A Celebration of Western Movies… Pardner!
“The great thing about the movies … is you’re giving people little … tiny pieces of time … that they never forget.”
– James Stewart
So ends my tribute to James Stewart / Western Hero
one of my Top Ten Favorite Western Stars.
I could go on and on about him because …
James made about 18 Westerns.
Several are considered Western Classics.
You decide:
“I’d like people to remember me as someone who was good at his job
and seemed to mean what he said.”
– James Stewart
Done Jimmy.
Movie Posters in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
also seem to be different than what I would have expected.
On every poster James Stewart’s name is Billed above John Wayne’s.
You would at least expect them to be side by side? No?
Even then, Stewart’s name appears first.
And though some might argue that they appear equal in
size, color and text, Stewart’s name is still before Wayne’s.
Again, I wouldn’t expect to see this unless
it was approved by Wayne himself.
It’s possible there’s something going on here
that I don’t know about … ? Contractual agreement?
*shrug?* But there it is.
I wonder though that if The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
came out today the Poster might look like this instead:
But … you know what? Though Jimmy was unquestionably worthy
I wonder if he could have cared at all?
In any case: “This is the West, sir.
When the legend becomes fact print the legend.”
In Movies, Billing is a big deal.
Billing refers to Order, Place, Size, and Color of your name
as it appears on The Marquee, Posters, Advertising, Film Trailer,
and on Screen, etc. – if at all.
In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
I noticed some interesting Billing anomalies.
Between 1949–1957 and 1959–1974
John Wayne
was in the Top Ten Money Making Stars 25 times!!!
That’s a record number.
This includes 1962 when The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was made.
So you’d expect that Wayne would be Top Billed on everything, right?
Wrong.
But for some reason (unknown to me), he wasn’t.
Let’s start with the Official Trailer Preview.
James Stewart is Billed first!?
Wayne is Billed Second!:
Both Bills are the same size and configuration …
BUT Wayne’s Bill is still an obvious Second.
I doubt this could have occurred without Wayne’s approval.
Wayne had great respect and friendship with Stewart.
This was later reflected again when Stewart was handpicked by Wayne
for a nice role in Wayne’s final Film: The Shootist (1976).
And it’s notable that both Stars were Billed
ahead of the actual Movie Title Banner itself:
This reflects Stewart’s and Wayne’s Star Power of course –
They were the Draw.
However …
… on the actual Film Screen … things are different:
Wayne is Billed first – as we would have expected.
Stewart is second …
… and both are still Billed before the Film Banner:
Another interesting Billing oddity of that Lee Marvin isn’t Billed at all !!
in most any of the Movie’s advertising –
even though he plays the Title character, Liberty Valance.
Lee had not yet emerged as a Top Star.
That was soon to change.
Next:
We’re going to check the
Billing on the Movie’s Posters.
Ghost Riders in the Sky / Pat Derry, Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson.
The 3 Mesquiteers made 8 Serial episodes 1940, but this post was a tuff project.
A lot of the 1940 images just weren’t that good – and hard to find.
They also required a lot of editing. They were beaten up pretty badly.
I’ve injected a few other images to make the post worthy.
The original poster was a mess.
A rather odd poster. Boxers?
A lobby card.
That old soft spot.
Works for me.
Colorized by My Favorite Westerns
All for one …
The 3 Mesquiteers had several personnel changes over the years and just kept on riding.
This new edition retained Bob Livingston and brought in Bob Steele and Rufe Davis.
That was a lot of work …
Red River / Main Theme / Dimitri Tiomkin
Tom Dunson’s tragic decision.
“I’ve made up my mind.”
Leaving Fen behind.
Goodbye Tom.
– Colleen Gray
“Why do Indians always want to be burnin’ up good wagons?”
– John Wayne with Walter Brennan.
“Never liked seein’ strangers. This is ’cause no stranger ever good news’d me.”
– Brennan, Mickey Kuhn, and Wayne.
“Get a shovel and a Bible.”
“Give me ten years and I’ll have that brand on the
gates of the greatest ranch in Texas.”
“Nice. Awful nice.”
– John Ireland with Montgomery Clift
“There are only 2 things more beautiful than a good gun.
A Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere.”
“Ever had a Swiss watch?”
“You’re as good as they say you are. Maybe as good as me.”
