Were is my John Wayne
                              Where is my Prairie Sun
                              Where is my happy ending
                              Where have all the cowboys gone
                                                              Paula Cole


Saturday, May 26th, 2007 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of an American film icon and American treasure: John Wayne.   John Wayne, born Marion Michael Morrison, was born in Winterset, Iowa, but later moved to Glendale, California.  It was here, in California, he got his nickname "Duke".  The story goes the Wayne had an Airedale named Big Duke.  Some of the local Glendale fire fighters began calling John "Little Duke" or just simply "Duke" and the moniker stuck.  Probably a lot better than having to put up with the name Marion.  Wayne went to the University of Southern California on a football scholarship, however, a body surfing accident ended his scholarship and football career.

Out of college and no job, he sought work in the film industry.  In 1930 he starred in THE BIG TRAIL.  It was on this movie that he received the name change that would define him for life.  Film director Raoul Walsh gave him the name "John Wayne" after Revolutionary War hero "Mad Athony" Wayne.  The film was not a box-office success, but John Wayne was.  With one movie and one name change under his belt he was ready for cinematic history. 

John Wayne acknowledged that he knew he wasn't an actor so he set out to be a movie star.  He created the Wayne persona, the walk, the talk and the steely-eyed gaze that made many a bad man wet in his britches.  He created a "larger than life" version of himself both on the screen and off.  Off screen he was a some-time womanizer, an oft-times hard drinker, and a solid outdoorsman.  After World War II was over he purchased a minesweeper from the US Navy and converted it into a yacht where he and his cronies could relax, drink and play cards till all hours of the nite. 

For what ever reasons Wayne did not enlist and serve during WWII.  Unlike today's crop of so-called actors, he felt guilty about never having served.  Guilty enough to star in a string of war movies.  Between 1942 and 1965 he starred in THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA, THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, FIGHTING SEEBEES, THE LONGEST DAY, FLYING LEATHERNECKS , OPERATION PACIFIC and, one of my personal favorites, IN HARM'S WAY.  In starring in these films he came to embody to the American public our fighting men in the Pacific.  The greatest irony of all came in 1975 when Emperor Hirohito of Japan visited the US, he asked to meet Wayne, the symbolic representation of his country's former enemy even though Wayne had never served a day in uniform away from the cameras.

In the movie SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, Wayne tells his officers:"Never apologize, it's a sign of weakness".  He lived that motto.  He was an anti-communist, so much so he starred in BIG JIM McCLAIN in which he portrayed an investigator for the HUAC(House Committee on UnAmerican Activities) going after communists in Hawaii.  His anti communist stand was so strong that it is rumored Joseph Stalin had him targeted for assassination.  Stalin died, however, before he could carry out the order. (The London Telegraph released this information in 2004 under the title of "Why Stalin loved Tarzan and wanted John Wayne shot")  In the sixties and seventies, he remained staunchly pro-American despite the cultural change going on.  In 1968, he directed and starred in THE GREEN BERETS, his answer to the cut-and-run doctrine being espoused by anti-war groups and the liberal media.  The critics tore it apart but audiences loved it.  As for Wayne, he never apologized for it.  He did have one memorable quote about his politics tho:"I HAVE FOUND A CERTAIN TYPE CALLS HIMSELF A LIBERAL...NOW I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS A LIBERAL. I CAME UP TERRIBLY SURPRISED ONE TIME WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT I WAS A RIGHT-WING, CONSERVATIVE EXTREMIST, WHEN I LISTENED TO EVERYBODY'S POINT OF VIEW THAT I EVER MET, AND THEN DECIDED HOW I SHOULD FEEL. BUT THIS SO-CALLED NEW LIBERAL GROUP, JESUS, THEY NEVER LISTEN TO YOUR POINT OF VIEW...".  Such was the Duke!!!

He also showed he had a sense of humor.  In 1969 he was invited by the Hasty Pudding Club of Harvard University to speak.  He knew full well what he was going to be in for. His reply proved that:"SORRY TO NOTE IN YOUR CHALLENGE THAT THERE IS A WEAKNESS IN YOUR BREEDING. BUT THERE IS A RAY OF HOPE IN THE FACT THAT YOU ARE CONSCIOUS OF IT."  So he did what only John Wayne would do.  He showed up in Harvard Square in a military armored personnel carrier instead of a limo than, with a smile on his face, went inside where he traded jibes with the moonbats.  At one point one of the hecklers challenged Wayne on whether or not he wore a toupee.  Wayne said: "No, it's real hair.  I didn't say it was my hair, I just said it was real hair"  

In 1976 he had made his final move THE SHOOTIST in which he starred as an aging gunfighter dying of cancer.  Three years later he died of stomach cancer on June 11, 1979.  It wasn't his first fight with cancer.  In 1964 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and had his left lung removed.  He took it all with the quiet dignity he always had.  He didn't go in front of any Senate committee and demand more research money for his illness.  (Are you listening Michael J. Fox?)  After he recovered he went right back to work.  The only time the country knew what happened was when he made a public service announcement for the American Cancer Society.  He wanted his epitaph to read:"Feo, Fuerte y Formal", Spanish for "Ugly, strong, and dignified".  His grave went unmarked for 20 years do to fears it would be desecrated or vandalized by the moonbats that despised him.  When he finally was allowed to have a grave marker it reads:"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

While those on the left who despised him are mere footnotes in history, John Wayne remains and enduring legend.  He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1979.  On one side is the image on the Duke riding horseback while, on the other side, is a portrait of Wayne with the simple words "John Wayne, American".   A Harris Poll released in 2007 placed Wayne third among America's favorite film stars, the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared on the poll every year.  Perhaps the finest words ever said about him were said by his co-star of many films, Maureen Ohara, in front of the Senate subcommittee in 1979:"...To the people of the world, John Wayne is not just an actor and a very fine actor, John Wayne is the United States of America.  He is what they believe it to be.  He is what they hope it will be.   And he is what they hope it will always be...It is every person's dream that the United States will be like John Wayne and always like him..."
Happy Birthday, John Wayne!!!  You sure are missed!!!