You may be familiar with the statue in downtown Portland of John Ford, a celebrated director of Westerns who worked regularly with Henry Fonda and John Wayne.
But today we are celebrating the birthday of his older brother Francis, a notable director in his own right.
They both grew up on Munjoy Hill, two of 11 kids born to an Irish American family. The Feeny family, which is their real last name, operated saloons in Portland that had fake fronts as grocery stores.
Neither Francis nor John was destined to stay in Portland. Since Francis was 12 years older, he was the first to come to that realization.
Michael Boudewyns is a history buff and a Theatre Lecturer at the University of Southern Maine.
"His dad said you don't have any kind of sense… and because you don't you need have any sense, you need to do one of two things: you need to be a policeman or you need to join the theater."
So Francis Feeney took off for New York City where Boudewyns says he was discovered while cleaning gas street lamps. Francis changed his last name to Ford, supposedly so as not to embarrass his family. It wasn't long before he was making his own films.
"When Francis Ford started making movies that there were no rules so they just had a camera and did their best," Boudewyns said.
Francis was prolific. Between acting and directing, he has 495 films to his credit. To put that into perspective, Steven Spielberg has made 58 films. Alfred Hitchcock made 69.
"Francis did a lot of things that, and John Ford later did, quite frankly a lot of people today do, but Francis Ford was making it up," Boudewyns said.
His astounding drive was thanks in no small part to a creative talented woman who changed the course of his life. Grace Cunard was a writer and actress and together they would make 95 movies. Grace Cunard wrote 74 of them.
"That something I really love. He had a partner that happened to be a woman, who was also talented and funny in all sorts of things, and together they succeeded in a way that Francis Ford would never have succeeded on his own and Grace Cunard would never have succeeded on her own," Boudewyns.
Francis Ford became a matinee idol. About that time his younger brother John decided to follow in his footsteps, Francis gave John small parts in his movies. He often had John serve as his stunt double.
"He would give his brother stunts to do that nobody else wanted to do one time he ended up in the hospital," Boudewyns said.
As Francis' star faded, John's was lighting up. In his renowned films such as "Stagecoach," John would give a much older Francis nonspeaking parts. Some believe it was revenge for the bit parts he had been given.
John repeatedly cast Francis as a little dumb. Often he played a drunk Irishman. Word has it they both loved the bottle.
"They each had terrible tempers. Francis Ford was the kind of person that things were going his way he walked out of the room at one point Universal Studios stopped working with him," Boudewyns said.
"John Ford slugged Henry Fonda across the face and it broke their friendship."
But John Ford was quick to credit his brother for teaching him the ropes. He said about Francis: "There's nothing they're doing today all these things that are supposed to be so new that he didn't already do. He was a good artist, wonderful musician, good actor, good director, he was a master of all he just couldn't concentrate on one thing too long. But he was the only influence I had working in pictures."
And therein lies the beauty of their relationship. They could fight, but they still supported each other.
"There are times you disagree with people but the people you surround yourself with are the people you trust and you hang on to," Boudewyns said.