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Feet First
Memoirs
- GenresMemoir
255 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Ben Finney
13 books1 followerBen Rudolph Finney (1933-2017) was an American anthropologist.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 5, 2017
This chap Finney just might be the best-connected bon vivant I've never heard of! I couldn't help drawing parallels between him and Forrest Gump....good fortune seemed to attend his every venture and he somehow managed to meet every person of interest extant at the time. When you consider that his story starts about a century back, before international air travel, Mr Finney's peregrinations are nothing short of remarkable.
One thing that impressed me about this memoir is that Finney doesn't use it as a platform to showcase himself. His stories are generally highlighting others, for good or ill....and not too much ill, or at least not as much as he could have, considering the scandalous behaviour and tragic endings of many of his cronies. When you hang with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Isadora Duncan, Ernest Hemingway and the like in post-war France, you know that naughtiness abounded. Finney preserves us from much of the naughtiness, a fact that did not endear him to me one bit.
This remarkable man served the American armed Forces in three separate conflicts in the 20th century, was wounded in WWI, yet devotes more print to his dog than he does to his three military tours combined. That's right...an entire chapter to his German Shepherd. He hunted with Robert Ruark, fished with Hemingway, surfed in Hawaii and visited Angkor Wat before it became a thing. I'm just skimming the surface here! He partied in a Japanese brothel, boffed bimbos, boxed and bobsledded! And when he married, his honeymoon lasted an entire year!
Liberally sprinkled throughout are photographs from the author's private collection, so if you're an animal lover you can see photos of his dog. It has to be one of the most engaging memoirs to come my way, and I would never have heard of it if it hadn't been recommended by a GR buddy. Sadly, this book has a shortcoming...not in the writing, which is easy to negotiate, funny but not to the point of ridicule...the shortcoming is that the book may not be relevant to the younger reader who is not familiar with many of the personalities encountered in these pages. But it retains value as a glimpse into the playgrounds of the privileged back in the days before Jack was as good as his master.
And I could have done without the chapter on the dog.
One thing that impressed me about this memoir is that Finney doesn't use it as a platform to showcase himself. His stories are generally highlighting others, for good or ill....and not too much ill, or at least not as much as he could have, considering the scandalous behaviour and tragic endings of many of his cronies. When you hang with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Isadora Duncan, Ernest Hemingway and the like in post-war France, you know that naughtiness abounded. Finney preserves us from much of the naughtiness, a fact that did not endear him to me one bit.
This remarkable man served the American armed Forces in three separate conflicts in the 20th century, was wounded in WWI, yet devotes more print to his dog than he does to his three military tours combined. That's right...an entire chapter to his German Shepherd. He hunted with Robert Ruark, fished with Hemingway, surfed in Hawaii and visited Angkor Wat before it became a thing. I'm just skimming the surface here! He partied in a Japanese brothel, boffed bimbos, boxed and bobsledded! And when he married, his honeymoon lasted an entire year!
Liberally sprinkled throughout are photographs from the author's private collection, so if you're an animal lover you can see photos of his dog. It has to be one of the most engaging memoirs to come my way, and I would never have heard of it if it hadn't been recommended by a GR buddy. Sadly, this book has a shortcoming...not in the writing, which is easy to negotiate, funny but not to the point of ridicule...the shortcoming is that the book may not be relevant to the younger reader who is not familiar with many of the personalities encountered in these pages. But it retains value as a glimpse into the playgrounds of the privileged back in the days before Jack was as good as his master.
And I could have done without the chapter on the dog.
February 8, 2017
I was drawn to this memoir (copyright 1971) with the knowledge that the author Ben Finney was a personal friend of WWII Medal of Honor recipient Marine aviator Joe Foss. The book in circulation for over 40 years is so obscure that I can not locate a review or even a synopsis on the internet.
To say Ben Finney lived life in the 20th Century is an understatement as the tough nut loved to live life on the edge with his philosophy of jump into situations "feet first". Each tale is revealing and I will recall a few of his self professed hilarious pranks until the day I die. The warrior Marines from WWI were a colorful lot and Finney not only served with the Marines during WWI, but as an intelligence officer at Guadalcanal in WWII and later as a USMC colonel in Korea.
However Finney was not a career Marine and his memoir is much less about war, but rather a portrayal of his world travels and intimate friendships with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and other celebrities and socialites full of zest and adventure in times of peace between the wars as life went on. The crowd he traveled with led him to the silent movies where he played the lead role alongside Betty Compson, a queen of the silver screen, in the film Miami. Later in life in the early 1960’s he served as New York City’s first Commissioner of Sports becoming good friends with many athletes including Joe DiMaggio.