“I think he’s bluffin.”
– Noah Beery Jr., Brennan, and Clift.
Night watch: Wayne, Clift, Harry Carey Jr.
“You’da shot him right between the eyes.”
“Just a sure as you’re standing there.”
“Go ahead. Say it.”
“You wuz wrong Mr. Dunson.”
“You think I’m to blame for that?”
“Just as sure as you’re sitting there.”
Crossing the ‘Red’.
Calm in the midst of the storm.
“I’m the law.”
“I’m going to kill you Matt.”
Joanne Dru
“Do you remember?”
“I can remember.”
“We’re looking for Abilene.”
– Beery and Clift.
“Welcome to Abilene.”
– Harry Carey Sr., Clift, Ireland, and Beery.
Showdown.
“You know that young man isn’t going to use his gun don’t cha?”
“Yeah. But I haven’t any such notion.”
“Go ahead … Draw!”
“I said Draw!”
“OK I’ll make ya!”
“Go ahead, beat each other crazy …”
“Use this … “
Louse Brooks – Pandora’s Box / Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Overland Stage Raiders is perhaps most famous for being the last film that Louise Brooks appeared in.
Louise Brooks on John Wayne:
“This is no actor but the hero of all mythology miraculously brought to life… John was, in fact,
that which Henry James defined as the greatest of all works of art – a purely beautiful being.”
IMDB Trivia:
“This was the final film of Louise Brooks. NOTE: Contrary to popular belief,
this was not intended to be her “comeback” film;
she made it because she needed the money. She was paid $300 (equal to $5180,
adjusted for inflation in 2017) for the film.
Not long after it was released, she was found working as a salesgirl at Saks Fifth Avenue
at a salary of $40 (equivalent to $690 in ’17) a week.”
Much could (and has) been written about Louise. Let’s say was a beautiful and controversial Star
and still has a large following of admirers.
It puzzles me that Overland Stage Raiders plays so loosely with
Western Movie traditions by using buses and planes, etc.
but then fail to exploit Louise Brooks immense charisma and sex appeal???
But lots of things puzzle me.
“I have been taking stock of my 50 years since I left Wichita. How I have existed fills me with horror for I failed everything. Spelling, arithmetic, writing, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing, singing, acting, wife, mistress, whore, friend, even cooking. And I do not excuse myself with the usual escape of not trying. I tried with all my heart.”
– Louise Brooks
If there’s any one thing you could say about Louise it was that she had an incredible
amount of that mystical substance called Charisma.
Judge for yourself.
I could easily post about 100 pics of Louise.
Her short bobbed hairstyle was her trademark sensation.
Imitated by many – achieved by few
“A well dressed woman, even though her purse is painfully empty, can conquer the world.”
– Louise Brooks
She starred in seventeen silent films and eight sound films.
On February 6, 1932, she filed for bankruptcy and began dancing in nightclubs to earn a living.
By 1946, she had to take a $40-a-week job as a sales girl at Saks Fifth Avenue to make a living.
“Love is a publicity stunt, and making love – after the first curious raptures –
is only another petulant way to pass the time waiting for the studio to call.”
– Louise Brooks
Was close friends with IT Girl Clara Bow.
Many photos of Louise have been colorized,
but I think the monochromes are still the best.
“The great art of films does not consist in descriptive movement of face and body,
but in the movements of thought and soul transmitted in a kind of intense isolation.”
– Louise Brooks
She left her home at age 16 to join a modern dance company.
“I have a gift for enraging people, but if I ever bore you, it’ll be with a knife.”
– Louise Brooks
“In my dreams I am not crippled. In my dreams, I dance,”
– Louise Brooks
Dance she did.
And still does.
Cowboy Rhythm / Patsy Montana / 1938
The Great Depression is ending.
Franklin D. Roosevelt is US President.
Hitler’s Third Reich marches into Austria.
Howard Hughes flys Round the world in 3 days.
Orson Welles’s broadcasts The War of the Worlds.
Seabiscuit beats War Admiral at Pimlico.
A gallon of Gas costs 10 cents.
Douglas Fairbanks dies.
Evel Knievel is born.
