Hollywood Goes To War: Henry Fonda

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Speaker 1: This is Lee Habeeb and this is our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including yours. Send them to Ouramerican Stories dot com. They’re some of our favorites. We love to tell stories about movies and the culture. We also love telling stories about history, and this combines both elements beautifully. It’s time for another one of our Roger McGrath’s Hollywood Goes to Wars stories. We’ve done a number of them. Go to our website and do a search for Jimmy Stewart’s and so many more. McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Hollyman and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier. A US marine and former history professor at UCLA, Doctor McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries and is a regular contributor for US. Here at Our American Story, here’s Roger McGrath with the story of Henry Fonda.

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Speaker 2: Henry Fonda was one of the greatest actors of Hollywood’s Gold in the Age, appearing in nearly fifty movies in the legendary years of the nineteen thirties, forties, and fifties. He would add thirty five more movies in the nineteen sixties and seventies. In nineteen forty he was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Tom Joad in the Grapes of Wrath, and then forty one years later won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond. Find that played a wide variety of characters in films of many different genres, including several that are considered classics. Drums along the Mohawk, Young Mister Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, The ox Bow Incident, Ford a Batchee, Twelve Angry Men, Mister Roberts, The Longest Day. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in nineteen sixty. Henry Fonda is born in Grand Island, Nebraska, in nineteen five to William Fonda and his wife HERBERTA. Young Henry is of Dutch, English, Scottish, and German descent. Most of his ancestors were here in America before the Revolution. In nineteen six, the family moves to Omaha. His sister Eriot is born in nineteen eight and his second sister, Jane, in nineteen nine. His family’s close knit and raised in the Christian science faith. His father has a successful printing business. Fonda is a good swimmer and runner, but spends much of his spare time drawing and making models. Like so many young boys of his era, he becomes a boy scout. By the time he graduates high school, he has grown to more than six foot one, but then as a rail He goes off to the University of Minnesota to major in journalism, but works too part time jobs to support himself and has little time to study or sleep. After completing two years, he tires of the grind and returns to Omah. Dorothy Brando, a friend of his mother’s, urges Fonda to audition for the part of a teenager in a play put on by the Omaha Community Playhouse. Fonda gives it a try and is cast in the role. More plays, more roles follow, and Fonda becomes determined to make acting his profession. Dorothy Brando, and experienced actress on the stage, continues to mentor Fonda. Dorothy will later mentor her own son, Marlon Brando. In nineteen twenty, Fonda heads east and joins the Uth University Players in Massachusetts. In nineteen thirty one, he marries another of the players, Margaret Sullivan, who becomes the first of five successive missus Fonda’s. In nineteen thirty two, Margaret heads to New York City for a role as a female lead in a major stage production, and Fonda follows. However, the couple are soon divorced, and Fonda struggles finding parts. To save money, he shares a small apartment with the writer Josh Logan and another aspiring actor, James Stewart. Hank Fonda and Jimmy Stewart are alike in many ways, both from middle class families in America’s heartland, both tall and thin and boyish looking, and both passionate about acting. Politically, though they mostly disagree, Fonda is a solid Democrat and Stuart is a staunch Republican. Work on the Broadway stage picks up for both of them during nineteen thirty three. In nineteen thirty four, and both catch the eye of Hollywood scouts. Fonda arrives in Hollywood in nineteen thirty five to take the role of the male lead in The Farmer Takes a Wife. Fonda has played the same part in the stage play if the same name on Broadway, so he is well prepared for the movie role. What he isn’t well prepared for is the money he is suddenly making three thousand dollars a week. And this is in the depths of the Great Depression, when fifty dollars a week is considered good money for a professional. Stewart also arrives in Hollywood in nineteen thirty five.

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Speaker 3: To make his first movie.

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Speaker 2: Soon, Fonda and Stuart are renting a house together and dating all the young starlets they can. From nearly starving in a small apartment in New York, they are now living it up in a large home in an upscale neighborhood.

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Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Henry Fonda, and my goodness, what a roommate to have each of them. And what are the odds that Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda would share, Well, let’s just say share a very small shelter because times were tight back when they moved to New York and were aspiring actors. When we come back, more of this remarkable life story a part of our Hollywood Goes to War series here on our American Stories, Henry Fonda’s story continued, Folks, if you love the stories we tell about this great country, and especially the stories of America’s rich past. Know that all of our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture and faith, are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the things that are beautiful in life and all the things that are good in life. And if you can’t get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to learn more. And we continue with our American stories and with Roger McGrath telling the story of Henry Fonda as a part of our Hollywood Goes to War continuing series. Let’s pick up when we last left off. Here’s McGrath.

