audie murphy research foundation

A NON-PROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION

PresidentTerry M. Murphy

Vice PresidentChris J. Glazier

Executive DirectorLarryann C. Willis, Esq.

AUDIE MURPHY RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Snapshots of 1957 trip to Vietnam and Hong Kong from Audie Murphy’s personal photo album.

PO BOX 1804Orinda, CA 94563

Toll Free Phone (888) 314-AMRFFax: (925) 253-0504Email: [email protected] Site: www.audiemurphy.com

Courtesy of Audie B. Evans, Jr.

1924 photo of Audie B. Evans, Sr. in the wagon which was used to deliver groceries to AudieMurphy’s mother Josie Bell Murphy.

Audie B. Evans, Jr. - about 1944


HOW AUDIE LEON MURPHY GOT HIS NAME

During the winter of 1924-25, Josie Bell Murphy’s wayfaring husband had dis-appeared again, leaving her and their three surviving children in a falling-down shacknear the tiny town of Kingston, Texas, about halfway between Greenville and Celeste.Josie was in desperate straits. She had almost no money. The family was survivingon what she could raise in the garden and what the two oldest children—Corinne, 14,and Buck, 12—could glean from the harvested fields. And, in addition, she waspregnant again.

Audie B. Evans, Sr. had been lucky enough to land a job on the road crew repair-ing the stretch between Greenville and Celeste. This was the Great Depression and ,though working, Audie didn’t make much. But as rough as things were for the Evansfamily, it was far worse for Josie and her children. Audie worried about them. Hewould offer to pick up groceries for Josie when he made the 15-mile trip to Celeste.Although Mrs. Murphy had no money, Audie would take what she could give himfrom the garden, or firewood the children had gathered, and return with things shedesperately needed. There isn’t much doubt that Audie Evans often dipped into hisown pocket to help the Murphy family.

Their neighbor, Audie Lee West, was also concerned about the Murphys andtook over the garden hoeing as Josie became heavy with child. Audie West was thereto help when Josie Murphy’s son was born.

Josie was so grateful to both Audie Evans and Audie West that she named hernew son after them. Corinne was given the honor of selecting a middle name. Shepicked “Leon” for no special reason other than it was different and “sounded nice.”Years later, Corinne observed that at the time she had no idea that Leon is Spanish forlion; but it certainly turned out to be prophetic.

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© 1998. Permission hereby granted for excerpt reproduction by educators, newspapers, magazines and newsletters conditioned upon the Audie Murphy Research Foundation being credited as the source. All other usesprohibited without written permission from the copyright holder.

Dr. William Russo is a professor atCurry College in Milton, MA where heteaches film courses. For the past sev-eral years Dr. Russo has been workingon a book about THE QUIET AMERI-

CAN. In the course of compiling re-search Dr. Russo has interviewed manypeople who worked on the film and hasdiscovered interesting, unpublished in-formation which he has been kind

enough to share with the Foundation.The work is still in progress and Dr.Russo welcomes input from anyone withknowledge about the making of the pic-ture.

United Artists

Michael Redgrave and Audie Murphy in scene from THE QUIET AMERICAN — 1958

THE QUIET AMERICANBy

Dr. William Russo





VOLUME 6 WINTER 1998 - 99 © 1998

AUDIE MURPHY RESEARCH FOUNDATIONPO BOX 1804Orinda, CA 94563


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Coming between John Wayne’s THEQUIET MAN, released in 1952, andMarlon Brando’s THE UGLY AMERI-CAN, released in 1962, both on video,and both more commercially success-ful and famous than their middle sib-ling, THE QUIET AMERICAN has suf-fered from its chronological placement.It was released in 1958 and remains,to this day, a movie everybody thinksthey have seen—but probably haven’t.It is a film confused with the other twoconstantly, and not helped by the factthat THE UGLY AMERICAN also isabout America’s pre-war involvement inSoutheast Asia. Yet, of the three, THEQUIET AMERICAN is probably themost interesting film—on and off cam-era.

