If the eye isn't completely missing a damaged or diseased eye will suffer atrophy that is wither and shrink. The first time he wore an eye patch was part of a costume. He earned the nickname "Bull" because, it is said, of the way he would lower his helmet and charge the line. [82] If a doomed character was shown playing poker (such as Liberty Valance or gunman Tom Tyler in Stagecoach), the last hand he plays is the "death hand"two eights and two aces, one of them the ace of spadesso-called because Wild Bill Hickok is said to have held this hand when he was murdered. He always had music played on the set and would routinely break for tea (Earl Grey) at mid-afternoon every day during filming. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck had a strong influence over the movie and made several key decisions, including the idea of having the character of Huw narrate the film in voice-over (then a novel concept), and the decision that Huw's character should not age (Tyrone Power was originally slated to play the adult Huw). A faction of the Directors Guild of America, led by Cecil B. DeMille, had tried to make it mandatory for every member to sign a loyalty oath. He was extremely sensitive to criticism and was always particularly angered by any comparison between his work and that of his elder brother Francis. But why, exactly, did pirates wear them? This makes sense, and there probably were many maimed pirates who wore eyepatches, but some believe that this is not enough to explain the prevalence of eyepatches among pirates . According to Ford's own story, he was given the job by Universal boss Carl Laemmle who supposedly said, "Give Jack Ford the jobhe yells good". Sergeant Rutledge (Ford Productions-Warner Bros, 1960) was Ford's last cavalry film. Also in that year, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon. During filming of Wee Willie Winkie, Ford had elaborate sets built on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., a heavily filmed location ranch most closely associated with serials and B-Westerns, which would become, along with Monument Valley, one of the director's preferred filming locations, and a site to which Ford would return in the next few years for Stagecoach and The Grapes of Wrath. Still, it was one of Ford's most expensive films at US$3.2million. Sawyer joined Dr Hook in 1969, two years after he lost an eye in a car accident. Throughout his career, Ford was one of the busiest directors in Hollywood, but he was extraordinarily productive in his first few years as a directorhe made ten films in 1917, eight in 1918 and fifteen in 1919and he directed a total of 62 shorts and features between 1917 and 1928, although he was not given a screen credit in most of his earliest films. Why did John Ford wear an eyepatch? In contrast to his contemporary Alfred Hitchcock, Ford never used storyboards, composing his pictures entirely in his head, without any written or graphic outline of the shots he would use. He won two more Academy Awards during this time, one for the semi-documentary The Battle of Midway (1942), and one for the propaganda film December 7th: The Movie (1943). While he proved himself a commercially responsible director, only two or three of his films had earned more than passing notice. A child wearing an adhesive eyepatch to correct amblyopia. During his first decade as a director Ford worked on dozens of features (including many westerns) but only ten of the more than sixty silent films he made between 1917 and 1928 still survive in their entirety. His 1923 feature Cameo Kirby, starring screen idol John Gilbertanother of the few surviving Ford silentsmarked his first directing credit under the name "John Ford", rather than "Jack Ford", as he had previously been credited. [16] By the time Jack Ford was given his first break as a director, Francis' profile was declining and he ceased working as a director soon after. In fact, he did make Westerns, but a whole lot more. Most pirates wore an eyepatch because they had lost an eye in fighting (to a sword, shot, or cannon. This feat was later matched by Joseph L. Mankiewicz exactly ten years later, when he won consecutive awards for Best Director in 1950 and 1951. There is some uncertainty about the identity of Ford's first film as directorfilm writer Ephraim Katz notes that Ford might have directed the four-part film Lucille the Waitress as early as 1914[20]but most sources cite his directorial dbut as the silent two-reeler The Tornado, released in March 1917. [5] The John Augustine Feeney family resided on Sheridan Street, in the Irish neighborhood of Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine, and his father worked a variety of odd jobs to support the family farming, fishing, a laborer for the gas company, saloon keeping, and an alderman. Eye patches have a few benefits, including improving your symptoms and vision. "You're not going to get a word in edgewise," Madonna told Andrew Denton on Interview on June 18. He said he voted for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election and supported Richard Nixon in 1968 and became a supporter of the Vietnam War. Switch off all the lights. [citation needed] The film failed to recoup its costs, earning less than half ($100,000) its negative cost of just over $256,000 and it stirred up some controversy in Ireland. Among them was Marcus, Lord Wallscourt, a delightful man whom Ford treated abysmallysometimes very sadistically. By keeping a patch over one eye, it meant that . Many famous stars appeared in at least two or more Ford films, including Harry Carey Sr., (the star of 25 Ford silent films), Will Rogers, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Maureen O'Hara, James Stewart, Woody Strode, Richard Widmark, Victor McLaglen, Vera Miles and Jeffrey Hunter. Anna Lee recalled that Ford was "absolutely charming" to everyone and that the only major blow-up came when Flora Robson complained that the sign on her dressing room door did not include her title ("Dame") and as a result, Robson was "absolutely shredded" by Ford in front of the cast and crew. Upon arriving on the set, you would feel right away that something special was going to happen. It starred John Wayne, Pedro Armendriz and Harry "Dobe" Carey Jr (in one of his first major roles) as three outlaws who rescue a baby after his mother (Mildred Natwick) dies giving birth, with Ward Bond as the sheriff pursuing them. DeMille was basically on the receiving end of a torrent of attacks from many speakers throughout the meeting and at one point looked like being solely thrown off the guild board. He was primarily known for appearing in Westerns, including 1969's True Grit. The Grapes of Wrath was followed by two less successful and lesser-known films. Well, many people believe that it was so one eye would always be adapted to the dark. It takes an average human eye about 25 minutes to fully adapt from bright sunlight to seeing in complete darknessif a pirate was . Cast member Louise Platt, in a letter recounting the experience of the film's production, quoted Ford saying of Wayne's future in film: "He'll be the biggest star ever because he is the perfect 'everyman. He saw the dangers of expelling DeMille. Try it for yourself. The Soul Herder is also notable as the beginning of Ford's four-year, 25-film association with veteran writer-actor Harry Carey,[21] who (with Ford's brother Francis) was a strong early influence on the young director, as well as being one of the major influences on the screen persona of Ford's protege John Wayne. There were occasional rumors about his sexual preferences,[75] and in her 2004 autobiography 'Tis Herself, Maureen O'Hara recalled seeing Ford kissing a famous male actor (whom she did not name) in his office at Columbia Studios.