March 3, 1939: "Stagecoach" Premieres

Claire Trevor and John Wayne

March 3, 1939: The film Stagecoach premieres, directed by John Ford. It is regarded as one of the greatest Western movies ever made, and is credited with making a star out of John Wayne.

Born in 1907 in Iowa, as Marion Michael Morrison, he played football at the University of Southern California, but got kicked off the team when it was discovered that an injury was the result of a dumb stunt. So he went to the Hollywood studios, and became a stuntman for a living, as did many actors before and since.

Stagecoach was the 6th film that Ford directed with John Wayne, but the 1st with Wayne in a starring role. In 1928, Ford directed Wayne in Mother Machree, Four Sons and Hangman's House. This would be followed in 1929 with Salute, and 1930 with Men Without Women. Also in 1930, Ford directed Up the River, which was the film debut of both Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. Most of these films are considered all or mostly lost.

John Ford, bearing a strong resemblance

to another creative Irishman, James Joyce

Stagecoach is set in 1880, as a driver, Buck (played by Andy Devine) prepares to leave Tonto, Arizona for Lordsburg, New Mexico. (Both Arizona and New Mexico were Territories then, and each would gain Statehood in 1912.) This location would allow Ford to film, as he liked to do, in the American Southwest's "National Monument Valley.

Buck has 4 passengers: Dallas (Claire Trevor, who got top billing in the film, over Wayne), a prostitute driven out of town by self-appointed moral arbiters; Doc Boone (Thomas Mitchell), an alcoholic physician; Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt), a snobbish Southerner, who will, on arrival, be joining her husband, a cavalry officer; and Samuel Peacock (Donald Meek), a short, bald whiskey salesman.

Marshal Curley Wilcox (George Bancroft) tells Buck that his shotgun guard is unavailable, as he is part of a posse looking for the Ringo Kid (Wayne), who has broken out of prison on a revenge mission. Curley offers to "ride shotgun" himself. An Army officer warns that the Apache Chief Geronimo and his braves are on the warpath. Hatfield (John Carradine), a gambler, offers additional protection, and boards the stage. At the edge of town, the stage is flagged by Henry Gatewood (Berton Churchill), an arrogant banker, who pays his fare.

Down the road, Ringo is found, walking after his horse had pulled up lame. Curley and Ringo are friends, and Curley figures Ringo is safer in his custody than anywhere else. At Apache Wells, Mrs. Mallory learns that her husband had been wounded in battle with the Apaches. She faints, and, stunning the group, none of whom knew she was pregnant, goes into labor. Doc Boone sobers up, and delivers the baby, with Dallas assisting.

Later that night, Ringo asks Dallas to marry him, and live on a ranch he owns across the border in Mexico. She accepts, but is unwilling to leave Mrs. Mallory and the newborn. She gives Ringo the rifle Curley had taken, and prods him to escape, promising to meet him there later. But he sees smoke signals, heralding an Apache attack, and returns to custody.

The stage is attacked, shortly after crossing the river outside an Apache-sacked Lee's Ferry. A long chase follows, with some of the party injured in the fight. Down to his last bullet, Hatfield is pulling back the trigger to humanely dispatch Mrs. Mallory when he is mortally wounded. The 6th U.S. Cavalry rides to the rescue. This became part of the Western movie trope of "the cavalry coming over the hill in the nick of time."

They get to Lordsburg safely. There, Gatewood is arrested for attempting to abscond with his bank's funds. Mrs. Mallory learns that her wounded husband will fully recover. She thanks Dallas, who gives Mrs. Mallory her shawl. Dallas then begs Ringo not to confront the 3 Plummer brothers, who had killed his father and brother, prompting his prison break. He guns all 3 down in a shootout, then surrenders to Curley, expecting to go back to prison.

As Ringo takes his seat on a buckboard, Curley invites Dallas to ride with them to the edge of town. But when she gets aboard Curley and Doc stampede the horses, letting the couple speed off together toward Ringo's ranch across the Mexican border, where they can be together without the American authorities being able to touch them.

Ford would direct Wayne again in The Long Voyage Home in 1940, They Were Expendable in 1945, Fort Apache and 3 Godfathers in 1948, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon in 1949, Rio Grande in 1950, The Quiet Man in 1952, The Searchers in 1956, The Wings of Eagles in 1957, The Horse Soldiers in 1959, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and How the West Was Won in 1962, and Donovan's Reef in 1963 -- a total of 19 films.

Together and separately, Wayne and Ford became synonymous with both Western movies and World War II-themed films. They shared a love of their Irish heritage and the American West. They started out as political opposites, with Ford as a New Deal Democrat. But, by the 1950s, he had begun to move toward Wayne's staunch conservatism.

Churchill died of uremic poisoning in 1940, only a year and a half after the premiere of Stagecoach. Meek died of leukemia in 1946. He was followed by Bancroft in 1956, Mitchell in 1962, Ford in 1973, Devine in 1977, Wayne in 1979, Carradine in 1988, Trevor in 2000, and Platt in 2003.

Stagecoach was remade in 1966, with Ann-Margret as Dallas, Alex Cord as Ringo, Van Heflin as Curley, Slim Pickens as Buck, Bing Crosby as Doc Boone, Stefanie Powers as Lucy, Red Buttons as Peacock, Mike Connors as Hatfield, and Robert Cummings as Gatewood.

In 1986, CBS aired another remake, featuring the country music legends who occasionally got together and recorded and performed as The Highwaymen: Johnny Cash as Curley, Kris Kristofferson as Ringo, Willie Nelson as the real-life dentist-gunslinger Doc Holliday, and Waylon Jennings as Hatfield.

Bing's daughter Mary Crosby -- best known as Kristin Shepard, sister-in-law, mistress and shooter of J.R. Ewing on the CBS show Dallas -- playing not Dallas, but Lucy. Elizabeth Ashley played Dallas, John Schneider played Buck, Anthony Newley played Peacock, Tony Franciosa played Gatewood, and Cash's wife June Carter Cash and Jennings' wife Jessi Colter, themselves renowned country singers, had minor roles.

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March 3, 1939 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL had no games scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.