Dispelling the Myths - again! Part Four

 Bob and Margaret. and a certain Petty Girl.. 

It is impossible to tell the story of the Memphis Belle and Bob Morgan without introducing Margaret Polk - something that most mainstream media conveniently forget. In recent years there have been made attempts to write ‘Miss Margaret’ out of the story - and yet there are plenty of stories and mysteries going on behind the scenes there! Time again to put the record straight!

    While Bob Morgan was about to undergo final flight training at Walla Walla, Washington State, a simple request was to have far-reaching consequences. Mrs Oscar Boyle Polk of Memphis suggested to her second daughter Margaret that she might like to go along with her elder sister Elizabeth on a trip up to Walla Walla. Elizabeth was married to a young doctor called Captain C Edward ‘Mac’ McCarthy. He had joined the embryonic 91st Bomb Group at MacDill Field in Florida and had just received orders to move to Walla Walla. The air echelon flew up, but the ground personnel - including the good doctor - would go by troop train. Elizabeth, however, would have to drive the family Ford all that way from the southeast to the northwest. She made a rest stop-over in Memphis to say hello to her fami

    During that stop-over, Elizabeth complained about the loneliness of long-distance driving on her own, so her mother suggested that Margaret go along to keep her company. ‘She came through Memphis and wanted me to go - but I didn’t. I cannot remember what I was doing, but I didn’t want to go out there. So Mother promised me a trip to Sun Valley and Yellowstone if I drove out there. There was me, my sister Elizabeth and a two-bit Scottie dog’. Margaret had her rendezvous with fate in Walla Walla with destiny - a young Second Lieutenant called Robert K. Morgan.

 

‘Heres a young lady a pip - She’s definitely smart as a
whip. I’ll tell you a secret and this is no joke, This
brilliant young lady is Margaret Polk’.
 

So read an entry in a 1939 scrapbook at Hutchison School, Memphis, along with a
quote ‘Margaret Polk Trouble sits but lightly upon her shoulders’. In the he picture  she would have
been seventeen years old.

Margaret Polk was born on December 15 1922, allegedly a descendant of America’s eleventh President, James Knox Polk of Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was a lawyer, a lumberman and a planter in the old southern tradition. ‘My daddy was Oscar Boyle Polk. My mother, we called her Bessie Rob. She was from Indiana. Her real name was Mary Elizabeth but everyone knew her as Bessie’. The Polks by now lived at 1095 Poplar, assisted by two black servants, Robert and Alberta Thomas.

    Margaret was one of four children but one, Virginia, died not long after birth. Of her three surviving three siblings, the eldest was Oscar Boyle Jr who was born in 1916, Elizabeth born in 1918 and Thomas Robert born in 1926. Margaret grew up becoming something of a tomboy, despite her attendance at girls’ private schools.

Brother Tom recalls that as a youngster Margaret had the family nickname of ‘Tooker’, which remained with her all her life. ‘I went to the Miraculous School. It was a little two-room schoolhouse and it had these two old maids. You went up five grades there. It was Miss Emma Cook’s School, right there on Jefferson and Bellevue. One old lady had one room the other old lady the other. You could go from that five grades through there, then to the seventh grade at Miss Hutchisons School. We didn’t have homework because they said they didn’t believe in grading the parents’ papers. And it was play, because those old ladies would get out and play with you. They would lift up their skirts and run and play whatever games we used to play.' 

During the summer, she went to the family’s farm down at Hickory Valley, Tennessee, some fifty miles to the east of Memphis. There they had a big white wooden house held together by wooden pegs, heated by fireplaces in the winter and with a separate kitchen. On the farm, she was more or less allowed to do as she pleased - a great deal of which was to play with the children of the black workers on the farm. Picking strawberries, riding ponies, skinny-dipping in the cow-pond and hoisting the porch furniture into the trees as a prank. ‘Daddy also had a farm over in Marianna, Arkansas, with land he was going to clear. So a lot of the time he was gone, most of the time. You know, back then living on a farm you started working from daylight to past dark and you had to be there. I went there quite a lot. I also spent time with my father in Hot Springs. He had given the Plantation House in Tennessee to his sisters.’

