The Story of James Arness: WWII Hero Turned TV Hero on “Gunsmoke” (Hollywood Goes to War)

00:00:10
Speaker 1: 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 Marshal Matt Dillon on TV’s longest-running series, Gunsmoke. Here to tell another Hollywood Goes to War’s story is Roger McGrath. McGrath is the author of “Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier,” the U.S. 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.

00:00:49
Speaker 2: McGrath, love Johnny Carson, Joel.

00:00:54
Speaker 3: Story, Johnny Card, you know.

00:01:02
Speaker 2: And he’s the star of that new CBS show that’s coming up soon, Gunsmoke. And here he is, Mister Jim Arness. Jim.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: Everyone thinks of James Arness as Matt Dillon, the brave and incorruptible town marshal of Dodge City in the television series Gunsmoke. 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 Arness looked like a giant. He stood six-foot-seven and weighed two hundred and thirty-five pounds. He had a big-boned 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 don’t think of James Arness in films, but he was in thirty movies before Gunsmoke began its twenty-year run on television. He was the Thing in the 1951 science fiction thriller ‘The Thing from Another World,’ which is hailed as a classic of the science fiction genre. 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 Arness’s movie work prior to television’s Gunsmoke, they also generally don’t know of his service in World War II, which earned him a Bronze 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 was born in 1923 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as James King Arness. His father, Rolf, was half Norwegian and half German, and his mother, Ruth, was from German stock. His father sells medical supplies, and his mother, once Jim and his younger brother Peter are grown, becomes a newspaper columnist. Arness later recalls his Minneapolis childhood as wonderful, although he says he 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 a wholesaler, loading and unloading boxcars at the railroad freight yards, and spending one summer logging in Idaho. Jim Arness loves to hunt, fish, and sail. Fortunately for him, his father took the family on vacations to Ox Lake, a pristine body of water some 160 miles north of Minneapolis. The family stayed in a rented cabin on an island in the lake. Jim is designated woodchopper. The exercise in the fresh air must have been good for him. By the time he’s fourteen years old, he stood six-foot-seven. He was teased regularly for his great height. His mother saw how he was made to feel like an oddity and wrote him a poem titled ‘To a Young Giant,’ assuring him that one day his height would be a sign of distinction. In high school, when a good buddy, Bill O’Brien, moved to Fargo, North Dakota, Arness hopped a freight train to visit him. This was the beginning of many adventures riding the rails.

00:04:47
Speaker 4: I went to a school in Minneapolis called 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 duck out the back door and jump on this freight train. And so my scholastic achievements were not really all that great.

00:05:13
Speaker 3: In high school, you know, Arness skipped school on several occasions and climbed in the boxcars just to see how far he could go. When he and a couple of friends found themselves stranded one winter night four hundred miles from home, they called their parents. The mothers thought they should wire the boys money for a bus ride. Back home, the fathers answered with an adamant no, saying the boys got themselves there without any help, and they could darn well use their own ingenuity to get themselves back. Other adventures included sailing the Caribbean on a freighter. Despite a less-than-sparkling academic performance in high school, having little interest in higher education and his mother’s urging, Arness applied to college. He was accepted at Beloit College in southeastern Wisconsin for the fall semester in 1942. He got into Beloit only because so many other boys had left the college to enlist in the military following Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Arness thought that if he could complete two years of college, he would become eligible for the naval flight program. However, his dreams were dashed when he learned he exceeded the height limit for the flight program by five inches. He now lost whatever little interest he had in studying, and after completing one semester at Beloit, he wrote his draft board in Minneapolis, requesting induction.

00:06:54
Speaker 4: 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.

00:07:07
Speaker 3: In March 1943, Arness was inducted into the Army at Fort Snelling on the southeastern edge of Minneapolis. After processing, he was shipped to Camp Wheeler, Georgia, for basic training. He sailed through the training, describing himself as “lean and mean, nothing but bone 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 became a rifleman assigned to the infantry. A few months later, Arness landed in Casablanca, Morocco, as a replacement.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: Which was kind of funny because while I was in basic training one Sunday afternoon, I was walking around the base, and they had a little theater there, and it said, “The movie Casablanca was landing.” So I went in and saw ‘Casablanca’ was so great, you know. So we went across the Atlantic in a big convoy, and we wound up landing at Casablanca. So I was going to look around for Rick’s Cafe and all that. Well, it wasn’t like the movie, believe me.

