American Titan: Searching for John Wayne (39 page)

John Wayne marries the Catholic Josephine Alicia Saenz, June 24, 1933, despite the strong reservations of her father about Wayne’s being a Presbyterian and a struggling actor. They were married in Wayne’s actress friend Loretta Young’s garden (Young is standing next to Josephine).

Wayne’s first film after
The Big Trail
, Seymour Felix’s collegiate comedy,
Girls Demand Excitement
, co-starring Virginia Cherrill (in his arms).

(Rebel Road Archives)

Wayne appeared in all twelve chapters of
The Three Musketeers
serial. It was released in 1933, along with eleven other “B” features in which he appeared.

(Rebel Road Archives)

Mack V. Wright’s
Haunted Gold
, co-starring Wayne and Sheila Terry (Wright also acted in it) was a remake of Ken Maynard’s 1926 silent
The Phantom City
. It was Wayne’s thirty-sixth film, the seventh of seven films he made in 1932.

(Rebel Road Archives)

The Man from Monterey
, Wayne’s forty-fourth feature, directed by Mack V. Wright. A Warner Production, it proved a big hit. It was made for $28,000 and earned $175,000 in worldwide profits. It even had a one-day run at the then prestigious Loew’s New York theater in 1933.

(Rebel Road Archives)

John Ford’s 1939
Stagecoach
, Wayne’s eighty-second feature, similar in plot to
The Big Trail
but vastly superior. It was the picture that finally made Wayne a star.

(Rebel Road Archives)

Wayne as the iconic Ringo Kid.

(Rebel Road Archives)

With Claire Trevor, the Ringo Kid’s love interest. Her name appears above Wayne’s (first position) in the ensemble cast credit role that followed the opening title.

(Rebel Road Archives)

1941’s
The Shepherd of the Hills
— the first of six films Wayne starred in that were directed by Henry Hathaway, and his first in color. He was cast as Matt Matthews after the studio tried and failed to get Tyrone Power, John Garfield, Robert Preston, Burgess Meredith, and Lynne Overman to play it.

Based on the immensely popular Harold Bell Wright novel, the film, Wayne’s ninety-fourth, made at Paramount, marked Harry Carey’s thirty-third year making movies, and the first time Wayne appeared together with his idol on camera. Wayne with Carey, and Betty Field.

(Rebel Road Archives)

Pittsburgh
, a 1942 Universal Picture directed by Lewis Seiler, veteran of silent films and “B” westerns. The film was produced by Wayne’s close friend and longtime agent Charles K. Feldman. It was Wayne’s hundredth feature, for which he was paid $50,000. His co-star, Marlene Dietrich, was top-billed and received twice that amount. She also began a blazing sexual affair with Wayne that lasted for more than two years before she coldly dumped him.

(Rebel Road Archives)

Wayne on set, standing behind mentor John Ford during the making of
They Were Expendable
, Wayne’s 108th film. Ford had recently returned from service in the war, while Wayne stayed behind and made movies. Ford gave Wayne’s co-star, Robert Montgomery, an MGM star, first position in the credits (the film was made for MGM, where he was one of their biggest stars, while Wayne was on loan-out from Republic).