August 26

What a day. And what a trip! Not my first location trip, but one that promises to be as exciting as the picture I'm going to make. Director Henry King is, like myself, air-minded. We left Hollywood this morning in his streamlined Waco cabin cruiser, one of the swankiest I've ever seen, and here we are, right over the greenswept Ozarks, almost at our destination. Al though the trip I couldn't' help thinking how lucky I've been with one grand part after the other during the past year. And now, to top it all, Jesse James, crammed full of action and romance. My fellow players are just about tops. Henry Fonda is my screen brother, Frank James; Nancy Kelly, a grand girl and a real actress, my screen wife; Randy Scott, the United States Marshal; Jane Darwell, my mother; Brian Donlevy, the land buyer for the railroad, and all the rest. This location trip promises to be a swell one.

August 27th

Reached the airport at Neosho, Missouri, yesterday and we roped the plane down to a barfed wire fence. Motored to Pineville, Missouri, where we're going to 'shoot' most of the Technicolor sequences and spent the night there. Nice country with beautiful unexpected vistas. Met some of Pineville's important people today, grand guys, all of them: Mayor Drumm, Lee Carnell, Sheriff Bone, C.A. Poindexter, editor of the Pineville Democrat, and other townsmen and farmers who came by car and wagon to see what changes Hollywood has made to this town. Pineville has a population of 383.

August 28th

Today we looked for living quarters. We have 175 persons in our film company and although we will work in Pineville, the town hasn't enough accommodations for all of us. I found a room in a private home on the outskirts of Noel, Missouri, a picturesque summer resort town in the heart of the Ozarks, eleven miles away from Pineville by pavement, eight miles of gravel. Others of the troupe found nice accommodations here, too. Director King has a nice room in a beautiful white house, commanding a grand view of the little town and the majestic hills. (They're called mountains down here, but I mustn't take the word too seriously. In California we have mountains that are really colossal).

The rest of the troupe got in by train today, Hank Fonda, Donlevy, Nancy Kelly, Randy Scott, and the rest. The entire Ozark country gathered at the little brick station in Noel to welcome them. Sidney Bowen, our company business manager, had come ahead of us and had been busy throughout this region for weeks, hunting out places for the troupe to find room and board. They are all comfortable located, now, though scattered over the countryside. Our hosts are extremely hospitable. My own landlord tells me they've been having pretty hard times down this way-the arrival of our company was an economic Godsend-but there is no talk of defeat, no crying of the blues and no whining.

August 29th

Actual filming started today. Our first scenes were made on the 'old Crowder farm.' It's a small place, run by the widow Crowder, who is one of the kindliest people I've ever met. The place offers so much scenically that George Barnes, our ace cameraman who is a veteran of many scenic locations in his time, broke down and turned on the exclamations. Naturally, Duke Gree, our Technicolor cameraman, was all set up about the color possibilities and had his camera set up in record time. It got pretty hot during the day, so Mrs. Crowder dipped up a big wooden bucket of clear, cold spring water for us. I've never had wine that tasted better, and the rest of us who worked today, Randy Scott, hank Fonda, Brian Donlevy and Nancy Kelly agreed with me. The work seemed to me to go pretty well, and when the end of the day came Henry King had a big smile on his face. That means he's satisfied! I hope we can keep it up. King is a great guy and it's because of folks like him and Darryl Zanuck that I have learned to get over the haunting taste of beans, coffee and pie-which I got on the cuff in a New York beanery, while waiting for a chance to get on the stage, which opened the path to Hollywood. No, I can't ever forget that, and I'll be eternally grateful to those who gave me the opportunity to work for something more than beans and coffee.

August 30th-September 2nd

Mrs. Crowder's two grown-up sons went to work for us today as bit players. For a sequence in the film, we had to toss a bomb into a big, rambling farmhouse and set it afire. (Not actually, just smoke to simulate flames). It became the duty of the Crowder boys to help us form an old-fashioned bucket brigade to put out the fire in their own home. They told me how our business manager had leased the far, put a new roof on the house since a new roof treated with Hollywood's special paint looked more ancient than their old roof, and how all the neighboring farmers had stood around while Hollywood workmen built a duplicate of a bedroom in the farmhouse back of the barn. It was here they had to film the death scene of my film mother, Jane Darwell.

Sheriff Bone and his hard-working deputies roped off the front yard and the barnyard of the farm so the crowds would know where to stand while we were filming. The crowds, by the way, instead of making noises and spoiling scenes, were as helpful and co-operative as humanly possible. I've never known folks so mobile and easy to manage. I haven't been on many locations (except for Suez and Lloyds of London), but I venture to say no veteran of the screen-or, for that matter, the stage, ever saw such well-mannered crowds. There were days when as many as 50,000 people watched us making a scene.

