The Life of Indiana Jones (1921-1935)

Today is Sunday, May 18, 2008. Before today, 18 years, 11 months, and 24 days will have passed since the last time fans went into a theater to see a premier for a new Indiana Jones film. Today that clock rolls back to 1 day, as a lucky crowd at the The Cannes Film Festival will be the first to view Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. After that, the rest of us will wait until the upcoming Thursday to experience the adventure.

With that being said, a few days ago I figured that I would post a couple of blogs looking back at the fictional life of Henry Walton Jones, Jr. and the very real word in which his character lives. As you read through this you will see the names of many historical figures. Next to these names is a bracket with a bit of info. I encourage you to look these names up and learn more about the interesting people that Indy ran into during his many adventures.

I started this look back on Thursday by profiling Indy's life from his birth in 1899 to his young teenage years in 1914. Friday I recalled Indy's incredible journeys as a soldier in WWI and how he became a student of archeology at The University of Chicago in 1920 after the end of the war. Today we will look at Jones' life from 1921 until the Summer of 1935.

From 1921 until sometime in 1922, Indy remained faithful to his study of archeology and graduated from the University of Chicago to complete his undergraduate degree. From here he moved on to a graduate program in linguistics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

In Greece, on his first properly qualified archaeological dig with his professor Dorian Belecamus (pictured left) in October 1922, Indy became embroiled in a plot to kill King Constantine (1868-1923: ruled Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922). Indy saves the king but loses Dorian when she is killed by a bullet meant for him. This experience refocused Indy's archaeological aims, which had been flagging somewhat after the routines of college, where only the lecturer Abner Ravenwood managed to make the subject exciting.

In 1925, Indy completed his graduate studies at the Sorbonne and took his first teaching job as a doctor of archeology at London University for the summer program. Here he romanced one of his students, Deirdre Campbell (pictured left), as over the following two years, they were swept up in various mysteries involving Stonehenge and the Mask of Comototz in Guatemala. Their turbulent relationship culminated in marriage aboard a boat off New Orleans. Sadly, in April 1926 during a search for the hidden city of the Ceiba, and the long lost explorer Percy Walcott, Deirdre Jones was killed in a plane crash that Indy only survived due to the grace of forces unknown.

Later that year, in 1926, while still in a bad emotional state, Indy joined his old archeology professor, Abner Ravenwood (pictured left), on a dig in Jerusalem. The pair found an artifact known as "the headpiece to the staff of Ra." Still reeling from the death of his wife, Indy romanced Abner's daughter Marion (pictured right). This led to a falling out with Dr. Ravenwood. The intense courtship was cut short as Dr. Jones abruptly left the Ravenwoods; he would not see Marion again for ten years.

The next ten years (1926-1935) in Indiana Jones' life were spent scouring the globe, getting involved in many different adventures: the quest for Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat, the search for the last unicorn's horn, the Philosopher's Stone, and the interior world of Easter Island; stories include cavorting with the likes of the giants, dinosaurs, sea devils, and vampires. All the while, Indy worked as a lecturer in various colleges around America and Europe, eventually settling in Marshall College in order to fund his expeditions into the world of archeology.

One of his later adventures in 1935 was the search for the Heart of the Dragon. While on this journey, Indy encountered Wu Han, who became a close friend, and also found, attempting to pick his pocket, the homeless orphan Short Round, a young boy who Indy would take under his wing and be friends with for years to come. While in China in 1935, Indiana Jones was hired to recover the remains of Nurhachi (the first Emperor of the Manchu Dynasty in China) by Lao Che, a Chinese crime lord. Indy agreed to do this job in exchange for a treasure that he learned was in Lao Che's possession - The Peacock's Eye, the treasure that had eluded him since 1919.

The end to this story is one best left told in visuals, as this is where the film Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom begins. If you've seen the movie then you know how it unfolds and if you haven't then you should.

This concludes my telling of the early life of Indiana Jones. In the next few days I will be taking a look at the time periods in which the first three Indiana Jones films take place. Tomorrow we will look at 1935. Until then, I'm making this up as I go...