Unlike Father, Unlike Son

I am a revolutionary so my son can be a farmer so his son can be a poet.
John Adams

Ever since the days of yore of medieval guilds, fathers have expected sons to inherit their trade. Not every son, however, is cut out to follow in dad’s footsteps. Johann Sebastian Bach’s brood of 20 children included a number of composers and musicians who never apparently lived up to papa’s expectations, and, if you ask us, Frank Sinatra treated Steve Lawrence as more of a son than Frank Sinatra Jr. On the one hand, President John Quincy Adams proved himself a capable torchbearer for the legacy of his father, President John Adams, while, on the other hand, George H. W. Bush’s son, George W., ensured his niche as one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history.

A survey of over 230 presidential scholars conducted by New York state's Siena College Research Institute ranked "W" among the bottom five, along with Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson.

As a composer, Ferde Grofé is best known for a series of suites inspired by spectacular American landscapes, the most famous being "Grand Canyon Suite" As a pianist and arranger, he earned the nickname of the "Prince Minister of Jazz."

Born Rudolph Ferdinand von Grofé on March 27, 1892, in New York City, he was still a child when the family moved to Los Angeles. At 17, he was hired by the Los Angeles Symphony as a violinist. During his ten years with the orchestra, he formed his own jazz ensemble and beginning in 1923 performed in Los Angeles clubs. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.

Famed jazz conductor Paul Whiteman hired him as a pianist and arranger for his band. Grofé achieved national recognition with his orchestral arrangement of "Rhapsody in Blue," commissioned by George Gershwin, who had originally composed it as a piece for two pianos. The symphony, which catapulted Gershwin, Whiteman and Grofé to widespread fame, premiered on February 12, 1924, at New York’s Aeolian Hall. Grofé’s arrangement for full orchestra is the one most frequently heard today. (In 1928, George Gershwin officially complained that Grofé had listed himself as the composer of "Rhapsody in Blue." Despite the controversy, Grofé was asked to be a pallbearer at Gershwin’s funeral in 1937.)

Grofé’s first major American suite, "Mississippi Suite," premiered in 1926 in New York City. "Grand Canyon Suite" premiered in 1931 in Chicago. After becoming entranced by the national landmark, Grofé vowed to translate its impressions into a tangible form. "It became an obsession," he later wrote. "The richness of the land and the rugged optimism of its people had fired my imagination. I was determined to put it to music some day."

The Oscar-winning Walt Disney short subject film, "Grand Canyon," featured three movements from the suite, including the work’s memorable third movement, "On the Trail," which musically mimics the loping and braying of a stubborn pack mule.

In his later years, Grofé recalled, "Grand Canyon Suite" as a composition "born of sight, sound and sensations common to all of us. I think I have spoken of America in this music simply because America spoke to me, just as it has spoken to you and to every one of us."

In 1932, Grofé started a six-year stint as composer, conductor and arranger with his own Capitol Theater Orchestra in New York City. From 1939 to 1942, he was an instructor of orchestration at New York’s Julliard School of Music. His 1942 song "Daybreak," with lyrics by Harold Adamson, was a top 10 hit for big band legend Tommy Dorsey.

During the 1940s, Grofé collaborated on several film scores, receiving an Oscar nomination in 1945 for his score for "Minstrel Man." In 1954, he was joined by his third wife, Anne, for a two-piano concert tour of America. The following year, he premiered his first suite in 16 years, "Hudson River Suite." "Niagara Suite" premiered in 1961. His last major work, "World’s Fair Suite," was the official suite of the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

"Our land is rich in music," Grofé wrote before his passing on April 3, 1972, "and if you listen you can hear it right now. This is our music you hear, surging forth, singing up to every one of us."

One would think that a parentage so steeped in musical roots and American lore would produce progeny equally sympathetic to similar passions. One would be wrong in the case of Ferde Grofé Jr., a World War II historian and independent filmmaker, best known for scripting and directing low-budget action pictures depicting wartime guerrilla conflicts with Japanese troops in the jungles of the Philippines.

The younger Grofé’s first feature as director, shot in black-and-white on a shoestring budget, was "Fortress of the Dead" (1965), about the sole survivor from a unit massacred on Corregidor in World War II who returns to the island 25 years later. This little-seen gem has been described as a ghost story worthy of "The Twilight Zone."

Four years earlier, Grofé, as a screenwriter, began a collaboration with actor George Montgomery, who directed and starred in "The Steel Claw" (1961) as an ex-Marine with the titular prosthetic who leads a mission to rescue an American general held captive behind Japanese lines in the Philippines. In his time, long before two-fisted screen heroes the likes of Russell Crowe, Daniel Craig and Jason Statham, even before the rugged presence of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, one would have been hard pressed to find a more virile leading man than square-jawed, tough-talking George Montgomery.

Born in 1916, George Montgomery was a collegiate heavyweight boxer who studied interior decorating. He was a real-life cowboy who found employment as a Hollywood stunt man, appearing in several westerns, some with Gene Autry, before stepping up to second leads, including "The Cisco Kid and the Lady," with Cesar Romero. Twentieth Century Fox groomed him for leading man status by casting him alongside Betty Grable, Ginger Rogers, Maureen O’Hara and Gene Tierney.

After starring in 1943’s "Bomber’s Moon," Montgomery joined the United States Air Force, and in December of that same year married singer Dinah Shore (above). The marriage lasted until 1963. His adult pastime of building furniture for himself and for friends became a full-fledged cabinet-making business, which he managed for over 40 years. He also supplemented his acting salary by constructing sets and props for some of his films. His interests expanded to house design, and he taught himself how to sculpt in bronze, creating several sculptures, including one of John Wayne as Ethan Edwards in "The Searchers."