    The Great Depression had little effect on the Polk family. ‘I remember Daddy had to drop his membership to the University Club and we could not go swimming over there any more...’ Margaret remembered ‘... that was about it’.

A posed picture taken by the local press of Margaret looking skyward for her love...

    Margaret talked about her life after High School. ‘I was in a sorority at Miss Hutchisons. I just never cared about boys or anything. I dont think I started dating until my senior year there. My daddy told me if I stayed home and went to school in Memphis for two years I could go anywhere I wanted to. So I went to Southwestern [now called Rhodes College] for two years. Even here, I had a couple of boys, but we only buddied around. I was talked into a year at the University of Wisconsin by a girlfriend, but it was not as I expected, so I went back to Southwestern for my fourth year. I graduated Class of ‘43’

    Neither Bob or Margaret had a clear memory of their first meeting: ‘When we got to Walla Walla Mac, her husband, rented this house, but there weren’t any lights or gas. We went to a hotel, and they wouldn’t let that damn dog in. So, we went out to that two-bit house and slept in the dark, and it seems to me that we slept on the floor! I dont really remember when I first met Bob, but in the mornings sometimes if we wanted the car, we’d drive Mac out to the Field. Somebody would drive him back and they’d stop in for a drink in the afternoon or Mac would bring somebody back. There was always so many men around there you never did pay attention one from the other’ recalled Margaret.

    What turned things into ‘something special’ was an argument. ‘I had made a date with another young man for 31 July...’ remembered Margaret’... we were real popular out there because of all those men and so few women. Then Bob invited me to his birthday party which happened to be on the same day. I wantedto go to Bob’s party and break my date, but my sister and Mac would not let me. My brother-in-law said it wasn’t done. ‘You dont late date. You’re not in college now. You’re in a man’s world now’. So he would not let me go. We had a pretty hot argument about it’.

Another of the local press photographs, showing Miss Margaret looking longingly at a
portrait of her beau.

 

As so often happens, the argument drew Bob Morgan and Margaret Polk together. ‘That brought Bob to my attention, something that I couldn’t do. I started dating him and we got pretty close’. 

    Bob Morgan too was smitten - and was not averse to using a huge, four-engined bomber to show Margaret that he was still around! The 91st were flying every day now - and Morgan already had a reputation for buzz-jobs, so while Margaret was still asleep, Morgan made sure the entire neighborhood would have a wake-up call: ‘Here Bob would come, around for our five o’clock. He came in so low and it was so loud, you would have thought he was flying right through my window. The whole house shook! Bob’s full of the devil, but he’s a damn good pilot. He could really fly that airplane. It was so exciting!’

    Summer grew late, and it was soon time for Margaret to return to Memphis, for she was enrolled for the fall term at Southwestern. It was time to go to school. ‘I had this girl from the University of Wisconsin meet me out at West Yellowstone. I met a Park Ranger there. Then we went to Sun Valley, but had to go back to Walla Walla because we were running out of money. Coming back, I had to stop off at Yellowstone again to see that Ranger. From West Yellowstone we caught a plane to Chicago to pick up Becky’s (a friend) car. Then we drove down back down to Memphis’

When she got back home, a letter was already waiting. Many years later Margaret recalled that first letter. ‘That opened a whole can of worms...’ she laughed ‘...my mother used to say if she’d known what was in it, she would’ve steamed it open and thrown it away!

‘My dearest Polky

I was going to sit down and write you yesterday, but then I thought that if I waited a full day until after you had gone, you would be more inclined to understand how I really feel, and that I am really sincere. 