Consider this a review. I know these B grade Serial Westerns are often looked back on with fondness by some folks. But not by me. As an 8 year old kid watching Westerns every Saturday morning in 1956, I gotta tell ya, this is the last thing I wanted to see. They seemed to contain everything that I figured shouldn’t be in a Western: Dolled up Cowboys wearing little kerchiefs; often singing with some sappy sidekick; cars! trucks!! buses!!! airplanes???!!!!; and Ventriloquist dummies! MY GOD! What kind of Western is that!! ?? Turned my stomach. I wanted to see Rory Calhoun or Randolph Scott or Audie Murphy. Anybody but this stuff. This definitely wasn’t the Golden Era of Westerns.
Fortunately!!! this would soon be coming to a merciful end 1939 when Director John Ford Directed Stagecoach (Starring John Wayne). Ford saw that Westerns could be legitimate Art. So he did it. And created some Classics: Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, … This changed everything. Oh Yeah things still occasionally fell back in formula pulp, but there was more than enough good stuff on the way.
Pals of the Saddle / by “Just Me and Dad” The Cantrell Family of Springfield MO.
Back about February 6, 2017, I left off my series of posts called
John Wayne Western Filmography.
I had progressively worked through most of John’s early Westerns
and left off after Pals of the Saddle (1938).
Amongst all that I had done posts or Rio Bravo (1959 )and The Shootist (1976)
along with The Merchandising of John Wayne: Booze, Smokes …
don’t think I’ve done John’s Guns yet.
I’ll get to that one day.
Pals of the Saddle / The Overstake Sisters c.1936
At that time I had done profiles on these early John Wayne Westerns:
1930
The Big Trail
1931
The Range Feud
1932
Two-Fisted Law
Texas Cyclone
Ride Him Cowboy
Haunted Gold
The Big Stampede
1933
The Telegraph Trail
Somewhere In Sonora
Sagebrush Trail
Riders of Destiny
The Man From Monterey
1934
West of The Divide
The Trail Beyond
The Star Packer
Randy Rides Alone
The Man From Utah
The Lucky Texan
The Lawless Frontier
Blue Steel
Neath The Arizona Skies
1935
Westward Ho
Texas Terror
Rainbow Valley
Paradise Canyon
The New Frontier
Lawless Range
The Desert Trail
The Dawn Rider
1936
Winds Of The Wasteland
The Lonely Trail
The Lawless Nineties
King of The Pecos
1937
California Straight Ahead
1938
Born to The West
Santa Fe Stampede
Red River Range
Pals of The Saddle
Early Westerns yet to be covered:
Overland Stage Raiders (1938)
1939
Wyoming Outlaw
Three Texas Steers
The Night Riders
New Frontier
Allegheny Uprising
Stagecoach
It’s not likely I’ll stay on track this time either,
but we’ll venture forth anyway.
GIDDYUP!
wayfaring stranger
BEAUTIFUL AS OUR WOODS AND ROLLING HILLS.
STRONG AS THE RUGGED HEARTS THAT LIVE AMONG THEM
John Wayne was 34 in 1941.
Iconic. This is a pretty famous image of John.
Wayne was about as photogenic as you get.
I’m going to say that’s the same kind of rifle John
used in Stagecoach in 1948.
The lever loop is larger … but it’s the same kind of rifle.
Shepherd of the Hills was the first film in which John Wayne worked with director Henry Hathaway. They didn’t work together again for another 19 years and then in the Sixties did four films culminating with Wayne’s Oscar winning performance in True Grit.
The Shepherd of the Hills is is the first John Wayne film in Technicolor. A high budget film, a rarity in the Depression-era.
Henry Hathaway directs this first talkie remake of two prior films versions of The Shepherd of the Hills filmed in 1919 and 1928.
The Hayes Office were shocked and appalled by the scene in which Sammy (Betty Field) removes her shirt and displays her bare back to the camera. Director Henry Hathaway assured the Office that it was actually a man doubling for Betty Field during that particular moment. Field, as well as John Wayne, corroborated this. Years later, Field revealed that it was indeed her own bare back that was shown.
“You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.” – Dean Martin
I should have posted this back in January:
I’ll get back to my John Wayne Filmography shortly.
in-hell-ill-be-in-good-company / the-dead-south
Not much to say … have a boo.
Coming: more Rio Bravo …
border affair / lee clayton
Rio Bravo spawned a lot of posters.
