[patriot08]

Yes, that was part of the beautiful and haunting original score from John Wayne’s ‘The Alamo’ by Russian born Dimitri Tiomkin.
The score featured ‘DeGuello’, ‘The Green Leaves of Summer, and ‘the Ballad of the Alamo’ sung by the University of Texas choir.

For those who haven’t seen Wayne’s ‘The Alamo’, it will be shown on The Retro Channel Monday at 10:15 AM CST.

‘The Alamo’ is a topnotch, (if not historically accurate in some small areas) historical western.

It is an emotional cinematic event produced at great personal expense by the last man in Hollywood that could honestly claim the title “patriot” - John Wayne.
It is Wayne’s valentine to Texas

Wayne spent years of his life working on getting this picture made.
He risked everything on ‘The Alamo’ and lost. He was broke for years afterward. Wayne’s continued success at the top of the heap was by no means assured. He was 54 years old and raising a second family plus he had recently been swindled by a business manager.
Wayne had to take a role in ‘The Alamo’ to secure financing plus putting up most of the financing himself- mortgaging his homes, selling possessions.

‘The Alamo’ was snubbed by the Oscars and Hollywood- except for a best supporting Oscar for Chill Wills.
Wayne, being a staunch Conservative and a ‘God and Country’ man, political factions were bent upon vilifying him- and a
movie they saw as right wing bs.
I’m sure they sneered in satisfaction when ‘The Alamo’ failed to break even back then.
Since then it has turned a profit through TV releases and the sale of the Alamo village.

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[patriot08]

I doubt if the version of ‘The Alamo’ to show on the Retro
Channel (Mon 10:15 AM CST) will be the full uncut version, although it looked (on the schedule)like it was pretty long.
The original version is hard to come by.

[Vigilanteman]

Sobering story. I always loved and admired John Wayne and didn't realize that he had put himself in that deep to make the Alamo. In some small way, I feel a little guilty. We were living in Kansas when it was released. My father had to be a frugal guy with six kids to support, so we attended only one movie per summer in those days.

The family voted on the movie and, of course, the Alamo won hands down. It was the last weekend before summer vacation ended and, of course, we all looked forward to going. But a late season tornado warning scuttled our plans and, in those days, you didn't just wait six months for the DVD version to be released.