[76]. Ford filmed the Japanese attack on Midway from the power plant of Sand Island and was wounded in the left arm by a machine gun bullet. Madonna tells Andrew Denton about the eye patch and gives fashion tips. Ford won a total of four Academy Awards with all of them being for Best Director, for the films The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952)none of them Westerns (also starring in the last two was Maureen O'Hara, "his favorite actress"). The Dudley NicholsBen Hecht screenplay was based on an Ernest Haycox story that Ford had spotted in Collier's magazine and he purchased the screen rights for just $2500. While this can't be proven without the use of time machines, a pretty plausible explanation says that a pirate's eye patch was for "dark adaptation." See, pirates would often have to move between dark and light settings rather quickly, such as below and above the deck of a ship. Tracy plays an aging politician fighting his last campaign, with Jeffrey Hunter as his nephew. Ford directed sixteen features and several documentaries in the decade between 1946 and 1956. His opening was that he rose in defense of the board. Ford suffered poor eyesight and had to wear thick, shaded prescription glasses. [citation needed] After the incident Ford became increasingly morose, drinking heavily and eventually retreating to his yacht, the Araner, and refusing to eat or see anyone. [70] It was poorly promoted by Columbia, who only distributed it in B&W, although it was shot in color,[70] and it too failed to make a profit in its first year, earning only $400,000 against its budget of $453,000. [5], Feeney attended Portland High School, Portland, Maine, where he played fullback and defensive tackle. Ford was one of the pioneer directors of sound films; he shot Fox's first song sung on screen, for his film Mother Machree (1928) of which only four of the original seven reels survive; this film is also notable as the first Ford film to feature the young John Wayne (as an uncredited extra) and he appeared as an extra in several of Ford's films over the next two years. But their conflict with society embodies larger themes in the American experience. They filed their intentions to marry on July 31, 1875, and became American citizens five years later on September 11, 1880. Clark, Donald, & Christopher P. Andersen. Ford's favorite location for his Western films was southern Utah's Monument Valley. After the war, Ford remained an officer in the United States Navy Reserve. Both of Ford's 1958 films were made for Columbia Pictures and both were significant departures from Ford's norm. It starred veteran actor Charley Grapewin and the supporting cast included Ford regulars Ward Bond and Mae Marsh, with Francis Ford in an uncredited bit part; it is also notable for early screen appearances by future stars Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. Filmed on location in Africa, it was photographed by British cinematographer Freddie Young and starred Ford's old friend Clark Gable, with Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly (who replaced an ailing Gene Tierney) and Donald Sinden. Other films of this period include the South Seas melodrama The Hurricane (1937) and the lighthearted Shirley Temple vehicle Wee Willie Winkie (1937), each of which had a first-year US gross of more than $1million. His last completed work was Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend, a documentary on the most decorated U.S. Marine, General Lewis B. Puller, with narration by John Wayne, which was made in 1970 but not released until 1976, three years after Ford's death. William Clothier was nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar and Gilbert Roland was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Cheyenne elder Dull Knife. It was a huge hit with audiences, coming in behind Sergeant York as the second-highest-grossing film of the year in the US and taking almost $3million against its sizable budget of $1,250,000. This means that when they went below decks, they could just switch their eye-patch, which would make their sight in the darkness far better than someone with no eye-patch and no dark-adapted eye. Ford's first feature-length production was Straight Shooting (August 1917), which is also his earliest complete surviving film as director, and one of only two survivors from his twenty-five film collaboration with Harry Carey. [33] It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two Oscars, for Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Mitchell) and Best Score. However, as the shaken old man left the building, Frank Baker saw Ford's business manager Fred Totman meet him at the door, where he handed the man a cheque for $1,000 and instructed Ford's chauffeur to drive him home. During the making of Mogambo, when challenged by the film's producer Sam Zimbalist about falling three days behind schedule, Ford responded by tearing three pages out of the script and declaring "We're on schedule" and indeed he never filmed those pages. Probably better then known by its Gaelic name, The other Ford westerns with location work shot in Monument Valley were. Orson Welles claimed that he watched Stagecoach forty times in preparation for making Citizen Kane. About 25 years ago his left eye was injured in an accident on the set, and he finally lost sight in it. Stagecoach became the first in the series of seven classic Ford Westerns filmed on location in Monument Valley,[34] with additional footage shot at another of Ford's favorite filming locations, the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., where he had filmed much of Wee Willie Winkie two years earlier. Pappy and the Duke", John Ford (1 February 1895 - 31 August 1973), Director John Ford Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Sun Shines Bright (1953), Ford's first entry in the Cannes Film Festival, was a western comedy-drama with Charles Winninger reviving the Judge Priest role made famous by Will Rogers in the 1930s. The account has several embellishments. Just before the studio converted to talkies, Fox gave a contract to the German director F. W. Murnau, and his film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), still highly regarded by critics, had a powerful effect on Ford. 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