Dr. William Russo1998

The accommodations were in theheart of Saigon in the Hotel Majestic.The colonial French, now gone for abouttwo and a half years after their defeat atDien Bien Phu, left a most non-luxuri-ous hotel: no air-conditioning. Roomsat the Majestic were cooled by a ceilingfan—if one can call moving hot airaround “cooling.” Temperatures inVietnam during this season seldom dropbelow 100 degrees. Audie generallyseemed unbothered by the heat, thoughthe principal actors like Bruce Cabotsuffered from the experience. Nearly ev-eryone turned into a card-playing re-cluse, owing to fears about wanderingthe city without bodyguards. Otherstook to heavy drinking to cope with theterrible heat.

At the Hotel Majestic, having cometo Saigon four days later than ex-pected—and in the middle of Tet—Au-

die took the room with the view of thesquare, despite the noise and carrying-on five floors below. To him, the noiseinterrupted sleep, but as he said: “Iprobably won’t sleep much anyway.”His room had a verandah on which hestood often, watching the crazy, busydoings down below. “Someone couldtoss a hand grenade up here,” he an-nounced, explaining why the windowsand French doors were all covered onthe outside with mesh wire. Most paneswere taped to prevent shattering glassfrom flying in case of an explosion.

Within ten days, while visiting HongKong, Audie came down with acute ap-pendicitis and had to undergo emer-gency surgery.

Due to a New York television com-mitment, Michael Redgrave was permit-ted to join the production company laterthan the rest of the cast and crew. He

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was slow, owing to his overuse of peni-cillin during his recovery from woundsin World War II. In fact, Redgrave’scharacterization was untrue, misleading,and diminished the seriousness ofAudie’s acute appendicitis (from whichhe almost died).

Redgrave, finding a delay in hisfilming schedule, went off seeing thesites. He admitted cavalierly: “I leftAudie to fend for himself.” And the tallactor flew up to Angkor Thom to takephotos of the ancient ruins. As his planecrossed the jungles of Cambodia, hethought how much this experience inVietnam reminded him of an earliermovie in his career: THE NIGHT MYNUMBER CAME UP. It was a disqui-eting thought.

Trained in the classics, Redgrave be-lieved acting was a great art that couldonly be achieved through portraying allthe great Shakespearean roles on stage.This certainly meant he had a limitedamount of respect for a former soldierwho had become a movie star: Audiesarcastically told Redgrave, “I’ve made

United Artists

Audie Murphy, Michael Redgrave and Giorgia MollTHE QUIET AMERICAN — 1958

basked in writer-director JosephMankiewicz’ attentive courtship. Hereceived cables addressed: “DearestMichael—” and citing humorous cli-ches, like “chin up,” etc. Mankiewiczsigned one telegram: “The Quiet andthe Disquieted.” Unlike others in thecrew, he did not realize Mankiewicz’purpose was to allay fears about film-ing in a dangerous and unstable coun-try.

Though Redgrave stated on Febru-ary 7, 1957, “I was eager to meet him”—meaning Audie—he was more than alittle disingenuous. He was irked that,after cutting short his New York TVcommitment, and having fretted point-lessly about it, Audie did not greet himat the airport in Saigon. When he de-planed, a month later than all the othersin the cast, he discovered Audie hospi-talized in Hong Kong. He told friendsback home that Audie had contracted“some germ or other.” He also disdain-fully complained that Audie’s recovery

Audie Murphy Research Foundation

Audie Murphy being greeted by Hong Kong welcoming committee.January 1957

the same film twenty times.” Indeed,Audie’s view on acting—“it beats pick-ing cotton”— rankled the imperiousBritish thespian.

Stunned by Murphy’s self-relianceand decision to carry weapons, Redgraveallowed this to influence his perfor-mance. And already he had started toshow some antipathy for Audie.Redgrave was the sort of actor who livedthe part: if he played someone whodisliked you, he had to dislike youoffscreen as well.

