John Wayne Oct American Rifleman

Read that also like all the jw stories.

I just read the American Rifleman, Lets see if I understand the story, A Belgium company, is having a Winchester build in Japan, to honor John Wayne, an American right wing icon. Somehow I sense a little irony

Now thats a global economy!

I read those articles and enjoyed them as well. My only disappointment was that they didn't make the rifle cheap enough that I could buy one and shoot the bejesus out of it . . ..rather than buying it as a safe queen.

Have a good one,
Dave

John Wayne was a celluloid hero. Cast zinc non-firing replicas would be more appropriate.

Go easy on what you say about John Wayne. He is a true American Hero.
Remember the glass house rule.

All heroes have feet of clay.

I have no ax to grind regarding John Wayne. However, during WW II he stayed home while MANY others from Hollywood joined up in the fight for freedom. He made millions while others risked their lives for their country.

So, he is anything BUT a hero. Lee Marvin was in the Marines, and my all time favorite Hollywood type was General (yeah, that is correct, General) in the United States Air Force (was in WW II, Korea, and I believe Viet Nam). Take a look here:

http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/2005/articles08/what_happened_to_the_ww_ii_movie.htm

Compared to these fine gentlemen, Wayne was an opportunist.

Don't get me wrong, I still have enjoyed his movies very much, but he is NOT a hero (something considerably less).

Dale53

Yeah, so what if he stayed behind and told the stories of the fighting men so Americans would know what was going on and the sacrifices being made.
Don't forget about what John Wayne stood for after WWII, all through the Cold War, while the rest of Hollywood turned into a bunch of Communist lovers.
Too bad there aren't anymore like him standing up for America....Nahh, he wasn't a hero.

I have no ax to grind regarding John Wayne. However, during WW II he stayed home while MANY others from Hollywood joined up in the fight for freedom. He made millions while others risked their lives for their country.

So, he is anything BUT a hero. Lee Marvin was in the Marines, and my all time favorite Hollywood type was General (yeah, that is correct, General) in the United States Air Force (was in WW II, Korea, and I believe Viet Nam). Take a look here:

http://www.propertyrightsresearch.or...w_ii_movie.htm

Compared to these fine gentlemen, Wayne was an opportunist.

Don't get me wrong, I still have enjoyed his movies very much, but he is NOT a hero (something considerably less).

Dale53

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I can't say I've thoroughly researched this topic, but I seem to remember that John Wayne tried to enlist in all 4 branches and was turned down as 4F. Something to do with a back injury while playing college football. At least that's what sticks in my head.

Regards,
Dave

Just like anything else, it seems like it was an extremely personal decision for Wayne, and given his circumstances, a decision anyone of us could have made.

John Wayne, draft dodger? Oh, what delicious (if cheap) irony! But that judgment is a little harsh. As Garry Wills tells the story in his book John Wayne's America: The Politics of Celebrity (1997), the Duke faced a tough choice at the outset of World War II. If he wimped out, don't be so sure a lot of us wouldn't have done the same.

At the time of Pearl Harbor, Wayne was 34 years old. His marriage was on the rocks but he still had four kids to support. His career was taking off, in large part on the strength of his work in the classic western Stagecoach (1939). But he wasn't rich. Should he chuck it all and enlist? Many of Hollywood's big names, such as Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Clark Gable, did just that. (Fonda, Wills points out, was 37 at the time and had a wife and three kids.) But these were established stars. Wayne knew that if he took a few years off for military service, there was a good chance that by the time he got back he'd be over the hill.

Besides, he specialized in the kind of movies a nation at war wanted to see, in which a rugged American hero overcame great odds. Recognizing that Hollywood was an important part of the war effort, Washington had told California draft boards to go easy on actors. Perhaps rationalizing that he could do more good at home, Wayne obtained 3-A status, "deferred for [family] dependency reasons." He told friends he'd enlist after he made just one or two more movies.

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A guy who prided himself on doing his own stunts, he doesn't seem to have lacked physical courage. One suspects he just found it was a lot more fun being a Hollywood hero than the real kind. Many movie star-soldiers had enlisted in the first flush of patriotism after Pearl Harbor. As the war ground on, slogging it out in the trenches seemed a lot less exciting. The movies, on the other hand, had put Wayne well on the way to becoming a legend. "Wayne increasingly came to embody the American fighting man," Wills writes. In late 1943 and early 1944 he entertained the troops in the Pacific theater as part of a USO tour. An intelligence bigshot asked him to give his impression of Douglas MacArthur. He was fawned over by the press when he got back. Meanwhile, he was having a torrid affair with a beautiful Mexican woman. How could military service compare with that?

In 1944, Wayne received a 2-A classification, "deferred in support of [the] national . . . interest." A month later the Selective Service decided to revoke many previous deferments and reclassified him 1-A. But Wayne's studio appealed and got his 2-A status reinstated until after the war ended.

