‘John Wayne is the United States of America’

Doesn’t it strike you that the GOP could seize upon an opportunity? That is, after the destructiveness of obozo admin (let’s hope it’s like Jimmah Cahter’s one-term admin), our country needs a hero not a RINO like McPain but a smart, wise, politically-savvy person of heroic proportions that’s not afraid of calling a “spade” a “spade”. Unfortunately, the leaders of the GOP have been institutionalized by the DC environment. They’re there only to keep their jobs. A real disappointment. This leads ordinary people like you and me to see our own hero like John “Duke” Wayne.

John Wayne biography - a tribute to John Wayne by Ronald Reagan

Unforgettable John Wayne

biography by Ronald Reagan
courtesy of Readers Digest - October 1979

We called him DUKE, and he was every bit the giant off screen he was on.
Everything about him-his stature, his style, his convictions-conveyed
enduring strength, and no one who observed his struggle in those final
days could doubt that strength was real. Yet there was more. To my wife,
Nancy, “Duke Wayne was the most gentle, tender person I ever knew.”

In 1960, as president of the Screen Actors’ Guild, I was deeply embroiled
in a bitter labor dispute between the Guild and the motion picture
industry. When we called a strike, the film industry unleashed a series of
stinging personal attacks on me - criticism my wife found difficult to
take.

At 7:30 one morning the phone rang and Nancy heard Duke’s booming voice:
“I’ve been readin’ what these damn columnists are saying about Ron. He can
take care of himself, but I’ve been worrying about how all this is
affecting you.” Virtually every morning until the strike was settled
several weeks later, he phoned her. When a mass meeting was called to
discuss settlement terms, he left a dinner party so that he could escort
Nancy and sit at her side. It was, she said, like being next to a force
bigger than life.

Countless others were also touched by his strength. Although it would take
the critics 40 years to recognize what John Wayne was, the movie going
public knew all along. In this country and around the world, Duke was the
most popular box-office star of all time. For an incredible 25 years he
was rated at or around the top in box-office appeal. His films grossed
$700 million-a record no performer in Hollywood has come close to
matching. Yet John Wayne was more than an actor; he was a force around
which films were made. As Elizabeth Taylor Warner stated last May when
testifying in favor of the special gold medal Congress struck for him: “He
gave the whole world the image of what an American should be.”

Stagecoach to Stardom

He was born Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. When Marion was
six, the family moved to California. There he picked up the nickname Duke
- after his Airedale. He rose at 4 a.m. to deliver newspapers, and after
school and football practice he made deliveries for local stores. He was
an A student, president of the Latin Society, head of his senior class and
an all-state guard on a championship football team.

Duke had hoped to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and was named as an
alternate selection to Annapolis, but the first choice took the
appointment. Instead, he accepted a full scholarship to play football at
the University of Southern California. There coach Howard Jones, who often
found summer jobs in the movie industry for his players, got Duke work in
the summer of 1926 as an assistant prop man on the set of a movie directed
by John Ford.

One day, Ford, a notorious taskmaster with a rough-and-ready sense of
humor, spotted the tall USC guard on his set and asked Duke to bend over
and demonstrate his ball stance. With a deft kick, knocked Duke’s arms
from his body and the young athlete on his face. Picking himself Duke said
in that voice which then commanded attention, “Let’s try that once again.”
This time Duke sent Ford flying. Ford erupted in laughter, and the two
began a personal and professional friendship which would last a lifetime.

From his job in props, Duke worked his way into roles on the screen.
During the Depression he played in grade-B westerns until John Ford
finally convinced United Artists to give him the role of the Ringo Kid in
his classic film Stagecoach. John Wayne was on the road to stardom. He
quickly established his versatility in a variety of major roles: a young
seaman in Eugene O’Neill’s - The Long Voyage Home, a tragic captain in
Reap the Wild Wind, a rodeo rider in the comedy - A Lady Takes a Chance.

When war broke out, John Wayne tried to enlist but was rejected because of
an old football injury to his shoulder, his age (34), and his status as a
married father of four. He flew to Washington to plead that he be allowed
to join the Navy but was turned down. So he poured himself into the war
effort by making inspirational war films - among them The Fighting
Seabees, Back to Bataan and They Were Expendable. To those back home and
others around the world he became a symbol of the determined American
fighting man.

Duke could not be kept from the front lines. In 1944 he spent three months
touring forward positions in the Pacific theater. Appropriately, it was a
wartime film, Sands of Iwo Jima which turned him into a superstar. Years
after the war, when Emperor Hirohito of Japan visited the United States,
he sought out John Wayne, paying tribute to the one who represented our
nation’s success in combat.

As one of the true innovators of the film industry, Duke tossed aside the
model of the white-suited cowboy/good guy, creating instead a tougher,
deeper-dimensioned western hero. He discovered Monument Valley, the film
setting in the Arizona - Utah desert where a host of movie classics were
filmed. He perfected the choreographic techniques and stuntman tricks
which brought realism to screen fighting. At the same time he decried
blood and gore in films. He would say. “It’s filth and bad taste.”

“I Sure As Hell Did!”

