Duking it out over John Wayne

New York Daily News ^ | 7/19/03 | Kay Gardella

[kattracks]

Maureen O'Hara summed up John Wayne best.

Explaining to Congress why the actor merited the nation's Medal of Honor, his frequent co-star said: "John Wayne is the United States of America."

Not everybody will agree with O'Hara's summation of the actor's long career in films. That's pointed out in tomorrow night's PBS special, "John Wayne - The Unquiet American," airing on WNET/Ch. 13 at 10 o'clock.

In archival interviews - Wayne died June 11, 1979 - the actor emerges as a man determined to shape his life and image to reflect his conservative values and belief in the United States.

He scoffs at politicians "who kowtow to minorities for the vote."

Filmmaker Oliver Stone says of Wayne: "There was no sexuality, but there was honesty. You knew what you were getting."

So did the public, since Wayne remains the most popular American movie actor in history.

The one nick in his armor was putting career above the country he loved during World War II. He shirked a call to arms when other actors such as Clark Gable, Robert Taylor, Henry Fonda and Tyrone Power entered the service.

Wayne's life is traced from childhood (he was born Marion Morrison) to his death, using home movies, archival footage, photographs and insights from family and friends.

"What he was creating was an image, not only of manhood or of a particular actor, but [of what] many came to think of America," says Garry Wills, author of "John Wayne's America."

Helping to shape that image was director John Ford, with whom Wayne had a long and fruitful collaboration on such classics as "Stagecoach," "The Searchers" and "The Quiet Man."

They both were drinkers, and shared the same values and love for this country. To the macho actor, Ford was a mentor and father figure who helped shape his career.

Produced by Martin Davidson and directed by James Kent, "John Wayne - The Unquiet American" is a collage of pieces of this beloved star.

It doesn't pull punches, nor does it set out to destroy the heroic image.

Originally published on July 19, 2003

[Old Phone Man]

Every time I See a John Wayne movie made in the forties I think of my childhood, even his voice brings back memories...He was Mom apple pie and America to me.

Back when Ft. Apache was made I had an afternoon paper route in San Francisco(The Call Bulletin).. I went to the Saturday matinée and was almost two hours late for my deliveries...I got chewed out by a couple of old ladies, but what the hell....It was John Wayne!!!
They just don't make 'em like him anymore!

[Bluntpoint]

The PBS version of a real man is Tom Oliphant.

[mystery-ak]

LOL...another good line...I think The Searchers was his greatest role.....I also like *Hondo* with Geraldine Paige.

[Aeronaut]

There was a story (I'm guessing its true) that the Duke was in a Las Vegas night club. The performer asked him what his favorite song was so they could do it for him. He reportedly said; "no, if you play my favorite song everyone will have to stand up."

[catonsville]

He was also 36 years old, I believe and the father of 4 children. He would never had been taken for the military service.

[I_dmc]

I believe it was, "I won't hitcha. I won't hitcha. The hell I won't!" *punch*

[holymoly]

"Explaining to Congress why the actor merited the nation's Medal of Honor,"

Some time ago, I saw the Duke's biography on The Biography Channel. As I recall, the medal he recieved simply said "American." Maureen O'Hara & Elizabeth Taylor testified before Congress, urging them to award him a special medal, and to do so before he died of cancer.

The person who wrote this article seems to be one of a large number of people who are too stupid to realize or understand that civilians are not awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which is our nations' highest military award.

Maybe it's just me, but this kind of stupidity is inexcusable.

[mommadooo3]

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...(snip)...................

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...(snip)......

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...(snip).......

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...(snip)......

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. ..(snip).....

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."...(snip).....

When John Wayne died on June 11, a Tokyo newspaper ran the headline,
"Mr. America passes on."...(snip).....

"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.

[mystery-ak]

..it was actually *I won't, I won't...the hell I won't!*...

[Mary-Bayou]

I loved 'Rio Bravo.' Great western, fabulous cast. Oh, I loved 'The Shootist' too. And 'The Searchers.'

[TexasCajun]

"If that little boy gets hurt -

my fault, your fault, nobody's fault.

I'm going to blow your head off!"

-Big Jake-

[yankeedog]

I like "Straight up, or over the saddle - makes no diff'rence ta me."

I believe that line is Clint Eastwood. My favorite John Wayne movie is "The Searchers". But the line I like to quote is from "The Shootist":

"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do this to other people; I require the same from them."

[secret garden]

Another one of my favorites, too.

[I_dmc]

ah, I stand corrected. "But I'm not gonna hit ya. I won't..."

[secret garden]

Has anyone contacted this author to inform her of the truth behind his 'shirking' of military service?

[verity]

Your #22.

LOL

[Non-Sequitur]

He was also 36 years old, I believe and the father of 4 children. He would never had been taken for the military service.

Others were. Strom Thurmond for one.

[autoresponder]

His "gun rig" was sold recently

Cartridge belt and holster

He carried a .38 in movies in 5½" I believe.

I favor my Colt circa 1898 7½" 44-40 with an ultra-rare Colt circa 1876 nickle-plated brass quick detachable skeleton shoulder stock.

A museum item, but BATF "antique legal" and a real attention grabber at the firing ranges.

Great for deer.

Good "Duke" audio .wav for you: http://www.mamarocks.com/whyiloveher.wav

http://www.mamarocks.com/whyiloveher.wav

Duke narrates "America, Why I Love Her" to the BG music of an orchestra performing "America the Beautiful"

Good for email:

<EMBED SRC="http://www.mamarocks.com/whyiloveher.wav" SAFEHTML AUTOSTART="true" HIDDEN="true" VOLUME="100" LOOP="30" AUTOLOAD="faster"><NOEMBED> <BGSOUND SRC="http://www.mamarocks.com/whyiloveher.wav"></NOEMBED>

Using both the "EMBED" & "BGSOUND" for BG sound somehow helps the music load faster and also work well on Netscape and AOL programs.

Also putting it also at the very beginning AND the end of emails and webpages also helps the entire page load quicker; my more advanced code friends cannot explain why, but who cares.

I use this on one of my WebSites and often on my emails.

Sound quality could be better, but I have not found this version anywhere that is exactly the same yet.

FILL YOUR HANDS YOU SOB!

Gotta Ride!

[RJCogburn]

I also like *Hondo* with Geraldine Paige.

I could find you in the dark and I'm only part Indian.

[mystery-ak]

...LOL..another Duke fan...can't forget that Lassie was in Hondo too.