I’m glad to see that Cecil published the truth about John Wayne’s draft status. For decades it was stated that John Wayne didn’t serve in the military because he 1) was 4-F due to a football injury 2) had an ear infection due to filming “Reap the Wild Wind” or 3) He was too old for the military during World War II. It is good to hear the REAL reasons why he did not go.
As Cecil stated, given the choices that John Wayne had, a lot of us would have “wimped out” to pursue a movie career. Yes, it seems John Wayne put patriotism on the back burner when he saw that the movies offered better pay, incredible fame, no slogging through the mud, opportunities to date beautiful women, etc. Despite all that he still insisted he was ‘gonna’ join, but as Cecil pointed out he never did.
Okay, let’s give the Duke a pass on ALL of that. However, he then had the nerve to become a 150% America-Right-Or-Wrong super-patriot. John Wayne was trying to have his cake and eat it too and then ask for more !!! It is amazing that John Wayne got away with his phony super-patriot “I didn’t serve but I want YOU to go to Vietnam and get your head blown off” persona. More amazing still is that it took many YEARS after his death for the REAL truth about his deferment to surface. That is disgusting. He didn’t go in the military, but played “soldier” so much that most folks believed he REALLY served.
However, everything is perception isn’t it? John Wayne, a strapping 6 foot 4 inch tough talking gorilla sure looked the part and he was able to parlay that image into becoming a VERY outspoken and VERY influential spokesman for the right-wing lobby. Truth be told, America’s most decorated World War 2 soldier (I’m talking about REAL wars here - not movies) was Audie Murphy. A soft-spoken 5’ 7" boyish-faced soldier who was nothing like John Wayne. - And GOOD for him !! Since he served in a real war he unfortunately suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. It is sad that this GENUINE hero never received the fame or the glory or the easier life that John Wayne enjoyed.
Wolf_Meister,
I can appreciate your sentiments, but it’s not the entire story. My Dad served, both WWII and Korea. My brother served, Vietnam, and I served, peacetime. Does that make me less a patriot? Well, no…it was just providence and/or timing.
Hundreds of thousands of “Rosy the Riveters” served, though it was out of uniform, and when the boys came back from Europe and the Pacific, they humbly went back to their homes and high-heels. I suspect we might be speaking German or Japanese had it not been for all those women.
Where’s that put Wayne? Doing his part, though perhaps not in the way some would have liked. Please, don’t doubt for a second that his part in keeping the morale of the troops and citizens up was anything trivial. No, he wasn’t shot up like the GREAT Audie Murphy and Murphy surely never made nearly as much money as Wayne did, but both did their part. -Rod-
Hi Rod, I appreciate your courteous reply considering my posting about John Wayne was highly uncomplimentary. It doesn’t so much bother me that he didn’t serve - it was more his highly vocal pro-war stance and the fact that the real reasons for his deferent surfaced twelve years after his death. Bob Hope sure did his part and for a great many wars too. I once saw him interviewed (and I think he was sincere about this) that he really wanted to do serious military duty but was told just to keep on doing what he did best-entertaining the troops. That does make sense. J Robert Oppenheimer was much more useful directing the Manhattan Project as opposed to his lobbing grenades at machine gun nests. John Wayne did what he did best during WW2 which is okay with me. His taking on that combat war hero image after World War 2 and right up until his death just seemed a bit hypocritical to me. A great many Hollywood stars were World War 2 heroes - Audie Murphy, Neville Brand (4th most decoracted serviceman), Jack Palance (an air “ace”), Lee Marvin and the list goes on. The funny thing is that these people (as is true of most war heroes) rarely talked about their exploits. Going off-topic a bit here, but another forgotten WW2 hero is Richard Bong - America’s greatest air ace and a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Unfortuantely, when you say Bong in today’s world, most people do not think of the pilot. Sadly, he died in a plane crash August 6, 1945 the same day we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. He is rarely mentioned nowadays.
Howdy Wolf,
“Courteous” isn’t necessarily one of my normal attributes, most especially after having been at alneda.com for a year, but this place is a little more reserved, if ya know what I mean 
Lee Marvin? Really? I’ll have to give that some attention. I always liked the guy, but never knew.
I hear you about Wayne, but still can’t go along with it all the way. He was type-cast, in the most fortunate way for him. A tough guy in virtually every movie he made. The only exception I can think of offhand was “The Quiet Man” (?). I tried to watch it once. It put me to sleep. I’d guess that he made more westerns than war movies, but was never a six-gun totin’ Marshal either 
I’ll bet McCarthy loved the guy! -Rod-
Here’s part of Lee Marvin’s biography from www.imdb.com :
He enlisted in the U.S. Marines at the beginning of World War II. In the battle of Saipan in June 1944, he was wounded in the buttocks by Japanese fire which severed his sciatic nerve. He was invalided home.