00:08:23
Speaker 3: He underwent more training but saw no action. Nonetheless, there were casualties. When Arness and his fellow soldiers received passes, they were warned to visit only certain areas and to never approach Arab women. However, Arab women seductively approached them. A few soldiers succumbed to the temptation and wandered off with the women. The soldiers were later found with their pockets empty and their throats cut. In December 1943, Arness and his fellow replacements were loaded aboard a ship at Oran, Algeria, and transported to Naples, Italy. Naples was seized by the Allies two months earlier. Arness and the others were trucked twenty miles to a camp in the hills above the town San Pietro. Into the camp came veterans from the front, and the looks on their faces and their stories of combat were sobering. Until now, Arness says it was all high adventure for him. He began to have second thoughts.

00:09:34
Speaker 1: And you’ve been listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of James Arness. 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 Arness, part of our Hollywood Goes to War series. Here on our American Stories. And we continue with our American Stories and James Arness’s story and his service to our country during World War II. Part of our Hollywood Goes to War series. Let’s return to Doctor Roger McGrath.

00:10:24
Speaker 3: James Arness was assigned to Second Platoon, Company E, Second Battalion, Seventh Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division. He occasionally saw the bodies of dead Americans strapped to mules coming back from the front. Arness leader says, “My enthusiasm for adventure was waning rapidly.” In January 1944, Arness’s outfit was moved back to Naples and began training for amphibious landings, practicing on the beaches of the island of Capri and also at Salerno. After three weeks of this, they were headed to the harbor for still another training day when they found the harbor packed with ships. Something big was up. A few mornings later, Arness and his buddies were preparing for another training day when a jeep pulled up to them, and out jumped Brigadier General John O’Daniel, second in command of the Third Infantry Division, known throughout the Army as ‘Iron Mike’ O’Daniel. The general was a highly decorated and wounded veteran of World War I 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 II, O’Daniel had already commanded regiments in the thick of fighting in North Africa, Sicily, and Salerno. He was famous for leading from the front. Arness says he was a rough and read guy with a powerful presence. He gave the men, in Arness’s words, a marvelous pep talk. The next day, January 22, 1944, Arness found himself in a landing craft headed to the beach at Anzio, some thirty miles south of Rome. A sergeant gave Arness an extra load to carry, a burlap sack with TNT charges, and said, “You’ll go first down the ramp on the beach. That way we can check the water depth. If you go under, we know we have to move closer to shore. Good luck.” Arness goes into waist-high water and wades ashore. Other troops followed until fifteen thousand of them were standing on the beach, stunned that not a shot had been fired. When American forces moved inland, though, the Germans opened up, and the fighting was intense day after day. In firefight after firefight, bullets and shrapnel, though, wounded or killed those around Jim Arness and splattered him with their flesh and blood. But again and again, he emerged without a scratch. How a target that large could be missed while smaller men around Arness were dying is something of a mystery. Near the end of January, Arness and his platoon came upon a farmhouse. All looked peaceful enough until a German machine gun opened up from the second-story window and pinned down the platoon. Arness and another soldier were ordered to see if they could make their way to the rear of the farmhouse and attack from there. They crawled through shrubs and grass, hoping they were not spotted, while a machine gun intermittently belched fire at the platoon’s position. Arness and his partner reached a position behind the farmhouse and saw an outside staircase leading to an open door on the second floor. Says Arness, “We crept up the stairs, threw in a couple of hand grenades, and ducked.” The second they exploded, we rushed through the door and sprayed 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 1, Arness’s platoon was ordered to reconnoiter the area between the American lines and those of the Germans as quietly as possible. The Americans moved out, Arness walking point for the squad. It was so dark he had trouble seeing his own feet. After some twenty minutes of the walk in the dark, Arness came upon a vineyard, paused, and strained to hear some sounds in the distance: voices, German voices. Just then, a German machine gun opened up. A bullet ripped into Arness’s lower leg, shattering his tibia. While the pain was excruciating, he threw himself over some vines into a ditch. Other Americans trailing him were also hit. Arness was only semiconscious when a medic bent over him, cut open his pant leg, poured sulfa powder into the wound, wrapped the leg, and shot Arness with morphine. Arness lay there in a semiconscious state for what seemed to him like hours. He began to fear he had been forgotten. Terrible pain was coming back as the effects of the morphine shot began to subside. He had almost given up hope when another medic came upon him and gave him another shot. Stretcher bearers arrived and began to carry him back toward the American lines. They slept crossing a ridge and pick Jim. Arness tumbled off a litter and rolled down a hillside. They raced to his side. Fearing he sustained further damage, says Arness, “I told them to forget it. I was, of course, in no pain.” Arness was eventually taken to an evacuation hospital on the beach. After ten days of fighting, his war was over.

