Phil Donahue interviews John Wayne (1976)

is there a more successful personality in the history of film you know him as the Academy Award winner for True Grit and I've just had now two or three days to get to know him and he really is like he is do you know what I mean by that well I'll explain it later it certainly is a great pleasure for me to be able to say ladies and gentlemen John Wayne [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I really didn't expect them to be that big did you hear 6 2 or 4 6 4 thanks for your like listen I look yeah well I got to look up at every basketball player in the country I have no short now no I thought maybe but you know the way they shoot movies and I put the camera in the ground and shoot you next to an oak tree or something but you you really are very very big fellow and you are I don't know if I've ever seen you on a talk show you don't kind of you hate this don't you come now I do one more Griffon two or three times I've been on with the Carson mate returned I think yeah they you know I'll give it back yeah how does it feel to be imitated by all those people that was it's hard to keep up my image I can't imitate all of my imitators so I'm afraid they won't know who the fellas imitated rich and gawrsh and then yeah I know all of it who how would you imitate John Wayne just one all right he went shopping over the weekend was it over the weekend in downtown Chicago yeah and if you don't see him which is very hard not to do heads turned just because of the voice all over Michigan Avenue was that bad that's a bad the you got the Oscar for True Grit you are certainly one of the most remarkably successful people in the history of this of your business and I just you're a sort of an unassuming fella you know I you just sort of standing there I get the feeling that you're not quite sure what I'm not quite sure about anything particularly in front of munch of women yeah did you have it did you fight as a kid yeah really give somebody a shot my name was Marion Michael Morrison do you think I ever thought he had a compensate for the name yeah yeah um you had a horse as I recall that um Marian no no but you did have us didn't you you and a horse as a kid in yours Kenny oh yeah I had to go to school Mojave Desert I had to go to school on the horse he was kind of skinny so they call me skinny for a while let me get to you can I see some heavy stuff yeah sure go ahead you don't get mad at me were you not very often that's the biggest the only thing that's quick-tempered in this state is the weather yeah man they got mad at somebody yesterday it was it just went all of a sudden Wham was like the end of the world you want Ronald Reagan to be President of course you working out there or how do you feel about it's good Alan I think I think he's gonna have a tough job particularly on the press I see yesterday you know when the president's can't won a state that was in the president's pocket right by 53 to 47% they made a big hullabaloo it's headlines you know what state each other you mean well in this case it was Illinois wasn't it well Reagan got 40 little over 40% of the vote here 43% okay and you're saying your point is what that that's so well this made a great big thing now hits headlines Cronkite and his lesser satellites aides all through last week he won one state what was it 92 to 8% another one he 175 to 25% another one we won by a big majority even in the Tribune it was on page 16 and in the in the more liberal papers it was on 39 at the bottom of a feature on somebody else I mean I just can't understand how the one thing can be so important and the other so youth you think he's got a real shotgun now this is no listen I think that the men has great capabilities I don't know whether he has a shot at it as well but is it politically realistic to expect him to get anywhere against an incumbent president who has not been doing so badly sure yeah well or nominated nominee let's talk about the nomination that's the first moment well I think that he'll be a noticeable figure at the convention today yeah you're not altogether uncomfortable with Gerald Ford no not at all I just his his camp that's what bothers me I mean he has no followers there no team they're all manipulators he he makes a statement and they manipulate something around and he has to vacillate and say that that's that you know change his point of view I I feel sorry go on he's a terrific guy but I just like to see him change the whole set up and I don't think that it will happen with the Jerry Ford and I like him very much personally and I don't think we're gonna go down the drain if he becomes president I just happened to be for the change and I feel that that the other man proved himself in California he took it over as a bankrupt a bankrupt state and eight years later turned it back with a four billion dollar surplus he put men in charge of the DIMM bureaucracies that didn't want the jobs rather than somebody that was trying to build up the bureaucracy to make themselves important they gave him back the key to some of those offices and said you don't need it he just did a fine job he came up with a with a law for the state where you could only tax the people up to six percent of the state income and this was a voice