Mainly based around 2 images, most Rio Bravo posters are decent in design and artwork, though image quality from around the Net is often poor. Some images were so bad, I couldn’t use them. I just couldn’t recover the quality/resolution. This puzzles me because many older Westerns have superb images/posters. Fortunately, there is still enough good images to use.
More coming …
dream lover / rick nelson
So WHY do I feel that Alcohol, Cigarettes, and Guns are controversial endorsements for John Wayne?
Because all of them can kill you.
It has to be said however, that in the 40’s and 50’s, all these product(?) were observed very differently than they are today. Smoking and drinking were openly promoted as being not only socially acceptable, but as sophisticated social practices. Although, in Rio Bravo, Dean’s drinking is hardly portrayed as anything cool …
But before I cover John’s Guns, I want to look at Rio Bravo a bit more.
I didn’t used to like Rio Bravo. Now I can’t remember why?
I know it’s not the Best John Wayne Western, but I’d say it’s the Most Popular John Wayne Western. I base this judgement purely upon how often it’s shown on TV – which is Very Often. Almost weekly.
I’ve watched it myself on TV several times. I never plan to, but if it’s on, I often find myself watching it. This would make it somewhat of Classic for me – a movie you can watch over and over.
So what’s the attraction? I’d say it’s the amazing Star Power of John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson – and it’s notable support cast Ward Bond, John Russell, Claude Akins … even Harry Carey Jr. is in there. These folks casually drive this movie in an almost hypnotic and effortless fashion. Good story telling /marvelous Casting.
Howard Hawks of course, knew how to make a Western: Viva Villa (1934), Barbary Coast (1935), The Outlaw (1943), Red River (1948), The Big Sky (1952), Rio Bravo (1959), El Dorado (1967), and Rio Lobo (1970). Some Classics, most are popular and well known. Four feature John Wayne. Hawks knew John’s Star Power would easily carry any movie – even if the movie seemed fairly formula. Guaranteed box office.
More coming …
have u seen the rain / willie and paula nelson
We welcome you to join Team John Wayne as the charity
component of any race you do and participate in honor or
memory of your family, friends and co-workers who have
been affected by cancer. Team John Wayne members
receive a personal fundraising webpage, fundraising tips, fun
incentives, team camaraderie and more!
“I hope my family and my friends will be able to say that I was an honest, kind and fairly decent man.”
– John Wayne
“Spectacular as its barbaric passions and savage conquests!”
So … in 1956 John Wayne and Howard Hughes made The Conqueror.
It quickly became one of the most maligned and ridiculed movies in Hollywood history – though some now enjoy it as an entertainment curiosity
– a model of Hollywood big budget excesses.
John deeply regretting his involvement in the film, and agreed that he had been badly miscast.
I have to wonder however, if a lot of the scorn showered upon the movie wasn’t an indirect attack upon John and Howard Hughes personally.
Both were strongly outspoken and controversial individuals of the day with plenty of opponents
just waiting for a chance to knock them out or the saddle – or the sky.
And they got it.
But The Conqueror wasn’t all bad …
Next:
The Selling of John Wayne … Smoke … Part 5 / John leaves his mark …
the sound of silence / disturbed
“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
– From The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence / 1962
Some urban legends have been around so long that they have eventually become fact. 
In 1954, John Wayne starred in the ill-fated big budget movie The Conqueror, (RKO Pictures, Howard Hughes Productions) filmed in the Utah desert.
Location: about a hundred miles from a former Nevada nuclear test site and where wind blown radioactivity had supposedly infected the whole area. Legend has it that this resulted in a large number of the film crew and Stars of the movie dying from various cancers. Nobody challenged this story for decades. By that time, the Legend had become Fact and is still being propagated today. So much so that there still several sources – particularly on the Internet – still propagating this myth. It’s so ingrained by now that I can’t imagine it will be dispelled any time soon.
But it’s not hard to see why this myth is so powerful and durable: As Urban Legends go The Conqueror Cancer Legend is one of the best of all time. It’s ingredients are purely fantastical:
– The Top movie Star of the day (and possibly all-time) – Mega Star,
John Wayne;
– a bizarre madman genius Movie Mogul Inventor Test Pilot billionaire,
Howard Hughes;
– A beautiful tragic femme fatale Star Actress,
Susan Hayward;
– THE ATOMIC BOMB !!!!!!!!