In the 1940s, Duke was one of the few stars with the courage to expose the
determined bid by a band of communists to take control of the film
industry. Through a series of violent strikes and systematic blacklisting,
these people were at times dangerously close to reaching their goal. With
theatrical employee’s union leader Brewer, playwright Morrie and others,
he formed the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American
Ideals to challenge this insidious campaign. Subsequent Congressional
investigations in I947 clearly proved both the communist plot and the
importance of what Duke and his friends did.

In that period, during my first term as president of the Actors’ Guild, I
was confronted with an attempt by many of these same leftists to assume
leadership of the union. At a mass meeting I watched rather helplessly as
they filibustered, waiting for our majority to leave so they could gain
control. Somewhere in the crowd I heard a call for adjournment, and I
seized on this as a means to end the attempted takeover. But the other
side demanded I identify the one who moved for adjournment.

I looked over the audience, realizing that there were few willing to be
publicly identified as opponents of the far left. Then I saw Duke and
said, “Why I believe John Wayne made the motion.” I heard his strong voice
reply, “I sure as hell did!” The meeting and the radicals’ campaign was
over.

Later, when such personalities as actor Larry Parks came forward to admit
their Communist Party backgrounds, there were those who wanted to see them
punished. Not Duke. “It takes courage to admit you’re wrong,” he said, and
he publicly battled attempts to ostracize those who had come clean.

Duke also had the last word over those who warned that his battle against
communism in Hollywood would ruin his career. Many times he would proudly
boast, “I was 32nd in the box-office polls when I accepted the presidency
of the Alliance. When I left office eight years later, somehow the folks
who buy tickets had made me number one.

Duke went to Vietnam in the early days of the war. He scorned VIP
treatment, insisting that he visit the troops in the field. Once he even
had his helicopter land in the midst of a battle. When he returned, he
vowed to make a film about the heroism of Special Forces soldiers.

The public jammed theaters to see the resulting film, The Green Berets.
The critics, however, delivered some of the harshest reviews ever given a
motion picture. The New Yorker bitterly condemned the man who made the
film. The New York Times called it “unspeakable ... rotten ... stupid.”
Yet John Wayne was undaunted. “That little clique back there in the East
has taken great personal satisfaction reviewing my politics instead of my
pictures,” he often said. “But one day those doctrinaire liberals will
wake up to find the pendulum has swung the other way.

Foul-Weather Friend

I never once saw Duke display hatred toward those who scorned him. Oh, he
could use some pretty salty language, but he would not tolerate pettiness
and hate. He was human all right: he drank enough whiskey to float a PT
boat, though he never drank on the job. His work habits were legendary in
Hollywood - he was virtually always the first to arrive on the set and the
last to leave.

His torturous schedule plus the great personal pleasure he derived from
hunting and deep-sea fishing or drinking and card-playing with his friends
may have cost him a couple of marriages; but you had only to see his seven
children and 21 grandchildren to realize that Duke found time to be a good
father. He often said, “I have tried to live my life so that my family
would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the
hell they please.”

To him, a handshake was a binding contract. When he was in the hospital
for the last time and sold his yacht, The Wild Goose, for an amount far
below its market value, he learned the engines needed minor repairs. He
ordered those engines overhauled at a cost to him of $40,000 because he
had told the new owner the boat was in good shape.

Duke’s generosity and loyalty stood out in a city rarely known for either.
When a friend needed work, that person went on his payroll. When a friend
needed help, Duke’s wallet was open. He also was loyal to his fans. One
writer tells of the night he and Duke were in Dallas for the premiere of
Chisum. Returning late to his hotel, Duke found a message from a woman who
said her little girl lay critically ill in a local hospital. The woman
wrote, “It would mean so much to her if you could pay her just a brief
visit.” At 3 o’clock in the morning he took off for the hospital where he
visited the astonished child and every other patient on the hospital floor
who happened to be awake.

I saw his loyalty in action many times. I remember that when Duke and
Jimmy Stewart were on their way to my second inauguration as governor of
California they encountered a crowd of demonstrators under the banner of
the Vietcong flag. Jimmy had just lost a son in Vietnam. Duke excused
himself for a moment and walked into the crowd. In a moment there was no
Vietcong flag.

Final Curtain

Like any good John Wayne film, Duke’s career had a gratifying ending. In
the 1970s a new era of critics began to recognize the unique quality of
his acting. The turning point had been the film True Grit. When the
Academy gave him an Oscar for best actor of 1969, many said it was based
on the accomplishments of his entire career. Others said it was
Hollywood’s way of admitting that it had been wrong to deny him Academy
Awards for a host of previous films. There is truth, I think, to both
these views.

Yet who can forget the climax of the film? The grizzled old marshal
confronts the four outlaws and calls out: “I mean to kill you or see you
hanged at Judge Parker’s convenience. Which will it be?” “Bold talk for a
one-eyed fat man,” their leader sneers. Then Duke cries, “Fill your hand,
you son of a bitch!” and, reins in his teeth, charges at them firing with
both guns. Four villains did not live to menace another day.

