February 1, 1894
On this day, the man who “saved the Western,” director John Ford was born in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
In half a century behind the camera, Ford directed 140 movies that received 11 Oscar nominations. His films like “Stagecoach,” “The Searchers” and “Cheyenne Autumn” are credited with elevating the entire genre from clichés to classics.
Raised about as far away from the American West as you can get, he was next to the youngest of 11 children of Irish immigrant parents. Known then as John Martin “Jack” Feeney, a star fullback on Portland, Maine’s football team, by age 20, (right) was headed to California to work with his older brother, Francis Ford Feeney. Already an ambitious actor, Francis had dozens of movie credits using the screen name, Francis Ford. It was the beginning of a contentious relationship that lasted nearly four decades, with Francis (below) appearing in many of his famous brother’s films.
Like Francis, John ditched Feeney for the more Anglicized stage name of Ford. Before he was 25 he’d made more than 40 silent Westerns, two and 
three reel low-budget films, most now lost to history. His first full length feature was also a Western, “Straight Shooter,” in 1917.
Six short years later, he directed the huge historical drama, “The Iron Horse,” which chronicled the building of the transcontinental railroad. Despite cost overruns for more than 5,000 extras, 2,000 horses, 1,300 buffalo. 10,000 head of cattle and weather delays in the Sierra Nevadas, the film was a commercial success. It raked in more than $2 million, more than $50 million today. It became one of the highest grossing silent films of the period. I t was entered into the National Film Registry under the auspices of the Library of Congress in 2011.
The industry’s quickie frontier movies, however, lost their appeal during the 1920s and Hollywood studios declared “oaters were unbankable.”
Ford’s stock had apparently risen, however. He served as president of the Motion Picture Directors Association during the decade, a forerunner of today’s Director’s Guild of America, and continued to direct a number of box office successes.
The “talkies” provided him another opportunity to pioneer in the industry. Even after his landmark films like the 1928 Mother Machree and his highly rated 1931 “Arrowsmith,” based on the Sinclair Lewis novel, studios were reluctant to put money into “horse operas” even those with John Ford in the directors chair.
John Wayne as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach
But Ford managed to renew their faith with the 1939 movie“Stagecoach.” It won both critical and commercial success, garnering Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director and provided John Wayne’s breakthrough role as the Ringo Kid.
Temporarily putting Hollywood on hold during WWII, Ford headed up the photographic unit of the office of Strategic Services with the rank of Commander. Wounded while filming the Battle of Midway, he was cited for bravery by the Navy. He remained in the Naval Reserve rising to the rank of Admiral while serving during the Korean Conflict.
His return to civilian pictures in 1945 was crowded with two dozen films, large and small. During the next decade fully a third of his projects were Westerns, many starring John Wayne. “The Searchers” made in 1956, again starring Wayne, received no awards or nominations, but is considered by many critics not only Ford’s best film but the best Western movie ever made.
The $4.2 million Cheyenne Autumn
While relying on a number of traditional themes, Wayne’s character of Ethan Edwards squarely addresses the moral ambiguity of the country’s troubling “cowboy versus Indian” relationship. It was a theme Ford revisited in the groundbreaking 1962 “Cheyenne Autumn,” his most expensive film. Costing $4.2 million, it was one of the few that finished in the red at the box office, losing more than a million dollars.
A host of less acclaimed but commercially successful frontier films, however, had made Ford a favorite with studio executives. His cavalry 
trilogy; “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon,” “Fort Apache” and “Sergeant Rutledge” were all profitable. In addition, he continued to attract A-list actors the likes of Jimmy Stewart, Richard Widmark and Shirley Jones in “Two Rode Together and Stewart, Wayne and Vera Miles in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
Unfortunately, Ford ended his career on a low note. His final feature film, “7 Women,” made in 1966 and set in China was quickly relegated to virtual obscurity. Suffering from alcoholism and cancer, Ford died seven years later, August 31, 1973 in Palm Desert, California. He was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon just five months earlier.
While John Ford had mastered movie-making from dramas to documentaries, it was his own definition of himself that made him so important to films of the American West. In a contentious Joe McCarthy era meeting of the Directors Guild of America, he pushed back against a movement to require loyalty oaths among its members. After a four-hour diatribe by the McCarthy faction by Cecil B. DeMille, Ford rose and simply said, “My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille…. But I don’t like you, C.B. I don’t like what you stand for and I don’t like what you’ve been saying here tonight.” Guild members voted overwhelmingly with Ford.
The Museum of Western Film History, 701 S. Main Street, Lone Pine, California features John Ford and 24 other movie makers in their new
Great Directors of American Western Films exhibit. The museum also features a large collection of posters, movie costumes props and 
memorabilia plus exhibits on stunt men and women, movie saddles and highlights from movies shot at nearby locations.
Admission is $5 for adults, children under 12, military and museum members are free. Summer hours, May 1 to October 31 are 10 to 6, Monday through Saturday and 10 to 4 on Sunday. Winter hours November 1 to April 30 are 10 to 5, Monday through Saturday and 10 to 4 Sunday. Closed Christmas, New Years, Easter, July Fourth and Thanksgiving.
For more information go to lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org, e-mail wrangler@lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org, call (760) 876-9909 or write The Museum of Western Film History, 701 S. Main Street, Lone Pine, CA 93545.
© Text Only – 2017 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.