Some tension be-tween Mankiewicz andRedgrave was also un-avoidable. Indeed,Redgrave felt that theAmerican director fa-vored the quiet Ameri-can over the dry Brit-ish journalist. ThoughMankiewicz had toldRedgrave he couldchange the verbosescript to his liking, hehad changed his mindby the time the actorlanded in Saigon.When Redgrave criti-cized one of the lengthyspeeches, he was metwith a cool reaction.“This is not someninety-minute movie,”the director chided fre-quently, and Redgravestewed silently eachtime.

The British stagestar saw JoeMankiewicz as a cal-lous man, one substan-tially convinced of his own righteousness.Redgrave later told his daughter, actressVanessa, that Mankiewicz inflamed thepolitically charged air. When extras car-ried placards that stated anti-Americanslogans, he filmed it and passed it off aspart of the local color. “No one backhome’ll know what they mean.” Thisraised some hackles too with the local

protesters.Mankiewicz informed the small pro-

duction team of 50 people that theycould be the subject of a bombing — ora sniper attack.

Delays came from Mankiewicz’tinkering with the script and from thecomplications after Audie’s appendec-tomy in Hong Kong, which preventedlocation shoots with the American starfor several weeks.

Fifteen pounds lighter after his con-

valescence, Audie finally was into har-ness, raring to go despite his ills. Healso had strong views on GrahamGreene’s novel: “Greene never met a realAmerican, I think. He believes a guy whogoes to Harvard and lives in Boston is areal American. Did you ever met any-one from Boston who went to Harvard?They all come from any place but....”

Convinced that Mankiewicz andAudie were in cahoots to undermine themovie, Redgrave became more andmore alienated. The director and actorsbegan to become their characters andlive their parts. In a picture mostly com-prised of dialogue which hinted at com-plex, hypocritical, untruthful and manipu-lative relationships between the charac-ters, there were two galvanizing and vio-lent scenes. On a lonely road in a toweroutpost, the quiet American and the Brit-

United Artists

Audie Murphy and Michael RedgraveTHE QUIET AMERICAN — 1958

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ish reporter are attackedand nearly killed by VietMinh on patrol. And, ina grande finale, a Saigonsquare is bombed, killingmany innocent civilians.The British reporterblames the American forthis terrorist attack, be-lieving him to be anagent of the Central In-telligence Agency.

The advertisingcampaign stressed thatthis was a film for thosein the audience who feltlike “giving a thinker’sdamn” and talked aboutthe man (Audie):“wherever he walked, all hell broke loose.” Ofcourse, that didn’t foolthe public. They knewa bomb when they sawone, and stayed awayfrom the picture. Dis-covering Audie killed inthe first thirty seconds ofthe movie would notbring in his fans. Yet,with its thoughtful mo-

ments, the movie might be called an in-telligent, mature film. Or, in Audie’swords: “. . . the biggest artistic flop inmy career.”

Dr. William Russo1998

I was a member of the 36th Division which was mostalways in the same area as the 3rd Division. I recall oneincident when I was wounded about 25 or 26, October 1944 inthe Vosges Mountains of Eastern France. I was in an evacua-tion hospital just behind the battle lines. There were a num-ber of wounded there from the 36th, 3rd, and 45th Divisions. Iwas placed in an ambulance with several men from the 3rdDivision of which Lt. Murphy was one, along with anotherman from his unit. As we were held up on the road by shellfire and then deep snow, it took us all night to reach a hospitalnear Besancon, France late the next day. I remember whilewe were stopped on the road, the soldier from Lt. Murphy’sunit asked him if he wanted a cigarette and his reply was,“Heck no. The krauts are trying to kill me and now you aretrying to help them by poisoning me.” When we reachedBesancon, I was taken to a hospital there for surgery and I didnot see Lt. Murphy anymore.

