Corey Ford

Corey Ford (April 29, 1902-July 27, 1969) was an American humorist, author, outdoorsman, and screenwriter. He was also friendly with several members of the Algonquin Round Table and occasionally ate lunch there.

Originally a member of the Class of 1923 at Columbia College of Columbia University, at which he wrote the Varsity Show "Half Moon Inn," he failed to graduate, instead proceeding into the career of a freelance writer and humorist. In the 1930s he was noted for satirical sketches of books and authors penned under the name "John Riddell". Richard Wright's "Black Boy" was lampooned as "Hollywood Boy" contrasting the author's celebrity with the raw story portrayed in the book. Theodore Dreiser was shown adopting the guise of a common workman building his newest and biggest novel from bricks and mortar. A forgotten book, "Dead Lovers are Good Lovers," was reviewed as "Dead Novelists are Good Novelists." Ford's series of "Impossible Interviews" for Vanity Fair magazine featured ill-assorted celebrities: Stalin vs John D. Rockefeller, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes vs Al Capone, Sigmund Freud vs Jean Harlow, Sally Rand vs Martha Graham, Gertrude Stein vs Gracie Allen, Adolf Hitler vs Huey Long.

Born and raised in New York City, Ford had stories to tell of the literary scene in the twenties, of headhunters in Dutch Borneo, of U.S. airmen in combat during World War II and he was a great listener as well. He loved conversation and comradeship. A city boy, he fell in love with the outdoors generally and New Hampshire in particular, which led this world traveler to his rendezvous with Dartmouth College.

In 1952, Ford moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, home of Dartmouth College, where he became an adopted member of the Class of 1921. His connection with Dartmouth lay mainly in his relationships with students. He was an advisor to Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and to several student publications. In addition, he helped to organize the Dartmouth College Rugby Football Club (or DRFC) and opened a gym in his home near the campus for students interested in boxing. When he died in 1969, he left most of his estate, including his house, to the rugby club with instructions to use the money to build a clubhouse for the team. After many years of political and legal wrangling, the 6,000-square-foot (560 m²) Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse was completed and dedicated in September, 2005.

Ford was an established writer—he published thirty books and more than five hundred magazine articles, with a gregarious sense of humor, a love of dogs and "underdogs." The then nascent Rugby Club fell into the latter category. In an article entitled "Football for Fun," written in 1959, he explained the association:

"Perhaps you wonder how I came to take up rugby. Well, the fact is that rugby took up me. My home here in Hanover adjoins the college playing-fields; and so in the course of time it has been adopted as headquarters of the Dartmouth Rugby Club, an independent organization which has no home of its own. I am hailed as ‘Coach’ for want of a better title."

In her introduction to The Corey Ford Collection in Dartmouth's Rauner Library, Mildred C. Tunis writes:

"To countless Dartmouth men, the name of Corey Ford will bring back nostalgia for some of their most meaningful experiences as undergraduates when he was coach of boxing and rugby, a fellow Delta Kappa Epsilon, advisor on student publications, counselor, and friend."

Eustace Tilley

Ford created the name Eustace Tilley for the dandyish, top-hatted symbol of The New Yorker magazine. According to Ford's memoir, The Time of Laughter, the last name came from a maiden aunt and he chose the first name "for euphony." However, it appears that he may also have taken "Eustace" from Eustace L. Taylor, a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity brother from his alma mater, Columbia.

The Lower Forty Hunting, Shooting and Inside Straight Club

Corey Ford is perhaps best remembered for his monthly column, "The Lower Forty Hunting, Shooting and Inside Straight Club", which he wrote for Field & Stream for almost 20 years in the 1950s and 1960s. The column told about a fictional group of New England sportsman, detailing the club members' adventures in and around the town of Hardscrabble, Vermont. The primary characters in the column were Colonel Cobb, Judge Parker, Cousin Sid, Uncle Perk, Doc Hall, and Mister McNabb. The columns have been anthologized into several books such as Minutes of the Lower Forty, Uncle Perk's Jug, and The Corey Ford Sporting Treasury.

Bibliography

Incomplete - to be updated

Books

• Three Rousing Cheers for the Rollo Boys, 1925
• The Gazelle's Ears, 1926
• The Feminine Touch, 1926 (appears in the July 1926 issue of The Shrine magazine)
• Meaning No Offense, 1928
• Salt Water Taffy, 1929
• The John Riddell Murder Case, 1930
• Coconut Oil, 1931
• In The Worst Possible Taste, 1932
• From The Ground Up, 1943
• Short Cut To Tokyo, 1943
• War Below Zero, 1944
• Cloak and Dagger, 1946
• The Last Time I Saw Them, 1946
• Horse of Another Color, 1946
• A Man Of His Own, 1949
• How To Guess Your Age, 1950
• The Office Party, 1951
• Every Dog Should Have A Man, 1952
• Never Say Diet, 1954
• Has Anybody Seen Me Lately?, 1958
• You Can Always Tell A Fisherman(but can't tell him much), 1958
• The Day Nothing Happened, 1959
• Guide To Thimking, 1961
• What Every Bachelor Knows, 1961
• Minutes of the Lower Forty, 1962
• And How Do We Feel This Morning?, 1964
• Uncle Perk's Jug, 1964
• A Peculiar Service, 1965
• Where The Sea Breaks Its Back, 1966
• The Time of Laughter, 1967
• Donovan of OSS, 1970 (posthumously)

Articles

• Ford, Corey (21 February 1925). "Highlights". The New Yorker 1 (1): 15. 
• Ford, Corey (28 February 1925). "Highlights". The New Yorker 1 (2): 23. 
• Ford, Corey (7 March 1925). "Highlights". The New Yorker 1 (5): 26. 
• Ford, Corey (28 March 1925). "Inspiration". The New Yorker 1 (6): 31. 

Filmography

• The Sophomore, 1929 (aka Compromised [UK])
• The Sport Parade, 1932
• The Half Naked Truth, 1932
• Her Bodyguard, 1933
• Topper Takes a Trip, 1938
• Start Cheering, 1938
• Remember?, 1939
• Winter Carnival, 1939
• Zenobia, 1939 (aka Elephants Never Forget [UK], aka It's Spring Again [USA])
• Cloak and Dagger, 1946

External links

• IMDB
• Rauner Special Collections Library: The Papers of Corey Ford
• Dartmouth Women's Rugby: Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse
• Dartmouth Rugby Football Club

Persondata
Name	Ford, Corey
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1902
Place of birth
Date of death	1969
Place of death