by Scott Eyman
“I could see”: MOMA, John Wayne, “The Wages of Virtue,” Time, 3-3-52.
“You could operate”: Kazanjian and Enss, p. 29.
In 1929: Heritage Magazine, Vol. 14, Summer/Fall 2011, p. 57.
CHAPTER THREE
“the male lead”: Evarts, p. 18.
“I don’t want”: Evarts, p. 20.
“He was in his early 20s”: AMPAS, The Big Trail file, undated article in the Etowah, Tennessee, Morning Telegraph, bylined by Raoul Walsh from Talking Picture magazine.
Duke believed: Bogdanovich, p. 282.
“The part wasn’t”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Donald Hough, “I Can’t Act,” Los Angeles Times, 6-29-41.
But in 1946: AMPAS, John Wayne, Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, 9-8-46.
There was no script: American Weekly stories, 11-21-54.
Raoul Walsh claimed: Walsh, p. 241.
“It took me a long time”: F. Anthony Macklin, “I Come Ready,” Film Heritage, Summer 1975, p. 11.
Walsh decided: Evarts, p. 7. Most of the background for The Big Trail derives from this document.
“After a 30 mile”: Evarts, p. 14.
“John Wayne was born”: AMPAS, John Wayne, “Biography of John Wayne, Playing Breck Coleman in The Big Trail.”
“a youth who bids fair”: AMPAS, “Big Trail,” Dynamo (Fox studio newspaper), 7-15-30.
“I selected Morrison”: Parrish, Growing Up in Hollywood, p. 176.
Clemente explained: The Big Trail pressbook, Leroy “Skip” Bawel Collection. Many thanks to Skip for the loan of this artifact.
Fox had been personally: Solomon, p. 123.
In the spring of 1930: Ibid., p. 146.
“My first scene”: AMPAS, John Wayne, “Playboy interview: John Wayne,” May 1971.
Darcy came to believe: Darcy O’Brien to SE.
One night there was a fight: Parrish, Growing Up in Hollywood, p. 65.
“The picture is coming along”: Guiles, p. 92.
“A sturdy race”: Evarts, p. 2.
The filmmakers found: Arthur Edeson, “Wide Film Cinematography,” American Cinematographer, September, 1930, author’s collection.
“Expert packers”: Evarts, p. 24.
“Lowering wagons and stock”: Ibid., p. 65.
During the take: Parrish, Growing Up in Hollywood, p. 69.
On the train ride back: Kane manuscript, p. 16.
In attendance: AMPAS, John Wayne, “Big Trail Star Will Be Honored,” Hollywood Daily Citizen, 10-14-30.
An article in Motion Picture : Carol Standish, “Luck Isn’t with Them,” Motion Picture, 12–30.
“Photography soars”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Elizabeth Yeaman, “Epic of Pioneer Days Starts Run Here at Chinese,” Hollywood Daily Citizen, 10-3-30.
Sime Silverman: AMPAS, John Wayne, “Sime,” “The Big Trail,” Variety, 10-28-30.
“He does not throw her”: Wills, p. 16.
“I was the fellow”: F. Anthony Macklin, “I Come Ready,” Film Heritage, Summer 1975.
“the best advice I ever got”: Munn, p. 31.
CHAPTER FOUR
“It was a goddamned lie”: Wayne to SE.
“Buck Jones was”: John Wayne to Kevin Brownlow, Brownlow archives.
“We were asked”: Fernett, p. 55.
Mascot had been formed: Tuska, The Vanishing Legion, p. 8.
“You’ll like him”: Canutt, p. 88.
“We had a party”: John Wayne to SE.
By 1930: Barrier, p. 157.
Wayne suggested: USC, Special Collections, Warga, draft of tape 6a, April 1971.
“I had only dealt”: John Wayne to SE.
“I made $250 a week”: I have combined two quotations. The first is from the Kane manuscript, p. 11, the second is from P. F. Kluge, “First and Last, a Cowboy,” Life, 1-28-72.
“Nothing is so discouraging”: Batjac Productions, column by L. O. Robertson, “Reeling Around,” undated, but about 1935.
“There are no outstanding”: AMPAS, His Private Secretary file, Motion Picture Herald, 6-10-33.
The ceremony: Heritage Auctions, The Personal Property of John Wayne Catalog, certificate of marriage, 6-24-33, p. 94.
“Split my lip”: Kane manuscript, p. 23.
“I don’t do light bulbs”: Gretchen Wayne to SE.
“mainstream womanizer”: Munn, p. 32.
Yakima Canutt would: Canutt to SE.
Wayne looked at Canutt: Canutt, p. 92.
