American Titan: Searching for John Wayne Read online

  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.

  202 “If it’s a bad scene . . .” John Wayne, quoted by Jack O’Conner, “The John Wayne Story” The Los Angeles Herald, January 5, 1954.

  202 “I got nothin’ to sell but sincerity . . .” John Wayne, to Martin Scott, “John Wayne,” Cosmopolitan, November 1954.

  204 “I knew two fellas . . .” John Wayne, interviewed by Richard Warren Lewis, Playboy, May 1971.

  205 “We were not blacklisting . . .” John Wayne, in an interview with BBC4, London, 1974.

  207 “I happen to know . . .” Louella O. Parsons, “John Waynes Part Again,” The Los Angeles Examiner and syndicated, June 18, 1952.

  207 “Wayne went into his wife’s room . . .” An unidentified eyewitness, quoted in Martin Scott, “John Wayne,” Cosmopolitan, November 1954.

  210 “I was making a movie . . .” Pilar Pallette, quote John Wayne Biography, executive producer Ken Burns, made in association with Van Ness Productions, Fox Star Productions and 20th Century-Fox, 1996.

  210 “I had never been so immediately and powerfully affected . . .” Pilar Wayne, John Wayne, p. 63.

  211 “We are now in the process . . .” Jerry Giesler, The Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1952.

  212 “A man has to have some self-respect . . .” John Wayne, talking to the press, quoted by the Los Angeles Examiner, September 13, 1952.

  213 “I went down . . .” John Ford, to Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford, p. 141.

  213 “Jesus Christ . . .” John Wayne, quoted in McBride, Searching for John Ford, p. 529.

  214 “We had pretty good times . . .” John Wayne to Hedda Hopper, quoted in Bosworth, John Wayne: The Legend and the Man, p. 19.

  214 Details of the divorce From public court records, The Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1952, and The Los Angeles Examiner, October 11, 13, 1952.

  217 “The minute I became a success . . .” John Wayne, “The Rambling Reporter,” guest columnist for vacationing Mike Connolly, The Hollywood Reporter, April 30, 1954.

  219 “We’re celebrating the fact . . .” John Wayne with Chata, quoted by a reporter at “Mocambo,” from The Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1954.

  220 “I decided to write it . . .” Oscar Millard, Los Angeles Times, April 26, 1955. Additional material from Roberts and Olson, John Wayne: American, p. 410.

  221 John Wayne and lung cancer Several sources were used here. The story linking all the celebrity and crew deaths to the filming of The Conqueror was first reported in the November 10, 1980, issue of People magazine, in which it was stated that “Of
The Conqueror’s 220 cast and crew members from Hollywood, an astonishing 91 have contracted cancer.” In HealthNewsDigest.com, September 14, 2009, in an article entitled “Was the Movie The Conqueror Really Cursed? A Look at Radiation Paranoia,” by Michael D. Shaw, the author stated: “Few environmental myths have stood the test of time better than the notion that a significant number of the cast and crew of The Conqueror (1956) were felled by cancer, contracted as a result of exposure to radioactive fallout . . . Several above ground atomic tests were run at Yucca Flats in Nevada from 1951 to 1953, including 11 in 1953 under the name ‘Operation Upshot-Knothole.’ The movie was shot from May–August of 1954 in Snow Canyon State Park, located 11 miles (18 km) northwest of St. George, Utah, 137 miles (downwind of Yucca Flats). The movie premiered on February 22, 1956, in Los Angeles, and less than seven years later, director Dick Powell died of cancer. After Powell, several of the leading actors succumbed to cancer, as well. There was Pedro Armendáriz, who killed himself in June of 1963, rather than live with his terminal diagnosis. Agnes Moorehead was the next star of the film to die of cancer, in April of 1974. She was followed by Susan Hayward (March 1975) and John Wayne, who first contracted lung cancer in September of 1964 and finally died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979 . . . The People article quoted Dr. Robert C. Pendleton, director of radiological health at the University of Utah: ‘With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic. The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size you’d expect only 30-some cancers to develop. With 91, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up even in a court of law.’ This sounds impressive until you do some basic research. According to the National Cancer Institute, at the time the article was written, the overall incidence of being diagnosed with cancer in a person’s lifetime (age-adjusted) was about 40%. As it happens, this number still holds today. Thus, in a cohort of 220 people, 88 would be diagnosed with cancer at some point. I have no idea how Pendleton came up with his ‘30-some.’ If anything, given the heavy smoking habits of many in the movie business at the time, including Dick Powell, Agnes Moorehead, Pedro Armendáriz, Susan Hayward, and John Wayne at five packs a day, 91 is completely within the expected range. The only ‘astonishing’ thing is that the People article did not mention the smoking habits of any of the deceased stars.”