In 1950, Montgomery had the title role in "Davy Crockett, Indian Scout," an in-name-only western that had nothing to do with the historical frontiersman, and starred in the 1958 series "Cimarron City" as the mayor of a western boomtown (the townspeople of which included a pre-"Bonanza" Dan Blocker). Throughout the 1950s, Montgomery was a stalwart presence in numerous B-westerns. In his movie guide Western Films, author Brian Garfield noted, "When you come right down to it, George Montgomery made lousy movies, for the most part, even though he’s an appealing western character."

The previously mentioned "The Steel Claw" began Montgomery’s preference to star in and direct a number of gritty B-movies filmed in the Philippines, typically casting himself as the hard-nosed leader of native guerrillas fighting Japanese forces in World War II: "Guerrillas in Pink Lace" (1964), "Hell of Borneo" (1967) and "Ride the Tiger" (1970), all of which, like "The Steel Claw," were scripted by Ferde Grofé Jr.

Grofé himself directed George Montgomery in 1968’s "Warkill," based on Grofé’s screenplay. Tom Drake (best known as John Truett, the boy next door in the 1944 Judy Garland musical "Meet Me in St. Louis") portrays a wartime journalist responsible for lionizing jungle guerrilla commander Montgomery who finally becomes embedded with the war hero’s outfit, only to be shocked by the animalistic colonel’s no-prisoners brutality. The hardened officer ultimately redeems himself in an Alamo-like last stand at a Filipino mission sheltering wounded Japanese who have surrendered, targeted to be wiped out by Japanese forces.

George Montgomery quit acting in 1972, only to be coaxed out of retirement on rare occasions. In 1972, he co-produced a western written and directed by Ferde Grofé, "The Proud and the Damned," starring TV’s "The Rifleman," Chuck Connors, as the leader of four fellow Texans who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Drifting through South America as hired guns, they end up caught in the middle of another civil war, between arrogant alcalde Cesar Romero and a despotic Santa Anna-like general.

Western Films author Brian Garfield, who called the production "unforgivable trash," wrote, "The photography is of the home-movie variety" while "the acting, except for Connors, is of the high school drama variety…" To be fair, however, costar Aron Kincaid (below) is convincingly sincere in his portrayal of the moon-eyed, tongue-tied suitor of a local villager, sequestered in a convent and betrothed by family honor to the alcalde’s hot-blooded nephew.

Aron Kincaid was born Norman Neale Williams II in 1940. His father, a second lieutenant in the Army Air Force, was killed, age 27, when his plane was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire during the last years of World War II. After appearing in a bit part as a standard-bearer for Laurence Olivier in 1960’s "Spartacus," Kincaid enjoyed ‘60s drive-in movie stardom as a beach-blond hunk in "The Girls on the Beach," "Ski Party" (starring Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Deborah Walley and Yvonne Craig), "Beach Ball" (featuring Edd Byrnes), "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine" (with Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman and Vincent Price), and "The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini" (starring Tommy Kirk, Deborah Walley and Nancy Sinatra). Kincaid passed away in 2011.

On the screen, every band of desperadoes needed the presence of the wide-eyed innocent, equally adept at providing a guileless smile as playing a musical instrument. Portraying the guitar-slinging balladeer Billy, Peter Ford was born in 1945 to Hollywood couple Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell. Peter appeared unbilled in a number of his father’s films. (When Glenn Ford was set to star in 1955’s "Blackboard Jungle," director Richard Brooks was at the actor’s home when he heard nine-year-old Peter Ford playing the Bill Haley & His Comets’ recording of "Rock Around the Clock," which became the movie’s landmark theme song.)

The cast of "The Proud and the Damned" also features famed flamenco dancer and sometime actor ("Around the World in 80 Days," "Ship of Fools") Jose Greco as an angry gypsy who performs one dance before slicing off his kid sister’s ear for dallying with creepy old guy Connors.

The movie was shot in Spain, and like a number of nihilistic spaghetti westerns popular at the time, the hero is abruptly hanged before the climactic battle (maybe Chuck Connors’ contract had expired), and by film’s end, everyone except Cesar Romero, the girl in the convent and the gypsy girl is dead.

In 1971, Ferde Grofé directed his most memorable film, "The Day of the Wolves," a heist caper which has become a revered cult favorite due to its rumored inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s breakthrough hit, "Reservoir Dogs." Filmed in the then burgeoning community of Lake Havasu City, Arizona (home of the transplanted London Bridge, now a popular spring break destination and the location for 2009’s "Piranha 3-D"), the picture stars Richard Egan ("The 300 Spartans"), Martha Hyer "The Sons of Katie Elder"), Rick Jason (Lt. Hanley on TV’s "Combat!") and comedian Jan Murray. The movie is noteworthy for its unorthodox use of live ammunition when blanks jammed the automatic weapons.

Greg Quinn, who made the documentary "Return to Lake Havasu," noted, "A cult movie is like a really obscure joke that hardly anyone else gets. You don’t care that they don’t get the joke, because for you it hits the spot (in fact, it makes it cooler when others don’t get it). ‘Day of the Wolves’ is like that…For those of us under its spell…it is a gem." Quinn pointed out, "The storyline is mesmerizing, the action sequences hit the mark…Richard Egan, Jan Murray and Rick Jason are outstanding…In fact, the movie’s unique vibe is heightened by local amateur actors working side-by-side with Hollywood stars and character actors…To see it is to be quickly convinced of its influence on Quentin Tarantino’s tour-de-force…‘Reservoir Dogs.’"

Grofé’s last motion picture as director, to date, was "Judgment Day" (1988), a horror film featuring Cesar Romero as Satan. Ferde Grofé Jr. has since produced numerous documentaries about World War II and the Vietnam War.