John Wayne Or Should We Say The Duke
By Tom Strayhorn, Sat Dec 10th

You remember John Wayne right? It’s okay we won’t tell anyoneyou’re old enough to remember. John Wayne is fondly rememberedfor his terrific cowboy pictures and his many wild west movies.

Did you know that some of his were based on fact?Although most of his were fiction there were some thatwere not. John Wayne’s role as an actor has been wide andvaried. He has played a wide scope of characters ranging fromcowboys to solders.

John Wayne was born on May 26 1907 in Winterset Iowa as MarionRobert Morrison. Did you know his nickname was Duke? In factJohn Wayne actually produced some under his nickname.

Duke was a handsome feller, with his six feet four inches tallframe, brown hair and blue eyes. Many a gal couldn’t resist!Duke played football at University of Southern California andeventually he joined the Sigma Chi fraternity.

There is much discussion between movie buffs about which movieshould be credited as John Wayne’s first. At the end of the day,most agree Words and Music shot in 1929 should be classified ashis first movie, even though he acted under the name DukeMorrison.

John Wayne or Duke stored in many wild west cowboy movies. Hisscreen career was longer than most, and even today his moviesare still very popular.

Some of his classic cowboy were Lawless Range where heaids settlers who are harassed by desperadoes. Wayne is capturedand must plan his escape before it is too late. This great oldybut goldy was directed by Robert Bradbury in 1935 and was shownin black and white.

Another of John Wayne’s classics was The Range Feud directed byRoss Lederman and produced in 1931. This is a westernized RomeoAnd Juliet gem. Two Arizona families feud over land while JohnWayne threaten to distinguish the flame between himself andco-actress Susan Fleming

The Lucky Texan starring John Wayne with George Gabby Hayes wasproduced in 1934 and directed by Robert Bradbury. This unlikelypairing of Wayne and Gabby produced a miner hard luck story. Thepair strikes gold in their mine, but their luck turns for theworst when some low down claim jumpers frame Gabby for murder inorder to get the claim

In Two Fisted Law, he stars as a rancher on the brink of losinghis ranch. To make matters worse he is on the brink of alsolosing his girlfriend and his freedom when he becomes the primesuspect of the Wells

Fargo Express Office robbery.

His role as Ringo Kid in the 1939 movie Stagecoach directed byJohn Ford, was the movie that made him a star. This was Duke’sticket to stardom. The 1976 movie Shootest was the last movieDuke made.

Whether cowboy or movie buff, anyone who has watched John Wayne,also called the Duke, you have to admit that John Wayne in hiswild west cowboy is one of the greatest cowboys ever tohit the screen! starred

About the author:Tom Strayhorn is one of the few real cowboys left so why notsaddle up and come visit him at Cowboys-n-Campfires