American Titan: Searching for John Wayne (56 page)

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Authors: Marc Eliot

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222.   
Batjac’s Boss,
The New York Times, 11.18.56

223.   
Union Goes After Wayne for Using British Lensers,
Hollywood Reporter, 11.20.56

224.   
Biography – John Wayne,
Warner Bros, 1956 (publicity release)

225.   Brand, Harry,
Biography – John Wayne,
Twentieth Century-Fox, 1956 (publicity release)

Notes

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book reader’s search tools.

PROLOGUE

4         “I’ll never regret . . .”
John Wayne,
Playboy,
interviewed by Richard Warren Lewis, May 1971.

4          “forty years of movie acting . . .”
Sarris,
The Village Voice,
August 21, 1969.

4          “I remember responding to him . . .”
Sarris, “John Wayne’s Strange Legacy: A Revisionist View,”
The New Republic,
August 4, 1974.

4          Details of the night of the Oscar
From Kim and Piazza, “The Academy Awards,” Mason Wiley,
The Academy Awards
, and You Tube clip of Wayne accepting his Oscar, April 7, 1970.

5          “perverted”
and
“A love story . . .”
John Wayne to Richard Warren Lewis, “The Playboy Interview,”
Playboy,
May 1971; Pilar Wayne,
John Wayne: My Life with the Duke,
pp. 136–138, Holden,
Behind the Oscar,
pp. 274–275,
Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
April 8, 1970.

8          “If I’d known . . .”
John Wayne, from his acceptance speech to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, on the occasion of his first win as an actor, for his performance as Rooster Cogburn in Henry Hathaway’s 1969
True Grit.

CHAPTER ONE

Some background and information regarding the history of the Morrisons is from a rare interview Wayne gave to
Ulster Heritage Magazine,
published August 14, 2009. The actual interview took place some time in the early 1950s. No specific date was available.

15          “He couldn’t pay his bills . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Roberts and Olson,
John Wayne: American,
p. 19.

16          “The happiest part . . .”
Pilar Wayne,
John Wayne,
p. 9.

16          “Doc gave me advice . . .”
John Wayne, as told to Maurice Zolotow, “It Happened Like This,”
The American Weekly,
November 7, 1954.

18          “Riding a horse . . .”
Ibid.

20          “From the time I was in the seventh grade . . .”
Ibid.

23          “Most of the Glendale small-fry . . .”
Ibid. .

23          “I went, on average,”
John Wayne, interviewed by James Gregory, “John Wayne’s Boyhood Memories,”
Photoplay
82, November 1972.

23          “There is a period in every child’s life . . .”
Everson,
A Pictorial History of the Western
, p. 1.

24          “I copied Harry Carey . . .”
Davis,
Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne.

25          “After the cake and ice cream . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 26.

CHAPTER TWO

27          “In September 1925,”
and
“At the end of my freshman year . . .”
John Wayne, from an interview with Maurice Zolotow, “It Happened Like This,”
American Weekly,
November 7, 1954.

28          “Man . . .”
Tom Mix, quoted by Wayne, ibid.

29          “What had excited me . . .”
John Wayne,
John Wayne: The Genuine Article,
p. 29.

29          “Ford was the founder and guru . . .”
Pete Martin, “The Ladies Like ’Em Rugged,”
Saturday Evening Post,
December 23, 1950.

29          “At that point . . .”
John Ford, to Martin, ibid.

30          “They sent me . . .”
John Wayne, ibid.

30          “ . . . ‘Hey, gooseherder!’ . . .”
and
“You call yourself a guard? . . .”
John Ford, ibid.

31          “the beginning . . .”
John Wayne, ibid.

31          “I could see that here was a boy . . .”
John Ford, to
Time,
March 3, 1952.

31          he still would have made a notable mark
Sarris,
The American Cinema,
p. 44.

32          “By train.”
McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 75.

35          “happened to look into Josephine’s eyes . . .”
Zolotow, “It Happened Like This,”
American Weekly,
November 14, 1954.

36          “They don’t tell you that love hurts. . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 50.

37          “In the years to come . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Goldman,
John Wayne: The Genuine Article,
p. 33.

CHAPTER THREE

39          “In those days . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 63.

40          “John Wayne was . . .”
John Ford quoted in Bogdanovich,
John Ford,
pp. 49–50, 51.

41          “I want the big ugly guy”
John Ford, quoted in Martin, “The Ladies Like ’Em Rugged.”

42          “Ford turned to Wayne . . .”
Hedda Hopper, quoting John Ford,
Chicago Tribune Magazine,
November 23, 1953.

42          “ . . . ‘Show these chicken-livered slobs up.’ ”
John Ford, quoted in Martin, “The Ladies Like ’Em Rugged.”

42          “A blank of a blank . . .”
John Ford, quoted by Gladwyn Hill,
The New York Times,
November 7, 1949.

42          “I haven’t a thing to squawk about . . .”
John Wayne, to Hedda Hopper,
The Los Angeles Times
, and syndicated November 27, 1953.

43          “He was just a rangy . . .”
John Ford, “Man Alive,”
Photoplay,
March 1952.

44          “By any standard . . .”
Sarris,
The John Ford Movie Mystery,
p. 40.

46          “Had a western hang . . .”
John Wayne, in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 73.

46          “ . . . He was tripping . . .”
Raoul Walsh, quoted by Don Allen,
The American Weekly,
November 30, 1967.

46          “Don’t be silly . . .”
and
“Maybe you could learn,”
John Wayne and Raoul Walsh, quoted by Donald Hough,
The Los Angeles Times,
June 29, 1941.