“It was good experience”: Conflation of two quotes, the first USC, John Wayne, Motion Picture, Vol. 78, No. 4; the second Kazanjian and Enss, p. 50.
“I saw a couple of them”: The Saturday Evening Post, August 1979, p. 5.
“Paul Fix is”: USC, Batjac Collection, box 12, folder 57, “Cowboy Wayne Won’t Be Fading into Any Sunsets,” 12-19-72.
“His main trouble”: AMPAS, John Wayne, James Bacon, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, undated, but 1969.
“I felt many”: Tuska, The Filming of the West, p. 373.
“Later on sometimes”: Lindsley Parsons to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives. All subsequent quotes from Parsons derive from this interview.
“I was tall, curly haired”: MOMA, John Wayne, “The Wages of Virtue,” Time, 3-3-52.
“He was pretty tall”: Cecilia Parker to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives. All subsequent quotes from Parker derive from this interview.
“I was one step up”: George Kennedy, Trust Me, p. 29.
“was pleasant”: Sammy McKim to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives.
It was on one: USC, Special Collections, Warga, draft of tape 1A, April 1971.
“He had something”: Cecilia Parker to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives.
“Well, I was sleepy”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, 9-8-46.
“I thought he was”: Ann Rutherford to SE.
None grossed more: USC, “Warner Bros. Pictures Inc. Comparison of Negative Costs and Gross Income on 1932–33 Productions to August 31, 1944,” p. 19.
In 1935: Tuska, The Vanishing Legion, p. 183.
“I never expected”: Davis, p. 63.
“The quickie [pictures]”: Bogdanovich, p. 288.
CHAPTER FIVE
“This production is another”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Motion Picture Herald, 11-13-37.
“Considering the number”: USC, Universal Pictures Collection, Trem Carr Productions files, M. F. Murphy to J. P. Normanly, 3-23-37 and 4-9-37.
“exceptionally difficult one”: Ibid., 6-29-37.
“We had 4:30 calls”: William Bakewell to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives.
“That’s the way”: McCarthy and Flynn, p. 365.
“I’m from Southern California”: Kane manuscript, p. 10.
“My dad’s buried”: Kane manuscript, p. 32.
“Poor John”: Parsons to Maltin, Maltin archives.
“Universal had a kid”: “Gun Crazy: An Interview with Joseph H. Lewis,” Velvet Light Trap Vol. 20, Summer 1983.
“It was a few weeks”: Marsha Hunt to SE.
“[We] believe would be mistake”: USC, Constance McCormick Collection, box 5, folder 11, Rick Jewell, “John Wayne: An American Icon,” Trojan Family, Autumn 2008.
His new contract: Mathis, p. 422.
the studio got the cowboys: Bob Burns, “Roy Barcroft, Howard Lydecker, Dave Sharpe and the Republic Thrill Factory,” Classic Images, 2-2003.
“It was absolutely”: Adrian Booth to SE. All subsequent quotes from Booth derive from this interview.
“They would paint the wall”: Davis, p. 71.
“At sunrise one August morning”: Paris, p. 383.
“Absolutely”: Kane manuscript, p. 11.
Ford nurtured Stagecoach: Background drawn from Eyman, Print the Legend, pp. 190–208.
“It was Ford”: Bernstein, p. 147.
But Ford told: Eyman, Print the Legend, p. 196.
“I was hired as an assistant”: AMPAS, John Wayne, John Wayne, letter to The Saturday Evening Po
st, 4-27-79, published in facsimile, 7/8-79.
“The idea was”: Tuska, The Filming of the West, p. 377.
“I can’t deal”: USC, Special Collections, Warga, draft of tape 3, April 1971.
“He’ll be the biggest star ever”: Louise Platt letter, accessed at NedScott.com.
Wayne nervously asked: Canutt, p. 114.
“Shit, I was so”: Bogdanovich, p. 287.
“Well, it’s just magnificent”: Ibid., p. 285.
“John Wayne, as the outlaw”: AMPAS, Stagecoach file, Variety, 2-3-39; New York Daily News, 3-3-39.
“simple, clear, epic”: New Republic, 8-5-67.
“Thanks”: Roberts and Olson, p. 167.
“Duke,” he said: AMPAS, John Wayne, Roy Newquist, “John Wayne Wins His Toughest Fight,” Chicago American, 6-25-67.
CHAPTER SIX
“Just think, Gene”: George-Warren, p. 160.
“He underacts”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Donald Hough, “I Can’t Act,” Los Angeles Times, 6-29-41.
“The high professionalism”: Hurst, p. 193.
“I got to thinking”: F. Anthony Macklin, “I Come Ready,” Film Heritage, Summer 1975.