– a huge, expensive Epic Hollywood production (9 million dollars!!!) that was also a BOMB – about an Historical figure – Mongolian mass murdurer tyrant:
Ghenghis Khan;
– Deaths – seemingly many people dying horribly from cancer …
You can’t make this stuff up.
So there it was – just waiting to be explored; exploited; exploded.
And it lived up to the Billing.
September 14, 2009 / Was The Movie The Conqueror Really Cursed? A Look At Radiation Paranoia By Michael D. Shaw
https://www.gasdetection.com/interscan-in-the-news/magazine-articles/movie-conqueror-really-cursed-look-radiation-paranoia/
Worth a read.
To John Wayne‘s credit, he never bought the bomb theory. He always admitted that his cancers and related illnesses (and eventual death) was directly related to his prolific smoking.
He never copped out.
“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.”
– John Wayne
Next:
The Selling of John Wayne … Smoke … Part 4
Yup, John Wayne was definitely a very heavy smoker and made several (TV) commercials, magazine ads, billboards, etc – promoting cigarettes – as did a great many other Movie Stars and Celebrities of his time. Today of course, smoking and tobacco products have fallen into disfavor and any such advertising is now banned.
Despite this, there is still some subtle forms of smoking advertising and promotions that still have a viable market – and which capitalize on John’s enduring Iconic Star Power. One such product is cigarette lighters. Zippo lighters almost seem to have an small industry using John’s image.
Smoking still obviously has a certain ‘manly’ appeal to some people and many such John Wayne lighters are hot “Collectibles”. Frankly, it’s evident that ANY John Wayne endorsed product/merchandise will eventually – or immediately – achieve Collector and Memorabilia status.
Plenty more lighters than I show here …
And finally … if you really need to cut down
on your smoking …
… the John Wayne knife lighter.
Available on Amazon.
Well … my computer finally blew up.
I rode it as far as I could … poor gal.
But it couldn’t take anymore and it was beyond redemption.
For quite a while I had been resorting to ‘computer gymnastics’ to get anything done.
So … today I went out and bought a new motherboard and graphics card.
$900.
That’s a big chunk for me – a part-time Greeter at Home Depot.
Rose’s son will assemble all this shortly and we’ll drop in Windows 10.
Hopefully I can get something out right away.
In all this time only one person baled on me.
Can’t blame ’em if nothing is happening?
So thanks for sticking around.
Here’s something interesting to read while you’re waiting:
September 14, 2009
https://www.gasdetection.com/interscan-in-the-news/magazine-articles/movie-conqueror-really-cursed-look-radiation-paranoia/
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.
Certainly, all the elements of a good story are there. Several above ground atomic tests were run at Yucca Flats in Nevada from 1951–1953, 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. As luck would have it, Snow Canyon is 137 miles (220 km) downwind of Yucca Flats. To make matters worse, uncredited producer Howard Hughes shipped truckloads of dirt from the site back to the studio for reshoots.
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.
Public interest was piqued by an article 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.”
The 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.
Bruce Church is a health physicist based in southern Utah, who had been involved with the testing program for years, and has done his level best to act as the voice of reason on the issue. Church told me about plaintiff’s attorneys going door to door, trolling for clients in the St. George area in the late 1970s, paving the way for a series of ultimately unsuccessful lawsuits, filed on behalf of the so-called “downwinders.” He likes to remind those interested in these matters that since 1950, Utah has had one of the lowest cancer mortality rates in the country. Moreover, Washington County—supposedly ground zero for the fallout—has one of the lowest cancer mortality rates in the state.
Much was made of an article entitled “Childhood leukemias associated with fallout from nuclear testing,” which appeared in the February 22, 1979 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The study spoke of a 2.44 times increase in mortality between the high-exposure and low-exposure cohorts, within the high fallout counties examined. Again, this sounds impressive as long as you ignore the fact that even with this increase, the mortality rate was just slightly above the rate for the entire United States.
As you might expect, this significant qualification is infamously not cited in the dozens of web-based references to the study. And, given that the research effort set out to examine “high fallout” counties to begin with, it is quite suspicious that this group had to be parsed into low and high cohorts, which would only serve to magnify the effects observed. Further studies would continue to bear out negative or de minimis findings.