  224 “This is the greatest thing . . .” John Wayne, as reported in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, November 1, 1954.

  224 “Some men collect stamps . . .” John Wayne, to Sheilah Graham, Hollywood Citizen-News and syndicated, November 1, 1954.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  228 “Wayne is a nice guy . . .” William Wellman, to Martin Scott, “John Wayne,” Cosmopolitan, November 1954.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  234 “The biggest, roughest . . .” Part of the advertising campaign designed by Whitney for The Searchers, referenced in McBride, Searching for John Ford, p. 553.

  234 “I can’t say whether my father . . .” Patrick Wayne, quoted in Frankel, The Searchers, p. 244.

  238 “representative of a peculiarly American wanderlust” Sarris, The John Ford Movie Mystery, p. 171.

  238 “Suddenly, this character, this lonely character . . .” Martin Scorsese, from an interview by the American Film Institute for its archives, published March 13, 2013.

  239 Bogdanovich’s question and Ford’s answer about the relationship between Ethan and his sister-in-law Bogdanovich, John Ford, pp. 93–94.

  241 “The first scene I was in with Duke . . .” Harry Carey Jr., Company of Heroes, p. 170.

  244 “How can I hate John Wayne . . .” Godard claimed to have wept at the end of the film, overwhelmed by the “mystery and fascination of this American cinema . . .” Sarris, The John Ford Movie Mystery, p. 173.

  245 “You know . . .” John Wayne, from an interview quoted by Frankel, The Searchers, p. 315.

  245 “Blithering idiot . . .” Pilar, quoted in John Wayne Biography, executive producer Ken Burns, made in association with Van Ness Productions, Fox Star Productions and 20th Century-Fox, 1996.

  245 “This is my second chance . . .” John Wayne, quoted in Pilar Wayne, John Wayne, p. 18.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  251 “I didn’t want to do the picture . . .” John Ford, to Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford, p. 96.

  252 “ . . . I reported happily to the set . . .” O’Hara, ’Tis Herself, pp. 200–201.

  253 “My problem is . . .” From Emanuel Levy, Cinema 24/7 (blog), posted November 10, 2006.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  257 “I came in and said to Jack Warner . . .” Howard Hawks, quoted in Bogdanovich, Who the Devil Made It, p. 357.

  258 “I don’t like High Noon. . . .” Howard Hawks, in Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 121.

  258 “The scenes we were in . . .” Angie Dickinson, John Wayne Biography, executive producer Ken Burns, made in association with Van Ness Productions, Fox Star Productions and 20th Century-Fox, 1996.

  259 “Rio Bravo is a work . . .” Godard, quoted by Peter Bogdanovich, The New York Observer, July 24, 2007.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  268 “It’s all gone . . .” From Pilar Wayne, John Wayne, p. 138.

  272 “I have everything . . .” John Wayne, quoted in Zolotow, Shooting Star, p. 303.

  275 “One smart-aleck remark . . .” John Wayne, quoted in Wiley and Bona, Inside Oscar, p. 319.

  278 “The eyes of the world . . .” John Wayne, quoted in Holden, Behind the Oscar, p. 229.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  284 “Hatari! in a way . . .” Howard Hawks, in Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, pp. 122–123.

  285 “ ‘Well,’ Hawks said, ‘you can’t sit in an office . . .’ ” Howard Hawks in Bogdanovich, Who the Devil Made It, p. 364.

  285 “The difference in our ages . . .” John Wayne, quoted in Pilar Wayne, John Wayne, p. 155.

