Hollywood Goes to War: Tim McCoy

What up?

It's Dramos. You may know me from the recap on LATV. Now I've got my own podcast, Life as a Gringo, coming to you every Tuesday and Thursday. We'll be talking real and unapologetic about all things life, Latin culture and everything in between from someone who's never quite fit in.

Listen to Life as a Gringo on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. With ever-longer ingredient lists on beauty products, it's hard to tell what you're really buying. That's why Sephora is committed to cutting through the clutter and confusion, helping to push the industry forward by showing what's really in their products. At Sephora, their clean standards mean products formulated without parabens, sulfates, phthalates, mineral oils and more. So when you see the clean at Sephora Seal, you know you're getting a clean you can count on.

Learn more about their clean standards and shop clean at Sephora Beauty at Sephora.com. This segment is sponsored by Novo Nordisk. Weight loss. It's a constant cycle.

Am I right? It feels like our bodies are working against us, pushing back on our progress. We lose weight and our bodies try to gain it right back. Sure, losing weight is challenging, but keeping the weight off is just as hard. In fact, people with excess weight generally make seven serious attempts at weight loss.

Seven? But guess what? It's not all our fault, and we have the science to back it up. One study shows that by partnering with health care providers, it may be possible to lose up to five times as much weight compared to trying to do it solo. Together, you can develop a plan to manage your weight and the impact of weight-related health issues, like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Talk to a health care provider and ask if FDA-approved medicine could help with losing weight and maintaining the results.

Learn more about the science behind the weight loss at TruthAboutWeight.com. And we continue with our American stories, and it's time for another Hollywood Goes to War story from Roger McGrath. Tim McCoy was a major film star, most noted for his roles in American Westerns.

He was so popular with youngsters as a cowboy star that he appeared on the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes. Roger McGrath is the author of Gunfighters, Howling and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, a U.S. Marine and former history professor at UCLA. Dr. McGrath has appeared on numerous History Channel documentaries, and he's a regular contributor for us here in our American stories.

Here's McGrath with the story of Tim McCoy. From the late 1920s and through the 1930s, Tim McCoy was not only one of the top cowboy actors, he actually was a cowboy. He appeared in his first movie, The Thundering Herd, in 1925 and his last, Requiem for a Gunfighter, in 1965. Altogether, he appeared in 93 movies. In 1973, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

It was also in 1973 that he was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What is less known about Tim McCoy is his service in the U.S. Army in both World War I and World War II. Timothy John McCoy is born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1891. His parents are Gaelic-speaking Irish immigrants. At 16 years old, the father enlists in the Union Army when the Civil War erupts. He survives the Civil War unscathed, only to be wounded in the Fenian invasion of Canada in July 1866, hoping, along with other Fenians, to divert Britain's attention to Canada and allow Ireland to win her independence. The mother, Catherine Fitzpatrick, is described as pretty with dark auburn hair, a rosy complexion, and an ever-present twinkle in her eye. She arrives in America in 1870 as a 15-year-old. Within months, she becomes a McCoy. The couple will have six children.

Tim is last. By the time Tim is growing up, his father is Police Chief of Saginaw, a lumber town that had experienced a boom in the 1860s and 70s. Ours was a home filled with warmth and affection, recalled McCoy.

And my family orientation, as might be expected, was nationalistically Irish and devoutly Catholic. His boyhood years are typical for use of that era in the upper Midwest, except his dad is the chief of police and the commander of the local chapter of the Union Veterans Organization, the Grand Army of the Republic. Because of police and Civil War veterans participating in parades, McCoy learns to play the drums and the bugle so he can march along with his father. There is also a naval reserve unit in Saginaw, and needing a bugler, McCoy is asked to join. But he's underage, only 13. His case is pleaded up the chain of command.

Even the Michigan governor gets involved. And finally, the Navy grants McCoy special permission to join. Five days before his 14th birthday, he's enlisted in the naval reserve. He drills weekly and goes on summer cruises.