September 3rd

This is a special day on my calendar because I attended my first dance in Noel. It was at Shadow Lake where Mr. Marx Chaney runs a restful and picturesque resort. There is a big dance floor and dining room, overlooking crystal-clear Elk River. 'Hank,' Randy, Nancy, and the rest of us danced, not only among ourselves but with the girls of Noel. I've never been in a given area so crowded with good looking girls before in my life. It's true we have beautiful girls in Hollywood, but they are brought there from every place in the world. In the Ozarks, they just come by it naturally. Beauty, here, is pretty unanimous. There are plenty of autograph seekers, but it's fun writing in their books, on scraps of paper, hats, pocketbooks or anything they happen to have handy, because they are so appreciative. But the crowds-and the town is always crowded, for a mile or two around Noel one has difficulty in finding parking room-never bother us during mealtime. They wait until we are through and then become one of us for the evening, doing their best to make our stay a pleasant and happy one.

September 4th

These next days are to be eventful ones. We're going to film the great train robbery and stage the big jail break from the little, old brick courthouse in Liberty, Missouri. We won't be in Liberty, actually, but in Pineville, which looks today more like yesterday's Liberty than the modern town of Liberty does. It took considerable work to make the town look that way. We built a big hotel, saloon, marshal's office, newspaper building, took down all the telephone poles and lines and put the lines underground. Old-fashioned board sidewalks were built over concrete ones and, what will never cease to amaze the visitor to Pineville, to say nothing of its citizens, the town's pavement was buried beneath six inches of dirt. Only last December, after generations of living with dusty, dirty streets, Pineville proudly unveiled its paved streets. And just a few months later, Hollywood's miracle finger found it out (after Director King had flown over 15,000 miles in search for just such a colorful, unspoiled countryside as this) and put thousands of truckloads of dirt over the pavement. Of course everything will be restored. The only thing we will leave behind will be the money spent with the good folks of this region and the thousands that the tourists are bringing in while were are here.

September 5th

Henry King has an uncanny ability to discover and uncover things. Imagine finding a ten-mile stretch of railroad on the old Frisco line near Southwest City-eight miles form Noel! It was here he decided to film the great train robbery. King also discovered an old engine and three passenger cars that had been used in the time of the James Boys. They were all reworked, repainted and put in top condition for the filming. All this shop work was done in Little Rock.

I never will forget the thrill standing atop the coal tender with two big single-action 45's in my hand while the old-fashioned train shook, swayed and rumbled down the track-all the while the Technicolor camera was recording the scene. I kept thinking of that other time, years back, when Jesse James really held up a train, only a few miles from the exact spot where we were re-enacting that scene in color. The roaring fire in the fire-box threw out a red-hot glare at every shovel of coal. I don't know whether it was the actual heat or the memory of that other historical episode in the nations' development that made my heart pound harder and the heat seem intense, but while I stood there today, swaying with each lurch of the engine, I was thrilled to my boots. I've always loved trains but this was the first time I ever had a chance to ride on top of one and look down into the cab where all the interesting gadgets are located, where the throttle sends the train plunging ahead, where the bell and whistle ropes are located. It awakened memories of my childhood when I wanted to be an engineer more than anything in the world. The smoke and cinders didn't bother me at all. I enjoyed every ounce of wind that slashed against my bandanna-covered face. Somehow, I didn't feel as if I were making a motion picture today. Instead, I was having the time of my life.

September 6th

Today we finished filming the train robbery. We had to rope off part of the track to keep the crowds back. There must have been more than 50,000 people packed against the rop0es, just out of camera range. They came from almost every state I the Union, judging by their car licenses. Residents of the town of Southwest City rented their yards as parking lots and sold ice cold soda pop off their porches. When we moved on down the railroad several miles near a steep bluff, people, in high spirit of adventure and sport, tramped through the woods for four miles and came down a mountainside to watch the final holdup scenes. Once enterprising farmer opened up a road through the woods by chopping out the undergrowth and then he charged 25 cents to drive down to the edge of the cliff.

A very pretty girl among the extras players (we used all local people for atmosphere roles and brought two baggage carloads of costumes of the Jesse James period for this purpose), asked me if she could get on the train instead of being in that crowd that greeted the arrival of the first train to Liberty, Mo. (We were using Southwest City as Liberty for this purpose).

'You see,' she said simply, 'I've never been on a train in my life before and this is the first chance I have ever had.'

Her charm was so compelling that I took her to Director King at once. 'Why, bless your soul,' he exclaimed, 'I should say youcan get on that train.' Director King not only put her on the train, but placed her right in the background of a shot involving Randy Scott and Donald Meek. She had on a beautiful blue dress and blue bonnet. You might look for her in the picture. She was as happy as any person I have ever seen. I believe her 'train ride' was as thrilling to her as my ride atop the swaying coal tender yesterday.

September 7th

Used 500 people today for the big jail break sequence. So Pineville was certainly bustling. Many old-timers told me nothing had stirred up the countryside so much since the Civil War and I believe them.