Joseph A. Justice1998

Courtesy of Joseph Justice

Joseph A. Justice

Dad never cared for ciga-rettes, as I think you can tell from Mr.Justice’s anecdote [see below].

For THE QUIET AMERI-CAN, however, he had to learn tosmoke, or at least pretend to be asmoker. There is an important bit ofdialogue in which the British journal-ist asks the American for a cigarette.The American hands him a pack, say-ing: “Keep the pack, I’ve got somemore.” The Brit replies: “I askedfor one cigarette not economic aid. Idon’t want to be impressed by howmany packs you’ve got.”

Dad told me that, try as hemight, he could never be comfortablesmoking and always looked awkwardholding a cigarette. Finally he justsaid the hell with it.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t in-hale.

TM

United Artists

Michael Redgrave and Audie MurphyTHE QUIET AMERICAN — 1958

5

The 3rd Division’s spectacular driveup the Rhone Valley was slowed by themiddle of September. The Germans,strongly fortified in the Vosges Moun-tains, had their big guns dominating im-portant highways which the divisionneeded to advance. The artillery couldnot dig them out. The Fortifications hadto be taken by direct assault. Much ofthe combat took on the nature of sav-age jungle fighting. With opposing linesoften 50- to 100- yards apart, the infan-try units frequently had to battle with-out artillery support. Enemy infiltrationwas common; and so was ferocioushand-to-hand fighting. Around the town of St. Ames wasa mass of hills which the Germans hadturned into a main line of defense. Itdominated the Le Tholy-Gerardmer ar-terial highway, which the 3rd Divisionsorely needed as a chief route for itscontinued push. The enemy couldhardly have found more suitable terrainfor defensive fighting. The steep slopesof the hills were thickly wooded andstrewn with large boulders. The Ger-mans had had plenty of time to pick andprepare their positions. The anchor point of their lines wasCleurie Rock Quarry. Situated on aslope with dense trees, the quarry washoney-combed with tunnels, passages,and walls that protected the krautsagainst mortar fire. The north side ofthe quarry rose into an almost verticalcliff. The German defenders, includingmany sharpshooters, had been orderedto fight to the death in defense of thismost important position. The 15th Infantry Regiment wassent in to take the quarry by the only way possible — direct assault. The 1stBattalion, because of its position in thebattle lines, was to get the brunt of coun-terattacks. On September 28th, the 15th— slugging its way against heavy Ger-

HOW AUDIE MURPHY WON HIS MEDALSPART V

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man Resistance — reached a point fromwhich it could launch an all-out attack. Late the next day, the forward elements of the 1st Battalion reached the vicinity of the quarry. But it was stopped by aconcentration of enemy fire. Company B recovered and contin-ued the attack over rain-soaked earth and through mist. By midnight the unitwas groping its way toward the quarry whenthe Germans counter-attacked in

a battle that lasted five hours. The rightflank of Company B was shoved backbut the main element of the unit held itsground and established lines within 50yards of the quarry. There it would re-main to attack and be counter-attackedfor four days. A wooded ridge lay be-tween the American company and thequarry. “We took and lost that ridge so of-ten that some of the men thought we

blocking the advance of the battalion; andhe personally set out to see. With himwas Lieutenant Colonel Keith Ware, ex-ecutive officer for the 1st Battalion. Bothbrave and daring men, they were notstrangers to probing enemy positions inadvance of their unit. Ware was to re-ceive the Medal of Honor and finally diefighting in Vietnam years later. The two lieutenant colonels stoppedat the Company B command post andpicked up Captain Paul Harris, as wellas several enlisted men, to form a re-connaissance patrol. Audie was not in-vited along. However, he had beenstudying the situation for two days andtried to persuade the officers to stay offthe hill directly above the front lines. Hehad a theory — later proved to be cor-rect — that the pine-crested cliff at thenorth end of the quarry was loaded with