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Speaker 2: Fonda arrives in Hollywood in nineteen thirty five to take the role of the male lead in The Farmer.

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Speaker 3: Takes a Wife.

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Speaker 2: What he isn’t well prepared for is the money he is suddenly making three thousand dollars a week. And this is in the depths of the Great Depression, when fifty dollars a week is considered good money for a professional. Jimmy Stewart also arrives in Hollywood in nineteen thirty five to make his first movie. Soon Fonda and Stuart are reading house together there and dating all the young starlets they can. Fonda appears in two more movies in nineteen thirty five, and then in three movies in nineteen thirty six. It’s in nineteen thirty six that he marries his second wife, Francis Seymour, who will give birth to Fonda’s daughter Jane and his son Peter. Nineteen thirty seven and thirty eight see Fonda in nine more movies. His fame grows and the money rolls.

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Speaker 3: In, but the best is yet to come.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen thirty nine, Fond the plays Frank James in the movie Jesse James to her own Power plays Jesse. Although the movie takes quite a few liberties with the real story of the outlaw brothers, it’s a box office smash. It’s also in nineteen thirty nine that find the place Abraham Lincoln in Young Man Lincoln, directed by John Ford.

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Speaker 3: The movie is another hit.

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Speaker 2: Fonda stars and still another john Ford hit. In nineteen thirty nine, Drums Along the Mohawk, set in New York’s Moawk Valley, during the Revolutionary War. Fonda gives another great performance, which includes one of the greatest escapes in movie history when he runs for his life from a band of Indian warriors. Fonda’s movies in nineteen forty include still another john Ford smash’s success, The Grapes of Wrath. Fonda is nominated for Best Actor for portraying Tom Joad. He’s on top of his game and stars in three more movies in nineteen forty including the Return of Frank James. It’s three movies for Fonda in nineteen forty one and seven in nineteen forty two, including the critically acclaimed The ox Bow Incident. The United States is now in World War Two, and Fonda begins thinking about enlisting the director he has worked with so successfully. John Ford is already serving in the Navy and was wounded in the Battle of Midway. Fonda’s good friend Jimmy Stewart is already a pilot in the Army Air Corps. The last movie Fonda makes in nineteen forty two, The Immortal Surgeon, which will be released in nineteen forty three, as Fonda in the role of the Canadian serving in the British Army in North Africa, who has transformed from a diffident and shy young man into a war hero acting in the movie, convinces Fonda to quit Hollywood, declaring I don’t want to be in a fake war in a studio, and he enlists in the Navy during the fall of nineteen forty two. Fonda excels in Navy boot camp and upon graduation, is sent to quartermaster school. In May nineteen forty three, he graduates in the top five percent of his quartermaster class. He’s now recommended for a commission. While his paperwork is being processed, He’s assigned as Quartermaster third class to the destroyer the USS Saturdley, which is fresh out of a shipyard.

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Speaker 3: In Tacoma, Washington.