We only brought four Hollywood trained horsed with us. The other we hired from various farmers throughout the region. We had to have an entire cavalry as the scene called for the town to be placed under martial law, and we had to break in the horses to stand at the hitching racks while guns were being fired. It didn't take them long to get used to the noise. Dadblamed (you see I'm slipping into the true local color of the region) if I don't think those horses want to cooperate, like their masters have been doing right along. WE shot pistols and muskets several times and then played the scene without any trouble. We had to take every precaution because a horse can snap a bridle quickly and charge through a crowd, spreading havoc. We almost had that happen once on the Crowder farm when an automobile frightened one of the mounts who pulled down an old railing fence post and dashed madly about, with the railing thumping at the end of the tough reins. Jimmy Williams, a very clever horseman with our troupe, calmed the animal and removed the railing before anyone was hurt.

September 8th

Day off today. Drove to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to see the sights. Tulsa is a fine modern, bustling city, located about 120 miles away from here. It was a swell ride, over good roads. Imagine my shock when I arrived there to discover that I had forgotten my money and had to make a telephone call back to Noel. I had a nickel to get the operator with a pay booth, but when I wanted to put through a collect call the operator asked, 'Who's calling''

'Tyrone Power,' I said.

'Quit your fooling,' she said, 'I'm a busy person. Give me your name and I'll put the call through.'

It tried to explain, but the more I talked, the more complicated it became. By that time, the other operators were enjoying the conversation until one said, 'It is Tyrone Power. I recognize his voice. I'd know it anywhere.' Then I heard them laugh.

She insisted and put the call through for me. I learned her name, that she lived at Sands Springs, Oklahoma, and when I got back to Noel invited her up to dinner as my guest. She came up and we had a grand evening, dining and dancing at the Shadow Lake resort. She had dances with some of the other boys, too. I wrote her a letter on my stationery thanking her for such a charming and thoroughly delightful evening. I also gave her an autographed picture, in fair exchange, for I demanded one of hers. And one arrived by the next mail.

September 9th-15th

You just can't hold up a movie company, even with rain! While we had had some fine weather to make our Technicolor shots, the sky suddenly clouded up the other day and we had a heavy shower. The shower didn't last long but during the rain we continued filming. Robert Webb, first assistant director King, had made plans accordingly. You ay remember that Webb, who has been Henry King's assistant on almost al of his recent pictures, won the Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year for his work as an assistant director on In Old Chicago.

We filmed in a 'cover set,' an interior scene that can be filmed regardless of the outside weather. The particular scene was my first love scene with Nancy Kelly. I had just robbed the train, doubled back after eluding the posse and called on Nancy at her uncle's newspaper office. Her uncle is Col. Cobb (Henry Hull). I was caught in the office by United States Marshal Randolph Scott, who pretends not to recognize me, but gives me a none too veiled warning to leave that neck of the woods or be prepared to shoot it out at the next meeting. We had a swell time playing that scene. When the rain got too loud on the roof, we covered it with soft, absorbing canvas to deaden the noise and went right on acting.

While we filmed this and other interior scenes, the crowds continued to visit the sets. We had a lot of fun talking to the various people about the country, their problems, what they thought of pictures. I'm sure we all profited as much for our talks with them as they did watching us play our scenes for Jesse James. During occasional showers, we would let the people stand on the porches and under what cover we had. Others brought their own umbrellas and stood patiently in the rain to watch us. It's kind of touching, such devotion, and is bound to make us feel a little humble.

September 15th

Hank Fonda and I went fishing today. We both threw out lines over the rowboat gunwhale into the sparkling clear waters of the Elk River, bedded with gravel and huge slabs of clean, limestone rocks, while the banks are beautiful white cliffs. I rowed awhile and kept a weather eye on the line, but my vigil was unrewarded. Hank had more luck, however, for suddenly his cork was jerked under with a splash. Hank grabbed the line and started to tug. I was busy rowing the boat and just at that time the boat would have to spring a leak. I started bailing frantically while Fonda fought with the fish. We both won-I kept the boat from sinking in midstream while Hank landed a beautiful seven-pound channel catfish. We didn't get to do any more fishing because the telephone at nearby Shadow Lake resort rang and we were called back to the set for another scene.

September 16th

We're on our way back to Hollywood with most of the scenes we wanted safely in the can. Throughout our stay we worked every day except for the one I got off to go to Tulsa. We were up every morning at 4:30 or 5:00, had breakfast, made up, donned our costumes and were on the set at Pineville or the Crowder Farm eleven miles away by 8 A.M. We worked straight through until six or seven every night, depending upon the sun. It was grand fun, every minute of it, for all of us. In the end we left because the crowds, though very sensible and reasonable, just got too big. Traffic was tied up, business was at a standstill, and standing crops were getting trampled, so we had to pull up stakes and get back to Hollywood. We leave, I think, with nothing but happy memories, of the place, the people and of the work we managed to get done there. My only hope is that the people we lived with and among during the filming of Jesse James will always remember how much their rich and charming hospitality has meant to the entire troupe. Now we're all on tenterhooks, waiting to see how that beautiful scenery shows up in Technicolor. Bet it'll be swell!

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