The Searchers
Page 44
“Is this the cousin?”: Susan Parker St. John Notebook and quotes that follow.
“Dear Sir, Congress has set aside money”: QP to Governor Thomas Campbell, July 22, 1909 (Fort Sill).
“I see your advertisement”: J. R. O’Quinn to QP, June 19, 1908, Doc 997 (Fort Sill).
“The relatives of Cynthia Ann … did not”: Interview with Mrs. Ambrosia Miller July 5, 1926 (Taulman).
Quanah dispatched … Aubrey C. Birdsong: Aubrey Birdsong interview, February 23, 1959 (Fort Sill).
Birdsong decided to put the bones: Aubrey Birdsong affidavit, September 2, 1956, OKHS.
“I felt that this meant so much to Quanah”: Birdsong interview.
“Are you sure this is my little white mother?”: Birdsong interview in Daily Oklahoman, August 9, 1964.
“I love my mother”: “Cynthia Ann Parker Is Buried for Second Time,” Daily Oklahoman, December 5, 1910, p. 1.
“as you know there is considerable prejudice”: Burk Burnett to QP, October 24, 1905 (Fort Sill).
Quanah spoke to the crowd: Sommer, p. 9, as well as description of the event and other quotes from QP’s speech.
“I run to one side and use this knife”: Ibid. There remains a discrepancy with Carter’s version, in which QP kills Gregg with a pistol.
“I am going to bring some old Indians”: QP to Goodnight, January 7, 1911 (Neeley)
Laura … believed the rheumatism: Laura Birdsong’s account is in an undated letter to Susan Parker St. John, 2F 203 (Taulman).
“Father in heaven, this is our brother”: Lawton Daily News, February 23, 1911, p. 1.
“Every automobile that could be rented”: Cache Register, March 3, 1911. It also gave a detailed account of the funeral day.
“It just seemed as if my heart”: Birdsong letter.
11. The Legend
Quanah’s surviving relatives sat down: S. Hilton to Ernest Stecker, May 29, 1911, KCA File 2246 (National Archives).
“richest Indian in America”: See, for example, Carter, p. 80.
“the Indian Who Made Good” Christian Herald, July 26, 1911.
“a beacon of light”: James C. Nance, unidentified news clipping, QP File (Fort Sill).
“Fearless and Effective Foe”: Olive King Dixon, “Some Intimate Glimpses of Quanah Parker,” Fort Worth Star Telegram, April 12, 1936.
The opera, Cynthia Parker : Fanfare, “40 Acres Arias” (Taulman).
The world premiere was held: Dallas Times Herald, February 17, 1939.
the main architects of the … legend: Details of Joseph and Araminta Taulman’s lives are from A Guide to Joseph E. Taulman Collection (Briscoe).
“So many wrong statements”: Joseph Taulman to Mrs. A. C. Birdsong, December 29, 1925, 2F 200 (Taulman).
“I wonder if you are fortunate enough”: Mrs. Birdsong to Taulman, January 17, 1926.
“The market for historical scenarios”: Adeline M. Alford to Araminta Taulman, October 10, 1936, 2F 201 (Taulman).
“On one occasion the Redmen declared war”: The Rachel Plummer Narrative, 1926; the fantasy foreword is signed by “Mrs. Jane Kennedy, Granddaughter of J. W. Parker, Mrs. Rachel Lofton, great granddaughter, and Mrs. Susie Hendrix, granddaughter” (SMU).
a primary school teacher in nearby Mexia: Details of Elsie Hamill’s efforts to learn about the Parker story are from “Mexia Teacher Brought Together White and Indian Descendants,” Mexia Daily News, August 15, 1965 (Baylor).
“Dear Mrs. Hamill,”: Wanada Parker Page to Mrs. Weldon Hamill, April 6, 1952 (Baylor).
the army decided: The story of the army’s campaign to move QP and Cynthia Ann graves is from Angie Debo, “Two Graves in Oklahoma,” Harper’s, December 1956, p. 66; and Douglas C. Jones, “The Grave of Quanah Parker,” Public Relations Quarterly, 1970.
“To tell the truth, Captain”: Houston Chronicle, October 3, 1965, Sect. 3, p. 11.
They left it there: Saving the Star House is from Herbert Woesner speech at Parker Reunion, June 23, 2000; Edward Charles Ellenbrook, “Cache’s Woesner Saves Historic Buildings,” Lawton Constitution, December 9, 2003; author’s interview with Kathy Treadwell Gipson, June 28, 2009.
