Happy Birthday John Wayne May 26.
 

John Wayne - Rotten Tomatoes

I have seen about 2/3s of his movies.

Some of them were very entertaining.

So many outstanding movies

"The Hell you have!" :crap2:

Hate to burst your bubble, but Marion is dead.

My guess is "600 Photo sq" hasn't seen this thread yet.

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ght=john+wayne

20 years or so ago I happened to be in a small store in Costa Mesa, CA and overheard a conversation between a retired cop and the owner. A few years before the cop had stopped an older bald headed fellow driving a station wagon to ticket him for a traffic violation. The cop looked at the man's drivers license and tells him he looked familiar. The response was "Ya ever been to the movies?". The cop of course recognized the voice. lol. John Wayne had his real name on the driver's license. He used to live on the Back Bay in Newport Beach with his wife, Pilar. Oh - the cop said he let him go!

You can recognize some people just by their voice, and even over the radio. I was working in St. Pete/Clearwater Tower one night about 1975 and a Beech Baron, a high performance twin, was inbound for landing. When I talked to him, I knew right away it was Arthur Godfrey. After he landed and taxied in, I said I'm going down to the ramp. I walked up the aircraft when the door opened it was Arthur Godfrey flying by himself a twin at night and he was in his early 70's. I asked if he needed a hand, and helped carry in his bags.

https://www.nndb.com/people/613/000065418/godfrey4.jpg

Arthur Godfrey did have a distinctive voice! I bet he was a good guy, too.

When John Wayne passed Pratt & Whitney took out a full page in the WSJ with the following:


Duke, we're gonna miss ya

When you came riding into town, varmints scrambled, dance hall girls powdered their noses, and yellow-bellies ran for the hills.
You ambled into our hearts, stiffened our spines, and made us stand taller.
From the sands of Iwo Jima to the gates of the Alamo, you taught us all a lesson.
Sure, your movies were play-acting.
But they showed that our true strength is in our people.
The worker on the production line, the fighting man, truck driver, waitress, miner, farmer, nurse, cowboy.
Wherever you’re going, Duke, roll yourself a smoke, take a slug of whiskey, lean back, put a thumb under your suspenders –
and take pride that you taught us the true meaning of grit.
John Wayne gave more to America than he took from America.
How many of us can say the same?

Thanks for sharing

Patriotism

Well, he starred in 142 movies, some of which are iconic war movies and inspire patriotism. Some romanticize our nation's frontier heritage, a source of national pride and identity. Many foreigners think of Monument Valley as John Wayne Country so his movies have helped the Navajo Nation economically by generating tourism. I could go on...

Never heard any of this before

Wow...glad that you were able to get all of this stuff that you've been carrying around off your chest.

But is any of this true?

Actually he lost his football scholarship at USC from a body surfing injury. John Wayne - Wikipedia

some 'half truths'

Duke did smoke, he did drink and he never served in the military...albeit he tried to enlist early on and toward the end of WWII he tried again to enlist

I like his movies...and what I believe he stood for

:ohdear:Not the first time ...... can't be healthy! :)

Agreed

He was born in May of 1907 so was what, 34 years of age when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, 37 on D-Day?

IMHO his movies accomplished more for American morale during wartime than he could have accomplished as an anonymous single middle aged soldier.

He was 10 - 11 years old during WWI, a little young to enlist.

Likely a majority of adult males smoked during most of his adult life, up until around 1964. His smoking was not unusual or even frowned upon in those days. It was considered sociable. (ugh)

A lot of hard liquor used to be consumed, at least in the movies, along with a lot of cigarette smoking. During my 20s and 30s the "three martini lunch" on a salesman's expense account was pretty common.

John Wayne.
 

He was and still is an icon. I liked the characters he usually portrayed, a little rough around the edges, heroic types. As has been said earlier, he probably did far more from a morale standpoint than he could have done by joining up. Think of Bob Hope entertaining the troups vs Bob Hope with an M1 or swabbing a deck.
As to his movies, I have and enjoy a few of his old "cliffhanger" serials like "The Hurricane Express" and "The Three Mesquiteers". Good, old fashioned fun.