“Foolishness?” wrote Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mike Royko, describing
the thrill this scene gave him. “Maybe. But I hope we never become so
programmed that nobody has the damn-the-risk spirit.”

Fifteen years ago when Duke lost a lung in his first bout with cancer,
studio press agents tried to conceal the nature of his illness. When Duke
discovered this, he went before the public and showed us that a man can
fight this dread disease. He went on to raise millions of dollars for
private cancer research. Typically, he snorted: “We’ve got too much at
stake to give government a monopoly in the fight against cancer.”

Earlier this year, when doctors told Duke there was no hope, he urged them
to use his body for experimental medical research, to further the search
for a cure. He refused painkillers so he could be alert as he spent his
last days with his children. When John Wayne died on June 11, a Tokyo
newspaper ran the headline, “Mr. America passes on.”

“There’s right and there’s wrong,” Duke said in The Alamo. “You gotta do
one or the other. You do the one and you’re living. You do the other and
you may be walking around but in reality you’re dead.”

Duke Wayne symbolized just this, the force of the American will to do what
is right in the world. He could have left no greater legacy.

Agree sad really same goes for the Gipper.

Robert Montegomery was a PT Boat skipper in the Pacific. While based on a different PT Boat sailor, Montegomery was just being what he was...a genuine hero.

I hadn’t heard of Miss O’Hara passing. I think she’s still kicking. According to Wiki and IMDB, no date of death is listed.

My father enlisted in 1940 he was 27, he had a hell of time getting in due to his age and getting the poop beat out of him playing footnall in College, as did Wayne.

War is a young mans game, as I found out in Viet Nam.

The Quiet Man

It doesn't matter what the topic is, if someone is finding it pleasant, someone else will come in and pee in the soup. They're afraid that if they don't pick our nits, someone somewhere will enjoy the thread.

Just go into ignore mode and don't let them rain on the parade, so to speak.

Thanks for posting this. John Wayne is still one of my favorites and always will be.

I enjoyed The Searchers and The Quiet Man also. I haven’t seen the Wings of Eagles,except for a small part of it.There are very few of his movies that I haven’t enjoyed.
Other Duke favorites: Back to Bataan,The Comancheros,The Alamo,and The Longest Day.

We’re burnin too much daylight.

Other established Hollywood actors who were WW2 vets: Eddie Albert, Robert Stack, and Tyrone Power.

Perhaps wtc911 believes Reagan was a liar or maybe he didn’t know the whole story.

Whatever the reason was, Wayne didn't serve but he didn't lie about it either or try to cover it up. Still, he became a hero for the roles he played on screen and the life he lived off screen. Wayne made every effort throughout his life to show his patriotism, love of country and support for the military. In 1944 Wayne helped found the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. His political conservatism and anticommunist stance were legendary.

During the filming of They Were Expendable, John Ford made fun of Wayne and put him down for not serving in the war. Robert Montgomery asked Ford to stop picking on Wayne for his benefit. As the story goes, that caused Ford to break down in tears. Jimmy Stewart, a Republican, and Henry Fonda, a liberal, both served in WWII and were two of Wayne's best friends.

My Father was drafted in 1943 at the age of 35. On D-Day he landed on Normandy Beach and later fought in the Battle of the Bulge. One of my Father's favorite actors was John Wayne. My Father told me that Wayne did more for the war effort by making pro-American movies (AKA. propaganda films) at home, then he could ever have done by serving overseas. John Wayne did his part to help win the war.

You’re very welcome.

Thanks for the post, Reagan Man. wtc911, it seems Ronald Reagan’s tribute says things differently than you did about John Wayne.

“When war broke out, John Wayne tried to enlist but was rejected because of an old football injury to his shoulder, his age (34), and his status as a married father of four. He flew to Washington to plead that he be allowed to join the Navy but was turned down. So he poured himself into the war effort by making inspirational war films - among them The Fighting Seabees, Back to Bataan and They Were Expendable. To those back home and others around the world he became a symbol of the determined American fighting man.”

I watched that last night. What a difference, where a beautiful woman was recognized as such without her having to preen and display her tattoos, her scrap metal protruding from the navel and eyebrows, and Pepsi can sized holes in the ear lobes. And the sex was steaming, though it was left to your intelligence to recognize it.

Those days are long gone. sigh

I will defer to your wisdom. The one thing that I do know is that there were many deferments due to physical problems. In my fathers case it was ulcers, witch eventually killed him at a young age, 46.

He was discharged in 1946 as a CPO, Coasties, after five years in the North Atlantic and a year in Pacific Campaigns.

Sigh indeed...

One of the all-time greatest romantic movies ever. Maureen was on Larry King promoting her bio, 'Tis Herself, King brings up the scene at the end of the movie where she whispers something into The Duke's ear, he turns with the stunned look, she grins and then heads off to the house, "What did you say to him?" She will NOT tell us!! She said Ford directed her specifically, he wanted her to say something, as she put it, "simply dreadfully filthy", she couldn't do it. He demanded she say it, because, whatever it was, he knew that Wayne would give the camera the very look that he did.

She has promised to let us know posthumously, if I recall it correctly, she is leaving the information in her will. But she won't let us know while she's still around, classy lady!