The Searchers (62 page)

“Read this,” Pat told his father:
Pat Ford interview by James D'Arc (BYU).

“I went into Dave's office”:
Cooper to Wayne, March 15, 1971 (BYU).

With a wife and four children to support:
Randy Roberts and James S. Olson,
John Wayne American
, p. 117.

“When I started, I knew I was no actor”:
Dean Jennings, “John Wayne: The Woes of Box-Office King,”
Saturday Evening Post
, October 27, 1962.

Thus … “the beginning of the finest relationship”:
John Wayne,
My Kingdom Is a Horse
ms., p. 9 (Zolotow).

“I'd never seen a genius at work before”:
Pilar Wayne,
John Wayne: My Life with the Duke
, p. 19.

“I poured out my troubles to him”:
My Kingdom
ms., p. 6.

“I walked out of the gate”:
Ibid., p. 8.

“I should have complained to Ford”:
Ibid., pp. 1–2.

Walsh was looking for a new talent:
Interview with Raoul Walsh, April 10, 1972, Box 12, F6 (Zolotow).

“We looked high and low”:
Man and Superman
draft, “The Making of John Wayne,” p. 204 Box 11, F1 (Zolotow).

“He had a certain western hang”:
Ibid., p. 209.

“They came up with John Wayne”:
Playboy
interview, May 1971.

“Instead of facing me with it”:
John Wayne interview (JFP).

John Ford “did not surround himself”:
Dan Ford,
Pappy
, p. 118.

The Gower Gulch cowboys:
Diana Serra Carey, daughter of cowhand Jack Montgomery, gives the most detailed and loving account of the horsemen and their work in
The Hollywood Posse
, dedicated to her parents and “the Gower Gulch men.”

“I studied him for many weeks”:
“Lights! Camera! Action!” chapter of
My Kingdom
ms., p. 9.

“Before I came along”:
Ibid., p. 8.

Paul “coached him, he taught him”:
Author's interview with Carey.

“Duke's basic problem”:
Paul Fix,
Man and Superman
draft, p. 257, B11 (Zolotow).

He believed the pause helped rivet the audience:
Joseph McBride note to the author, p. 5.

no one expects Laurence Olivier:
Jeanine Basinger,
The Star Machine
, p. 75.

“I've found the character”:
“John Wayne—Arnold Michaelis Interview,”
Saturday Evening Post
, 1962, p. 5.

“We treated them as if they had the same moral code”:
Joe McInerney, “John Wayne Talks Tough,”
Film Comment
, p. 54.

something that was true:
David Denby, “Clint Eastwood's Shifting Landscape,”
New Yorker
, March 8, 2010, p. 55.

“Christ, if you learned to act”:
McBride, p. 280.

“You idiot, couldn't you play it?”:
Ibid., p. 281.

“Can't you walk, for Chrissake”:
Ibid., p. 298.

“Ford took Duke by the chin”:
Roberts and Olson, p. 155.

“I was so fucking mad”:
McBride, p. 297.

Just like Humphrey Bogart:
Denby, p. 55.

“One thing I can't understand”:
Bogdanovich, p. 72.

“Mr. Ford is not one of your subtle directors”:
Frank Nugent, “Stagecoach,”
NYT
, March 3, 1939.

he got to Midway Island:
Account of JF's filming of the Battle of Midway is largely from McBride, pp. 335–7, and Robert Parrish,
Growing Up in Hollywood
, pp. 144–51.

“Well Jesus, I'm forty years old”:
JW interview, Tape 2, Side 4, pp. 4–5 in Box 12, F17 (JFP).

“You represent the American serviceman”:
Slotkin,
Gunfighter Nation
, pp. 514–15.

“Duke, can't you manage a salute”:
Lindsay Anderson,
About John Ford
, p. 226.

“Don't ever talk to Duke”:
Eyman, p. 279.

Argosy, which was partly bankrolled:
Vaz, p. 335.

“I never knew the big son of a bitch could act”:
McBride, p. 459.

