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1928 - Alderson High School - 1968 |
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The Duke |
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The Duke, as John Wayne's friends
called him, rode off into the sunset on June 11, 1979...my 50th birthday.
He was without doubt the greatest western actor of them all. Hollywood
denied him an Oscar until True Grit. This was at least in part payback for
being a leader against the attempted take over of Hollywood by the
Communist Party. Despite the liberals crying "blacklist" and their annual
observance of the alleged discriminatory event, the communist infiltration
of Hollywood was a real occurrence. And talking about blacklisting, actors
who rebelled against doing what they thought to be anti-American scripts
soon found it hard to get work. Robert Taylor blamed his lack of
recognition for the mediocre scripts he had to do. Some actors who stood
solidly against the commie takeover were Olivia de Havilland (not
the wimpy woman she played in "Gone With The Wind.)" John Wayne and later
Ronald Reagan. The Duke was proud of his role in outing Dalton Trumbo,
script writer for the Oscar-winning "High Noon." Wayne detested the movie
for showing members of a western town as a bunch of cowards, who refused
to back their outgoing law officer (played by Gary Cooper). In real
history, of course, no such thing could really happen. The pioneers who
settled western America were a hardy lot who could take care of
themselves. Who stopped and effectively destroyed the James and Younger
Brothers? The citizens of Northfield, Minnesota. Who ended the Dalton
gang? The citizens of Coffeyville, Kansas. Townspeople needed no super
hero. But one lone man pitted against overwhelming odds makes for a good
story. And Hollywood plus TV Land took that ball and ran with it.
Left-wing Hollywood took delight in depicting American businessmen as
grubby profit chasers and ordinary American people as spineless cowards.
No wonder the Duke wouldn't apologize for kicking commie butt. |
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