a
young actor. He said, he played in those cereals that
ran on Saturday afternoon all and I'd seen him in
(24:21):
a number of those. We used to go up to
the theater and Saturday afternoon and see his cereals and
Buck Rogers and all those things, you know. And he
really talked turkey to me, and he was thinking of
my best good and it turned out he was totally right.
(24:42):
I would have been crazy to pass that up.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
You know.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
It turned into a forty year job for me here
you know, good evening.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
My name's Wayne. Some of you may have seen me before,
I hope. So I've been kicking around Hollywood a long time.
I've made a lot of pictures out here, all kinds,
and some of them have been Westerns. And that's what
I'm here to tell you about tonight, a Western, a
new television show called gun Smoke. No I'm not in it.
(25:17):
I wish I were, though, because I think it's the
best thing of its kind that's come along. It's honest
it's adult, it's realistic. Well, when I first heard about
the show Gun Smoke, I knew there was only one
man to play in it, James Arness. He's a young
fella and may be new to some of you, but
(25:38):
I've worked with him, and I predict you'll be a
big star, so you might as well get used to
him like you've had to get used to me. And
now I'm proud to present my friend, Jim Arness.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
I've been thinking about you. Grigel had decided you're not
fit to live. Marshall.
Speaker 5 (26:03):
You got nothing on me.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
I kill those two men in self defense. Sure thery
no court in the world to convict me.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
I'm an innocent man.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
I'm not talking about hanging you. Well, what are you
talking about? Care we go, I'm going out in the
street and I'm gonna wait for you. What then.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
I'm gonna kid you. As Marshall Matt Dillon, he appears
in six hundred and thirty five episodes. Somehow he finds
the time to appear in three more movies after he's
begun the series.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I watched the old shows now all the time, every day,
at least half or more of the shows that we
did six hundred and twenty five episode. I have never
seen at the time we made them. The first number
of years we were on on Saturday Night and I
was out somewhere else and on through the years, I
(27:06):
never saw. So it's a real treat for me to
see today. I realize why it was that we stayed
on for so long, and we're popular, had an audience
for that length of time.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Meanwhile, in January nineteen fifty, our Nest moves his family
into a newly built house in Pacific Palisades. In the spring,
his wife, Virginia gives birth to their daughter, Jenny. Less
than two years later, a second son, Rolf, is born Ralph,
(27:45):
who win a surfing championship in nineteen seventy. James Arnest
dies in twenty eleven at eighty eight years old.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
My overall remembrance of my whole career right the Farmer's Daughter,
was that I've had a sense of providentiality spanning a
period of fifty years there as in the case with Gunsmog,
and it's still out there John every day and gets
(28:16):
a large audience, just as one of the luckiest guys
that ever came through the business. That's all had a
marvelous life.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Shortly before his passing, he describes his wife like an
ocean voyage and says, I've experienced my share of heavy weather,
but mostly it's been smooth sailing with fair winds and
following seas. He also says I was honored to have
(28:49):
served in the army for my country.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I don't know, Dan, I have knowledge approve how fast
yard the jaw?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
Would you tell me?
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Kids? You go to ben All right, Jenny, kids, this
is Marshall, Matt Dillon, a gun smoke talking to you.
I'll get to bed early and get some rest because
you don't want to miss my new CBS television show,
And good night all that We got the kids, and
bet it's safe to tell the adults the show's docs
a Saturday night on CBS at ten o'clock Eastern time. Right,
that's smoke. So thank you very much, Marshall, Thank thank you.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
And a terrific job by the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to
Roger McGrath, author of Gunfighters, High Wyman and Vigilantes Violence
on the Frontier. He's a US marine, former history professor
at UCLA and a regular on the History Channel and
also a regular contributor here at Our American Stories. And
(29:46):
what another great chapter in our Hollywood Goes to War series.
As he put it, he had a sense of the providential.
I bet his life in this work and his life
as an actor, and of course he dies at the
age of eighty eight and twenty eleven. And as he said,
I had a marvelous life, and no doubt he did
(30:10):
the story of Marshall Matt Dillon aka James Arness here
on Our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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