He dismissed this as saying he “got shot in the ass” but I beleive he was laid up for almost a year. There is an Urban Legend that Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) met Lee Marvin on Iwo Jima. Interesting story but FALSE. Lee Marvin was injured before Iwo Jima and Bob Keeshan enlisted after the battle, having just turned 18. Yes, Bob Keeshan WAS a marine !! Another surprise was that the comedian Pat Paulsen was a jarhead too !!
Didn’t mean to revive a 2-month old thread but another thing has been bothering me. Since John Wayne loved America so much, why didn’t he join the military when he turned 19 ? (that would have been May, 1926).
I see no hypocracy in Wayne playing gung-ho patriotic roles. Just as acting is the job he was best suited to do, those were the sort of roles he was best suited to act. And an actor’s portrayals on the screen don’t necessarily have any relationship to his real views. But did John Wayne ever say, speaking as himself (not as a character) thatyoung men ought to serve in the military? If he did, then that would be hypocritical.
Chronos, that is my point. I think you have prompted me to do some research on the subject. As we all know he was quite the pro-war advocate during the Vietnam War. That’s what really bothered me.
There might be another posting here soon.
Wolf, if the duke had nothing to be ashamed of, why did it take untill 12 years after his death for the truth about his draft dodging to emerge? Also I’ve heard people say that he never took on a roll, that the roll took on him - he played himself, if this is true, how come I’ve never seen him in a film about a draft dodging good time boy? steve
<< Also I’ve heard people say that he never took on a roll, that the roll took on him - he played himself >.
People say this, but it’s nonsense. Look at a movie like RED RIVER and compare the character he plays there to the character he plays in (say) STAGECOACH, or to the character he plays in RIO BRAVO, or SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, or …
Yes, he tends to play the “strong silent” type, even in THE QUIET MAN, but there’s room for lots of nuance within that type.
I mean, c’mon, Katherine Hepburn always played Katherine Hepburn, too, that was the star system. But the fact that she (or Wayne) were great stars shouldn’t detract from the fact that they were also great actors.
CK yes but it seems a bit much when someone tries to transfer that onscreen image into real life. (supporting unpopular Vietnam War when he didn’t want to fight in a “popular” war).
wolf, are you trying to say that movie stars should stay out of politics? < grin > At least he didn’t run for office… although I suspect that his heavy-handed political activities started a trend that others would carry further. Wait for the 2004 election, when the Democrats put Martin Sheen up against George Bush, and about a third of the electorate thinks Sheen is the incumbent.
In any case Wayne is dead now, has been for some time, so you can calm down, he poses very little danger.
If you don’t like “the Duke” that’s your opinion. He’s dead and gone…why must so many people bash on shit that really doesn’t matter anymore.
I like him and if y’all don’t then, hey it’s your loss. I think he did some damned fine movies, not all but some.
BTW it wasn’t a secret that he didn’t serve. He also was never drafted. At age 34, and father of (what was it?) four kids. I don’t begrudge him a damned thing. IIRC he was way down the list. He also went over seas many times to entertain the troops.
Didn’t he get honored by congress for his dedication to American servicemen.
ahhh… beatin a dead horse, go ahead and support BUSH again next time. :smack:
Okay, I’ll tell my story. I was of draft age during the Vietnam War. I went to college starting Sept, 1969 and graduated June, 1973. The Vietnam War and the draft ended January, 1973. Needless to say I had a 2-S student deferment and consider myself very lucky not to have served in Vietnam.
There - and you don’t have to wait until I’m dead for 18 years to learn the truth. Needless to say I found it aggravating when people who never served a day in the military started supporting the Vietnam War. John Wayne had his chance to serve. As I said, he could have joined in May, 1926 - no family to support. Rather strange that he didn’t join then.
You think our current president OR our previous president wanted to serve in Vietnam? NO - if they did they would have gone - but they didn’t. (See? I can be non-partisan).
On a listserv I used to frequent, someone once posted a convoluted account about how John Wayne really wanted to serve in WWII but couldn’t. He received a scornful reply from a guy who, at 18, had been bouncing around in a torpedo bomber in the Pacific. The torpedo bomber guy concluded with – “It wasn’t hard to get into that war, the hard thing was staying out of it.”