“It was one of the happiest moments”: Audrey Routh, “Chief Quanah’s Star House and Its 4-Year Trek,” Daily Oklahoman, October 13, 1963.
Ben was born in 1868: Details of Ben Parker’s life are from author’s interview with Jo Nell Parker and her son W. Scott Nicholson, June 9, 2011.
Ben said later he was surprised: Author’s interview with Jim Bob Parker, July 4, 2009. Ben J. Parker told his own version of the Parker legend, “Early Times in Texas and History of the Parker Family” (Taulman).
12. The Author
the orange-backed dime novels: Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth, p. 91.
One recurring character: Ibid., p. 112.
The first great cowboy novel: Castle Freeman Jr., “Owen Wister: Brief Life of a Western Mythmaker, 1860–1938.”
He is not too fond of foreigners: Owen Wister, The Virginian, pp. 14 and 39.
“a slim young giant”: Ibid., p. 4.
The land was a metaphor: See Richard Slotkin, Regeneration Through Violence, p. 554.
His ancestors were pioneers: Dan LeMay, Alan LeMay: A Biography of the Author of The Searchers, pp. 6–13.
Dan Brown, Alan’s maternal grandfather: Undated note, Box 11 (LeMay Papers).
“in which I accomplished nothing”: Letter dated December 29, 1954, Box 23 (LeMay).
“I’ve also tried several other things”: Ibid.
It was, of course, a Western: Dan LeMay, p. 20.
“a face as friendly in expression”: Alan LeMay, Painted Ponies, p. 6. The plot description and quotations are from the novel.
He broke into the high-end magazines: Dan LeMay, p. 24.
“a completely literate Western”: New York Herald Tribune, July 21, 1935.
“I am now thirty-eight years old”: Dan LeMay, p. 37.
“Dad said they tasted like a steam kettle”: Author’s interview with Dan LeMay.
“The deadline I believe would actually be a help”: Alan LeMay to Max Wilkinson, January 30, 1959, Box 23 (LeMay).
he and Arlene got married: Dan LeMay, p. 44.
“a more primal tint of virility”: Jesse L. Lasky Jr., Whatever Happened to Hollywood? p. 195.
He summoned Alan just days: Dan LeMay, Never Dull, p. 59.
“a hashed-over product”: Ibid., p. 57.
“In social moments, as at dinner”: Ibid., p. 60.
“the world’s most bewildered inner tube”: Ibid., p. 65.
Alan and Arlene’s lifestyle: Ibid., p. 51.
The great Frank Sinatra rented a house: James Kaplan, Sinatra: The Voice, p. 444.
Gary Cooper intervened: For Gary Cooper’s purchase of Useless Cowboy, see Never Dull, p. 147.
“All I want of this business”: Ibid., p. 226.
an original screenplay treatment called African Pitfall: For more on African Pitfall, see Box 1 (LeMay).
It wasn’t long before he found another, similar story: There is an ongoing and perhaps irresolvable conflict among aficionados of The Searchers over the true origins of the novel. Some insist Alan LeMay was inspired by the story of Brit Johnson, a black teamster who ransomed his abducted wife and children from Comanches in 1865. Others point to the story of Millie Durgan, captured as a baby by Kiowas in 1864. LeMay’s papers at UCLA are incomplete and inconclusive. But the parallels between the original story of Cynthia Ann Parker and the book—a nine-year-old girl captured by Comanches in a raid in which family members are slaughtered, her long sojourn as a Comanche, and the obsessive efforts of her uncle to find her—are undeniable. As is LeMay’s journey to Elkhart, Texas, the heart of Parker country, and his visit with Ben Parker, the details of which have never been published before.
He rented office space: Author’s interview with Dan LeMay, June 2008.
13. The Novel
“holding
the back door of Texas”: Alan LeMay, The Searchers, pp. 4–5. The plot summary and quotations are all from the novel.
LeMay collected information on sixty-four Indian abductions: LeMay Papers, Box 23, and LeMay letter to Mrs. Marcus McMillin, December 12, 1960.
“a big burly figure on a strong but speedless horse”: LeMay, The Searchers, pp. 8–9.
“a quiet boy, dark as an Indian”: Ibid., p. 4.
“It was Martha who would not quit”: Ibid., p. 5.
“This is a rough country”: Ibid., p. 53.