He will stay in the reserve unit until he goes off to college three years later. At 17, McCoy is admitted to St. Ignatius College in Chicago. He lives off campus with maternal uncles and aunts. His courses are demanding, and he has to study like never before. Moreover, many of his classmates are intent on becoming priests and are academically brilliant.

It's not easy time for McCoy, especially because he has no desire to wear a clerical collar. For pleasure, he reads historical fiction about the Old West. Owen Wistord's The Virginian is one of his favorites. His interest in the Old West was first piqued years before by reading dime novels and meeting Buffalo Bill Cody when the frontiersman and entertainer brought his Wild West show to Saginaw in 1898. McCoy was captivated by the spectacle of it all, especially the rioting and shooting. Since his father was the police chief, McCoy was able to tag along with his dad to Cody's tent outside the arena.

He said he stood awestruck before Buffalo Bill. During the fall of 1908, the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West show comes to Chicago. McCoy slips away from St. Ignatius to watch the performances. His imagination is again set on fire, as it had been 10 years earlier. He makes up his mind to go out West. At the end of the spring semester in 1909, without telling anyone, he boards a westward bound train with only a few dollars in his pocket. On the train, he happens to find himself seated next to a horse trader from Lander, Wyoming, who is involved in shipping Mustangs to the east. At Grand Island, Nebraska, the horse trader puts McCoy to work with Jim Dollard breaking Mustangs for the market. The horse trader tells McCoy that Dollard killed two men in one day in Wyoming. And now look here, the 18-year-old McCoy tells the horse trader, I know I'm a newcomer to the West, but you don't have to feed me that dime novel stuff.

The horse trader laughs and tells McCoy it's all true. And Dollard has just been released from the penitentiary and is back to breaking horses instead of stones. Sporting a drooping red mustache, Dollard looked me up and down with his sharp green eyes, said McCoy, the coldest eyes I had ever seen.

If a look alone could kill, Dollard was capable of disposing of considerably more than two men in a single day. And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Tim McCoy as a part of our Hollywood Goes to War series. We've done stories on Clark Cable, Jimmy Stewart, and so many more.

Go to our American stories.com and search for our Hollywood Goes to War series. When we come back, more of Tim McCoy's story here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories from our big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do the show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to our American stories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.

Go to our American stories.com and give. Four NFL teams, two conference championship games, and only a few more shots to win big on the playoffs with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NFL. Counting down to Super Bowl 57. New customers can bet just $5 and get $200 in free bets instantly. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code timer. New customers can bet $5 on the conference championships and get 200 in free bets instantly. Only at DraftKings Sportsbook with promo code timer.

21 and over in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com sportsbook for details and state-specific responsible gambling resources. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

In New York, call 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY467369. Void in Ohio and Ontario. Bonus issued as free bets. One boost per eligible game. Deposit, parlay, and wagering restrictions apply.

Eligibility and terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com slash football terms. You will not believe it, but the White House has recently signed an executive order to explore a digital dollar. Just like China, a digital dollar could wipe away your privacy, it could destroy your ability to control your own money, and it could make it easier for the government to devalue your savings. Don't wait until it's too late. Learn how you could protect your savings and investments today in a free wealth protection kit. There's no cost or strings attached. We'll send this free kit to your doorstep or inbox free of charge. All you have to do is call 855-933-5252 today.

Don't be a victim to a new technology that could allow the government to track your every purchase and even stop you from making the purchases you choose for yourself and your family. Take control of your financial future today and request your free wealth protection kit. Call 855-933-5252 right away. That's 855-933-5252.

Once again, 855-933-5252. And we're back! Well, tax season's here folks, and you know... Hi there. Whoa, where'd you come from? April here to tell you about the tax filing software from TaxAct.

Seriously, were you like hiding behind my desk? Seriously, TaxAct makes it easy to get your maximum refund. Well, you heard it here first, folks. Switch to TaxAct today and you can start for free. Or as we say in radio ads, TaxAct.

