Rona interviews John Wayne

Rona: You know, Duke, I know that you have had allot of

strong opinions about our youth today and in the now

legendary Playboy magazine interview you expressed

some very strong opinions, especially about the youth

who are rebelling and destroying our schools and our

universities and yet at the same time you also said that

you really do not believe in violence. Would you say that

perhaps there was a slight contradiction or would you like

to clear up what you really meant by that?

Duke: I don't quite understand you, that I said I didn't like violence.

Rona: You said that you really were not a violent man and that

you really don't believe in violence and yet at the same time

you believed that strong measures should be taken against

our youth who......

Duke: Any young man that is irresponsible should be handled with

firmness. I am not against a little violence there, just ask

my kids.

Rona: You mean a good crop has always done good things?

Duke: Yeah. But most of the kids today really are wonderful. This

thing has been put all out of context by your group, you know.

Take a little shot of the voice here and a little shot there but the

average kid that's going to school and appreciating everything

that has been given him in this big wonderful country of ours,

we forget about them. It seems they're trying, the professorship

is trying to put everything at the lowest common denominator

instead of giving a star for getting a little better grade then the

other fellow. I think they ought to go back to that competition.

Rona: Duke, you know, you have been in our business a very, very long

time, why do you think that people love to help you when you're

an underdog but the moment that you hit the sidewalk, as I say,

they want to knock you right back into the gutter

Duke: I don't know. I guess it's just normal human instinct. The wonderful

thing about us here is that we do kind of stick up for the underdog

As a matter of fact, that's the way that allot of this violence that

we're talking about gets started because they figured it was kids

who hadn't had the same chances as other children but I think we

have done pretty well here in the short time that we have been a

nation. Show me a better one.

Rona: I don't know of a better one. I just came back from Europe myself

and I must say that it is really great to be home because there's

no place really like America and I don't like to be corny about it

but it's really the truth.

Duke: I don't think it's corny. I think it's like saying you have a great mother

and father. It's just been a wonderful place. Naturally, there are things

wrong. There are things wrong everyplace in the world.

Rona: Why do you think people are so ashamed to say "I love you" ?

Duke: I don't know. I'm not, Rona. I love you

Rona: I love you too, Big Duke . You've been best known for the westerns that

you have filmed more so then the contemporary dramas in which you

have worn a suit. Do you love the western in a way that we don't quite

understand or what is it about the western that you like?

Duke: Well, since I'm a professional, the horse is the best vehicle of action for

our medium which adds a certain extra thing to a motion picture. When

you're making westerns you can give them scenic shots because you're out

in the open. So you have something in it - you have action and you have

scenic shots that you can split up the scenes. You give them action,

you give them a scene, give them some scenery, give them some action,

give them a scene. And there's less monotony. Let's face it, if there's

monotony in everything and particularly if you have to explain a story

in an hour and a half, there has to be a lot of narration. So, all these things

help to make a picture more entertaining.

Rona: You know, we have been going through a big religious movement in our

country right now and within the last few years. What is your reaction to it?

Duke: Well, I think that return to religion is very important because it may bring

families back together and the family unit is the thing that made our

country so wonderful.

Rona: Did you have a religious upbringing?

Duke: I was sent to Sunday School.

Rona: Do you think we will end up with studios the way we once knew them,

perhaps with different names but that sort of system again?

Duke: We don't have the leadership that we had in the old days. Now they're

stockbrokers or stock manipulators or bankers handling bank situations.

And they don't understand our business. I was against them doing this thing

with the censorship, censoring our pictures. I think we have been a business

and an art medium that has been able to entertain people with illusion and

all of the sudden now we are getting to hair and sweat instead of the old

Lubistch idea. Ernst Lubistch made more risqué pictures then have been

made in the last five years and you could send your kids to see them because

they were beautifully done and it depended on imagination rather then seeing

the sweat and gore rolling.

Rona: Are you resentful of the fact that so many gas station attendants have suddenly

taken over our industry?

Duke: I don't care as long as they let me make the kind I want to make. Don't bother me.

Rona: Do you have any feeling about allot of your contemporaries like Jimmy Stewart

and Anthony Quinn who went into television series that obviously didn't do well?

Duke: I think it's probably a good idea. There are so few pictures being made and it

certainly is a good way to stay in front of the public and besides that, they pay

allot of money, I understand.

Rona: Well, $47,000 a week is what Shirley MacLaine made - it's quite a bit of money.

Duke: It's a fair amount. But she'll make as much money as you one of these days.

Rona: I wish I could make as much as her. But that brings up another point. Considering our economic problems in our industry today, do you think anybody is worth $1 million for a picture?

Duke: Well, let me put it this way. If an independent producer has a picture that is going to cost him a million and a half and he goes to the bank and says, I have Joe Dokes in this picture and I want a million and a half to make the picture with, they'll

probably give him around $400,000 and tell him to go find the rest someplace else.

If they put Jimmy Stewart in the picture and now they say that they want to make

this picture and it will cost two million and a half, they'll probably give him half the

money right then which takes care of their whole problem because Jimmy Stewart

won't want his money all in that year anyway, so they'll have the use of Jimmy Stewarts money to work on the picture. That's why they give him that kind of money.

The independent producer is very happy to pay him that kind of money because they get the use of it. This is something that nobody seems to bring out. I saw Heston sit on the stage and let the directors and various people that were - this director was not on the edge of this business but a lot of people that were just on the edge of our business say a lot of things about stars and don't realize there's a reason for everything. There's an economic reason for everything. I assure you, they don't give a million dollars to anybody unless they deserve it in this business.

Rona: Be very honest with me. You must realize that there is something about yourself

that you have and others don't have because most people aren't fortunate enough

to have the longevity in an industry that is so fickle as this. What do you think it is that

you have?

Duke: I think I like people and I think it shows and after you've been 41 years meeting

people, they may go out and tell ten and those ten tell ten - it gradually builds

into a kind of friendly relationship, I think.

Rona: In all the experiences that you have had in your lifetime, what do you think is

the greatest lesson that you have learned?

Duke: My dad taught me one wonderful thing and that was not to lie and how so many people get themselves in trouble by just little fibs and before you know, they have to tell a great big lie to stay out of trouble. I found that was a very good lesson. I think you get a lesson every day. Something new happens.