from the wilderness you know but the Liberals managed to to a berate that to where the people didn't realize what he was doing he had emergency rules in where they could tax for a couple of years more than the six percent but if they did it longer than that it had to go back to the people well this is the only way we're gonna clear up bureaucracy and big government and and unimportant branches that develop in order that a man can feel more important in his particular Bureau but you've got some friends who are liberals you using liberal come on you're liberal of course I'll bet you $100 you're not going to vote for Tom Hayden in California well I don't think that Tom Hayden is liberal I understood liberals but maybe I read the wrong dictionary but I thought that a lever was a man who would listen to everybody's point of view and then make up his mind what he was going to do I made up my mind pretty fast but but I don't know of any of these so-called liberals that listened anything but their own mouth pardon my English got a thousand questions out there let me just pick up some of the loose ends here you know you your movies have had such an impact on our on our culture there's uh you are kind of you know you're the I hope the shooter's has some kind of an impression on I hope enough people go to see it that's a Jimmy Stewart Jimmy Stewart with Jimmy Stewart Lauren Bacall Richard boom the O'Brien and a young fella named Ron Howard who I think is as good an actor he's just wonderful Duke I'd be proud to have him be my boy couldn't be prouder if I was his agent okay here's the picture now I want you to help me out how do I write that the John Wayne movie is a conveys simple justice you know that's the way you solve problems and and the feeling that you're such a popular guy but out there in America there are a lot of people that want us to solve problems that way right now and they're forgetting about the Constitution right any letters and tell me that that's what it should be done keep talking and I say write back and say well why don't you guys talk it's no I you know I don't want to be the target you think it's are you do you think about that that violence is the way to that's the that's the violence is no that's not it at all I'm naturally of due to the fact that I have been in westerns which is our folklore in which men were fighting against the elements very few of them had any trouble where they had to go lie down on the couch they were too busy staying alive and naturally you'd get the impression of quick cold violent reaction but actually in my pictures it's been more illusion than than violence in the present-day pictures where they put a liver of calves liver on somebody and put an electric charge in there and blow it up in slow motion naturally that that is is a bad taste that's why I hate the way they've raided pictures because before I depended on immense capabilities his his good taste and his how far he gambled to make a risque picture and his peers would only give him the seal if if they felt that it was worthy of the name motion picture you've shot more people though than anybody in the history of the business but you've never seen me in the same shot shoot a man was always it was a rule then that you could only you shoot like this and then you cut to the guy thank you I mean you couldn't have a two-shot of you should ever never up to let's say the days of Valenti who is now the you know they're trying to pass an ordinance in Chicago where in violence ultra violent movies would be reviewed and so on and rated and young children would not be permitted to see them what do you think well I don't know if they're gonna let him go in watch not their father and mother but somebody else's father mother in bed I think yeah I'll let him watch somebody get me yeah yeah some of those movies are you see have you ever seen a dirty movie listen I saw him in stag shows yeah and then we're nearly as bad as some of the things that are out today where I try to see them all one more before it's not a spectator sport I think it's ridiculous action 8 sexist now you wouldn't know you imagine if I could do you realize what you could do to the circulation of a magazine what too many calluses we'll be back in just a moment John way [Applause] [Music] that's the Duke but you knew that didn't you yes I would like to ask you if you had trouble when you first became a superstar coping with your success if there was some sort of ego or personality evolution with women falling off madly and work with you and people I was very lucky in my career I had a lot of very stable people in the business who were friends of mine and every time that I got out of line John Ford or Howard Hawks er Henry Hathaway or Harry Caray and belt me over the head so it took me a long time to find out that I was a star you was is that a short nothing yes yes do you have any regrets about your career something you wish you had done that you didn't know I'm quite happy with it maybe I always had have saved a little money but outside of that doesn't matter but I don't know I'd probably spend it the same way again why do they call you the Duke because I had a dog in the Airedale dog when I was a little kid is this working yeah that's fine they can hear you excuse me I