American Titan: Searching for John Wayne (57 page)

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Authors: Marc Eliot

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104          “The film is suitably moody . . .”
Sarris,
The John Ford Movie Mystery,
pp. 99–101.

104          “The role I liked best . . .”
John Wayne, “The Role I Liked Best,”
The Saturday Evening Post,
July 7, 1949. The magazine regularly invited celebrities to talk about “The role I liked best.” It is likely Wayne did not actually write the piece, but talked it to an unsigned interviewer.

105          “I noticed something . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Roberts and Olson,
John Wayne: American,
from files contained in the Maurice Zolotow Papers, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, “The Politics of Glamour, Ideology and Democracy in the Screen Actors Guild,” interview by David Prindle.

CHAPTER EIGHT

111          “Daddy, buy me
that
!”
Marlene Dietrich, quoted in Bach,
Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend,
pp. 257–258.

111          “ . . . Duke recalled that day . . .”
The story is retold in John Wayne’s third wife’s memoir, Pilar Wayne’s
John Wayne,
p. 39.

CHAPTER NINE

116          “It was impossible . . .”
Bö Christian Roos, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 166.

121          “Wayne had tried to enlist . . .”
Ibid., p. 160.

122          “The office sent Wayne a letter . . .”
Frankel,
The Searchers,
p. 237. Frankel quotes from Dan Ford’s biography of his grandfather,
Pappy.

122          “I didn’t feel . . .”
John Wayne, Dan Ford, quoted in Frankel,
The Searchers,
pp. 238–239.

122          “super-patriot . . .”
John Wayne, quoted by Pilar Wayne,
John Wayne,
p. 43.

122          “The most intriguing woman . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Pilar Wayne,
John Wayne,
p. 40.

122          “The best lay . . .”
The source of the quote is not named, in Roberts and Olson’s
John Wayne: American,
p. 194.

126          “When I first see Duke . . .”
Esperanza Baur, to Ruth Waterbury, related to Maurice Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 168.

127          “Whenever I’ve been in trouble . . .”
John Wayne, to Hedda Hopper, “Wayne for the Money,”
Chicago Tribune
(and syndicated), February 13, 1949.

127          “I’ve shared Josie’s anxieties . . .”
John Wayne as told to Zolotow, “It Happened Like This,” pt. 2,
American Weekly,
November 28, 1954.

129          “John Wayne will soon be a triple-threat man in the industry . . .”
Herb Yates, quoted by Hedda Hopper, “John Isn’t on the Wane: Looking at Hollywood with Hedda Hopper,” The Chicago Tribune Syndicate. The article appeared on May 11, 1947, in the
Chicago Tribune
.

129          “In our special field . . .”
and
“Turn off the faucets . . .”
are noted by Ceplair and Englund,
The Inquisition in Hollywood,
p. 211.

130          “The boys are starved . . .”
and
“The kids . . .”
From the
Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
March 22, 1944.

130          “What the guys down there need . . .”
Ibid.

CHAPTER TEN

133          “cruel and inhuman treatment . . .”
Details of Wayne’s divorce are from public records, and reports in the
Los Angeles Times,
November 30, 1944. Additional articles that appeared related to the divorce and used as source material include the
Los Angeles Examiner
and
Hollywood Citizen News
.

133          “When we split up . . .”
John Wayne quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 179.

138          “Why don’t you buy me a bigger house?”
Reported in the
Los Angeles Examiner,
January 18, 1946, and the
Los Angeles Times,
January 17, 1946.

139          “Our marriage was like . . .”
John Wayne as told to Zolotow, “It Happened This Way,” pt. 2,
American Weekly,
November 29, 1954.

139          “the stupidest damn thing . . .”
John Wayne, quoted without direct attribution, in Roberts and Olson,
John Wayne: American,
p. 257.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

141          “Ford remained furious . . .”
Robert Parrish, quoted in McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 343.

141          “If you can take . . .”
From a letter written by John Ford to John Wayne, quoted in McBride, ibid., p. 344.

142          “less history than mythology . . .”
Sarris,
The John Ford Movie Mystery,
p. 113.

144          “Any war
I
was in . . .”
John Ford, interviewed by Bogdanovich,
John Ford,
pp. 83–84.

146          “I started in three-day productions . . .”
From an interview John Wayne gave to Louella O. Parsons, who billed herself as the Motion Picture Editor, International News Service. This interview appeared in her syndicated column, which appeared in Los Angeles in the
Los Angeles Examiner,
September 8, 1946.

146          “Earlier in the day . . .”
Gail Russell, to Louella O. Parsons, the
Los Angeles Examiner,
and syndicated, October 1, 1953. Russell was responding to accusations by Wayne’s wife, made during their divorce proceedings, that she had had an affair with Wayne during the making of
The Angel and the Badman.
She threatened to sue, but did not.

148          “Every time I kiss Laraine . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Martin, “Women Like ’Em Rugged.”

148          “I do believe that one man . . .”
John Wayne, to Hedda Hopper, “Looking at Hollywood with Hedda Hopper.” The Chicago Tribune Syndicate. This article appeared in the
Chicago Tribune
and other newspapers in the syndicate on May 11, 1947.

CHAPTER TWELVE

150          “Communism is getting a toehold . . .”
“Pinks Plan to Stalinize Studios,”
Variety,
September 16, 1933, pp. 1 and 3.

150          “Hollywood screenwriters . . .”
Ceplair and Englund,
The Hollywood Inquisition,
p. 76.

152          “I was the victim . . .”
John Wayne, to Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 242.

154          “Our organization . . .”
John Wayne, to Richard Warren Lewis,
Playboy,
May 1971.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

158          “
The Fugitive
marked the last occasion . . .”
Sarris,
The John Ford Movie Mystery,
p. 125.

160          “Having Wayne put his arm on your shoulder . . .”
Frank Nugent, quoted in Martin, “The Ladies Like ’Em Rugged.”

162          “John Ford, John Ford, John Ford . . .”
Howard Hawks, to Schickel,
The Men Who Made the Movies,
p. 101.

163          “God, it was a terrible day . . .”
Harry Carey Jr.,
A Company of Heroes,
pp. 2–4.

164          “ . . . ‘They laughed and drank . . .’ ”
Clift, quoted in Bosworth,
Montgomery Clift: A Biography,
pp. 118–119.

164          “When [Wayne] saw Clift for the first time . . .”
Ibid., p. 120.

166          “I made a very good burial scene . . .”
Howard Hawks, interviewed by Richard Schickel,
The Men Who Made the Movies,
p. 101.

166          “Billy the Kid resists the efforts . . . ,”
Hedda Hopper,
The Los Angeles Times,
date unknown. The story is told in a slightly different version in Zolotow, who quotes Hopper, but gives no date of publication.

168          “ . . . Montgomery Clift, every inch a star . . .”
Andy Webster, “Still Duke, With Cracks,”
The New York Times,
October 6, 2013.

168          “I never knew the big son-of-a-bitch could act!”
Ford, quoted in McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 459.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

169          “Shove it up [director] Robert Rossen’s ass . . .”
Roberts and Olson,
John Wayne: American,
p. 328.

171          “
Red Witch
is a film . . .”
David Kehr,
The New York Times,
June 2, 1913.

171          “Even the home-bound . . .”
Gladwin Hill,
The New York Times,
November 7, 1948.

172          “We regard our Hopalong Cassidy . . .”
An unnamed spokesperson quoted in Martin, “Women Like ’Em Rugged.”

172          “carries dynamite in his fists . . .”
Quick Newsweekly,
December 19, 1949. The article is not signed.

173          “I’m looking for some security . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 255.

173          “That finishes me . . .”
John Wayne, to Ward Bond, quoted in Edwin Schallert,
The Los Angeles Times,
March 4, 1951.

173          “I think four [pictures] a year . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in William R. Weaver,
The Motion Picture Herald,
September 10, 1949.

174          “I’m just a guy trying to make a living in the movies.”
John Wayne, quoted in Gladwyn Hill,
The New York Times,
November 7, 1948.

174          “I have to make . . .”
Wayne to Hedda Hopper. The comment appeared in one of her 1950 syndicated columns. The specific date is unavailable.

175          “I hit the ground . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 254.

175          “It was an emotional reaction . . .”
From the John Ford Papers, Lilly Library, Indiana University, John Wayne interview, tape 80, I.

177          “Yates was one of the smartest businessmen . . .”
Wayne, quoted in Zolotow,
Shooting Star,
p. 252.

177          “[He] will have to make me a damn good offer . . .”
Wayne, ibid., pp. 254–255.

180          “The great movie stars . . .”
Alan Dwan, quoted in Peter Bogdanovich,
Who the Devil Made It,
p. 67.

180          “It was a beautiful personal story . . .”
Wiley and Bona,
Inside Oscar,
p. 194.

180          “After twenty-five years in the business . . .”
John Wayne, as told to Zolotow, “It Happened Like This,”
American Weekly,
November 7, 1954.

181          “I worry about it . . .”
Wayne quoted in Martin Scott, “John Wayne,”
Cosmopolitan,
November 1954.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

187          “My name is John Ford . . .”
This, and DeMille’s deliberate mispronunciations are from McBride, pp. 481–482.

187          “You can take your party . . .”
and
“He’s a shit . . .”
John Ford, quoted in Tom Stempel,
Screenwriter: The Life and Times of Nunnally Johnson,
pp. 123–124.

187          “Send the Commie bastard to me . . .”
Ford, quoted in McBride,
Searching for John Ford,
p. 461.

189          “For me, the most special part . . .”
Maureen O’Hara,
’Tis Herself,
p. 137.

189          “Mr. Ford’s vicious treatment of John Wayne . . .”
Ibid., p. 140.

192          “too bad that Larry . . .”
Wayne, quoted in
Time,
March 3, 1952.

192          “I have read the papers . . .”
Hedda Hopper, quoted in the
Los Angeles Times,
March 23, 1951, and the
Los Angeles Daily News
, March 23, 1951.

193          “It gives me a genuine feeling . . .”
John Wayne, “The Hollywood Scene,” by Lowell E. Redelings, motion picture editor for the
Hollywood Citizen-News,
October 5, 1951.

193          “It was to be . . .”
Maureen O’Hara,
John Wayne, The Legend and the Man,
p. 122.

194          “Esperanza is like every other person . . .”
John Wayne to Louella Parsons, “In Hollywood with Louella Parsons,”
The Los Angeles Examiner
and syndicated, February 18, 1951.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

198          “I can’t think of a better time . . .”
John Ford, “Man Alive,”
Photoplay,
March 1951.

198          “There is no other actor . . .”
Ward Bond, to Edwin Schallert,
The Los Angeles Times,
March 4, 1951.

199          “I want to get out . . .”
John Wayne, quoted in Edwin Schallert,
The Los Angeles Times,
March 4, 1951.

200          “Duke and I . . .”
Maureen O’Hara,
’Tis Herself,
p. 281.

200          “I was the only leading lady . . .”
Ibid., p. 166.

201          “We had a disagreement . . .”
Wayne, quoted in
The Los Angeles Times,
January 18, 1952.

201          “Choose between your mother and me,”
John Wayne quoted in an identified memo in the Academy Library’s files on John Wayne.

202          “To millions of moviegoers . . .”
and
“How often . . .”
are from
Time,
March 3, 1952.

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