October 21, 1940: Ernest Hemingway Publishes "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

October 21, 1940: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway is published. It is a tale of the International Brigades, aiding the leftist Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War. The novel was far more successful than those to whom it paid tribute.

The title is taken from a 1624 poem by Englishman John Donne, which has put 3 famous sayings into our lexicon. Hemingway left the original spelling in his epigraph, but I'll render it in modern English:

No man is an island, entire of itself.

Every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main.

If a Cloud be washed away by the Sea, Europe is the less

as well as if a Promontory were,

as well as if a Manor of thy friends or thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me

because I am involved in Mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.

It tolls for thee.

The International Brigades -- Brigadas Internacionales in Spanish -- were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. It is estimated that, during the entire war, there were some 32,000 Brigaders, yet at no single moment were there more than 18,000 actually deployed. among them were Americans who named their group the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

The novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerilla unit. As a demolitions expert, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.

The novel was made into a film in 1943, directed by Sam Wood, starring Gary Cooper as Jordan, and Ingrid Bergman as María, a guerilla he falls in love with. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Cooper, and Best Actress for Bergman. But the only winner was Greek actress Katina Paxinou, for Best Supporting Actress.

Both Cooper and Bergman tended to have affairs with their co-stars, and this film was no exception. Hemingway, who had recently made journalist Martha Gellhorn the 3rd of his 4 wives, would have approved.

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October 21, 1940 was a Monday. Jimmy Beaumont, the lead singer of the Pittsburgh-based doo-wop group The Skyliners, was born.

The baseball season ended 13 days earlier, when the Cincinnati Reds won Game 7 of the World Series over the Detroit Tigers. The NFL was 30 years away from Monday Night Football. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL season was 30 days away from starting. So there were no scores on this historic day.

October 8, 1918: The Heroics of Sergeant York

October 8, 1918: In Chatel-Chéhéry, in the Argonne Forest in northeastern France, near the border with Belgium, Corporal Alvin C. York attacks a German machine gun position, killing several soldiers with his rifle and then, having run out of ammunition, with his pistol. The commander of the German position surrendered it to him.

York was 30 years old at the time. He had been a pacifist growing up on a Tennessee farm, an his application for conscientious objector status was denied. He was assigned to the U.S. Army's 82nd Division, which later became an Airborne division and one of the Army's most famed units. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He became a hero among the Allies of World War I, and was later promoted to the rank of a full Colonel in the Tennessee National Guard.

He later worked as an official for the Civilian Conservation Corps and as superintendent of Cumberland Mountain State Park. In 1941, with patriotism on their mind as America approached World War II, Warner Brothers made the film Sergeant York, and Gary Cooper won an Academy Award for his portrayal. The real Alvin York lived until 1964.

It has been noted that, on the 1960s TV show Bewitched, the character of Darrin Stephens was played first by Dick York (no relation), then by Dick Sargent, and that this can be rearranged as "Sargent York."

*

October 8, 1918 was a Tuesday. The baseball season had been cut short due to the war. Football was in midweek. It was too soon for the NHL season to start. And professional basketball barely existed. So there were no scores on this historic day.

August 12, 1927: The Film "Wings" Premieres

Left to right: Charles "Buddy" Rogers, Clara Bow, Richard Arlen

August 12, 1927: Wings premieres, directed by William Wellman, starring Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen as combat pilots in World War I, rivals for the affections of a woman played by Clara Bow, who became a superstar earlier in the year by starring in It. She was still "The It Girl."

Gary Cooper had a small role in the film, launching him to stardom. Two months later, The Jazz Singer opened the door for talking pictures, and Wings almost immediately became a relic.

On May 16, 1929, the 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held, honoring the best films of 1927 and 1928 -- a last gasp for the Silent Film Era. Wings was awarded Best Picture, and it remains the only silent film so honored. (The Artist was awarded Best Picture for 2011, but became a "talkie" at the end.)

Bow died in 1965, Wellman in 1975, Arlen in 1976. Rogers, known as "America's Boyfriend" for his romantic leading roles, married silent film legend Mary Pickford in 1937, following her divorce from Douglas Fairbanks Jr. They remained together until her death in 1979. Rogers lived on until 1999.