“Did they—was she?”: Ibid., p. 58.
“This don’t change anything”: Ibid., p. 64.
“That’s what scares me, Laurie”: Ibid., pp. 82–83.
“I see now why the Comanches murder”: Ibid., p. 247.
“I believe you’d do it”: Ibid., p. 219.
“That country seemed to have some kind of weird spell”: Ibid., pp. 173–74.
“It tore at them, snatching their breaths”: Ibid., p. 122.
“I have no place,” she tells him: Ibid., pp. 271–72.
“I ain’t larned but one thing about an Indian”: Ibid., p. 32.
“The Comanches themselves seemed unable”: Ibid., p. 68.
“A great deal has been written”: Alan LeMay letter, January 26, 1960, Box 23 (LeMay).
Debbie has “had time to be with half the Comanche bucks”: The Searchers, pp. 203–205.
“In all I wrote about 2,000 pages”: Alan LeMay letter, January 20, 1960 (LeMay).
The Searchers … “represents about all I have”: Alan LeMay to Dolores Napoli, June 9, 1958 (Box 23).
“Its simplicity is one of subtle art”: Orville Prescott, “Books of the Times,” NYT, November 3, 1954.
“One of the White House correspondents”: Evan Thomas to Alan LeMay, February 10, 1955 (Harper & Row Papers).
“I am told (not too reliably)”: Alan LeMay to Evan Thomas, November 18, 1954 (Ibid.).
14. The Director
“A running horse remains”: Frank Nugent, “Opening Scenes” in TV and Screen Writing, p. 22.
a template for the Western film: A. O. Scott, “How the Western Was Won,” NYT Magazine, p. 56.
The first moving pictures of Indians: Paul Chaat Smith, Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong, p. 44.
One of the first was a short called The Bank Robbery: “Sham Bank Robbery,” Clarion and Indiahoma News, August 21, 1908.
just as Indian characters helped shape movies: Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor, Hollywood’s Indian, p. ix.
“A director can put his whole heart and soul”: Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles), February 22, 1925 (JFP).
Francis acted in and helped direct: Scott Eyman, Print the Legend, pp. 41–42.
he played a Ku Klux Klansman: Joseph McBride, Searching for John Ford, pp. 77–78.
he teamed up with a dark-eyed actor: Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford, p. 40.
a strapping teenager named Marion Morrison: For Marion Morrison’s regard for Harry Carey, see Garry Wills, John Wayne’s America, 114–15.
The two men went on to make … twenty-three Westerns: Dan Ford, Pappy, p. 18.
“They weren’t shoot-’em-ups”: Bogdanovich, p. 39.
By 1923 he was making almost $45,000 per year: Dan Ford, p. 27.
“When he walked on the set”: Andrew McLaglen interview, The Filmmaker and the Legend (documentary).
“bruised and battered”: Eyman, pp. 131–32.
Born in Georgia of southern aristocrats: For Merian C. Cooper’s life story, see Mark Cotta Vaz, Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper.
he would tear out enough pages: “Man with Camera,” New Yorker, May 30, 1931, p. 25.
“That’s too bad,” said Cooper: Merian Cooper to John Wayne, 1971 (BYU).
Over time Cooper became the middleman: Vaz, p. 250. See also Bea Benjamin interview, p. 1, Box 11, F17 (JFP).
“There was an essence of fear”: Frank Baker interview, July 30, 1977, OH1 (MHL).
“Daddy is what we called … a periodic”: Barbara Ford interview (JFP).
“One drink—he’s the type of person”: Mark Armistead interview (JFP).
“They’d go on his yacht and drink”: McBride interview with author, November 14, 2008.
His “thick eyeglasses protruded”: Maureen O’Hara, ’Tis, Herself: A Memoir, pp. 65–68.
“I looked at its enormity”: Ibid., p. 69.
“I felt my head snap back”: Ibid., p. 104.
Ford … “built walls of secrecy”: Ibid., p. 261.
“one of the most famous leading men”: Ibid., p. 190.
“I didn’t really feel I could act”: Harry Carey Jr. interview with Dan Ford, B11 F18, Reels 3 and 4, p. 14 (JFP).
“Ford was a bully”: Author’s interview with Harry Carey Jr., March 25, 2009.
“I remember Jack … put his head on my breast”: Olive Carey interview (JFP).
“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).
15. The Actor
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.
16. The Production
“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.