machine guns arranged to provide inter-locking fire over the whole immediate area. But Paulick decided to go ahead withthe patrol. With grim humor, Murphypicked up a carbine and some grenadesto follow the men. “I figured those gentle-men were going to run into trouble. So Itagged along, about 25 yards to their rear,to watch the stampede.” He heard anenemy grenade go off, followed by ma-

chine-gun fire, but he saw nostampede. The men in the patrolhad not returned the fire. Thismeant that they were eitherpinned down or killed. Audie hasa peculiar knack for instantly dis-covering the origin of sound.Ahead was an enormous boulderwhich the Germans were appar-ently using for cover. Swiftlymaking his way to the big rock,Murphy started edging around it.He paused to pull the pin from agrenade, released the lever, andgave a three-count for the fuseto shorten. Then he stepped intothe open; and found himself faceto face with the enemy soldierssome eight yards away. A German had picked up themachine gun, apparently to finish

off the patrol. But he whirled and fired aburst at Audie. The machine gun barrelcaught in some brush and its fire whizzedto the right of Murphy. He was too oc-cupied to appreciate his good fortune.He lobbed the grenade into the midst ofthe Germans with split-second timing.Now he followed with a second. Thenhe threw his carbine into position andnailed a kraut who had started to run. The entire action was over within20 seconds. Four of the seven-manGerman crew were dead. The otherthree were seriously wounded. Themachine gun was ruined; and the sen-tence of the doomed patrol was lifted.A hasty study of the situation revealedthat the Germans had placed theirweapon between the boulder and thequarry for firing down the slope. Thepatrol had not fallen into the obvious trap.

always tried to avoid getting myselfbacked into corners, even for cover. Aman had a much better chance for sur-vival if he kept moving and observingwhat was going on.” On the morning of October 2nd,Lieutenant Colonel Michael Paulick,commanding officer of the 1st Batta-lion, was thinking along the same lines thatcharacterized the Murphy battle psy-chology. He wanted to know what was

should be getting flying pay,” says Mur-phy. It was in this ferocious battle, de-scribed in The History of the Third In-fantry Division as one of the toughestassignments for the 15th Infantry Regi-ment in the entire war, that Audie distin-guished himself as a truly unique andspectacular soldier — if any doubts re-mained. The pressure demanded thebest of every man in the area. Actionwas a matter of individual ini-tiative as well as individual sur-vival. Captain Paul Harris set upa command post for CompanyB in a stone farmhouse 25yards back of his own lines.The night of October 1st be-gan quietly enough. Some ofthe men had been relieved ofimmediate duty long enough tograb a nap in the farmhousecellar. Mist settled down anda group of Germans slippedthrough Company B’s linesand attacked the farmhousefrom the rear with automatic weapons. Streams of whitetracer-bullets were crisscross-ing the area and cracking intothe house as the Germansclosed in. Audie, crawling under the fire,reached the command post, seized acase of hand grenades, and started anunorthodox counterattack of his own.Slithering over the ground and partiallyveiled by the mist, he closed in on theGermans throwing grenade after gre-nade with telling accuracy. The enemysoldiers, surprised and demoralized by anattacking force they could not see, fellback as the other men of Company Bbegan slashing them with rifle fire. “Why couldn’t the men in the cellar defend the place?” I asked. Murphy replied, “They couldn’t seethe tracers and get a line on the fire. Butthey could hear the bullets slapping intothe house walls. They were trapped andpinned. Had I been in that cellar, I wouldnot have stuck my head up either. But I

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History of The Third Infantry DivisionDefeated and dejected enemy soldiers file out CleurieRock Quarry — October 5, 1944