The 1990-97 NBC sitcom Wings was also about pilots, but, aside from the title, bears no resemblance to the silent film.

*

August 12, 1927 was a Friday. Country singer Porter Wagoner was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers -- or, rather, the Brooklyn Robins, as they were known while Wilbert Robinson was their manager from 1914 to 1931 -- 7-6 at the Polo Grounds. The Robins led 6-0 going to the bottom of the 8th, and blew it. Mel Ott was batting in the bottom of the 10th inning, and hit a ground ball to 1st base, where Babe Herman, normally an outfielder, proved he couldn't play 1st base, either, allowing Rogers Hornsby to score the winning run. Hornsby had 4 RBIs in the game, and Bill Terry went 4-for-5 on the day.

* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 12-6 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Ty Cobb, now with the A's, proved he wasn't just playing out the string, going 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Nor was former Brooklyn star Zack Wheat playing out the string, as he went 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-3 at Navin Field (later Briggs Stadium and Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. "Sunny" Jim Bottomley hit a home run to win the game in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, the Washington Senators, the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds were not scheduled. At the time, Babe Ruth had 36 home runs, and Lou Gehrig had 38.

July 24, 1952: "High Noon" Premieres

Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly

July 24, 1952: High Noon premieres. Despite a lot of trouble, it becomes one of the most beloved films of all time.

Carl Foreman was a screenwriter, and joined the Communist Party in 1938, leaving it in 1942. In 1951, at the height of the Korean War and during the Red Scare, he bought the rights to John W. Cunningham's Western-themed short story "The Tin Star," finding it similar to a screenplay he'd written, and didn't want to get sued.

That same year, he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, but he refused to name names. He was labeled an "uncooperative witness," which meant that, once his current project was done, he would be put on the blacklist. He sold his partnership in the production of High Noon to his partner, Stanley Kramer, and moved to Britain, knowing it would be easier to find work there and in Europe.

Fred Zinneman was appointed the director. John Wayne was offered the lead role, but he refused, his right-wing sensibilities leading him to believe that the story was an allegory against blacklisting. Years later, he told an interviewer, "I will never regret having helped run Foreman out of the country."

Kramer offered the role to Gregory Peck. He turned it down, not for political reasons, but because it was too similar to a recent role he played, The Gunfighter. He would call turning High Noon down the biggest mistake of his career. The role was was offered to Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Charlton Heston. They all turned it down. (Yes, Heston turned down the role of a man with a gun. No, it wasn't because of politics.)

Finally, the role of Will Kane was offered to Gary Cooper. Already a Hollywood legend, he had been a "friendly witness" before HUAC, but did not implicate anyone, and became an opponent of blacklisting. For the role of Will's bride, Amy Fowler, they got Grace Kelly, whom Kramer saw in an off-Broadway play.

It didn't seem to make much sense: Cooper was 50, and Kelly was just 21. Also, while it was not generally known to the public, one of the worst-kept secrets in Hollywood was that Cooper slept with most of his female co-stars. Kelly would gain the same bed-on-the-set reputation, although rumors of she and Cooper making sheet music remain unsubstantiated.

High Noon was also the film debut of Lee Van Cleef, although he had no lines, and he became identified with Westerns. Ian McDonald was cast as the villain, Frank Miller; Sheb Wooley, later to have a Number 1 hit with "The Purple People Eater" as Miller's brother and gang member Ben; Thomas Mitchell, best known as Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life, as Mayor Jonas Henderson; Lloyd Bridges as Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell; a pre-M*A*S*H Harry Morgan as Sam Fuller; Lon Chaney Jr. as Kane's predecessor as Marshal, Martin Howe; and Mexican actress Katy Jurado in a key role as Helen Ramírez, who had been Miller's girlfriend, then Kane's, and is now Pell's, and was part of the reason Kane sent Miller to prison.

The story, which moves in real time, begins in 1898, in Hadleyville, New Mexico Territory, with the wedding of Marshal Will Kane to Amy Fowler, a Quaker and therefore a pacifist. For this reason, Will is giving up his role as Marshal, and they have signed a deal to run a store in a nearby town.