00:16:33
Speaker 4: 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 always stayed in my head.

00:16:45
Speaker 3: Jim Arness spent nearly a year in hospitals, underwent several surgeries, and almost lost his leg until a new drug, penicillin, stopped an infection. He was finally discharged at the end of January 1945 at the rank of corporal with a disability pension and a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Arness returned home and took a course in radio announcing. His voice was strong, clear, and well-modulated. He got a job at a local radio station but surprised management when he left to take a trip to California with a friend who was interested in acting. The friend had a buddy in Santa Monica. He introduced them to the beach and to bodysurfing. Arness loved the ocean and the waves and was hooked for life. Soon he tried surfing with a board, and now he was even more stoked. His first board was twelve feet long and made of redwood. Arness enrolled in an acting class and got a part in a play. His good looks, size, strong voice, and the ability to deliver lines in a natural manner soon had Hollywood talent scouts taking him to the studios for interviews.

00:18:08
Speaker 4: And I wound up with a part in 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.”

00:18:25
Speaker 1: And you’re listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of actor James Arness, and by the way, you’re also listening to James Arness as well. And what a life and what an adventure he embarked on in this World War II battle that found him, well, being wounded and seriously wounded, semiconscious, jabbed with morphine, and almost lost 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 returned home, he was awarded a Bronze Star 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 return 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.

00:19:52
Speaker 4: So I went with him over to RKO 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, 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.

00:20:29
Speaker 3: In his picture, Young would win the Oscar for Best Actress. During the production, Arness had the time of his life and was making four hundred dollars a week, something like eight thousand a week in today’s money. He couldn’t believe his good fortune when the shoot wrapped; though he was out of work at first, this was fine with him. There was plenty of time to hang out at the beach and surf. As the months went by with no more parts coming his way, Arness began to think of paths in life other than acting. Then he got a part in a play and met Virginia Chapman, who was dedicated to her acting career and thought Arness should show the same dedication to his own career. They fell in love and got married. She brought to the marriage her eighteen-month-old son, Craig. Arness adopted Craig, and now Jim Arness, the beach bum, fully committed himself to acting. His new dedication paid off. In the late 1940s, he got parts in the movies ‘Roses Are Red,’ ‘The Man from Texas,’ and ‘Battleground.’ And then he appeared in four movies in 1950, including ‘Wagonmaster.’

00:21:54
Speaker 4: Things just came along. I had the same agent one day; he said I got an interview over at RKO in Culver City, and some guy was doing a movie that he took me over there, and he ushered me into his office there with John Ford, and he looked me over for a couple of minutes. I wound up getting a part in this movie that he was making at the time. It was called ‘Wagonmaster,’ and I had a good part in that. But these kinds of things just sort of came along. I didn’t have to hunt them down, really; just the thing sort of providentially came along.

00:22:39
Speaker 3: By 1951, he had all the work he could handle, appearing in seven movies, including the science fiction classic ‘The Thing from Another World.’ During the next four years, he was in fourteen more movies. His roles were ever more substantial and ever more varied. He worked with John Wayne in ‘Big Jim McLain,’ ‘Island in the Sky,’ ‘Hondo,’ and ‘The Sea Chase.’ In 1955, he was offered the lead role in what would become one