Book tells how John Wayne survived Soviet assassination (Joseph Stalin orderd the hit)

The Guardian UK ^ | Friday August 1, 2003 | Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow

[weegee]

The Guardian has reporters in Moscow, who knew?!!

[Dr. Frank fan]

Wayne then apparently hatched a plot with his scriptwriter at the time, Jimmy Grant, to abduct the assassins, drive to a beach and stage a mock execution to frighten them. Mr Munn said he did not know what transpired, but heard the two men stayed in the US to work for the FBI. [...] Wayne then relied upon a group of loyal stuntmen who infiltrated communist cells in America and learned of plots to kill him. "He then gathered all the stuntmen, went to the communist meetings, and had a huge fight," Mr Munn said.

I never thought this was possible, but suddenly John Wayne seems about a thousand times cooler than he already was.

[ICX]

Right on. The Dems thought they were insulting Bush by comparing him to John Wayne, and I thought it was pretty cool then - imagine how I feel now.

[scab4faa]

This has been posted numerous times so far and with each posting the story gets wilder and wilder.. I bet this ends up on snopes soon as a hoax

[IoCaster]

Hehe...I don't know how much of this I can believe, but it's a good yarn. The Duke didn't take any sh!t from no stinkin' commies.

;o)

[Fiddlstix]

Bump
To read later

[Saint Athanasius]

I agree... I need to watch more John Wayne movies...

I wish my students would stop wearing Che G. shirts and start being patriotic Americans and wear John Wayne shirts.

[Lijahsbubbe]

It sounds pretty far-fetched to me. Although, I recall a big star (can't recall) who worked with John Wayne saying "he really thought he was John Wayne!"

[Mr. Bird]

I don't know. Reagan was the subject of serious threats on his life from Communists during his SAG days. Assassinating Wayne would have been a major blunder, in my opinion. Could have started a nuclear war. Imagine the public cry for revenge...

[vbmoneyspender]

Afterwards though, John shunned FBI protection and did not want his family to know. He moved into a house with a big wall around it."

Wayne then relied upon a group of loyal stuntmen who infiltrated communist cells in America and learned of plots to kill him.

"He then gathered all the stuntmen, went to the communist meetings, and had a huge fight," Mr Munn said. This was when Wayne believes Mr Canutt saved his life.

I am a big John Wayne fan, but who would ever thunk that he was running his own counter-intelligence service -- headed by Yakima Canutt no less.

[Sans-Culotte]

Welles (my favorite director) played Louis XVIII in Bondarchuk's epic film Waterloo, so it is certainly possible that Bondarchuk told him this. Also, Welles allegedly was pro-commie/socialist in his outlook, which would explain both Bondarchuk's confidence in telling Welles, and Welles' disdain for the Duke.

This story makes me wonder if any other "unsolved murders" in Hollywood are USSR-related....

[weegee]

Hollyweird will probably make it as a movie starring Looney Clooney. The whole thing will be recounted by Orson Welles, played by Michael Moore.

No one will believe any of it then...

[PJ-Comix]

The Commies just had to try to get rid of Big Jim McLain.

[DTA]

>>>>"he really thought he was John Wayne!"<<<

Was't Silverstein's "A boy named Sue" an inside joke?

"Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean, My fist got hard and my wits got keen. I'd roam from town to town to hide my shame. But I made me a vow to the moon and stars That I'd search the honky-tonks and bars, And kill that man that give me that awful name.

And he said: "Son, this world is rough, And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough, And I know I wouldn't be there to help ya along. So I give ya that name and I said good-bye. I knew you'd have to get tough or die, And it's that name that helped to make you strong."

[Skooz]

Orson Wells fooled us once before.......

Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre's production
of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" on Oct. 30, 1938,
was perceived by many people to be an
actual news broadcast and not entertainment.

[Ghengis]

Hehe...I don't know how much of this I can believe, but it's a good yarn. The Duke didn't take any sh!t from no stinkin' commies.

Burt Kennedy (film director) told the story of John Wayne laying out one of Frank Sinatra's bodyguards in a Las Vegas hotel.

The Duke wanted to sleep and Sinatra had a loud party one floor above. The bodyguard got lippy, Wayne backhanded him flat to the ground and knocked him out with a metal bar stool.

I think he really was John Wayne.

[FlatLandBeer]

Talk about a blacklist!!!!!
Seem Uncle Joe had a John on the top of his.

[Paleo Conservative]

The Guardian has reporters in Moscow, who knew?!!

I thought it was Moscow that had reporters working for The Guardian

[Duckdog]

Can't say if it true. But that sounds like the image I always had of one of our National tresures.

[Thud]

ping