The kid who had been movie-struck: Wayne’s most flagrant display of this phony aw-shucks attitude is in AMPAS, John Wayne, Donald Hough, “I Can’t Act,” Los Angeles Times, 6-29-41.
A reporter visited: AMPAS, John Ford, Lewis Jacobs, “Watching Ford Go By,” New York Times, 5-26-40.
“I’d like to make one”: AMPAS, John Wayne, John Wayne, “The Role I Liked Best,” The Saturday Evening Post, 7-9-49.
“John Wayne was in”: USC, WB archives, Santa Fe Trail production files, Trilling to Wallis, 6-20-40, 6-24-40.
The first time Dietrich: Garnett, p. 245.
“I wonder what”: Roberts and Olson, p. 194.
“He’d stand there”: Bakewell to Maltin, Maltin archives.
“She was great”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Molly Haskell, “John Wayne, Westerns, and Women,” Ladies’ Home Journal, 7-76.
“My mother thought”: Maria Riva to SE.
Spurred by some: Baxter, p. 227.
“A funny thing”: Behlmer, Henry Hathaway, pp. 173–74.
One morning: Batjac Productions, Ollie Carey interview, undated but 1980 or 1981.
“They had quite”: Batjac Productions, Henry Hathaway interview, 2-21-80.
“You can tell”: Batjac Productions, Ollie Carey, undated interview.
“FANTASTIC!”: USC, Special Collections, Warga, draft of tape 6(A), April 1971.
“Josephine was a wonderful gal”: Carolyn Roos Olsen to SE. All subsequent quotes from Olsen derive from our interviews.
“That’s when I”: Graham, p. 282.
Sally Blane: Davis, p. 109.
“We’d go to the fancy”: MOMA, John Wayne, Joseph N. Bell, “John Wayne’s Scrapbook,” Good Housekeeping, 6-76.
Wayne took out: Olsen, p. 115.
Victor McLaglen’s son Andrew remembered: Andrew McLaglen to SE.
“Can’t you write”: Roberts and Olson, p. 240.
Ford made a mild feint: Ibid.
“My mother got conned”: Marilyn Carey to SE.
“A famous shack-up place”: Harry Carey, Jr., to SE.
“I destroyed”: Aissa Wayne, p. 24.
“I didn’t spend”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Mary Schnack, “A Man Who Called the Duke ‘Dad,’ on Life with a Legend.” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, 9-24-81.
“Charlie was very stylish”: Parker, p. 111.
In later years: Robert Wagner to SE.
“used undue influence”: Batjac Productions, unidentified clipping, attached to letter from Gang to Feldman, 11-3-41.
“such negotiations”: Batjac Productions, Wayne to Murray Kinnell, 10-9-41.
Leo Morrison asked: “Film Agency War Brewing,” Los Angeles Times, 9-23-41; “Actor’s Guild Faces Show Cause Action,” Los Angeles Times, 11-1-41.
That same day: Batjac Productions, agreement, 12-15-41.
“Ford liked Duke”: Lindsley Parsons to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives.
Wayne told a story: Kane manuscript, p. 9.
“embarrassed but effective”: Jeanine Basinger, “John Wayne: An Appreciation,” American Film, June 1976, p. 52.
The show lasted: Scripts for Three Sheets to the Wind are in the Tay Garnett Collection at the USC library.
“What Bob doesn’t know”: AMPAS, Robert Fellows file, Vernon Scott, “Wayne, Pal Work as One,” Hollywood Citizen News, 8-31-53.
“I was disappointed”: Eyman, Empire of Dreams, p. 344.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“He was about six-five”: Hugh O’Brian to SE.
In practice: Much of this section relies on an unpublished article by the military and film historian Lawrence Suid entitled “John Wayne, the Selective Service and World War II,” helpfully supplied by Suid.
“This is an essential industry”: Autry, pp. 80–81.
“L. B. Mayer”: Mickey Rooney to SE.
Gable’s friend Robert Stack: Robert Stack to SE.
“He had an ear infection”: Michael Wayne to Leonard Maltin, Maltin archives.
As studio archives attest: Notably, USC files for The Sea Chase, Blood Alley, and the testimony of co-star Tab Hunter.
“I couldn’t believe”: McIntosh, p. 16.
He calls the major: USC Special Collections, Warga, draft of tape 6(A), April 1971.
“Dear Pappy”: Batjac Productions, Wayne to Ford, May 1942.
“I would have had”: AMPAS, Wayne, “John Wayne as the Last Hero,” Time, 8-8-69.
“Going into battle: Batjac Productions, Keith Honaker to Michael Wayne, 2-7-80.