I miss you, ‘little one.’ I miss you more than you’ll ever know or understand. And if you miss me this much you will come to me. I know I would be on my way to you if I were a civilian again.

I know now that I have never loved before. I have never felt towards anyone as I do to you. If we can’t have OUR LIFE before the war is over, I know I shall come to you afterward, providing you still want me.

I flew all yesterday afternoon. I flew for you and went to bed early. I was up at 4 a.m. this morning and flew the dawn patrol again.

Never worry, God will keep me safe until we are together again. Must go now. Write soon’ little one’ I send you all the love in my heart.

Forever yours,

Bob

The ‘Little One’ reference is intriguing, as Margaret explains: 'He was first going to call it (his B-17) ‘Little One’ because that’s what he called me at the time’. The letter was followed by a veritable storm of telephone calls and telegrams. ‘When Bob starts on something it just overpowers anything else what with gifts, flowers and phone calls. Almost every morning while I was getting ready for school the phone would ring. If he did not call me in the morning, it would be in the afternoon’.

    14 August saw Bob Morgan in Ogden, Utah. He sent a telegram.

 Darling. Be here until Saturday. Busy 24 hours a day. Tired but happy when I know I am doing this for you. Miss you awfully. It must be soon that we meet again. All my love always, Bob.

On September 12 1942, B-17F 41-24485 landed at Memphis for the first time. Bob Morgan had to get special permission to show Margaret Polk around ‘his’ plane. There was another memento for Margaret’s scrapbook that day, ticket stub number 782, for a dance at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. On the back she wrote ‘Us, September 12 1942’. On the same page she placed an orchid corsage. Bob also bought her a love knot ring. ‘It was a little sweetheart ring, a little gold knot with diamonds in the bow part of it’.

    A little while later Margaret signed for a registered package from Mitchel Field, Long Island, dated September 21 1942. This was Morgan’s last Stateside trip before departure for England. Inside was a diamond engagement ring.

‘To the dearest person in the world - you. With this ring you are mine for as long as you love me. God make that forever. I’ll return to make you a happy person.

Yours, Bob’

 

Bob Morgan just could not contain his exuberance - on September 27, he sent Margaret another telegram: ‘Congratulations on our engagement. I am the luckiest person in the world to have found you.’

Not satisfied with sending the telegram, Bob Morgan also wrote her a letter:

‘My dearest darling,

This is our day. I can’t write you very much, but at least you know I am thinking about you all the time. Our job is a big one and you and I will do it together, always. I hope the ring and the picture arrived safely. The Memphis Belle will ride the sky safely, always. You can be sure. To you I send my love.

Forever yours Bob’

 

Interestingly, this is  the first written reference we have to the name the ‘Memphis Belle’ on the aircraft. However, like everything with the Memphis Belle legend, there is more than one version.

The story behind the name

Sometime during the time at Bangor 41-24485 gained a name and a painting on either side of its nose of a girl in a swimsuit. But how had the name and artwork come about?

    In the days before the internet and television, the public got their news from newspapers, and contemporary newspapers of the day reported simply that the pilot had named his aircraft in honour of his fianceé Margaret Polk, his Memphis sweetheart and left it at that. Bob Morgan:“...I liked Southern belles, and Margaret was a southern belle, so I just called it the Memphis Belle”. 

    James Verinis, the Belle’s co-pilot and Bob Morgan’s buddy, remembered it slightly differently: “...It was in Bangor, Maine, in September 1942, just before we flew overseas. Bob and I went to see a movie. I don’t remember its title. I only remember Joan Blondell starred in it. In the movie, there was also a Mississippi River gambling boat, and I remember that either Miss Blondell or the boat was called the Memphis Belle. We were walking back to our quarters after the show, and Bob suddenly said ‘Gee, that would be a good name for our plane, the Memphis Belle’.