However, the town gets word that Miller has been released from prison, and will arrive on the train coming into Hadleyville at 12:00 noon. Miller's gang, made up of his brother Ben, Jack Colby and Jim Pierce, are already waiting for him at the station.

The Kane's plan was to leave town after the ceremony, and Amy is sure that now they have even more reason to do so. But Will knows that if he leaves town now, the town will be defenseless against the Miller Gang. Amy tells Will she is leaving on the noon train, with or without him.

But no one will back Will up. Acting Marshal Pell is angry that Will didn't nominate him as his successor, and says he'll only help if Will will now do so. Will refuses again, and Pell turns in his badge and pistol. Will tries to raise a posse, but some of the men are cowards. Some believe that a gunfight, however it turns out, will damage the town's reputation. Some actually support the Millers. The former Marshal is old, and too arthritic to properly fire a gun. The only ones ready to support Will are a man with one good eye and a 14-year-old kid.

The "gunfight on Main Street at high noon" has become a trope of Westerns on film and TV, but, in this case, the title High Noon refers to the time the train is supposed to arrive. In fact, it arrives one minute late. Frank Miller disembarks, and Amy Kane gets on.

The Miller Gang and Will face each other, four against one. They draw. The gunshots are heard at the station, and Amy jumps off the train, and runs back to town. Will kills Ben and Colby, but is wounded by Frank. Amy chooses her husband over her faith, and takes Pell's gun and kills Pierce. Frank grabs Amy, and uses her as a human shield to draw Will out to where he can shoot him. Amy claws Frank's face, and he pushes her to the ground. This gives Will the chance he needs to kill him.

Amy rushes into Will's arms. Only now do the townspeople rush to Will's side. He responds to their hypocrisy by removing his Marshal's star and throwing it in the dirt. He and Amy climb about their wagon and drive away.

The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning 4, including Cooper for Best Actor. Since he was working in Europe at the time, he asked Wayne to accept the Oscar on his behalf. Although Wayne's contempt for the film and refusal of its lead role were well known, he said, "I'm glad to see they're giving this to a man who is not only most deserving, but has conducted himself throughout the years in our business in a manner that we can all be proud of."

But later, Wayne told an interviewer that he considered High Noon "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life," and later teamed with director Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo in response. Hawks explained, "I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn't my idea of a good Western."

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a known fan of Westerns, screened High Noon at the White House. President Ronald Reagan, himself a very conservative Republican and a former actor, who appeared in some Westerns, called it his favorite movie of all time. So did later Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

In 1980, CBS aired High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane. Lee Majors, better known for starring in The Six Million Dollar Man, played Will, with Katherine Cannon as Amy. Will finds the successor appointed to replace him has been corrupt, and, this time, the townspeople support him, and he wins. In 2000, Stanley Kramer's widow, Karen Sharpe Kramer, produced a remake of the original for TBS, with Tom Skerritt as Will and Susana Thompson as Amy.

Near the end of the 1988 film Die Hard, when Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) thinks he's won, holding Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) in much the same way that Frank Miller held Amy Kane, he tells John McClane (Bruce Willis), "Still the cowboy, Mr. McClane? Americans, all alike! Well, this time, John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly!" And McClane tells him, "That was Gary Cooper, asshole!" And the Kanes drove off into the sunset, not walking off. But John manages to save Holly and everyone else, anyway.

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July 24, 1952 was a Thursday. There was another notable piece of film history on this day, although no one would know it for decades: Film director Gus Van Sant was born.

These baseball games were played on that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Mike Garcia went the distance, outpitching Tom Morgan. Joe Tipton and Dale Mitchell hit home runs. For the Yankees, Yogi Berra hit a home run, but Mickey Mantle went 0-for-4.

* The New York Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-5 at the Polo Grounds. Max Lanier went the distance for the Jints, who knocked Harry Brecheen out of the box in the 2nd inning, despite not having Willie Mays available due to the Korean War. Lanier was backed by home runs from Davey Williams, Sal Yvars, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Thomson.