“I don't think he ever really had any kind of respect”:
Joseph McBride and Michael Wilmington,
John Ford
, p. 153.

“It was an emotional reaction”:
JW interview, Tape 80, 1 (JFP).

the melancholy authority figure:
Wills, p. 13.

“not the world's greatest actor”:
“The Wages of Virtue,”
Time
, March 3, 1952.

“There is enough unacknowledged sorrow”:
A. O. Scott, “How the Western Was Won,”
NYT
, June 11, 2006.

“His role … was to emerge after the battle”:
Wills, p. 197.

“My name is John Ford”:
A detailed account of the meeting is in Parrish, pp. 207–10.

three to six packs of cigarettes:
Pilar Wayne, p. 103; James Bacon, “John Wayne: The Last Cowboy,”
Us
, June 27, 1978.

“My dad had tremendous loyalty”:
Author's email interview with Patrick Wayne, February 5, 2009.

“No Western picture”:
Frank Gruber, “The Western,” in
TV and Screen Writing
, pp. 39–44.

MGM offered a 50–50 split:
Merian Cooper telegram, December 14, 1954 (CVW)

John Ford got a flat fee:
Whitney contract, Nov. 29, 1954, Box 12, F23 (JFP).

“We are busy working on the script”:
Ronald L. Davis,
John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master
, p. 271.

Ford had intended to make a film:
Swindell, pp. 146–47.

“I go out to Arizona, I breathe fresh air”:
Ford undated audio interview (MHL).

“a very strange man”:
James D'Arc interview with Pat Ford, April 25, 1979 (BYU). Scott Eyman's
Print the Legend
has a detailed accounts of Pat's relationship with JF: see pp. 298–99, 307, 499–500, 507–508, and more.

“Pat was an able guy”:
Author's interview with Dan Ford, March 22, 2009.

“that capon son of a bitch”:
O'Hara, p. 179.

“There is no communal life”:
Inter-Office Memorandum, February 1, 1955; the account that follows is from Pat Ford's extensive notes (JFP).

“We hope to portray … with as much barbarism”:
JF, “Notes on
The Searchers
,” January 26, 1955 (JFP).

“Their villages … are scenes of utter squalor”:
PF, Notes on
The Searchers
, January 26, 1955.

“The Indians were to be treated fairly”:
Eleanor S. Whitney,
Invitation to Joy
, p. 5.

“It is important that the costumes”:
JF, “Notes” (JFP).

“rough … rugged … cold”:
JF memo, p. 3, January 26, 1955 (JFP).

“in the style of Donald O'Connor”:
Kathleen Cliffton interview, Side 1, p. 7, Box 11, F20 (JFP). See also Joseph McBride, “The Pathological Hero's Conscience: Screenwriter Frank S. Nugent Was the Quiet Man Behind John Ford,”
Written By
, May 2001.

“The Grapes of Wrath …
is just about as good as any picture”:
Nugent review,
NYT
, January 25, 1940.

“a very exorbitant salary”:
Dave Jampel, “Films More Mature Today, Says Screenwriter Nugent,”
Mainichi Daily News
, 1961 (FSN).

“My opinion of this script”:
Nugent to Zanuck, May 20, 1942 (FSN).

“Dear Frank”:
Zanuck to Nugent, May 17, 1944 (FSN).

He even tried unsuccessfully:
Nugent to Lester Markel, March 14, 1944 (FSN).

“to get the smell and feel of the land”:
Anderson, p. 242. British film critic Lindsay Anderson corresponded with Nugent, Dudley Nichols, and Nunnally Johnson in the early 1950s and published their accounts of screenplay writing for Ford.

“groping like a musician”:
Anderson, p. 244.

“He used to fight your grandfather”:
James W. Bellah interview, p. 5, Box 11, F16 (JFP).

“just a little right of Attila”:
Ronald L. Davis,
John Ford
, p. 204.

“I liked your script, boys”:
McBride, p. 497.

“There's no such thing as a good script”:
Bogdanovich, p. 107.

his favorite “body and fender man”:
JF interview, Tape 28 (JFP).