had an Airedale dog called poop and he'd follow me to school and stop at the fire station fire Minh knew the dog's name so they called him big Duke and me little Duke that's true yes I got it I'd like to know what's your favorite book is what my favorite book is you do much reading it's got hol why [Applause] I'd like to know if you've ever done anything on the stage or if you'd ever consider it well I was in high school plays and all that sort of thing and we did a charity thing of what price glory well earlier in my career where all the stars in Hollywood did parts and we went over to Pasadena and around I was in the oratorical contest Shakespeare when I was younger couldn't remember my lines I don't particularly I kind of liked it the way it is you get another chance if you blow a line I should acknowledge that of the many honors that you've received in the segment that it's attended your visit here to Chicago I think you've been on the front page three out of the four days you've been here the king of Sweden was here and left I don't think many people it's clear that Chicago got much more excited over a Duke than a king one of the one of the things that I should this may be a liberal press but they're all over you my friend well your interviews pictures yeah yeah they've been great to me too you have also been the recipient of the Entertainer of the Year award from the University of Notre Dame Club of Chicago and watch I proudly claim membership and offer you once again my congratulations why'd you draw the mustache God why did you grow the mustache was it for a million dollars no it's for this this picture that I just finished and I'm still out trying to promote the shooters because they're gonna release it we finished it two weeks ago and they're gonna try and release it by July that 26 so it's gonna be pretty hard for us to get the word around that it's coming out I don't want him to say gee that was a nice picture than that everybody says where when does it fly you know it's gone and nobody sees it so that's why I left it on that the fact that I can't like to be Buffalo Bill how did your career in show business begin well I guess the first time that I was really recognized in show business was I was going to University of Southern California and we just started having good ball clubs are being recognized by the East Middle West and south and so the business became very interested in they've got us jobs during their summer and I went on John Ford set and they'd had a habit of they'd say to you oh you play football well how do you get down sitting down they push and put you and just got a little boring so when they'd ask me I just brace myself on all four limbs which is not the way position to be in if you're in the football game and Ford had played a little ball so he said we'll stop me and he'd kick my feet up landed me in my face went down on that so-called mud that was made of plaster on this phony Mountain and in the set and I said well let's do er I can and he started around me and I whirled and kicked him and hit him right in the chest down he went there was a dead silence and he started to laugh there was one time when I was printed or not in the motion picture but while I'm back here yes you enjoying yourself in Chicago I certainly am and I'm enjoying myself here have you been to Greek town yet do what Greek town I've been to Greece but I haven't been to Greek well you've been everywhere else in this town yes ma'am I'd like to know how many movies have you made well I've made over 200 if you consider the serials and four and a half day wonders that we made the beginning of my career did you hurt yourself in the quiet man no no that was an easy fight that was an easy putt you have hurt yourself though well you know you'd get somebody an amateur you're working with an amateur you know on the business of hitting at someone and not touching them sometimes they come a little closer than you expect knock you down but that's all right it's worth good money how many children and grandchildren do you have well I have seven children and 20 grandchildren won't ask me to name it do they want to be in movies I don't know I suppose everybody wants to be in movies it seems like everybody has two businesses there's in mind of all the movies that you have made sir which is your favorite well you like different pictures for for different reasons I loved stagecoach naturally because I stepped on that stagecoach and it's carried me a long ways I liked Atari which is a picture we made in Africa because I had a three-month Safari free you know I mean rich men don't get that you know and the quiet man because I got to work with olives I got to work with all of the Abbi players and some forebears of my own family yes do you have a favorite coaster well I like to see a good-looking woman obviously you know I political enough not to answer that question how do you feel about the women's movement Duke do you I think it's great I think they should be paid whatever the man gets if they do his child but I don't see any reason for him taking over some of the judge that the more violent people of the movement would would have you do I know you know I don't think they should be out digging ditches or in my business they work as a grip let's