**** “He was great. I once had a beer with him while sitting at a bar at Snowmass in Aspen. He was exactly the same in person as he was on screen” ****
Me and a few of my fellow Sailors had a few Beers with John Wayne and Flip Wilson ... there were non-stop jokes and they were laughing harder than any of us... and John Wayne did not have his Toupee... so much (most) of what Flip was doing was about his bald head, we were in tears laughing so hard. John Wayne was a pretty funny guy too, Flip Wilson was super quick and was doing different voices/personas ... at one point I thought John Wayne might actually break his beer bottle he was slamming the table so hard, he had tears rolling laughing so hard same as us.
One thing I learned about show biz that day is that they go 100 MPH Full Steam and even though it was only for about 15-20 Minutes ... while we Sailors drank maybe a Beer each... they did 10 X as much (I don’t remember what Flip was drinking, but it came in Pitchers)
They were Drunk and Gone... Off to the next Gig, they really slammed it down, like they had been on a Desert Island or something, they guzzled it down fast!
Great story!