“You know, Ben”: Batjac Productions, Benjamin DeLoache interview, 2-7-80.
Keith Honaker was a battalion adjutant: Batjac Productions, Keith Honaker to Michael Wayne, 2-7-80.
“I carried this”: Batjac Productions, Fred Stofft interview, undated, but 1980.
“We have developed”: Davis, p. 114.
“What the guys down there need”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Los Angeles Times, 3-22-44.
Both his last wife and his daughter: Roberts and Olson, p. 211.
Donovan gave him a certificate: Heritage Auctions, The Personal Property of John Wayne Auction Catalog, p. 57.
“It was the Long Island”: George Kennedy, Trust Me, p. 31.
“I think Duke”: Batjac Productions, Al Murphy interview, 2-22-80.
Wayne wanted DeLoache: Batjac Productions, Benjamin DeLoache interview, 2-7-80.
“Some people make dollar cigars”: Kane manuscript, p. 23.
“He said that if you had tried”: Mathis, p. 420.
As they were filming: Davis, p. 104.
On February 4, 1944: Gabler, Walt Disney, p. 450.
James Agee wrote: Sbardellati, p. 71.
“Those highly indoctrinated”: Schwartz, p. 207.
King Vidor tried: Ibid., p. 208.
The anticommunist labor leader: McConnell, p. 76.
“There is no intention”: USC and Motion Picture Alliance files, PM, 2-15-44.
“Dictators are doing”: Humphries, p. 63.
“flagrant manner in which”: Quoted in Larry Ceplair, “SAG and the Motion Picture Blacklist, in “50 Years: SAG Remembers the Blacklist,” National Screen Actor, January 1998.
One solid estimate: Frost, p. 117.
“Well, what about the streets”: McConnell, p. 75.
“All too often”: Branden, p. 199.
“Let the Alliance name”: AMPAS, Motion Picture Alliance files, “Time to Name Names,” 3-15-44.
“There is every possibility”: Gabler, Walt Disney, p. 457.
“the biggest anti-Semite”: Ibid.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Dear Duke”: USC, Universal collection, Cohen to Wayne, 0-9-43, Box 650, Folder 2155.
“was the first picture”: Wayne to Landesman, 7-6-77, courtesy of Joe Musso.
As Fix was leading: Kane manuscript, p. 19.
Fi
x told a story: Ibid., pp. 14–16.
The shotgun and the wounding: Both men told the story at various times: AMPAS, John Wayne, Peter Martin, “The Ladies Like ’Em Rugged,” The Saturday Evening Post, 12-23-50.
Barzman left behind a memoir: Ben Barzman, “The Duke and Me,” Los Angeles, 1-89.
Dmytryk liked Wayne: Dmytryk, Odd Man Out, p. 17.
“The story in none of its forms”: USC, MGM collection, Norman Corwin, “Notes on They Were Expendable,” 11-10-43.
“It is on the one hand”: USC, MGM collection, Norman Corwin, “Emphases,” 12-2-43.
Corwin was off the picture: USC, MGM collection, “They Were Expendable script history.”
“It was the first time”: William Harbach to SE.
“John Wayne registers”: AMPAS, They Were Expendable file, Lowell Redelings, Hollywood Citizen News, 12-26-45.
“I’ll take my turn”: Leaming, Hepburn, p. 420.
“I guess what it really”: McClelland, pp. 213–14.
“Why’d you have to marry that whore?”: This sounds harsh even for Ford, but Dan Ford believes the anecdote is entirely possible.
“No one has ever accused”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Peter Martin, “The Ladies Like ’Em Rugged,” The Saturday Evening Post, 12-23-50.
“She sometimes looked”: Roberts and Olson, p. 280.
He sheepishly explained: Ibid., p. 281.
“She didn’t speak much English”: Fagen, p. 20.
“wonderful possibilities”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Hedda Hopper, “Wayne for the Money,” Chicago Tribune, 2-13-49.
“In the family gossip”: Gretchen Wayne to SE.
“It sure changes you”: AMPAS, John Wayne, Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Examiner, 9-8-46.
The reviews were: Both quotes from AMPAS, Special Collections, Gail Russell scrapbooks.
“[Wayne] finally had to”: USC, Special Collections, Warga, draft of Tape 6(A), April 1971.
“All the offices had bars”: USC, Batjac Collection, box 1, folder 10, T. F. James, “The Man Who Talks Back to John Wayne,” Cosmopolitan, 8-60.
“In my dad’s opinion”: Patrick Wayne to SE.
“James Edward Grant was born”: USC, Batjac Collection, folder marked “Grant, James E.—writer—Misc.”