John Wayne: The Life and Legend (114 page)

An extended Wayne family gathering, January 1966.

With Robert Mitchum in Howard Hawks’s
El Dorado
(1967).

Directing
The Green Berets
(1968).

“Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!” As Rooster Cogburn in
True Grit
(1969).

Accepting his Best Actor Oscar for
True Grit
from Barbra Streisand.

John Ford visiting Wayne and director Mark Rydell on location in New Mexico for
The Cowboys
(1972).

In his dressing room at CBS, August 1972, photo by the author.

In
McQ
(1974), an indifferent stab at the then-popular rogue cop genre.

With James Stewart in
The Shootist
(1976).

Appearing in a Barbara Walters special in March 1979.

The last public appearance, at the 1979 Oscars, a few months before his death.

The other shoe finally dropped.

After I published
Print the Legend
in 1999, I was assailed by people who thought John Ford was all well and good, but what was really needed was a biography of John Wayne. After spending six years on Ford, the last thing I wanted to do was saddle up and head back to Monument Valley, either metaphorically or geographically. Ten years and two books later, it seemed like a much better idea.

Gretchen Wayne agreed with me that it was time for a comprehensive biography of the man she called Grandaddy. She put both her own memories and the archives of the Batjac company at my disposal, including a series of oral histories that her late husband, Michael, commissioned shortly after his father died. Gretchen never asked for approvals of any kind. I hope the result is worthy of her trust.

Dan Ford gave me the oral history he did with Tom Kane, the story editor at Batjac for thirty years. Dan was also there whenever I needed to clear up an abstruse point about his grandfather and John Wayne.

Brian Downes, director of the John Wayne Birthplace in Winterset, Iowa, funneled information about Winterset to me and was a never-ending source of encouragement. Tim Lilley published
The Big Trail
, a newsletter about John Wayne filled with interviews with dozens of people that have since gone ahead. He was happy to open his archives to me.

I owe a special debt to John Sacret Young for sharing the notes of his encounters with John Ford. Animation historian Mike Barrier helped fill in the historical record regarding the Wayne westerns produced by Leon Schlesinger, as did Jerry Beck. Frank Thompson has written extensively about
The Alamo
, and gave me his interviews with Al Ybarra and Happy Shahan.

Joe Musso shared his collection of Wayne memorabilia, undoubtedly the finest outside the Wayne family. Jeff Morey helped with matters relating to firearms and Wyatt Earp, his two great specialties.

Robert Osborne is well loved both for his duties as host on Turner Classic Movies and as a valued friend of the Eyman family. Bob used his influence to get me to people who have never spoken about Wayne for the record. Looking forward to our next dinner, pal. The same can be said for Leonard Maltin, a friend for more than forty years and counting, who gave me the benefit of his interview transcripts and good advice.

I haven’t known James Curtis for quite that long, but sometimes it seems like it. Jim keeps me sane, keeps me laughing, and his own books give me something to aim for. He’s always happy to point out the many ways in which I come up short. Kevin Brownlow, the doyen of all film historians, remembered his own meeting with John Wayne with total specificity and then supplied the transcript of the interview!