I was looking for an online copy of The Cruise of the Make-Believes by Tom Gallon to find out if a certain bit of punctuation was a colon or semi-colon (semi-colon, by the way), and, as one does when Googling, I found other links with the same title: one was to Turner Classic Movies and another to the Internet Movie Database. Yes! My book was turned into a movie in 1918. A silent movie!
I pointed the link out to a friend, and she noted who one of the leading men was: Harrison Ford. Now we both knew that in 1918, it wasn’t Han Solo or Indiana Jones or the President. Time for more searching.
This not-at-all make-believe Harrison Ford was born in 1884 in Kansas City, Missouri. He started in the theater on the east coast before moving to Hollywood in 1915. He was in over forty films. His final was his only talkie, Love in High Gear, which was released in 1932. He then took his career back to the stage and also began directing there. During World War II, he toured with the USO. He died in 1957, without having had children, and is no relation to that other Harrison Ford.
One of his hobbies was collecting old books . . . a man after DP’s own heart. I’ve no idea why this book was chosen to be made into a movie. It seems no better nor worse than any of our other romances. Old books, you just never know where they will take you. This one took me on a hunt to find the first dreamy Harrison Ford.
You can read more about this Harrison Ford here or here or here, all of which I used for my information with gratitude.
This post was contributed by a DP volunteer.
Hot off the Press 
In the photo accompanying this blog, he looks a lot like another favourite – Pierce Brosnan.
Enjoyed your write-up, Anon.
Sounds like an interesting man. Thanks for the write-up!