say which has a lot of heavy work they're carrying the hammer the hammer looks pretty good hanging on them but the fellows have to stop their work and come over and help when there's anything heavy to do I don't think that's necessarily fair but I do think they should get you know the same kind of money that a man would get if they're doing his kind of a job I think you know Texas is it's got a big swing down there now this fellow that I know that has a good hunting dog he likes to go hunting all the time was telling me that it's it's really hitting his hometown he has to put his wife up with his favorite dog now on the truck I don't know what's tomorrow you're never there just gonna be no end to it katharine hepburn did you like her lovely what were you uh we all owe you a little nervous meeting her and was she nervous meeting him there had to be at all the publicity and yeah well you know there's another thing in damn politics comes you know I I'm not I've been for five Democrats and five Republicans or something in my life but I'm supposed to be a right-wing extremist Republican and she was a noted for being a little further the other way and so when we first went on the set there was a sort of a quiet and I was stated that there would be no press on the set and I finally said well can I have the couple come out and see me and she relented and said yes and the first fellow that came out said well how is it working with Katharine Hepburn I said well I'm sure that Spencer Tracy and humpy bogie would be envious of me if they were here now working with this wonderful personality in this really professional actress I said there's only one thing wrong what's that I said well she's a little more conservative than I but who isn't well from then on there was no trouble she belly left on that and answered it took 40 minutes to think of an answer from then on the set was open and she's a delightful woman she Co I can't imagine directing you to I'm well who's the poor guy that had to come in there and tell he didn't - it was a poor guy he was a no he was it was kind of new around oh and there's some question about you know his capabilities but the scenes we were in I think turned out pretty well we're in Chicago with the Duke and we'll be back in just a moment [Applause] [Music] got a new around here John Wayne is with us here in Chicago and [Applause] hi I'm glad you waited are you there hello I'm on the phones guys go right ahead can you hear me I'll wait for you yes ma'am are you optimistic about the future of America I'll always be optimistic about the future right up to when we stumble and fall down Duke you have been with one lung since 1963 for I don't know someplace back Jack what's what's different do you well I take the stairs slower or I don't I don't chase girls quite as fast in other words no it's yeah it slows you down this let's face it but I was very lucky in that the first picture I did after I had the operation which was two months later I had a fella directing me Henry Hathaway who had had cancer and he knew better than to pamper me so in February at 7,000 feet and cold water he made me jump in the water he made me do anything that he would have that they would have expected of me where I not in that condition and I think was the best thing that ever happened because I never got that feeling of oh he's take it easy and you know we've you've had a lung out hmm matter of fact they were tougher on me he what she wants to know if you're smoking again no I did afterwards I don't know what caused the cancer but I guess smoking didn't help at any but I tried cigars about five years later and my metabolism had changed him and I was allergic to tobacco so I can't even chew now which makes my family very happy what do you enjoy doing in your leisure time I haven't had a whole lot of leisure time but I have a ship and if it's a summer vacation or Easter I love to have the kids out on the boat take him around of Mexico and fish excuse me are you actively campaigning for Reagan at my wife actively campaigning for Reagan at the time well I haven't I haven't really had the time to actively campaign for anything I guess that's as active a campaigning as I've done so far but I'm merely stating facts and trying to let you know when he wasn't he was put on on the air the other day they wouldn't give him the time until the last minute so that the TV Guide wouldn't even be able to tell you what time he was going on you have to give your speech to Cronkite and his lesser satellites and and there already says that when your speech is finished now everybody that listens to TV here's what they have to say and they can by turning one little sentence they can turn you off about reading this speech and you never get a chance to find out what the man's point of view was or what he's he's done in his career and it's uh I think it's a little irritating I'm sorry that the news is now put in the marketplace to sell Toyota's and trucks and toilet paper I'll be back at a moment with John [Music] are you and Mayor Daley good friends well I found him to be a wonderful character and I tell you this town this town is his greatest city as I've ever been in and I know good and wallets it's because of the leadership so he's done something that's