History Lesson

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So you remember last week when some of the kiddos in my life were discussing John Frank, aka John Wayne?  Well, I just so happened to pull one of my jump drives out of my purse Friday night looking for something on it when I stumbled across a paper I wrote for my first College English class I took and it just so happened to be about John Wayne.  I have to admit, I thought timing on that was ironic!  So I thought I would enlighten y’all because truthfully I kind of found it fascinating to reread and I’m the one who wrote it, so here’s all about John Wayne via Nicole circa 2002.

(p.s. don’t make to much fun of my writing please!  Fun thing about that English class, there were probably 25-35 of us in the class.  The professor told us on the first day of class that at some point throughout the semester we’d all have to write at least one sentence on the board.  Not b/c it was poorly written, but b/c he thought it could possibly be written differently.  Yeah, not to brag or anything, but I was one of the only people in class NOT to have to write a sentence on the board.  Hey I was shy, so I did my darndest not to!)

Nicole J
Dr. Jones
English 110
May 16, 2002

Better Known as “The Duke”

            Imagine growing up in a rural area known as Winterset, Iowa.  Nothing to special about the area except for the local farming, but by the time you pass on, you are known as a legend.  Does this sound too good to be real?  Well not if you are the “Duke.”  The Duke?  Who is this?  Well the Duke is known to many people around the country as one of America’s greatest Cowboys.  The Duke, also known as John Wayne, is a famous actor who made his name known to the film industry.
            The Duke was born on May 26, 1907, to Clyde “Doc” Morrison and Mary “Molly” Brown.  At birth his name was Marion Robert Morrison but after the birth of his brother Robert Emmet, his middle name changed to Michael.  Around the age of 5 Duke’s father was diagnosed with Tuberculosis.  Soon after the diagnoses of this disease, Doc decided to move to Palmdale, California in 1912, where the whole family soon followed in 1914.  While in Palmdale, Doc bought an 80-acre farm.  Following the arrival of the family, the farm failed and in 1916 Doc moved the family to Glendale, California.
            Glendale was about 10 minutes from downtown Los Angeles where Doc got a job working in a pharmacy.  At the young age of 11 Duke was a very hard worker.  Along with being a full time student, he delivered the Los Angeles Examiner in the mornings followed delivering prescriptions for the pharmacy in the afternoon.  On the weekends he spent his time working at the local picture theater. 
            “There’ve been a lot of stories about how I got to be called Duke. One was that I played the part of a duke in a school play, which I never did. Sometimes, they even said I was descended from royalty! It was all a lot of rubbish. Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog!” (Ugly, Strong, and With Dignity.)  Duke had an Airedale dog.  He and his dog were inseparable.  The dog helped with the routes that Duke ran with the papers and with the prescriptions.  The local fire department was amused by this determined little boy and his dog so they started referring to them as, “Big Duke” and “Little Duke.” 
            After Duke had graduated from high school he received a scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California.  Being a 6’4” tall football player, he found himself a job working for Fox lot moving set props while he attended college.  While working at Fox lot, he met a director named John Ford who was to have one of the strongest influences in his life.  Ford taunted Duke one day, while on the set, about his football playing skills and gave Duke an open shot to tackle him.  When Duke declined the offer, Ford abruptly sent him to the ground.  Infuriated, Duke was given a second change to tackle Ford and he did just that.  The next thing Ford knew, he was sitting on the ground, dazed and winded.  The tackle that Duke had used, if used on the football field would have been illegal giving the other team a fifteen-yard penalty.  With Duke’s job in jeopardy, everyone watched as Ford rose to his feet, waiting for him to blow up at Duke.  To everyone’s amazement, Ford had a huge grin; Duke and Ford remained friends until the death of Ford on August 31, 1973.  Through the next few years, Duke remained on the set moving props, being in big crowd scenes, and even appearing in Hangmans House, appearing as a silhouette. 
            Duke finally made his appearance in the movies in 1930 when director Raoul Walsh was contracted to Fox Studios.  Walsh was the first director to make outdoor westerns such as, In Old Arizona.  His next big project was another western called The Big Trail.  The movie called for a role of a young trail scout and no one could be found for the part.  Walsh was discussing his dilemma with Ford when Ford recommended Marion Morrison for the part.  The next measures taken were to arrange for a screen testing where Walsh liked what he saw.  The only thing that was keeping Walsh from giving Duke the part was the name, Marion Morrison.  This name would be difficult to pass off as a tough trail scout leader.  The directors played with his name and considered calling him Duke Morrison but that was soon changed to a name of a General in the American War of Independence, “Mad” Anthony Wayne (Ugly, Strong, and With Dignity).  Soon after, Anthony was replaced with John, and this is how Duke became John Wayne.
            Soon after Duke was hired for the part, the movie The Big Trail, starring Marguerite Churchill, Tyron Power Senior, and John Wayne, was released.  This film was soon to be a failure because of the depression.  Although this film didn’t make it, Duke was lucky enough to work through the depression.  From the years 1930 to 1938, Duke made around 56 movies, that were mainly “B” grade westerns.  Through this time, he waited patiently for stardom.  Ford approached Duke in the spring of 1938 with a short story written by Ernest Haycox and published in Colliers magazine.  The story was called “Stage to Lordsburg.”  The story focused around the characters of a gambler, a drunken doctor, a saloon girl, a lady, a whiskey drummer, a crooked bank owner, and a gunfighter who was known as “Malpais Bill.”  Later this name was changed for a stronger appealing one such as “Ringo Kid.”
After Duke had read the story, Ford approached him to see whom he thought should play Ringo Kid.  Duke threw out some suggestions for the part, but none of them were to the liking of Ford.  Ford erupted, “Why, you stupid son of a bitch, I want you to play it!” (Ugly, Strong, and With Dignity.)  In 1939, Stagecoach staring John Wayne as “Ringo Kid,” made its début.  This was a hit movie that gave Duke the stardom that he wanted and made John Wayne a common household name.  Duke has also been in a number of other movies.
Just imagine, going from a very small community in the heartland of the United States and soon becoming a legend.  All things are possible when you are willing to do the work for them.  Marion Morrison soon became known as John Wayne or “Duke” just by being in the right place at the right time.  He was willing to do the dirty work, which soon paid off.  When you think things are impossible, all you have to do is strive for your best and everything works out.  The Duke truly shows that if you are willing to work for what you want, the best is yet to come.
References:
Ask Yahoo.  2001.  11 May 2002.  http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010529.html
Ugly, Strong, and With Dignity.  n.date.  11 May 2002.  http://users.orac.net.au/~mhumphry/wayne.html
Wood, Leroy.  The Movies of John Wayne.  n.date.  11 May 2002.  http://users.orac.net.au/~mhumphry/jwfilms.html

0 thoughts on “History Lesson

  1. I sucked at history and I still do. If you would have asked me who “The Duke” was, I wouldn't have been able to answer you. I'm NOT lying. Bad huh?

    I'm with Lynne….how did you do? I mean, do you REMEMBER that far back? HA!

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