The front dust jacket of the hardcover “Feet First” has a bold photo of Finney and Hemingway relaxed sitting side by side on the back of a boat with bare feet in the air. Their lifelong friendship led Finney to serve as the promoter and referee for the famous mismatched Hemingway vs. Charles MacArthur boxing match in the French Rivera.
I was intrigued by a piece of Finney’s conversation with Hemingway stating:
““…I [Finney] have always believed to be the truth: that the average Marine in combat is much more afraid of what his fellow Marines will think of him than he of his enemy. Full of swizzles I kept on: “You know something? You’d have made a helluva good Marine.””
““Why do you say that?” he asked.””
““Because you are so damned afraid people won’t think you are tough, you go overboard to prove you are. Underneath you are nowhere near as tough as you pretend.””
“He looked at me good and hard and I was beginning to think maybe I was a bit overswizzled when he said: “And you know something? No one has ever told me that before, but, by God, you’re right.””
NOTE: In his memoir Finney mentioned he was a member of the Marine Corps 1st Battalion 5th Regiment during WWI and on the eve of Armistice he crossed the Meuse River to secure a pontoon bridge. When Finney attempted to reenlist for WWII it was the notorious Colonel John W. Thomason Jr. of 1/5 WWI fame who secured the commission for Finney.
My historical research shows that the WWI 1st Battalion 5th Regiment commander was Major George W. Hamilton. My grandfather Pvt. Ove Mortensen was also among the highly active heroic Marine comrades in the small 1/5 assemblage crossing the Meuse River during the final hours of the war.
To say Ben Finney lived life in the 20th Century is an understatement as the tough nut loved to live life on the edge with his philosophy of jump into situations "feet first". Each tale is revealing and I will recall a few of his self professed hilarious pranks until the day I die. The warrior Marines from WWI were a colorful lot and Finney not only served with the Marines during WWI, but as an intelligence officer at Guadalcanal in WWII and later as a USMC colonel in Korea.
However Finney was not a career Marine and his memoir is much less about war, but rather a portrayal of his world travels and intimate friendships with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and other celebrities and socialites full of zest and adventure in times of peace between the wars as life went on. The crowd he traveled with led him to the silent movies where he played the lead role alongside Betty Compson, a queen of the silver screen, in the film Miami. Later in life in the early 1960’s he served as New York City’s first Commissioner of Sports becoming good friends with many athletes including Joe DiMaggio.
The front dust jacket of the hardcover “Feet First” has a bold photo of Finney and Hemingway relaxed sitting side by side on the back of a boat with bare feet in the air. Their lifelong friendship led Finney to serve as the promoter and referee for the famous mismatched Hemingway vs. Charles MacArthur boxing match in the French Rivera.
I was intrigued by a piece of Finney’s conversation with Hemingway stating:
““…I [Finney] have always believed to be the truth: that the average Marine in combat is much more afraid of what his fellow Marines will think of him than he of his enemy. Full of swizzles I kept on: “You know something? You’d have made a helluva good Marine.””
““Why do you say that?” he asked.””
““Because you are so damned afraid people won’t think you are tough, you go overboard to prove you are. Underneath you are nowhere near as tough as you pretend.””
“He looked at me good and hard and I was beginning to think maybe I was a bit overswizzled when he said: “And you know something? No one has ever told me that before, but, by God, you’re right.””
NOTE: In his memoir Finney mentioned he was a member of the Marine Corps 1st Battalion 5th Regiment during WWI and on the eve of Armistice he crossed the Meuse River to secure a pontoon bridge. When Finney attempted to reenlist for WWII it was the notorious Colonel John W. Thomason Jr. of 1/5 WWI fame who secured the commission for Finney.
My historical research shows that the WWI 1st Battalion 5th Regiment commander was Major George W. Hamilton. My grandfather Pvt. Ove Mortensen was also among the highly active heroic Marine comrades in the small 1/5 assemblage crossing the Meuse River during the final hours of the war.
February 23, 2017
On the whole, this was an interesting memoir by the author, who lived life to the full over the course of five decades. Ben Finney travelled the world many times over, worked in film (both silent and sound), visited Angkor Wat during the 1920s, saw combat in the U.S. Marine Corps during both World Wars and the Korean War, and formed friendships with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, Elsa Maxwell, Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall, John O'Hara, Charles MacArthur, and Joe DiMaggio.
The book also has lots of interesting photos, which are an encapsulation of various stages of Finney's life. Any reader who enjoys memoirs will find "Feet First" a rewarding experience at 245 pages.
The book also has lots of interesting photos, which are an encapsulation of various stages of Finney's life. Any reader who enjoys memoirs will find "Feet First" a rewarding experience at 245 pages.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews