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American Titan: Searching for John Wayne

Page 39

by Marc Eliot

202. Wayne Takes Wife and Baby Girl Home, Los Angeles Times, 4.7.56

  203. Mr. and Mrs. John Wayne, Variety, 4.2.56

  204. Williams, Dick, John Wayne’s Two Sons Planning Film Careers, Mirror, 5.10.56

  205. John Wayne’s Daughter and Fiance Get License, Los Angeles Times, 5.18.56

  206. Pacts OKd for Singer and John Wayne’s Son, Los Angeles Times, 5.25.56

  207. John Wayne Kin Weds Tomorrow, no primary source listed, 5.25.56

  208. Actor John Wayne’s Daughter Married, Mirror, 5.26.56

  209. Conchita, Princess, Pignatelli, Sepulveda, Toni Wayne and Donald LaCava Wed Here by Cardinal McIntyre, Los Angeles Examiner, 5.27.56

  210. Cardinal Reads Wedding Rites for Donald LaCavas, Hollywood Citizen-News, 5.28.56

  211. Theater Films’ $10,000-a-Minute, Variety, 6.6.56

  212. John Wayne to Get $2,000,000 for Four Pictures at 20th-Fox, Hollywood Reporter 6.25.56

  213. Studios Frantic Over Bigger Pay for Top Talent, Hollywood Reporter, 6.26.56

  214. Actor John Wayne Dubs Self ‘B.O. Plenty’ In $2 Million Deal, Hollywood Citizen-News, 7.2.56

  215. Schallert, Edwin, John Wayne Signs to $2,000,000 Contract, Los Angeles Times, 7.13.56

  216. John Wayne Honored by Legion Auxiliary, Los Angeles Times, 8.7.56

  217. Tell of Row in Shooting of Publisher, Los Angeles Examiner, 9.5.56

  218. Trapper’s Story of How He Shot Publisher of ‘Confidential’ in Jungle, no primary source listed, 9.5.56

  219. Levine, Phil, Scandal Editor Shot; A Slip, Says Hunter, Los Angeles Daily News, 9.6.56

  220. Argument Was About Them, No primary source listed, 9.6.56

  221. Mosby, Aline, Producer Stupidity Profitable, Hollywood Citizen-News, 10.6.56

  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.

  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, Janua
ry 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.

 

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