Subtle. TaxAct. TaxAct. File for less and get more.

See TaxAct.com for details. And we continue with our American stories and with Roger McGrath as he continues his storytelling in our Hollywood Goes to War series. Now let's continue with Tim McCoy's story.

Here again is McGrath. After several days breaking horses with Dollard, McCoy boards a train with a horse trader and begins the run to Lander in West Central Wyoming, just south of the Wind River Reservation. The line to Lander was completed only two years earlier and the town gained the motto, where the rails end and the trails begin. A horse trader takes McCoy to an inexpensive boarding house and then leaves for his own quarters. Dropping his gear in his room, McCoy steps out of the boarding house and onto the wooden sidewalks of Lander's main street, which appropriately is dirt. Cowboys stroll into and out of saloons. Music comes from a dance hall. Horses are tied to hitch racks.

A few Indians stand about. McCoy is thrilled by his first night in Lander. It's everything he dreamed the West to be. He treats himself to a steak dinner with all the trimmings and pie and ice cream for dessert. It costs him 50 cents. He retires to his room and lies on his bed, listening to the sounds of raucous cowboy laughter, honky-tonk piano, and the clump of high-heeled boots on the wooden sidewalks accented by jingling spurs.

The next morning reality strikes. He's in the West, still somewhat the Old West, but he needs a job. Fortunately, the double diamond ranch, 50 miles to the north, needs a few men to work hay fields. McCoy won't be a cowboy, but it's a start.

For the next two months, he harvests and stacks hay on the double diamond. The foreman likes McCoy's work, and when the fall roundup begins, he puts the 18-year-old greenhorn on a horse. McCoy is elated and rushes down to Lander to buy all the trappings of a cowboy. Meanwhile, McCoy writes his father, saying he doesn't want to be a college man, but instead a cowboy and is now in Wyoming. Well, son, replies his father, it's your own grave you're digging.

I just hope you aren't going to be a horse's ass all your life. During these years, he also comes to know the Indians well, especially the Arapaho. A romantic by nature, McCoy is fascinated by the stories the older Indians tell of the days before the reservation, when they followed buffalo herds and fought their enemies, mostly other Indians, and only occasionally white men. McCoy learns the Arapaho language, as well as the sign language common to the Indians of the High Plains. He becomes friends with several Arapaho, including some who had fought at the Little Bighorn.

Chief Goes In Lodge makes him a tribal brother. There are still cattle wrestlers in Wyoming, and ranchers still pay hired guns to track them down. The most feared hired gun in McCoy's day is Sam Berry. McCoy says Berry's arrival in any particular area usually puts a stop to wrestling without Berry having to fire a shot.

Whenever he does kill a wrestler, Berry slices off one of the wrestler's ears as evidence of a job completed. When McCoy goes to town, it's south to Lander, east to Thermopolis, or north to Cody, a town which features Buffalo Bill's Irma Hotel. The old showman can usually be found at the 30-foot-long polished mahogany bar in the hotel's saloon. Cody drinks prodigious quantities of whiskey and captivates McCoy and all others standing at Irma's bar with stories of Daring Do in the Old West. By 1915, McCoy files for a 640-acre homestead on Owl Creek to the west of Thermopolis.

He pays $27.50 for the property. During the winter of 1917, the talk of America's possible entry into what is called the European War dominates many a conversation. McCoy's interest is especially piqued by a Theodore Roosevelt newspaper article. TR proposes an American force that he would lead that would feature a cavalry similar to the Rough Riders of Spanish-American war fame. Roosevelt theorizes the cavalry could break through the German front and wreak havoc operating as raiders behind the enemy's lines. At the time I read that article, said McCoy, I was 26 years old, bursting with energy, enjoying good health, and filled with that roving spirit which has always constituted a substantial part of my makeup.

