There are a plethora of stories and articles floating around
today (and have been for decades) that John Wayne was a phony. That he was
rabidly anti-communist, notoriously racist, a draft dodger, homophobic and hated
horses. Quite frankly, I’m tired of it. Yes, I am a huge fan of John Wayne, and
admittedly biased about him in some respects. But unlike his detractors, I am
not so biased as to overlook reality. Was he perfect? No, but who is? And, the
claims so often spewed forth by his detractors (such as those mentioned above)
are about as untrue as they can be. Now, let’s take a look at the facts.
John Wayne was
rabidly anti-communist. The fact is, he wasn’t. He was anti-communism, but
that is a far cry from being anti-communist. In other words, he didn’t like the
communist ideology, but he didn’t automatically dislike someone simply because they
were a communist. Back in the 1950’s, during what has since become known as the
“McCarthy era” witch hunts, a promising young actor by the name of Larry Parks
admitted under oath that he had been a member of the communist party. Parks
also stated that he had renounced the communist party, but would not provide
names of anyone he knew that were still members. In spite of his renouncement,
calls to blacklist him rang forth throughout the conservative members of the
Screen Actors Guild. Wayne, who at the time president of the Motion Picture Alliance
for the Preservation of American Ideals, refused to join in. He took the stance
that Larry Parks had renounced the communist party, and showed great courage in
doing so. Wayne said that Parks’ refusal to name names took great courage, and
he refused to call for Parks’ blacklisting. Wayne took a lot of flack for that,
but he never backed down from his stand.
Marguerite Roberts who wrote the screenplay for True Grit
was a blacklisted writer and a communist. When this was revealed to Wayne,
there were fears that he would want her removed from the project. Those fears
proved to be ungrounded. Wayne said she did a fine job, and he supported her
work on True Grit. No, John Wayne was not a rabid anti-communist.
John Wayne was
racist. This belief comes primarily from a statement he made during a 1971
interview with Playboy magazine when he said, “I believe in white supremacy
until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in
giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible
people.” But people tend to take this statement out of context, as he also
said, “we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over
to the leadership of blacks.” Which is true, and it is not a racist statement.
He believed in gradual integration, and I think an honest look at just about
any black ghetto will support that view. He believed that blacks had an honest
right to feel resentment toward and to dissent regarding their treatment.
Hardly the view of a racist. He worked with many blacks, including Scatman
Crothers and Roscoe Lee Brown, and got along quite well with them. One should also
take into account that not only did he have black friends (like Sammy Davis
Jr.), but he had no problem in casting blacks in his films (such as James
Watkins, who played J.C. in the film McQ, and Sidney Poitier in one of his
first films and cast by Wayne in a lead role), and was married to three Latin
American women during his life. He did not dislike blacks for the sake of being
black, and he tended to accept people based on their character rather than the
color of their skin. So no, he wasn’t racist. He may have been racially
insensitive from a politically correct standpoint, but he was far from racist.
It has also been surmised that John Wayne hated Native
Americans. This misconception is generally based on a statement that he made
during the same 1971 Playboy interview mentioned above. In that interview,
Wayne said, “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from
them. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of
survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the
Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.” A simple look at
history will show that this very same sentiment was acted out by Native
Americans themselves. Native American Indian tribes were fighting with one
another long before the “white man” showed up, and it was not all that uncommon
for one tribe to completely uproot another tribe. Take the Dakota Sioux, for
instance. They were not always in South Dakota. Originally they came from North
Central Minnesota. And what happened to the tribes they encountered in the path
of their migration south? Well, they didn’t just pack up and move away, at
least not completely. Many of them were slaughtered by the Sioux, and in some
cases entire villages were wiped out. In other words, John Wayne was absolutely
right in what he said. It was a matter of survival, just as it was practiced by
North American Indian tribes for generations before “the White Man” began
settling America. If he said anything wrong in that statement, it was that “the
Indians were selfishly trying to keep [the land] for themselves,” because North
American Indians had no concept of land ownership, and therefore really had no
land to steal.
John Wayne was
homophobic. This one actually surprises me a bit, as there are no quotes
from either John Wayne or anyone else that support this. In fact, Rock Hudson,
a known homosexual, co-starred with John Wayne in the film, The Undefeated.
