Heritage Auctions is selling some of the famous actor’s personal effects and papers in Los Angeles in a sale ending October 6-7th.
I have glanced through some of the catalogue, and there is some fascinating stuff: costumes, hats, and even scripts from famous movies, including his eye patch from True Grit, a tweed overcoat from The Quiet Man, a Marine Corps uniform from Sands of Iwo Jima . There are letters from Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, and John F. Kennedy, and some very amusing letters from director John Ford, full of bawdy humor. They are even selling Wayne’s driver’s license and American Express card.
Lot 44129 is kind of interesting. It seems that, in 1977, just two years before his death, The People’s Almanac sent Wayne (along with other winners of the Academy Award) a poll questionnaire asking “who were and are the 5 best motion picture actors of all time…(and)…the 5 …best motion pictures of all time.”
John Wayne wrote down, as his list of actors: “1) Spencer Tracy 2) Elizabeth Taylor 3) Kathrine [sic] Hepburn 4) Laurence Olivier 5) Lionel Barrymore,” as his list of movies: “1) A Man for All Seasons 2) Gone with the Wind 3) The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 4) The Searchers 5) The Quiet Man.”
The lot includes the actual handwritten lists, signed by John Wayne, and is currently bid at $800.
I thought it was odd that John Wayne shared the fashionable critics’ high regard for The Searchers, among his own films. I would argue strenuously myself that She Wore a Yellow Ribbon featured his most impressive all-time job of acting.
paul
The searchers is way better than Yellow Ribbon, because it showed a man who had to descend to the level of his opponent, in order to succeed. In case you forgot, he mutilated indian corpses, and was even considering killing the object of his search (if she had “turned indian”).
Maybe his acting was better in Yellow Ribbon, but Searchers is a better movie.
Jane Wood
As I was reading about John Wayne today, it made me want to comment on how great a person he was and still is today. I see actors of the generation today and I cannot think of any who have the substance that John Wayne not had but WAS. I know for a fact his life was more than doing movies. He stood for something. His movies has given us someone to look up to and admire.
North Sydney Computer Support
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Bill D
The Searchers is one of the greatest films ever made, certainly of the Westerns. It was inspired by the 1836 kidnapping of nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker by Comanche warriors who raided her family’s home at Fort Parker, Texas. The research on this film was very extensive, including 63 other real life kidnappings by Comanche warriors, consequently it is historically accurate, reflecting historical fact and also the attitudes of Whites and Indians of the time period. Films made today no longer portray history accurately; the filmmakers are intent upon revising history according to politically correct agendas. John Wayne considered this one of his best films.
Deborah M. Patterson
I adore John Wayne and his movies a beautiful loving star….in our Lords Crown…..sweet daddy to Aissa in movie the Alamo….and the Commancheros….I love the movie in Harms Way….and the Longest Day….a true “Star”….still shines in everyones hearts….who also love and appreciate his tremendous acting talents…..
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