And like many young people, I had the brashness or spunk that comes when you've passed most of your time on life's hills rather than down in the valleys. As soon as he finishes reading Roosevelt's article, McCoy begins writing a letter to the former president. McCoy says he will recruit a force of 400 cowboys from Wyoming and Montana for Roosevelt. McCoy addresses the envelope to the Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, New York City, New York, reckoning the Post Office will get the letter to TR. Two weeks later, a writer dispatched from Thermopolis gallops up to McCoy and hands him a telegram. It's a reply from the former president.

Bully for you, do proceed. Article and telegram in hand, McCoy spends the next several weeks recruiting. In less than two months, he has 400 men signed up, with Wyoming, Montana under a deep blanket of snow and little to do.

Everyone is raring to go, anticipating a grand adventure in Europe. No one is more excited than McCoy, who sends word of his success to Roosevelt. In late March, McCoy receives another telegram from Roosevelt. President Wilson will not approve the plan. Wilson gives several excuses, but the real reason is his fear that Roosevelt would once again be catapulted into the presidency.

A week after Wilson scuttles Roosevelt's plan, Congress declares war. McCoy is immediately on a train for Cheyenne, where he gets a letter of recommendation from the governor and then on to Fort Logan near Denver. After several twists of fate, he's sent to OCS at Fort Snelling near St. Paul, Minnesota. He excels in officer school and then even more so in cavalry school, where he's promoted to captain upon graduation.

The promotion is an unusual distinction, normally bestowed only upon veteran lieutenants. Before he leaves for posting at Fort Riley, Kansas, he marries his girlfriend from Wyoming, Agnes Miller. Suddenly, McCoy is a captain of cavalry in the U.S. Army and a married man. At Fort Riley, McCoy becomes part of the officer corps tasked with turning recruits into cavalrymen.

His life is made easier only when he's allowed to make cowboys non-coms to eat in the training. Morale is high. All are preparing for the day when they will be making thunderous and glorious saber-wielding dashes on the backs of galloping steeds through enemy lines.

Realists rather than Romanics win the day, though. The use of modern machine guns and artillery pieces on the front in Europe is making it clear the days of cavalry charges are over. And word comes of Fort Riley that the bulk of the cavalry forces will be converted to field artillery. And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of Tim McCoy, and you can't make it up. Imagine writing a former president known for putting forces together, known for swashbuckling, and get a response and then put together 400 folks to go ahead and fight a foreign war.

It sounds crazy, except it really happened, and so many things like it happened back then. And my goodness, look at his life. A Michigan boy, his father's a police chief, fought in the Civil War, and what does he decide to do? Tell Dad, I'm not a college boy anymore. I met this guy named Buffalo Bill, and I've got other ideas. And so, with love, he said to his dad, I disagree with the way you and I are going to live our lives.

And hopefully our fathers, well, they don't just say, you know, well, what his dad said, which was wishing him actually not good things. When we come back, we're going to cover more of this remarkable American story, Tim McCoy's story, here on Our American Stories. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use promo code TIMER. New customers can bet $5 on the conference championships and get 200 in free bets instantly. Only at DraftKings Sportsbook. With promo code TIMER.

21 and over in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com slash sportsbook for details and state-specific responsible gambling resources. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.

In New York, call 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369. Void in Ohio and Ontario. Bonus issued as free bets. One boost per eligible game. Deposit, parlay, and wagering restrictions apply.

Eligibility and terms at sportsbook.DraftKings.com slash football terms. There's one thing retirement savers are not doing, and that one thing could cost them everything they've worked for. I'm talking about real diversification. Not just stocks and bonds, but non-correlated assets that do not move in the same direction. So if stocks go down, your money is protected. How do you know if your money is truly diversified?

What are your investment options to ensure your money is truly diversified? Get the answers and more in a free wealth protection kit. There's no cost or strings attached. We'll send this free kit to your doorstep or inbox free of charge. All you have to do is call 855-933-5252 today. You'll learn how you can protect your hard-earned money from the ongoing economic and political chaos we're seeing today.