After much research by the Memphis Belle Memorial Association, it was discovered that the movie was a Republic picture called ‘Lady for a Night’ and did indeed star Jean Blondell - with a male lead played by none other than John Wayne. Here is a remarkable coincidence - the name of John Wayne’s character?... Jack Morgan, no wonder Bob Morgan paid attention to the movie! 

According to everyone’s memories, Bob Morgan originally wanted to call the aircraft ‘Little One’ his pet-name for Margaret Polk, but after seeing the movie, decided that Memphis Belle would be better.

    Morgan reports the story slightly differently in the 2002 Morgan/Powers book. It seems that when he told the crew what he was going to call the aircraft Memphis Belle, no one liked it, so Morgan decided to convince each crew member one at a time - through the application of liberal quantities of ‘liquid refreshment’.

As to where the artwork came from, Bob Morgan remembered it well, as he told Menno Deurksen in 1987: “...I was a reader of Esquire magazine. I always admired those Petty Girl paintings they ran every month. I wrote to the magazine and told them what I wanted. They sent me a picture and we painted it on the plane”

 

 

The front cover of 'Esquire' for  April 1941 in which the George Petty artwork appeared.

The events were again described differently in the Morgan/Powers book. On page 99 Morgan says that he called Esquire, got Petty’s phone number and called the artist direct, telling him that he (Morgan) would like Petty to draw one of his girls to go on the aircraft. According to Morgan, Petty was gracious about it and was thrilled to be a part of things.

Artist George Petty.

So, was this particular item of artwork specifically and carefully selected as is often claimed, or was it just a random, accidental selection brought about by a member of staff at Esquire picking up a back issue and mailing it to 2nd Lt Morgan in response to his request? Or was the artwork  created at Morgan’s request as Morgan and Powers suggest in their book?

Unfortunately no-one remembers when and who originally painted it onto the aircraft, but a consensus of opinion among the other crewmembers seems to suggest that it was originally painted on to the aircraft by a civilian worker at Dow Field before they left the USA. It was some time after they arrived in England that Corporal Anthony’  Tony’ Starcer of the 441st Sub Depot and Bassingbourn’s resident nose-art specialist touched up and eventually repainted it and it is this design that is on the aircraft today.

Again, on page 99 of his 2002 book, Morgan claims differently, saying that he ordered Tony Starcer to paint one girl in a red swimsuit on one side of the nose and one in a blue suit on the other.

 

It is often been said by many who have visited the aircraft on display that this particular George Petty artwork is called ‘the Memphis Belle’. It has also been said that the painting is a representation of Margaret Polk. Neither of those statements contain a single shred of truth.

The story of the artwork and the background to how it eventually appears on the aircraft is as follows. This particular ‘Petty Girl’ appeared as a foldout in the April 1941 issue of Esquire magazine between pages 36 and 41, and is thought to have been modelled by either Petty’s wife or, more likely, his twenty-two year old daughter Marjorie. The caption that appears on the piece in Esquire itself is somewhat enigmatic. It says  “I’m the one with the part in the back”. In the table of contents, the caption is abbreviated to “…the one with the part in the back”. The quotes forming part of the caption. So, is this the title of the artwork? A caption is something very different to the ‘name’ of a painting. Much of Petty’s work is known to be untitled and it is likely that this one is also. Even the staff of the Art & Architecture Library, University of Kansas, where the original artwork resides, will only say it is ‘captioned’ as “I’m the one with the part in the back.” As to what the caption actually means - we have no idea!

As for the girl being Margaret Polk, clearly, the Petty Girl was nearly sixteen months old when she first appeared in different coloured swimsuits on either side of the nose of a certain B-17 - so at very best, the painting can only be said to ‘represent’ Miss Margaret! The April 1941 date also clearly repudiates the Morgan/Powers’ suggestion’ that the creation of the artwork was at Morgan’s request. That edition of Esquire appeared nearly sixteen months before Morgan got his hands on the aircraft that was to become the Memphis Belle!

 

 Continues in Dispelling the Myths - again!  Part  Five