worthwhile I'm moving to Arizona not far from your range I say moving to Arizona not far from your ranch - why do you figure not far it's about eight miles down the road I see the cattle and trailers and I want to know if there's a house way back in there what was the house further north at the other end of the ranch for my partner mr. Johnson is another one where are the men that's the it's the head of the purebred has a place there with that icebox with that stuff in it from those bulls wanted me to ask you she met you at Francisco Grande my niece uh-huh and she said you were a great big silver buckle and she wanted to know if an it was the brand of your cattle yes I have a big silver buckle called and it has on a 26 March 26 bar which is our brand yes what about the girls in the back room Jan you want to be remembered as being fail for it's informal which means ugly which is not true for it's as strong of course informal humble and polite I think you should add simpatico muchisimas gracias would you go home with me yeah don't say anymore the short answer is yes I want to thank you for all the epic movies you have made especially the Alamo about 10 years ago our children had a problem in school where the teacher would not allow them in the social studies class to bring their history books into the classroom so about 5 years ago when your movie the Alamo came on my girl said mother what's the Alamo and I said what's the Alamo well they never learned this in school because of this reason and your movie taught them all the history now I wonder if you realize what your epic movies are doing for the youth of America I hope [Applause] I'd like to ask you a personal question you want to go out to lunch today fine how's your how's your love life these days I'm 69 come next month so [Applause] in True Grit how did you enjoy acting with Pam Darby she was she want to hear you Kim Darby yeah yeah well she was she was a little rough to work with she was a little rough on everybody I was trying to new to her being so popular but then what they out we've all done it know that yeah when you were a child did you play a lot of cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians yeah I didn't dream anything about motion pictures I should rent about being a cop or a robber when you meet that movie McClintock and everyone was sliding down that hill into the glob did you actually do that not only I actually did it Marine O'Hara actually and I'll explain something to you the the stuntmen i we'd taken this place and put some plaster in these things and then put that kind of mud they used in oil wells on Oahu it's slimy and it was about 54 degrees the wind blowing from the north and somebody had let the barbed wire fence down so it was cold and one of these stuntmen went down to try that and he cut his head and he came back now they're all stand around talking about wind I'm looking to 150 for this and you're on them I said marine you ready she said yeah I said get over there she got over there I said stick me with a hatpin she didn't I want lance down she went cursing at me all the way and the stuntmen had to change the amount that they felt that snot was worth hi the Duke is on the line are you there now go right ahead are you gonna give me two for two on the phones here is the caller there they did huh I'd have waited for you you know what's sad about that as so many people are trying to get through and the one I push the line is jammed I'll be back in a moment with the Duke John Wayne [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I am sorry to say that our phone is broken I think it's your fault to do yeah too many too many calls coming in here I truly am sorry to all those Chicago area viewers who have tried to get in it's not because we don't want to talk to you yes nobody wants to talk to me I just would like to know we're from Milwaukee is here you ever visit our fair city no I haven't but I'd like to yeah would it be great if he came into summer that's not fair he's got more to do than come to the beer tastes better there though Jeff yeah do you have any hints for successfully raising a family do I have hints for successfully raising a family no I know is that I have been luckiest man in my business I have six to seven children that I am very proud of for them already grown up and I know a lot of it's luck and I know also a lot of it is that they've felt love and security at home that's all I can tell you your children is Patrick still making movies pardon his Pat still making movies your son well he made a picture called the Bears and I for Disney last year but business has been kind of slow for him you know he's doesn't he strips well but I anybody won't do it yeah I know you find all types of women stimulating what attraction for the spirit what is your special attraction toward the Spanish types well it seems that the only times that I've been free you know when I'm not working been on vacation I've had south so I've seen more of them have been in closer contact with I haven't been north yes as a small-town Republican politician I am proud and pleased that a man of your caliber is associated with our party and I hope we never lose you and you'll be brief but the reason I'm reasonably the press you've recently been not