* A doubleheader was split at Ebbets Field. The Cincinnati Reds won the opener, 3-2, with Bubba Church outpitching Clem Labine. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the nightcap, 2-1, with Duke Snider hitting a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, as Ben Wade went the distance. Over the 2 games, Jackie Robinson went 2-for-8 with a home run, a walk and an RBI.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 4-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It became Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Lou Kretlow pitched a 2-hit shutout. Ted Williams was serving in the Korean War, and was unavailable for the Red Sox.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies were supposed to play the Pittsburgh Pirates at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, but the game was moved back 2 days, for a doubleheader on July 22. The Phillies swept, 14-4 and 8-1.

July 14, 1942: "The Pride of the Yankees" Premieres

July 14, 1942: The Pride of the Yankees premieres at the Astor Theatre, at 1537 Broadway in Manhattan. It was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, and directed by Sam Wood, previously known for directing the Marx Brothers films A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.

It stars Gary Cooper as New York Yankees star Lou Gehrig, who had died a year earlier, and Teresa Wright as his wife Eleanor, who lived on until 1984.

At this point, Cooper was best known for Sergeant York, about Alvin C. York, the Tennessee farmer and pacifist, turned World War I Congressional Medal of Honor winner. "Coop" was considered an All-American hero himself.

But the worst-kept secret in Hollywood was that he slept with all his female leads -- not including Wright. But they did include Clara Bow, Lupe Vélez, Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard, Ingrid Bergman, Patricia Neal and Grace Kelly. (Granted, some of these women also got around, especially Bow, Dietrich and Kelly.) In contrast, if the real Gehrig ever slept with any woman other than Eleanor, I would be surprised.

But there was a problem other than Cooper's extramarital activities: He had never played baseball before. And he just couldn't swing a bat lefthanded, as Gehrig did. So they made a reverse Yankee uniform, had him run to 3rd base, and flipped the film.

File footage of the original Yankee Stadium was used, and the film has some of the best footage available of the 8 American League ballparks then in use. But, due to proximity to the Hollywood studios, the actual baseball scenes were filmed at Wrigley Field, home of the Pacific Coast League's Los Angeles Angels, then a Chicago Cubs farm team, and thus built to look like Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Walter Brennan had also been in Sergeant York. Through his role in Western films, the 1960s Western TV series The Real McCoys, and the spoken-word records he made like "Old Rivers," he is remembered as a grizzled old ranch hand. In this film, much younger, and dressed in what were then present-day clothes, he was almost unrecognizable as he played fictional sportswriter Sam Blake.

Four Yankee greats play themselves: Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig and Bill Dickey (still active at the time, and the closest thing the Yankees had to a Captain after Gehrig's retirement). The scene where Dickey punches out a teammate who questions the dedication of an impaired Gehrig was a dramatization, but he would have done it: Gehrig was his best friend on the team.

Gehrig's farewell address on July 4, 1939 is depicted, although the key line, about being "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth," is spoken at the end, instead of the beginning as it actually happened. The film ends with Cooper walking down the tunnel to the locker room -- the baseball equivalent of a Western hero walking off into the sunset.

It is regarded as the best baseball-themed movie yet made, and would remain so into the 1980s. But it really isn't a "baseball movie." It's an old-fashioned romance, the story of Lou and Eleanor, and Lou just happens to be a baseball player.

In 1977, Eleanor's memoir was turned into an ABC TV-movie A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story. Blythe Danner (Gwyneth Paltrow's mother) played Eleanor, Edward Herrmann played Lou, and, in a weird twist, Gehrig's domineering German immigrant mother was played by one of Cooper's exes, Patricia Neal. Unlike The Pride of the Yankees, this film showed the final effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the disease that claimed Lou's life and has since borne his name.

The Astor Theatre was on Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets, facing Times Square. It was torn down in 1982, and the Marriott Marquis Hotel was built on the site. I stood across from it as I watched the Yankees' 2009 World Series win on the big board in Times Square.

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July 14, 1942 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. Hank Borowy pitched a 2-hit shutout. Tommy Henrich, soon to be drafted, hits a home run. Joe DiMaggio went 2-for-3 with a walk, and would also be in World War II before the next Opening Day.

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Cubs, 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Vern Olssen allowed 11 hits, but kept the shutout, and helped his own cause with a sacrifice fly. Mel Ott went 0-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Whitlow Wyatt went the distance for the win, and Pete Reiser got 3 hits.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams went 0-for-4, but still went on to win the Triple Crown that season -- and go into The War the next.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-1 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Braves, 7-5 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. A rookie named Stan Musial won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning.

