McCook's Hollywood connection

Frank Spearman, in Hollywood

(Note: In a recent column we talked about some of the early money men in McCook and the success that they had in the banks they started. One of the most interesting of these men was Frank Spearman, a fellow who had a great deal of success, but not necessarily in the bank he started.)

One of the outstanding Western pictures in 1948 was Whispering Smith, starring Alan Ladd. In the picture Alan Ladd plays a soft spoken railroad detective who experiences multiple harrowing escapes during his mission to solve a rash of railroad accidents, he apprehends and brings those responsible to trial. The plot twist comes when the fellow responsible for the accidents turns out to be Whispering Smith's old friend, gone bad. That summer small boys all over America spoke in subdued tones while they apprehended "bad guys" as they emulated Alan Ladd -- Whispering Smith.

Upon moving to McCook I was pleased to learn that Frank Spearman, the fellow who had written "Whispering Smith" and dozens of other Western novels, had lived in McCook and it was here he started his writing career. His home, at 311 E. 4th St., is one we pass each Sunday on the way to church.

Joseph Reizenstein, cigar man, violinist

Frank Spearman was born in Buffalo, New York in 1859 to well connected parents. His father had been one of the men who greeted Lafayette when Lafayette returned to a hero's welcome to Philadelphia in 1825. Young Frank was educated in private schools and later enrolled at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin.

In 1884, he married Eugenie Lonergran in Chicago. Eugenie's father, Thomas Lonergran was a railroad contractor, who had done construction work on the Illinois lines of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad Co., and apparently first sparked Spearman's interest in railroads.

In 1887, 27 year old Spearman brought his growing family west to McCook. McCook, at the time, was a "struggling village, which had sprung from the prairie but five years before." Mr. Spearman founded the Farmers & Merchants Bank in McCook. Frank Spearman was not the typical settler in the west. He had come from a life of relative wealth, and liked the niceties of the life he had left in the east. He was determined to bring some of those nice things to McCook.

Mr. & Mrs. Spearman built a large and rather grand home (for the times) on the outskirts of McCook. One of its features, which made the house distinctive, was a tennis court on the large lot south of the house -- certainly one of the first tennis courts in out-state Nebraska. The Spearmans were generous with their court and invited boys and girls from the high school, only a block away on the site of the old East Ward Grade School, to share in the tennis fun with the Spearmans.

In those days McCook was certainly typical of the rowdy new western towns, yet the Spearmans found a number of their fellow citizens to be as vitally interested in enjoying intellectual pursuits as they were. In McCook Spearman became a great friend of legendary school Superintendent, Wm. Valentine, who shared many of Spearman's interests. Mr. Valentine, himself, had begun a series in "magic lantern" slide shows at the school, which he used to introduce the people of McCook to the world -- in pictures.

Spearman had one of the finest private libraries in McCook in the late '80s and early '90s, and was good to lend books to his friends, and then, leading discussion groups on the writings of French authors, who were in vogue in the last half of the 19th century.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Spearman were musicians and lovers of good music. Under Spearman's direction, Gilbert and Sullivan operas were credibly presented in the frontier community. Mrs. Spearman and F.M. Kimmel (newspaper editor) played leads, and Miss Josephine Bullard, and Joseph Reizenstein (cigar maker) were mainstays of the orchestra. (Mr. Reizenstein was a gifted violinist, and owned a violin "of rare tone and quality.")

Frank Spearman was fascinated with anything that had to do with railroads. He wrote occasional serious works about the economy of the west, especially as it was affected by the railroads. He listened tirelessly to the stories that railroad men were fond of telling, and while he was in McCook he began weaving the stories he heard into very readable works of fiction, which he began to submit to eastern magazines, such as Harper's Weekly, McClure's Magazine, and Saturday Evening Post.

In 1894 The Farmers and Merchants Bank was liquidated, and the Spearmans moved to Omaha for two years, and then on to Chicago, where he resided until 1912. It was during this time that he began to turn from the magazines, and to write his novels seriously. He proved to be a prolific author and from that time until his death in 1937 he turned out over a score of novels, in the western genre, many having a railroad theme.

Probably Spearman's most famous book was his 1901 novel, "Whispering Smith." This book was made into a movie at least three times, the last in 1948, starring Alan Ladd. This movie was widely acclaimed at the time, and still can be seen occasionally on the "Old Movie" channels. In 1961 Whispering Smith became the basis of a TV series, starring Audie Murphy. Even the British were interested in Whispering Smith, and that character became a hero in England when the 1952 Whispering Smith movie appeared in Britain under the name of "Whispering Smith Hits London."

In 1912 Frank Spearman moved with his family to Hollywood, California, where he worked full time as a script writer for the movies, still turning out his western/railroad novels, which he continued to do up to the very month of his death.

Apparently, while in McCook, Mr. Spearman became a convert to Catholicism, a faith that he embraced with great enthusiasm. The tragic death of the Spearmans' two little girls, who died while the family resided in McCook, had affected Spearman greatly. Before he went to California to make his home he spent more than a year in Italy, to better learn the teachings of the Catholic religion. It was with great joy that he saw one of his four sons become a Jesuit Priest.

Frank Spearman was a firm believer of the principles of the Democratic Party. While he lived in McCook he was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated Grover Cleveland in 1892. However, he was totally out of sympathy with the Democratic Party under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan. He supported Franklin Roosevelt for the Presidency in 1932, but quickly became thoroughly out of accord with the policies of the "New Deal." His political philosophy could be described as "Proto-Libertarian." This philosophy, as well as his Catholicism, shows up frequently in his books.

Though Mr. Spearman lived in McCook only seven years, it was here that he acquired his interest for railroads and the "Wild West." He continued his friendships with a number of McCook citizens, especially H.P. Waite, till the month of his death. His books, then movies, were eagerly awaited in McCook, and garnered a good bit of speculation as to "who in McCook was the basis for a certain character."

Mr. Spearman lived long enough to see his "frivolous" books accepted by the academic community, and he was honored repeatedly by Universities for his scholarly treatment of the old west, as well as his contributions to the Catholic community.

Source: An unpublished manuscript by H.P. Waite.