“The difference between his Westerns”:
Kevin Nugent interview.

“Character is not shown so much”:
Frank Nugent, “Notes on Screenwriting,” January 30, 1947 (FSN).

“Ford never has formally surrendered”:
Nugent, “Hollywood's Favorite Rebel,”
Saturday Evening Post
, July 23, 1949.

“There is a situation or a condition”:
Nugent, “Opening Scenes,” pp. 20–21.

“It is no accident”:
Ibid., p. 22. The quotes that follow are also from Nugent's explanation of how
The Searchers
begins.

“I know John Wayne is a certain type of man”:
Jampel article.

“the bedded-down meadow lark”:
LeMay,
The Searchers
, p. 7.

“Yes … we got a chance”:
Ibid., p. 47.

“A Texan is nothing but a human man”:
Ibid., p. 53.

“a world of sadness and hopelessness”:
Nugent, “Revised Final Screenplay,” p. 9.

“Fella could mistake you for a half-breed”:
The actual film dialogue. In the screenplay: “Mistook you for a half-breed,” ibid., p. 4.

“She's your
nothin'
”
: Ibid., p. 49.

Using a letter that Martin writes to Laurie:
Ibid, beginning on p. 59.

“Frank worked awfully hard”:
Scott Eyman interview of Jean Nugent, p. 1.

“He'd come home at night exhausted”:
Kevin Nugent interview.

“What you did was simple”:
Harry Carey Jr.,
In the Company of Heroes
, p. 7.

“There was absolutely no chain of command”:
Ibid., p. 8.

“I was dropped by the best studios”:
Vera Miles quote is repeated constantly, but never with attribution. See
http://good-old-hollywood.buzzsugar.com/Vera-Miles
.

Natalie's mother consented:
Suzanne Finstad,
Natasha: The Biography of Natalie Wood
, p. 199.

“They wanted you for that”:
“Fess Parker: An Interview with Michael Barrier,” 2003–4,
www.michaelbarrier.com/Parker/interview_fess_parker.html
.

“You'd like to play the part”:
Eyman, p. 444.

another impossibly handsome young actor:
see Hunter's biographical information at
www.jeffreyhuntermovies.com
.

“nowhere near the type”:
Hunter's account is from
Picturegoer
, September 29, 1956.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was one of those improbable:
Eyman, pp. 442–43. For Whitney's authorized biography, see Jeffrey L. Rodengen,
The Legend of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
.

They formed a new film company:
Vaz, p. 355.

“not for self-aggrandizement”:
Thomas M. Pryor, “Hollywood Newcomer,”
NYT
, April 1, 1956.

“Jack Ford is back and raring to go”:
Merian Cooper to C. V. Whitney, January 29, 1955 (CVW).

“I wish to again emphasize to you”:
Whitney to Cooper, February 25, 1956 (CVW).

“My husband admired Ford so much”:
Eyman interview with Marylou Whitney, p. 3.

“HAVE BEEN WORKING INTENSIVELY
”:
Whitney to JF, February 21, 1956, Box 12 (JFP).

“It seems that the market is being flooded”:
Whitney to Ford, March 23, 1955 (JFP).

Sonny Whitney “could afford to be a very nice man”:
Pat Ford interview (D'Arc).

“A man with that many millions”:
Box 21, Tape 23 (JFP).

“My favorite location is Monument Valley”:
Peter Cowie,
John Ford and the American West
, p. 186. For the influence of Charles M. Russell, see also William Howze, “The Influence of Western Painting and Genre Painting on the Films of John Ford.”

Geologists don't know exactly:
Arthur Frankel e-mail to the author, August 5, 2010.

Willa Cather wrote:
Willa Cather,
Death Comes for the Archbishop
, pp. 94–95.

The Navajos loved canned tomatoes:
For this and other details of the Gouldings' early years in Monument Valley, see Sam Moon,
Tall Sheep: Harry Goulding, Monument Valley Trader
, pp. 46–48.