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Speaker 2: Saturdley’s sea trials take her from Puget Sound to San Diego. After a week in San Diego, orders arrive for Fonda, telling him to report for commissioning in New York. Fonda can fly or take a train to New York, but instead he stays aboard Saturday, which is set to sail through the Panama Canal and on to Norfolk, Virginia. He doesn’t want to leave Saturday, a Quartermaster short, and he reckons he can use more experience at sea. After Saturday arrives at Norfolk, Fonda takes a train to New York and reports to Naval Headquarters. He’s discharged as an enlisted man and then sworn in as a lieutenant junior grade equivalent to a first lieutenant in the Marines or Army. He is soon ordered to the Naval Air Station at Anacostia, Washington, d C. To make training films. Fua is terribly upset he didn’t leave Hollywood to make films for the Navy. Fonda’s commanding officer, who is stuck behind the desk himself, empathizes with the Lieutenant JG and cuts orders for Fonda to be trained in air combat intelligence at the Naval Air Station quantcet Point, Rhode Island. Fana enjoys both his training at quantt Point and his classmates. For the most part, they are an older and well educated group. Many of them come from the professional ranks in civilian life. There’s a district attorney, judge, and a mayor among those training. Fonda and the others spend hours learning coding, photo analysis, an enemy plane, and ship identification. After completing his training as an Air Combat Intelligence Officer or ECI officer for short, Fonda is sent to Pearl Harbor. He now goes through a course in anti submarine warfare at Kanioe before being assigned to the USS. Curtis, a seaplane tender, is currently at quadulan attoll in the Marshall Islands. In May nineteen forty four, Fonda flies to Quadulin, wrested from the Japanese in February, and becomes a member of Curtis’s complement of one hundred officers and more than one thousand men. Most of them are veterans of the attack on Pearl Harbor and battles in the Solomon, Gilbert and Marshall Islands. Fonda assumes duties as an assistant ACI officer. He’s finally in a forward area and he’s eager sea action. He soon will curt of sales to any we talk, also recently taken from the Japanese, and begins preparing for the American invasion of the Marianas. Some twelve hundred miles to the west. A General quarter’s alarm goes off and find a racist to his battle station, thinking he’s in for his first action, but nothing materializes. The alarm will go off several times over the next several weeks with the reports of Japanese subs or airplanes.

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Speaker 3: In the area.

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Speaker 2: Curtis is responsible for servicing, resupplying, and if needed, repairing the PBY Catalina seaplane. This means that PBY can range far and wide without worrying about a land base. Most important for an air combat in intelligence officer such as Henry Fonda, the PBY pilots bring back photographs of Japanese ships and Japanese installations on various islands. The photos have to be analyzed and the pilots have to be debriefed. The intelligence is then forwarded the fleet headquarters. The base of work for Curtis increases with the American invasion of the Mariana Islands, beginning with Saipan in June nineteen forty four and followed by Guam and Tinian in July. By August twelve, Curtis is anchored at Saipan. A few months later, Tokyo Rose mentions Curtis in one of her broadcasts and says the actor Henry Fonda is aboard. She promises that Japanese forces are on their way to sink this ship.

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Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Henry Fonda, and my goodness, right in the middle of one of the most prolific careers in Hollywood history, including an Oscar nomination, motion picture box office successes, working with the greatest director of his time, John Ford, something starts to bug him. His pals, and that’s Jimmy Stewart and John Ford were both serving. Ford got wounded and his time spent.

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Speaker 3: In the Navy.

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Speaker 1: At midway, Jimmy Stewart had volunteered for perhaps the most dangerous activity you could imagine, and that was joining the Army Air Corps. The call to duty called Henry Fonda hard. And when we come back more of this remarkable story, a part of our Hollywood Goes to War series, the story of Henry Fonda going to war here on our American story. And we continue with our American stories. Let’s pick up with Roger McGrath. It’s August forty four. Henry Fonda’s ship Curtis is anchored at Saipan. A few months later, Tokyo Rose mentions Curtis in one of her broadcasts and says that actor Henry Fonda is a board. He promises that Japanese forces are on their way to sink the ship. Here’s McGrath.