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Link to source

Go easy on what you say about John Wayne. He is a true American Hero.

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He was an actor (and not a very good one) - that's all. Made entertaining movies. To call him a hero denigrates the memories of all the real heroes out there.

To his credit I seem to recall reading a story about him that he was 4F due to a childhood injury of some kind and that he did try to enlist in WWII but was turned down. He made a lot of movies during the war that were probably instrumental in both recruiting and keeping up the morale of folks on the home front BUT! That hardly makes him a hero.

He was an actor (and not a very good one) - that's all. Made entertaining movies. To call him a hero denigrates the memories of all the real heroes out there.

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He was a hero. Just because someone isn't a Marine or Soldier, or other branch doesn't mean he can't be a hero.

He did more for this country portraying what America could be then being one single soldier.

People joined the military because of him, people looked up to him, people said, that's who I want to be. He gave people someone to look up to and aspire to be like, unlike so many of today's actors.

In a time when people needed heroes, he made us believe.

And that's what a hero does.

John Wayne is without a doubt, a true American Hero.

he·ro
1. a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.
2. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.

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There's no doubt that John Wayne influenced the course of WWII in the Allies favor. But that doesn't make him a hero. He did nothing outside the scope of his job as an actor that was especially extraordinary and probably made not a few bucks doing it.

Was he a good man? Probably
Was he a great man? Maybe though not in my opinion
Was he good actor? Yes
A great actor? Not according to the Academy - his Oscar was one of those they give away just for lasting a long time.

But neither being good nor great qualifies one as a hero. And one's status as an actor even less so.

A great actor? Not according to the Academy - his Oscar was one of those they give away just for lasting a long time.

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He got Best Actor in 1969 for "True Grit".

You are thinking of the Peoples Choice Award he got in 1976.


I would not consider him a hero either, an American icon maybe just due to how many people associated him with the USA.

Today, the word "hero" has to be one of the most misused words, along with "literally", in the English language; they've both lost their meaning.

I suppose that maybe, just maybe, he's not a hero in the text book definition of the word but he sure as hell was (and still is) an inspiration to many.

The only thing that surprises and saddens me is how many in this thread are taking a dump on John Wayne. It kind of turns my stomach.

John Wayne was every bit as much of a hero as Donald Duck. DD made some very stirring WWII films, too. Der Furher's Face stands with anything Marion did.
If you like his movies, that's fine with me; I don't.
Read the intro article in that issue of American Rifleman. Note that the author is careful to be clear that John Wayne was a movie hero. The article about his personal revolver indicates there is some question whether he ever fired more than blanks from it.
A good many actors whose work I respect more than Wayne's had some bonafides. Wayne was a college athlete who lost his scholarship when he hurt himself bodysurfing. So he turned to movies. Never a soldier. Never a cowboy. Just a football player, then actor.
As for the commemorative guns, I can't fault the marketers for trying to make a buck off a guy who made millions for the studios during the war. I just won't be buying one.

Why does it seem that a simple thread about John Wayne and guns turns in a personal attack on a actor who is no longer alive and can't defend himself?

Some seem to think that unless you are tossing grenades or running into a burning building, your no hero.

Hero is a very subjective term.

Wayne was an opportunist.

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That's like saying my grandfather was an "opportunist" because he didn't ditch his wife and kids to volunteer at age 36. The War Dept. didn't want married men with families to run off to the war for a great many very good reasons. They had a draft system to sort out who would be called and in what order. Besides, Wayne did as much in practical terms for the war effort by making patriotic movies than other celebs did in active service.

That said, I wouldn't call him a hero either. And neither would he. The only title he EVER wanted was "AMERICAN." That's it. He was no great paragon of virtue, nor did he ever claim to be. He was just an actor who had some great roles and some real stinkers. In his declining years and esp. since his death he's become some kind of bizarre patron saint for the right wing and a favorite target for the left. In real life his political activities were mostly confined to fighting the VERY REAL communist influences in Hollywood. Other than a general pro-American point of view he had no broad agenda. By modern standards he'd be something of a moderate.

Why does it seem that a simple thread about John Wayne and guns turns in a personal attack on a actor who is no longer alive and can't defend himself?

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John Wayne as become a symbol, and increasingly the symbol has nothing to do with the man. Wayne certainly wasn't the frothing, Indian-hating loonatic the left portrays. Nor was he the Great Man the right seems to wish he had been. In both cases the political factions are confusing Wayne's roles with Wayne. Wayne the actor was a persona he put on. Wayne off the lot was very private, and for the most part we really don't know anything about him.

Why shouldn't John Wayne's "heroism" be questioned despite his inability to post his side of it? The man was an actor.
Run a search of this site on JFK and see how a man who isn't here to defend himself can have not just his war record, but his personal life, his presidency, and the activities of his extended family since his death impugned, insulted, and demeaned.
Saying that John Wayne was just an actor seems pretty inconsequential by comparison.

On the internet, everthing's controversial!