However, as regular readers of this column are aware, all the science in the world cannot trump emotionalism and politics. Thus, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA)—passed in 1990—provides for money (typically $50,000) to be paid to victims of certain cancers, who simply have to prove that they lived in a list of counties during a particular time period.
RECA has paid out over $1 billion so far, and has produced bountiful results for many Utah-based politicians. Following the old adage that a cynic is someone who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing, this bounty paid on cancer has simply reinvigorated all the mythology: If victims are being compensated, the story must be true!
Yet, science has garnered some victories. Bruce Church was one of the prime movers in setting up the Community Environmental Monitoring Program (CEMP) started in 1981, and now boasting 29 stations that ring the test site area. Data is made available to any interested party, and the monitoring stations are often managed by local high school science teachers.
One such station manager, Jack Heppler, was successful in convincing at least two movie production companies that there was no danger whatever in filming in the St. George area. Heppler also worked his magic on calming the locals as well as easing the minds of families interested in moving to the region.
Church recommends the Smithsonian affiliated Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, as well as the online Atomic Archive as excellent resources. I would add Church’s site to this list.
As to The Conquerer, the only real curse was its script and the miscasting of John Wayne in the lead.
Is there anything that Howard Hughes touched that didn’t achieve extraordinary dimensions???
Either great or bad?
Moving ahead …
sunday morning coming down / kristofferson
“Where’s there’s smoke, there’s fire”, the old saying goes.
And sometimes death.
Smoking is a lot like Russian Rollette.
You know there’s a bullet in there.
But you’re gambling that it doesn’t have your name on it.
It’s a hell of a gamble.
A gamble that John Wayne lost.
John Wayne’s smoking exploits are as Legendary as he is. I’ve seen several different claims as to how much he smoked: 4, 5, 6 and 7 pack of cigarettes a day! Most claim 6 packs a day. I refuse to believe 7 because 7 packs of cigarettes a day is 7 x 20 cigarettes = 140 cigarettes in a 16 hour day (8 hours for sleep) – or 8.75 cigarettes an hour – which would be smoking
1 cigarette about every 7 minutes. That seems impossible.
Even for John Wayne.
I was a heavy smoker myself for quite a while – 2 packs of Canadian cigarettes a day – 25 cigs per pack. So I have some experience with this thing. When I finally quit, I coughed up tar for 6 months. Smoking is an extremely insidious addiction. Before I started smoking I very rarely caught flu or even a cold. After I started, I caught everything. Smoking seriously damages and devitalizes your whole immune system.
Don’t do it.
So lets’ see …
John smoked 6 packs a day x 20 cigarettes per pack = 120 cigarettes a day.
Could you smoke this many cigarettes a day?
Assuming John Wayne couldn’t smoke while he was asleep (?) and assuming he slept about 8 hours a day, that’s 120 cigarettes divided by 16 hours = he smoked about 7.5 cigs an hour. That’s a lot. But possible.
These are all Guesstimates, of course, but you get the picture:
John was an outright addict.
And even though John grew up in an era where smoking was portrayed as being debonair, sophisticated, suave and ‘cool’, it must have been very difficult to be around him due to this excessive smoking
– even if you were a smoker yourself.
And I’d guess it would pretty well be impossible for a non-smoker.
Strangely however, in most of his Westerns, John seems to smoke very little. ? Guns and Booze are plainly evident. But not cigs. ??? Though it surely wasn’t hard to catch him smoking ‘off camera’, he rarely brought it to film. And even then, it didn’t seem overdone.
In advertising, John, of course, wasn’t the only celebrity who endorsed smoking. Dozens of Actors, Actresses – and even Athletes and Doctors endorsed smoking in that era. Magazine ads, TV commercials, radio ads, billboards … you name it.
There’s controversy over how John ultimately came down with Cancer –
due to an urban legend about a film that had been shot
near an Atomic Bomb testing site.
John wasn’t falling for that and openly confessed his cancer
was the product of his excessive smoking habit.
But John wasn’t the only celebrity that was taken down by smoking.
Click on the link below and you’ll see:
It’s a very long list:
Smoking and the Screen Celebrities
by Surinder K. Jindal
“Hollywood actors and actresses Lucille Ball, Arnoz Desi, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Boone, Yul Brynner, Rose Cipollone, Gary Cooper, and many others had succumbed to lung or throat cancer, mostly in their 5th to 7th decades of life. Walt Disney … “
