Generally
I won’t read the NYT on a bet. My dear old friend and confidant Mlle Jenny links me to these two pieces, though, that brought the water involuntarily to my eyes
They constitute a two-part article written by Dick Cavett about his meeting with John Wayne.
The duke was… well, he was the duke. What else can you say? And while I always felt as if his private persona was as Cavett describes, the proof, so to speak, is in the pudding.
Who, today, can be John Wayne? Who is that big, onscreen and off? Look at the picture- Cavett looks like the Duke’s teenage son.
I’ll never meet the Duke this side of the soil. Maybe not on the other side, if Mark Twain is anything like correct. But Cavett did, and he has the chops to tell the story- clear and clean, without overt embellishment, in that self deprecating style of his, holding himself up as a scale to the Duke, and certainly not lacking in the grace department himself.
Thanks, Dick. Thanks, Jenny, for pointing this out.
“We should have started sooner.â€
Indeed.
Good story. The Duke was quite a man, by any measure.
Would that we could find another.
I’m reminded of my a story told about John Wayne by David Coverdale. It happens that sometime during the Vietnam war, John Wayne was sitting in a cafe in Paris and David Coverdale saw him and thought his mother would like to have John Wayne’s autograph. So he walked over to John Wayne and asked and got the autograph. John Wayne struck up a conversation with him which surprised Coverdale, because this was in the middle of the Vietnam war, and he had very long hair which people of John Wayne’s generation didn’t like. So Coverdale mentions that he’s in a band called Deep Purple. John Wayne lets out a laugh, because his daughter had been pestering him to get him Deep Purple tickets. Evidently Coverdale gave him a couple of tickets.
I’ve always liked Cavett. What a great couple of articles. Definitely worth the read.
Not sure if we need a “Second” John Wayne. Kinda like having a “Second” George Washington or Abe Lincoln or Bob Heinlein. What we need is more Americans following their examples and Living a Life-style that would make them Proud, all the while knowing they can never be a copy, but trying their Best everyday. Kinda like WWJD.
Perhaps not another “John Wayne”, or any of the other example given above, but there has never been a better time for some legitimate “larger then life” leaders (and the associated leadership) to emerge from the shadows, and take center stage.
Washington, Lincoln, Wayne, Heinlein, all those who we consider to be heroes, icons, or others of like stature, had much in their lives which warrented their status. It should also be remembered that all had their failings as well. And that is my point.
Each one of us may have occasion to rise up to the same level as those whom we hold in high esteem. It may be for just a short time, for one event or action, or it may be for a considerably greater length of time.
Don’t sell yourselves short. We may not ever “be” John Wayne, but your own positive traits, actions, and deeds, may make you his equal.
Thanks for sharing the link to the Cavit interview Og. For what it’s worth he was an ardent fan of Groucho Marx as well. And there are some interesting interviews and such out on that as well.