In an effort to reach a vantage point for look-ing down into the quarry, the Americans hadbypassed the boulder some 30 yards to theright. They had thus walked right past theGerman crew before being discovered. It was presumed that the grenade hadbeen thrown to knock the patrol off balanceuntil the machine gun could be traversed forfiring uphill. Two enlisted men had beenwounded by the German grenade. The Ger-man machine-gunner could not get a bead onthem. However, the patrol, pinned down at adistance of 30 yards, would certainly havebeen slaughtered had not Murphy moved infor the kill first. For his action Audie receivedthe Silver Star. In a 1964 interview, Keith Ware, then abrigadier general, said: “Audie Murphy waswithout a doubt the finest soldier I have everknown in my entire military career.” Aboutthe same year, Michael Paulick, then a fullcolonel, stated: “Nothing ever written orshown about Audie has measured up to hisfantastic achievements as a soldier. He savedmy life.” Captain Paul Harris could make nocomment. He was killed in action around theSiegfried Line.

David “Spec” McClure1971

Colonel Michael Paulick acted as one of the military advisors on thefilm TO HELL AND BACK — 1955

Courtesy of Universal Studios

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MAJOR GENERAL KEITH L. WARE Adapted from Ware, Murphy article by Phillip T. Washburn, TEXCOMPublic Affairs, that appeared January 15, 1998 in the Fort Hood Sentinel.

Ware and Murphy served together in WWII and had great respect for eachother. They were also friends who few could equal in combat. The way theyfought and died were similar and today they rest in peace a short distance apartin Arlington National Cemetery. Ware, the highest-ranking officer killed during the Vietnam War, was anunassuming hero who went where the action was. He received the Congres-sional Medal of Honor for an action that took place January 26, 1944 when hescouted a fortified German position behind enemy lines and took out four Ger-man machine guns that had the American forces pinned down. On September13, 1968, Ware did the same sort of thing he had done at Cleurie Quarry — hewent to the front lines to personally scout heavy enemy activity near An Loc,Vietnam. Ware, CSM Joseph Veneable and King, Ware’s white German shep-herd, boarded a Huey helicopter to go take a look at enemy positions. The Huey washit by a Rocket Propelled Grenade and blew up in midair, killing allaboard.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

SSSSSpecial pecial pecial pecial pecial Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks TTTTTo:o:o:o:o:

DASHLINK, INC. of Killeen, TX for sponsoringthe internet address dedicated exclusively to the

Audie L. Murphy Memorial Websitewww.audiemurphy.com

FARMERSVILLE LIBRARY AMERICAN COTTON MUSEUMDIAMOND JUBILEE

The 1999 Audie Murphy Days Celebration inGreenville, Texas, will be held April 9th, 10th and11th. Events will include: a Friday evening hospi-tality room at the American Cotton Museum: aSaturday parade, luncheon at a local country club,afternoon reception at the Fletcher Warren CivicCenter and concert at the municipal auditorium,followed by a barbecue at the American Legion Hall.On Sunday, the American Cotton Museum will beconducting bus tours to places in Hunt and CollinCounties associated with Audie Murphy. For furtherinformation contact The American Cotton Museum,PO BOX 347, Greenville, TX 75403-0347. Phone:903-450-4502. Email: [email protected]

Farmersville, one of the small Texas towns whereAudie Murphy lived as a boy, is worth visiting. It islocated about 20 miles west of Greenville on US Rt 380.The town has honored Audie with a monument, has nameda street for him and has established a display in the locallibrary.

Charles J. Rike Memorial Library203 Orange StFarmersville, TX 75442(972) 782-6681

In addition to posters donated to the library by theAudie Murphy Research Foundation, visitors can thumbthrough an extensive display of newspaper clippings andphotographs. Pictured below is a clock made by Audie B.Evans, Jr. [see inside cover story] which hangs in theFarmersville Library.


Keith Ware Hall serves as Fort Hood’s “Distinguished Visitors’ Quarters.”

Courtesy of TEXCOM Public Affairs





PO BOX 1804Orinda, CA 94563


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Behind the scenes with Giorgia Moll and Audie Murphy during thefilming of THE QUIET AMERICAN — 1957

United Artists

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