Don't put this off for a second longer. Take control of your financial future and request your free wealth protection kit today. Call 855-933-5252 right away.

Once again, that's 855-933-5252. Breathe in and out. Let relaxation fill your mind, even if you're super stressed and behind on your taxes like me.

Sorry to interrupt. Who are you? I'm April from TaxAct. You can let go of tax season stress and elevate to a heightened state of serenity with our free expert help and a maximum refund. Free help? Waves of calm are washing over me. Good, because here comes a storm of cash. TaxAct, the help you need for free.

See TaxAct.com for details. Which tells you everything. That's more than just an iconic actor when you get to the cover of Wheaties.

You're sort of an iconic brand at that point. Let's return to Roger McGrath for the rest of Tim McCoy's story. McCoy is sent to West Point, Kentucky, where he leads a funeral march of hundreds of cavalry troops, all wearing black armbands with heads bowed while a band plays a dirge. In the center of the procession is a caisson with a black draped casket in the words, United States Cavalry died 1918.

Rest in peace. McCoy is now assigned to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for Officer's Artillery School. Upon graduation, he's put in command of an artillery battery. Now a Lieutenant Colonel, McCoy is championing at the bit for deployment to France, but the armistice is declared and he musters out of the Army. He isn't home for long before the new governor, Bob Carey, an old friend from McCoy's first roundup, offers McCoy the job of Adjutant General of Wyoming. McCoy accepts immediately and is now a Brigadier General at the age of 28. McCoy's headquarters are in the state capitol building at Cheyenne.

The Arapaho are especially impressed with their young friend, who is now a mighty chief with a star on his shoulder. They decide he needs a new name. In a ceremony conducted by the medicine man, Yellow Calf, McCoy is christened Banny Natchaw, meaning Soldier Chief. During the next several years, McCoy buys another 1,500 acres of land and leases an additional 2,500 from the federal government. His Owl Creek Ranch now spreads over 5,000 acres.

McCoy and his wife now have three children, two boys and a girl. In the fall of 1922, into McCoy's office in the capitol building, comes a small Natalie-dressed man with an alligator skin briefcase. The man says his Hollywood motion picture company is making a western, the covered wagon, and 500 Indian extras are needed. The man says it's proving impossible to get the Indians, and with the movie behind schedule and over budget, financial disaster is near.

The man is Jesse Lasky, one of the pioneer movie makers. He offers McCoy big bucks if McCoy can provide the needed Indians and rescue the movie. McCoy signs a contract for not only providing the Indians, but also for serving as technical advisor for the movie. McCoy also ensures contractually that the Indians will be well paid. Within weeks, McCoy has 500 Arapahoe, Shoshone, and Bannock, and the necessary horses at the filming location in Utah.

In two months, the location shoot is completed. McCoy is a hero, and Lasky now wants him in Hollywood to stand on stage with some of his Indian buddies to introduce the movie before each of it's showing at Grauman's Egyptian Theater. Lasky offers to pay the Indians and cover all their expenses and a contract of $1,000 a week for McCoy. McCoy resigns as Wyoming's Adjutant General and is off to Hollywood. After a four month wildly successful run at Grauman's, it's off to London for six more months of the same. In the meantime, the covered wagon is released nationwide in the U.S. and the movie is a spectacular success. Back in Hollywood from London, McCoy goes to work as a technical advisor on a second movie, The Thundering Herd. When his work is finished, McCoy is hired to introduce John Ford's The Iron Horse in the same manner he had introduced the covered wagon. His Indian friends are making more money than they had ever dreamed of, and so too is Tim McCoy.

The Indians are calling him by a new name, High Eagle, because he seems so powerful and wise, soaring high and observing all. McCoy now formally names his Owl Creek Ranch, Eagle's Nest. Irving Thalberg of MGM thinks McCoy has the makings of a cowboy star. McCoy is a six foot, handsome, blue-eyed blonde who can ride and rope, shoot and fight, and sign and track like an Indian.

