The Fighting Lady

In January of 1945 a new documentary, The Fighting Lady: A Drama of the Pacific, was released to the American public. Immediately popular, it was ultimately awarded the 1945 Oscar for Best Documentary and a 1946 New York Film Critics Circle Special Award.

Produced by the Naval Aviation Photographic Unit under Commander Edward J. Steichen, The Fighting Lady was filmed primarily by a group of motion-picture cameramen headed by Lieutenant Commander Dwight Long, USNR. Although Steichen was primarily a still photographer, he was listed as the director since he was the commander of the unit. The Fighting Lady is the only motion picture he ever directed. Learn more about Edward Steichen in the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition "Edward Steichen Portraits," on view until September 1, 2008.

Steichen had served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Service during World War I, and came out of that war as a pioneer in the field of aerial photo interpretation. In 1942, at the age of 62, he was considered by virtually everyone to be too old for further active service.

But Rear Admiral Arthur W. Radford, one of the Navy’s pioneer aviators, wanted to document the new warship of the Navy—the fast aircraft carrier—in action. The battleship, long the queen of the fleet, was being quickly usurped by this extremely flexible newcomer.

Specifically, Radford wanted dramatic action photos of the Navy’s carrier operations for use in publicizing this new form of warfare and attracting new recruits into its ranks. Steichen, as one of the foremost photographers of the time, could very well be the one to deliver them.

So with a medical waiver for his age in hand, Steichen became Lieutenant Commander Edward J. Steichen, USNR, and one of the most noted combat photographers of World War II.

The Fighting Lady gave wartime audiences, for the first time, a dramatic “you are there” look at the daily life on one of the new fast Essex-class fleet carriers then attacking Japanese installations all over the Pacific. The current PBS documentary Carrier is a direct descendant of this landmark documentary.

See The Fighting Lady and discuss the film with Jack Green of the Naval Historical Center on Friday, May 30, at 7:00 p.m. in the McEvoy Auditorium at the National Portrait Gallery, Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. The event is FREE and open to the public.