  286 “a deceptively simple Western . . .” Bogdanovich, Who the Devil Made It, p. 10.

  289 “Ford would talk to him . . .” Lee Marvin to John A. Gallagher, “The Directors Series,” New York City, February 10, 1986.

  289 “The relationship between . . .” Howard Hawks, to Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, p. 120.

  289 “had Jimmy Stewart for the shitkicker . . .” John Wayne, as told to Dan Ford, quoted in Roberts and Olson, John Wayne: American, p. 492.

  291 “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is a political Western . . .” Sarris, The John Ford Movie Mystery, pp 175–182.

  291 “A Ford masterpiece . . .” Bogdanovich, “Directed by John Ford—35 Movies and a Lifetime, in One Weekend,” The New York Observer, August 9, 1999.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  296 “‘Look,’ Ford said, ‘don’t you want to spend . . .’” Lee Marvin, “The Directors Series.”

  296 “When I read the script . . .” Maureen O’Hara interviewed about the making of McLintock! For a promotional film that accompanied the DVD.

  298 “I’ve got a little problem . . .” John Wayne, quoted in Pilar Wayne, John Wayne, p. 117.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  304 A virtual zombie . . .” Pilar Wayne, John Wayne, p. 201.

  305 “The Western takes, really, a couple of forms . . .” Howard Hawks, in Schickel, The Men Who Made the Movies, pp. 119, 121–122.

  306 “We chatted for an hour . . .” Peter Bogdanovich, quoted by Sam Delaney, The Guardian, November 19, 2004.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  314 “Also Ray had had his troubles . . .” Major Ron Miller, interview with author, July 2014.

  316 Here is the complete controversial Renata Adler review in full as it appeared in the New York Times:

  June 20, 1968

  ‘Green Berets’ as Viewed by John Wayne

  By RENATA ADLER

  “The Green Berets” is a film so unspeakable, so stupid, so rotten and false in every detail that it passes throug
h being fun, through being funny, through being camp, through everything and becomes an invitation to grieve, not for our soldiers or for Vietnam (the film could not be more false or do a greater disservice to either of them), but for what has happened to the fantasy-making apparatus in this country. Simplicities of the right, simplicities of the left, but this one is beyond the possible. It is vile and insane. On top of that, it is dull.

  The film, directed by John Wayne and nominally based on a novel by Robin Moore, has no hero. It is vaguely about some Green Berets, led by John Wayne, trying to persuade Wayne’s idea of a liberal journalist (David Jansen) that this war is a fine thing for Vietnam and for America. The movie has human props taken from every war film ever made: a parachute jump; an idea of Vietcong soldiers, in luxury, uniform, champagne and caviar, apparently based on the German high command; a little Asian orphan named Hamchunk, pronounced Hamchuck but more like Upchuck than anything; battle scenes somewhere between “The Red Badge of Courage” and “The Dirty Dozen”; a pathetically dying dog.

  There is inadvertent humor: “He’s dying,” a Negro medic says, thoughtfully spooning Jim Beam bourbon down the throat of an elderly Oriental. “Poor old thing can’t even keep his rice down anymore.” What is clearly an Indian extra in a loincloth somehow straggles in among the montagnards. A Vietcong general is dragged from a bed of sin (which, through an indescribable inanity of the plot, the Green Berets have contrived for him) with his trousers on. He is subsequently drugged and yanked off into the sky on a string dangling from a helicopter. A Green Beret points out to the journalist some American-made punji sticks (the movie is obsessed with punji sticks): “Yup,” the Green Beret says, “it’s a little trick we learned from Charlie. But we don’t dip them in the same stuff he does.”

  What the movie is into is another thing entirely. What is sick, what is an outrage and a travesty is that while it is meant to be an argument against war opposition* while it keeps reiterating its own line at every step, much as soap operas keep recapitulating their plots* it seems so totally impervious to any of the questions that it raises. It is so full of its own caricature of patriotism that it cannot even find the right things to falsify. No acting, no direction, no writing, no authenticity, of course, but it is worse. It is completely incommunicado, out of touch. It trips something that would outrage any human sensibility, like mines, at every step and staggers on.