During the filming, Wayne knew of Hudson’s homosexuality, and not only did he
still make the film, but he was friends with Hudson and did not feel that he
should be ostracized for his homosexuality.
John Wayne was a
draft dodger. To set the record straight, John Wayne did not “dodge the
draft.” In fact, he was classified as “3-A” and he received a deferment due to
his age and his dependents. Granted, he could have appealed the deferment, but
he did not. And it is also important to note that he did not file for a
deferment. It was Herbert Yates, the president of Republic Studios who filed
(repeatedly) for a deferment, and he did not do so on behalf of Wayne. He did
so in order to keep Wayne making pictures at Republic. I would also like to
point out that it is incorrect to say, as some do, that Wayne “stayed behind
and didn’t do his part.” The fact is, that Wayne received orders from the War
Department to provide intelligence reports during his USO tours and visits to
the troops near the front lines in the South Pacific, and he received two
citations for his work during World War Two, one from the “War Agencies of the
Government of the United States” for “Outstanding Service in World War II”; and
the other from Major General William “Wild Bill” Donovan for “Honorably Serving
the United States of America as a Member of The Office of Strategic Services”
in 1945 (The Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, was the forerunner of the
CIA). So, no, John Wayne was not a “draft dodger,” and yes, he did serve his
country during World War Two.
John Wayne hated
horses. After starring in more than 80 westerns, and owning a ranch, and
riding a horse to school as a child, this is another hard to believe myth, and
yet there are those who readily believe it. In fact, it has actually made it
into print, albeit into a rather biased book titled “John Wayne’s America, the
Politics of Celebrity” by Garry Wills, and reiterated by Wills during a PBS
Newshour interview with him by David Gergen. Here’s a snippet:
DAVID GERGEN: And yet in the end the idea of John Wayne was really a myth.
You say that he hated horses, a man--
GARRY WILLS: Hated horses. Never rode except on the set, and never rode when
he didn’t have to.
Now, while it is true that Wayne once told an interviewer
that he did not especially enjoy riding horses, and generally didn’t unless it
was necessary, this does not mean he hated horses. Nor did it mean that he was a
poor horseman as some have suggested. In fact, the reverse is true and there is
ample evidence to support this. Not only can John Wayne be seen riding horses
in his 80+ western films, but he can also be seen riding horses in home movies
taken at his Arizona ranch. John Wayne’s son Patrick once said, ““He was a
terrific horseman. In Big Jake (1971) there is a scene at the beginning when
the characters are introduced. Chris Mitchum rides a motorcycle into the scene
and Dad is on a horse and it rears up and throws him. Later in film there is a
chase and as they are passing by a bar a guy gets thrown out into street. Dad
is riding a horse and the horse gets spooked and goes sideways. Dad stayed with
it and stayed in the saddle, even though it was going sideways for ten feet,
just an amazing display of horsemanship. It was all caught on film, but it had
to be cut because it was inconsistent with the opening scene. A guy who could
ride like that could never be thrown like he was thrown in the opening scene.”
In addition, although John Wayne was not a “real” cowboy (as
has been pointed out by many), he was not a complete novice when it came to
cowboy work. In an interview with Wayne, he once related, “I was hired on as an
assistant for a George O’Brien western (I was actually hired as an actor but it
was understood I would act as an Assistant – a scrounger, today they would call
them a location manager). One of my jobs was to get 400 head of cattle into Blue Canyon
which was 150 miles from any paved road. A preacher who had a little church on
the Hopi reservation agreed to help me gather them. In gathering those cattle,
we horsebacked into Monument
Valley. … It was during
the making of this picture, in which I was assistant as well as riding in the
posse, that I personally rode through Monument Valley.” The film was 1930’s Lone Star Ranger. [Tim Lilley, The Big
Trail, Vol VI, No 1, June 1989]
What this proves is, that not only did John
Wayne visit Monument Valley long before John Ford had (thus debunking the myths
that Harry Goulding told Ford about the valley, or that Ford had “discovered”
it), but that he was herding cattle by horseback, and if that isn’t cowboyin’
then I don’t know what is.
So he may not have been a “real” cowboy as far as his chosen
career path, but he was a real cowboy in every sense of the word.
So where do these myths about John Wayne come from? Well,
primarily from two different sources. The first is that they are perpetuated by
ignorant people who have never let the truth of any matter come in the way of perpetuating
a damaging hateful lie.
