Word: wead
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...Wings of Eagles (MGM) is a massively expensive sentimental gesture, involving about $2,600,000 worth of hearts and flowers, prepared by Director John Ford and Actor John Wayne in tribute to the memory of their friend, a prominent screenwriter named Commander Frank ("Spig") Wead, who died in 1947. Starting adult life as a naval aviator, Commander Wead joined the daredevil team that brought the Schneider Cup to the U.S. for the first time in 1923.* Wead himself once set five world records with Lieut. John Price, and at 30, he became (according to studio publicity) the youngest squadron commander...
...however, Wead fell down a short flight of steps-in the movie, Actor Wayne crashes down about 20 of them, scattering staves like matchsticks-and broke his neck. The doctors said he would never move his legs again, and the Navy retired him. But Wead had an invincible will to get well. For the better part of five years he lay helplessly in bed, driving the life "back into his limbs by sheer force of determination, until at last, with the help of two canes, he was able to walk...
Unable to fly, Annapolisman Wead supported himself by writing about flying, mostly for the movies. Dirigible, Hell Divers, Test Pilot, Ceiling Zero, Dive Bomber and a dozen other pictures made him a well-paid, well-known man, a sort of Secretary of Aviation in Hollywood's ruling circles. In World War II Wead wangled active duty, hobbled about the flight decks of the Pacific with his neck in a steel brace, and won the Legion of Merit for his theory of the supporting carrier, a major contribution to Pacific strategy...
Died. Lieut. Commander Frank ("Spig") Wead, U.S.N. (ret.), 52, pioneer Navy flyer (he set five speed and endurance records in the '20s), Broadway playwright (Ceiling Zero), movie scenarist (The Citadel); of pneumonia and complications; in Santa Monica, Calif. Wead decided to become a writer when his flying was ended by a crippling accident in 1926. But he wangled his way back to active duty in 1942, served aboard Pacific carriers with his neck in a steel brace...
...thoughtful story, by Lieut. Commander Frank Wead (Ceiling Zero, China Clipper), conceives two sodden-nerved men, one a swaggering, hard-living and egotistic pilot (Clark Gable), the other his patient, understanding mechanic (Spencer Tracy). On the fear-tortured mind of the flyer's wife (Myrna Loy) their almost brutal fatalism rasps like a file. Credit for blending this grounded mental conflict with the melodrama of wings in the air, screaming struts and whining motors goes to Director Victor Fleming (Captains Courageous). Not the least of his accomplishments was to exact performances that verge on reality from pert, actressy Myrna...