* The Chicago White Sox were supposed to play the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, but got rained out. On August 31, an off day for both teams, 2 games that had been rained out were played. The ChiSox swept, 3-1 and 5-0. Edgar Smith allowed 9 hits in the nightcap, but still pitched a shutout.

* And, in a notation for which Baseball-Reference.com (without which I could not possibly write this feature to my satisfaction) provides no explanation, a game scheduled for this day, between the Washington Senators and the Cleveland Indians for Griffith Stadium in Washington, was moved back to the preceding Sunday, July 12, as part of a doubleheader. The Indians swept, 9-7 and 5-0. Jeff Heath won the 1st game with a triple in the top of the 10th inning. Jim Bagby Jr. allowed 8 hits in the 2nd game, but kept the shutout.

January 5, 1904: "The Virginian" Premieres Onstage

Owen Wister

January 5, 1904: The Virginian premieres at the Manhattan Theatre, at 102 West 33rd Street. The play was written by Owen Wister, who had written the 1902 novel on which it was based, and established Broadway writer Kirke LaShelle. Dustin Farnum played the title role.

Note: I'm citing the date of the play's premiere, because I can't find an exact date of publication for the book.

At the time, 34th Street was the center of New York's Theater District. It had a habit of moving 10 blocks Uptown every few years. Over the next few years, it moved up to 42nd Street, and by the 1920s, it pretty much filled up the space between 42nd and 57th Streets, and 6th and 8th Avenues, where it remains.

The Virginian is set in Wyoming, at some undetermined time, but between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and Wyoming's Statehood in 1890, in what was already being called "The Wild West." The name of the title character, a ranch foreman, is never officially given, although the novel's narrator calls him "Jeff." Otherwise, he is only referred to as "The Virginian."

The novel, the play based on it, and eventually the films based on it helped to popularize many of the tropes we now associated with the Wild West, many of which either never happened or were greatly exaggerated.

The Virginian himself arrives in town as a "tall dark stranger," and is "the strong, silent type." At one point, he is called "you son of a bitch," and he responds with, "When you say that, smile!" (Which, thanks to the Gary Cooper film version, tends to get remembered as, "Smile when you say that, stranger!") He is a man of honor, refusing to shoot the novel's antagonist in the back. (This becomes, in the public mind, part of "The Code of the West.") But he does face the antagonist in a gun duel in the middle of a street, and this is often credited as the first such duel in literature. And he romances the virtuous local schoolteacher, or "schoolmarm," instead of any of the "fallen women" who make up the "saloon girls."

Farnum starred in the 1st film version, a silent one produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille in 1914. This was followed by a 1923 silent film starring Kenneth Harlan, the 1st "talkie" version in 1929 with Gary Cooper, and a 1946 version with Joel McCrea.

The best-known version remains NBC's 1962-71 drama, the only prime-time show in American history to have 90-minute episodes. James Drury starred. Through 9 seasons and 249 episodes, the Virginian's real name was never revealed. It has been suggested, but not proven, that The Virginian was the 1st TV show to be promoted by its network with the words, "Whatever you do, don't miss the last five minutes."

One major difference between the character and most Western heroes: He wore a black hat, usually a sign of a bad guy, although Richard Boone also wore one in Have Gun -- Will Travel, and Pernell Roberts tended to wear one on Bonanza.

James Drury

The TV version of The Virginian proved so definitive, only one version has been tried since, a 2014 film starring country singer Trace Adkins.

LaShelle died in 1905, a pair of household accidents having combined with diabetes to damage his health. He was only 42 years old. Farnum died in 1929, Wister in 1938, Cooper in 1961, and Drury in 2020 (not from COVID).

The Manhattan Theatre was torn down in 1909, to make way for a new home for Gimbels department store. That building is still on the site, occupied by the Manhattan Mall.

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January 5, 1904 was a Tuesday. Astrologer Jeane Dixon was born on this day. But there were no scores: Baseball and football were out of season, and basketball and hockey were strictly minor-league at this point.