47          “I had to find someone immediately . . .”
Raoul Walsh, ibid.

47          “We called him Joe Doakes . . .”
Raoul Walsh, quoted in Schickel,
The Men Who Made the Movies,
p. 37.

47          “The studio decided . . .”
From an interview Wayne gave to BBC4, London, 1974.

47          “I was determined . . .”
John Wayne, from his unpublished memoir, portions of which are reproduced in Goldman’s
John Wayne: The Genuine Article.

47          “My teacher had me rolling my r’s . . .”
John Wayne as told to Zolotow, “It Happened This Way,” part 2,
American Weekly,
November 28, 1954.

49          “Sheehan and [Bill Fox’s executive assistant] Sol Wurtzel . . .”
Raoul Walsh, in Schickel,
The Men Who Made the Movies,
p. 38.

49          Information about the usage of Grandeur photography, its footage, and equipment breakdown—
From Arthur Edeson, “Wide Film Photography,”
American Cinematographer,
September 1930. In the article, Edeson predicts that Grandeur is the format of the future and will quickly replace standard 35 mm filming.

51          “I was three weeks on my back . . .”
John Wayne, to Richard Warren Lewis,
Playboy,
May 1971.

53          “So I was the star . . .”
John Wayne, told to Zolotow, “It Happened Like This,” pt. 2,
American Weekly,
November 21, 1954.

CHAPTER FOUR

55          “I can’t act . . .”
Donald Hough,
Los Angeles Times,
June 29, 1941.

55          “He was obsessed . . .”
An unidentified “lifelong friend,” quoted in Dick O’Conner, “The John Wayne Story,”
Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
January 5, 1954.

57          “When you work for this studio . . .”
Harry Cohn, quoted in Thomas,
King Cohn,
p. 98.

65          “They made me a singing cowboy . . .”
John Wayne, interviewed by Richard Warren Lewis for
Playboy,
May 1971.

66          “A notorious philistine . . .”
McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 422.

CHAPTER FIVE

73          “To accept it . . .”
Dudley Nichols’s letter to Frank Capra, Wiley and Bona,
Inside Oscar,
p. 65.

74          “Duke knocked Ward into a row of lockers . . .”
An unnamed source, quoted in Martin Scott, “John Wayne,”
Cosmopolitan,
November 1954.

76          “Duke, you are a disgrace! . . .”
The quote is from Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 128.

76          “Duke was so frightened . . .”
Harry Carey Jr.,
Company of Heroes,
p. 72.

78          “When is it my turn . . .” “Christ, if you learned . . .” “Just wait . . .”
from McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 280.

79          “Duke, I want you to play . . .”
Many versions of this story exist, including those found in Roberts and Olson,
John Wayne: American,
p. 49, and Bogdanovich. In Glenn Frankel,
The Searchers,
p. 233, the exchange is reported this way: “ ‘You idiot, couldn’t you play it?’ “Which is what Ford had in mind all along.” All versions suggest that Ford was playing with Wayne and that he was Ford’s only choice for the role.

79          “I wanted . . .”
John Ford, “Man Alive,”
Photoplay,
March 1952.

79          “Well, I had made . . .”
John Wayne, to Louella O. Parsons, “In Hollywood with Louella Parsons,”
The Herald Examiner
(and syndicated), December 31, 1949.

80          “Yeah, four times in ten years . . .”
John Wayne to Beverly Barnett, as quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 116.

CHAPTER SIX

85          
“Stagecoach
has been clarified . . .”
Sarris,
The John Ford Movie Mystery,
p. 83.

86          “A dumb bastard,” “Big oaf,” “Can’t you even walk . . .”
Pilar Wayne,
John Wayne,
p. 113.

86          Wayne would meet with Paul
Harry Carey,
Company of Heroes,
p. 73.

86          “With this film . . .”
Bosworth,
John Wayne: The Legend and the Man,
p10.

88          

A superb film [that] caught . . .”
Everson,
Pictorial History of the Western,
p. 166.

88          “transformed Monument Valley . . .”
Roberts and Olson,
John Wayne: American,
p. 159.

88          “My favorite location [became] Monument Valley . . .”
John Ford, quoted in Cowie,
John Ford and the American West,
p. 186.

89          “
Stagecoach
was the ideal example . . .”
Bazin,
What Is Cinema?,
p. 149.

89          “Orson Welles has never sought to conceal . . .”
Francois Truffaut, from his introduction to Bazin’s
Orson Welles,
p. 10.

89          
“Stagecoach
was more the beginning . . .”
Sarris,
The John Ford Movie Mystery,
pp. 82–85
.

89          Bogdanovich
Information about Orson Welles’s running of
Stagecoach
is from Bogdanovich,
The Observer,
September 26, 2010.

90          “I had never in my life . . .”
John Wayne, from his unpublished memoirs, excerpted in Goldman,
John Wayne: The Genuine Article,
p. 39.

90          “When I first got into this business . . .”
John Wayne, “Rambling Reporter,” column guest-written by John Wayne while Mike Connolly was on vacation,
The Hollywood Reporter,
April 30, 1954.

91          “At an age . . .”
John Wayne, from his unpublished memoirs, excerpted in Goldman,
John Wayne: The Genuine Article,
p. 39.

CHAPTER SEVEN

102          “Duke couldn’t even spell politics . . .”
Henry Fonda, Howard Teichmann,
Fonda: My Life,
p. New York, Signet, 1982.

103          “Count the times . . .”
John Ford, to editor Robert Parrish, in response to a question by Parrish about how Ford was able to elicit such great performances from John Wayne. McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 319.

103          “The American leftists . . .”
McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 270.

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