only wined and dined by the mayor Chicago Mayor Daley who is mr. Democrat number one of Illinois and I hope to hear from you that you will never fail the Republican Party I will try and never fail the wonderful country that I live in and I will and I will continue to respect men who I think are doing a good job for our country John what size are your boots why what size are your boots my husband's in there ten and a half yeah my husband wears 13 I was just wondering he's got me there retiring from show business hi a neighbor of mine mentioned that you seem to wear the same vest in all your movies is this true well you know for a while there I had to wear the same clothes the pictures were made so cheaply but now I I don't know I changed this I have two things to say I liked your movies and I like the part where you know you ice came crashing in the door and you grabbed the woman and everything like but why in the early movies did they have you sing yes this is a question that I raised to to the producer they had a they had a picture in which the hero hum every time he got mad and was gonna kill somebody and then they put words to it and then the southern exhibitors kind of liked it so they added another song and the three of us that were in this thing the fellow over here that was playing the guitar fell over here that was singing and me that had this funny thing on my lap we're all beginning to get a little irritated with this when I got up to four songs I'd be running around fighting to get tired three to get a guitar and I finally went to the boss and said I've had it kids now asked me to sing you know silver haired granddaddy when I get on this age and it's not my racket he says well what'll I do I said go get the biggest hillbilly singer and the country and make a star out of him he did it was Gene Autry you uh you like the who did you throw on the bed the other night no wait I know in the movie at the Notre Dame banquet we were watching movies movies we that was Maureen O'Hara what film was that it wasn't quite quiet it was quiet that's women like that yeah that was very manly very you know like John Wayne there he goes you know you were not for them my husband thinks you're great you know if that's a man [Music] well I'll tell you when they wrote that that particular play when the woman slammed the door and locked it the fellow was supposed to go over and open his trunk and take out the boxing gloves that he'd used when he lost or when he won the championship fight throw him in the fire to show how nonviolent he was and I had a big beef of the director I said you know that nobody's gonna want to you know they won't sympathize with this character after this if he lets us we're gonna lock a door on him and finally we they let me kick the door in and it came up with a it was actually responsible for the funniest scene in the picture when little Barry Fitzgerald bringing her things from her dowry and brings in the baby cradle and sets it down the room looks over and sees that broken bed I mean nobody ever heard what he said yeah do you watch all of your movies and do you enjoy them if you do a lot of stars say they don't watch them well I have I've seen all the pictures that I've made and I think professionally it would be kind of ridiculous for me not to see them are you critical or can you enjoy them I'm most critical yes but he'll a lot of them I've enjoyed John what is the most dangerous stunt you've done in a movie talk back to Marlena Dietrich yes what's director do you most admire well I I'll tell you there's a lot of wonderful directors mr. Ford who was my mentor he started me in the business I had quit school and I'm taking a pre legal course at University of Southern California because I figured that I would like to be in pictures not as an actor as a director but I had such tutelage under him and I knew his style so that he's the man that most stands out in my mind but Howard Hawks probably gave me a greater boost in the business and mr. Ford because he admitted that I was helpful to him and that he thought I could act which mr. Ford let the boys around you know he liked the credit for that I'd have to impeach him then go back make one of those four day things so you know I have different you know it's like anybody else you have different feelings for different people Henry Hathaway it was then great to my career excuse me just a moment I should say that you are currently starring or will be starring and the soon-to-be-released movie title to Shootist and we'll be back in a moment [Music] I thank you very much wish you success for the Duke and I think he was divided and promotion fees paid by the following 1-800 us [Music] you

Channel: Vinnie Rattolle

Views: 1,254,641

Rating: 4.8297067 out of 5

Keywords: John Wayne, Interview, Talk Show, Donahue, Phil Donhue

Id: ikITxlBTxvE

Length: 44min 53sec (2693 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

Thanks for posting, Vinnie. I didn't know Duke was on Donahue. I miss the days when stars like Wayne were walking the Earth. Sure they were human and had flaws but they had charm in spades. There is no one around today like Duke and others of his era like James Stewart, Hank Fonda, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Cagney and Bogart etc.