John Wayne: AmericanBased on over five years of interview and archival research, John Wayne: American explains the appeal of Wayne's abiding Americanness. Indeed, we cannot understand America itself without understanding John Wayne. Born in a dyed-in-the-wool Republican town in Iowa, a football star and student leader, and a scholarship boy at USC, Wayne went to Hollywood because it was the truest meritocracy in America, the one place where his lack of wealth and connections could not hurt him. After spending the first decade of his career on Poverty Row, he emerged as a star in Stagecoach. But it was during World War II that Wayne - and America - emerged as superpowers. Wayne came to politics reluctantly, joining the mainstream of America in its confrontation with communism - and maintaining his opposition ever since. At heart, however, Wayne was a nonideological conservative. He loved his freedom, his friends, his women, and his booze. He believed in simple justice, and common decency, and he will always be beloved as a result. |
Contents
God Lincoln and the Golden Gate | 7 |
Hes Just Been Playing Himself All These Years | 33 |
Scholarship Boy | 51 |
Driven by a Ford | 69 |
Poverty Row | 97 |
Suppose You Could Tell Her You Like Her Biscuits? | 115 |
Stagecoach | 145 |
Foreign Affairs | 169 |
Secondguessing | 429 |
The Countrys Going Soft | 453 |
In Harms Way | 481 |
Ive Just Got My Second Wind | 513 |
WorkingClass Hero | 535 |
Crown Prince of the Silent Majority | 561 |
Only a Fool Would Think That Anything Is Forever | 583 |
You Just Cant Give In To It | 613 |
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