Studio publicity agents won't have to invent a matinee idol. In reality, McCoy is a cowboy, an Arapaho blood brother, a rancher, and a cavalry officer. From 1926 to 1929, McCoy stars in 16 MGM movies, mostly westerns. He even writes the script for one movie when Thalberg grows upset with the staff writers. McCoy makes the studio gobs of money and gobs for himself.

However, McCoy is away from home nearly all the time, and his marriage is suffering. He tries to strike a new deal with MGM that will give him more time off, but when Louis Mayer stalls and equivocates, McCoy says goodbye. In 1931, McCoy signs with Columbia Pictures. Instead of slowing down, the pace picks up, and over the next four years, he makes 32 movies. It's during this time that Hollywood begins timing western stars on their quick draws by counting the number of frames on film from hand movement to smoke from the gun barrel. McCoy is a frame or two faster than anyone else.

His success in Hollywood, though, destroys his home life, and Agnes and he are divorced. McCoy leaves Columbia and makes movies with production companies that allow him to tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus and with his own Wild West show. During the late 1930s and into the early 1940s, McCoy stars in 27 more westerns.

Then comes the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. McCoy is 50 years old, and he's a cowboy star, but he turns his back on Hollywood and joins the Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel. He's sent to Europe, serving in intelligence and in operations, and occasionally is at the front.

In August 1944, he's in Paris for the liberation of the city. By the time the war is over, McCoy has been promoted colonel. He returns to Hollywood, but he's now in his mid-50s, and his career as a star of westerns is over. He appears in only four more movies and only in minor roles. He does have a highly successful TV show, though, in which he tells stories about the Old West, gives lessons in Indian Sign Language, and interviews old-timers about life in the mining camps and on the cattle ranges.

His old Indian battles make frequent appearances. In 1953, McCoy's show is awarded an Emmy. In the meantime, McCoy remarries and has two more children.

He dies in 1978 at age 86. Tim McCoy lived one of the fullest, most varied, most adventurous, and most accomplished lives imaginable, including proudly serving his country in two World Wars. He wasn't an invention of Hollywood. He was the real McCoy. Indeed, and great production work as always by Greg Engler, and a special thanks to Roger McGrath, as always, for telling these terrific stories about America's past, reminding us of who we were and, of course, who we can always be. Hollywood goes to war. And my goodness, here he is at the peak of his powers, wealth beyond any measure, and at 50 years old, 50 years old, volunteers to give up his craft and go represent his country, and, of course, leaves a full bird colonel.

The story of Tim McCoy here on Our American Stories. Spring is here, and it's time to spice up your look at Lulus, your one-stop shop for affordable, high-quality, fierce looks. Lulus carries dresses, jumpsuits, sweaters, shoes, two-piece sets, tops, bottoms, accessories, and more. Find your new hot look for spring break, vacate, girls' night out, bachelorette party, wedding, or date night. Create an account at Lulus.com and use code LulusFan20 to save 20% off your first order. That's LulusFan20. Terms and conditions apply.

See Lulus.com for details. There's one thing retirement savers are not doing, and that one thing could cost them everything they've worked for. I'm talking about real diversification, not just stocks and bonds, but non-correlated assets that do not move in the same direction. So if stocks go down, your money is protected.

How do you know if your money is truly diversified? Get the answer in a free wealth protection kit. There's no cost or strings attached. Just call 855-933-5252 today.

That's 855-933-5252. There's a sense of thrill that comes with learning, a sort of aha moment when things click, or you learn a cool new fact. Wondrium.com is all about the thrill of those moments.

Medieval history, astrophysics, cooking with bugs, playing the ukulele, training your puppy. Wondrium members have unlimited access to a world of tutorials, documentaries, courses, and more, all led by renowned experts. For special offers, go to Wondrium.com slash iHeart. That's W-O-N-D-R-I-U-M dot com slash iHeart.