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Speaker 2: Sure enough. A few days later, Curtis is attacked by Japanese planes. Fonda is at his battle station to witness it. A pilot of one of the planes decides on a kamikazi attack and dives is plane directly at Curtis. Fire from the Many Goods of Curtis sen the Japanese plane crashing into the sea, but not before it misses the ship by near twenty five yards. The next day, Fonda and two young sailors don diving gear and swim down to the wrecked Japanese plane. They find the plane upside down on the ocean floor, the Japanese pilot and his bambedeir still strapped into their seats. Fonda retrieves the pilot’s flight log, maps and several other items. Backboard Curtis, Fonda pours over the recovered items and determines that the plane flew from Pagan Island, which lies some two hundred miles north of Saipan. The intel is radioed the fleet headquarters and airstrikes are immediately launched against pagan Japanese submarines are in ever present danger. Occasionally their radio transmissions are intercepted and decoded. This enables Fonda and other ACEI officers to attempt to plot a course for a Japanese sub and devise a search pattern. Fonda strikes gold when his estimated location for a Japanese sub enables Navy fighters to catch a sub on the surface and sink it. In November nineteen forty four, Lieutenant JG. Henry Fonda is promoted to lieutenant. Four months later, he is awarded a Bronze Star for his outstanding contributions to the Navy’s Mariana and Ewojima campaigns. The citation reads, in part, for distinguishing himself by meritorious service in connection with operations against the enemy. As an assistant operations officer and Air Combat Intelligence officer, he contributed materially to the planning and execution of air operations which effectively support the campaigns, neutralized enemy installations on nearby enemy hell islands and actolls, and which subsequently developed into search missions in Empire waters and strikes on the Japanese mainland. His keen intelligence untiring energy and conscientious application to duty were in a large measure responsible for a successful contribution to the Central Pacific campaign. In March nineteen forty five, Fonda is transferred from his billet aboard Curtis to serve on the staff of Admiral John Hoover on Guam. Hoover’s the Commander Central Pacific Forward Area and is responsible for support of fleet operations with island based aircraft. Hoover had used Curtis as his flagship, and now he shifts his flag to the Navy base at Appra Harbor on Guam. The move ashore may have saved Fonda’s life. While in the waters off Okinawa in June nineteen forty five, a kamikaze scores a direct hit on Curtis and thirty five of Fonda’s old shipmates are killed in twenty one wounded. Lieutenant Fonda continues his excellent contributions, as confirmed by his officer’s fitness report from March to August nineteen forty five. Fonda is rated in the top ten percent in every category the rating. Officer, Commander lyle Kepke says Lieutenant Fonda performed all his duties in an outstanding manner. His pleasing personality, his ability to work with others, his intelligence, his untiring endurance, and willingness made him a superior ear combat intelligence officer while attached to this command. Early in August nineteen forty five, Fonda flies with Commander Kepke from Guam Titinian to meet the pilots and crews of the B twenty Nines who will drop the Adam bombs on Japan in to be briefed on the operation. Fonda doesn’t know exactly what these bombs are, but he is told their effects will be devastating. On August six, a noo La Gay commanded by Paul Tibbetts drops an Adam Baum on Roshima, and on August nine, box Car commanded by Charles Sweeney, drops an Adam Baum on Nagasaki. The next day, Lieutenant Fonda receives orders to report to the Naval Director of Public Information in Washington, DC. Fonda’s war is over. He spends one month in Washington and then is ordered to Los Angeles for separation from active duty. He spends six weeks on leave as his home in Brentwood, and then is formerly separated in November nineteen forty five. In nineteen forty six, Henry Fonda is back making movies, appearing as Wyatt Earp in john Ford’s My Darling Clementine. Find The’s movie making pace picks up with three movies in nineteen forty seven and two in nineteen forty eight, including the john Ford classic Fort Apache, in which find The plays an authoritarian cavalry officer. Fonder will appear in several dozen more movies in the nineteen fifties, sixties, and seventies, playing military officers several times, including his role as Lieutenant j G. Doug Roberts in another john Ford classic, Mister Roberts. Although find That opposes sending American troops to Vietnam, he nonetheless goes on a USO two of South Vietnam in nineteen sixty seven.

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Speaker 3: He thinks it’s important to boost.

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Speaker 2: The morale of the troops the war is not their fault. Opposing the war but supporting the troops later leads to a temporary falling out with his daughter Jane, who makes an ill advised trip to North Vietnam and his photographs sitting in an anti aircraft gun and placement with Envy troops Fonda calls are foolish and frivolous. Most people today probably think of Henry Fonda only as one of Hollywood’s iconic movie stars and don’t know they turned his back on Hollywood and the fame and fortune that were his to join the US Navy during World War Two and serve in the Pacific. Henry Fonda was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor, but he also was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service.

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Speaker 1: And great work on the piece as always by Greg and his special thanks to Roger McGrath as always author of Gunfighters and Vigilantes, a former UCLA professor, and always a US Marine. And my goodness, I wonder which stood higher up on his mantle, the Bronze Star or the Oscar. He’d been nominated for an Oscar in nineteen forty for John Ford’s epic The Grapes of Wrath, but he won the Oscar forty years later, starring in a film with his daughter Jane called On Golden Pond. If you ever get a chance, rented it still works, It still plays. That he went to support the troops on the USO Tour while being against the war is just how classy Henry Fonda was, and how sensible he was. The boys didn’t choose the war. They were just well representing their country. The story of Henry Fonda part of our Hollywood Goes to War series. Here on our American Stories”