John Wayne | dual personalities

May 25, 2018

“Well, come see a fat old man some time!”*

by chuckofish

I am so ready for a three-day weekend! Quelle busy week leading up to it, of course. Phew.

Daughter #1 stopped at home last night on her way to Indianapolis and a fun reunion with her college pals. She will stop in on the way back on Monday. My other plans include babysitting for the wee babes for a few hours on Saturday (probably by myself, since the OM is under the weather)…

and then recovering from that activity by binge-watching John Wayne movies.

Screen Shot 2018-05-24 at 11.35.03 AM.png It is the Duke’s birthday tomorrow, so TCM is showing a whole bunch of his WWII movies:

Screen Shot 2018-05-23 at 8.49.25 AM.png I also have plenty of my own, thank you, so I can pick and choose.

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Sounds like a mighty good plan to me.

Have a good weekend!

[My DP is in England visiting her in-laws for a few weeks, so we won’t be hearing from her until she returns stateside.]

*Rooster Cogburn, True Grit (1969)

4 Comments

May 16, 2018

“Gonna build a mountain from a little hill”*

by chuckofish

Today we toast Sammy Davis Jr. who died on this day in 1990.

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Here’s an interesting tidbit for you: John Wayne loaned Sammy Davis Jr. his iconic cavalry hat (the one he had worn in all three of his John Ford-directed calvary films) to wear in Sergeants 3 (1962)–the pretty terrible remake of Gunga Din (1939) which starred the Rat Pack. That was a pretty cool thing for Sammy.

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You can read about the making of the movie here. I can’t really recommend actually watching this movie, as I loathe comedic westerns. If you are in the mood for a Sammy Davis Jr. movie, I would suggest The Cannonball Run (1981) in which Sammy and Dean Martin masquerade as priests in the cross-country car race (along with Burt Reynolds et al) and Dino gets to say, “If we were Methodists we’d have a good shot at gettin’ laid.” Zut alors!

Interesting tidbit #2: Sammy Davis Jr. was the first African-American to be invited to spend the night at the White House. Guess which president invited him? Yes, Richard Nixon.

Fun facts to know and tell.

*Leslie Bricusse/Anthony Newley

4 Comments

May 4, 2018

“Ah, but I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.”*

by chuckofish

Do you have one of those friends who is always sending you jokes and strange pictures of nature from the internet? Well, I do too. Here is something he sent me that Will Rogers

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allegedly said about growing older …

1. Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

2. The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

3. Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me. I want people to know ‘why’ I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren’t paved.

4. When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to your youth, think of algebra …

5. You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

6. I don’t know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

7. One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it’s such a nice change from being young.

8. One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

9. Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable and relaxed.

10. Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it’s called golf.

He makes some good points I think. Food for thought anyway.

This weekend I am going to go with “comfortable and relaxed.” I may go to an auction or I may stick to estate sales. I may clean the garage. Also, lest I forget, Pottery Barn is delivering a new sofa for our den on Saturday, so that will generate/necessitate some activity in that room. I do not buy “new” furniture very often, so comme c’est excitant!

Tonight is the preview party for the Print Fair at the Mercantile Library here in town.

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Old books, prints, wine, a silent auction–my kind of fun. On the other hand, the OM’s 45th high school reunion is this weekend, but I am begging off. I prefer to be comfortable and relaxed at home. Of course we’re never too chill to see the wee babes and their parents!

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And is there anything better than a picture of these two guys together?

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I think not. (Thanks to the @johnwayneofficial Instagram page.)

Have a good weekend!

*Bob Dylan, “My Back Pages”

4 Comments

February 12, 2018

Get off your horse

by chuckofish

What a busy weekend! In fact, it was so busy that I did not have time to write a blogpost. All I have for today is this photo of the wee laddie wearing the new onesie I gave him for Valentine’s Day.

And it is Monday once again. The week begins anew. Have a good one, pilgrim!

5 Comments

August 11, 2017

Well, I’ll be a brown-eyed beagle

by chuckofish

Another big weekend ahead! The OM and I will be driving to Columbia with daughter #1 in her new car and the boy in his new truck–both packed to the gills with her stuff.

Life in the fast lane, right?

Meanwhile, it is the “Summer Under the Stars” month on TCM, so each day the schedule is devoted to a different star. Tomorrow is John Wayne day, so set your DVRs!

Screen Shot 2017-08-10 at 11.51.54 AM.png Check it out if you feel so inclined.

Screen Shot 2017-08-10 at 1.40.09 PM.png Happy belated birthday to Snoopy whose birthday was yesterday. Perhaps you will recall that this was revealed in a comic strip on 8/10/1968. I did not remember that, even though I was a huge fan of Peanuts back in the day.

Speaking of birthdays, tomorrow is the birthday of one of our favorites, Mark Knopfler. He’s turning 68!

Mark has played with all the greats from Bob Dylan to Chet Atkins and Eric Clapton. He’s the greatest and we love him.

Have a good weekend! Listen to some good music, watch a good movie, read a good book, enjoy the great outdoors! Smell the pine in your nostrils.

2 Comments

July 12, 2017

“Timbo, go away!”*

by chuckofish

I read yesterday that Elsa Martinelli, Italian fashion model turned actress, had died. Coincidentally I have just recently watched Hatari (1962) in which Ms. Martinelli starred with John Wayne. hatari poster.jpg Hatari is one of those easy-going travelogue-cum-romance movies of the early sixties that is very entertaining and a good stress-reducer when you need one. Add wine and you are all set. The ensemble cast appears to be having a good time too.

Anyway, a toast to the beautiful, skinny, chain-smoking Elsa Martinelli, who got to kiss John Wayne and play with baby elephants. It doesn’t get much better than that.

*Dallas (Elsa Martinelli) in Hatari

2 Comments

May 26, 2017

At the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow

by chuckofish

Today is John Wayne’s birthday. It has been a long, stressful week at work and I plan to hunker down and watch some classic JW movies this weekend. This is a favorite way to chillax.

I think I will start with Stagecoach (1939), the movie that made Wayne an “overnight” star. I like to think of my mother going to see it for the first time at the age of 13. She was a fan for the rest of her life. People always think of John Wayne as a man’s actor, an action star, and he was to be sure. But people tend to forget how handsome and sexy he was and how women loved him for his whole long career.

Think of Joan Didion, who wrote in John Wayne, a Love Song:

We went three and four afternoons a week, sat on folding chairs in the darkened hut which served as a theatre, and it was there, that summer of 1943 while the hot wind blew outside, that I first saw John Wayne. Saw the walk, heard the voice. Heard him tell the girl in a picture called War of the Wildcats that he would build her a house, ‘at the bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow’. As it happened I did not grow up to be the kind of woman who is the heroine in a Western, and although the men I have known have had many virtues and have taken me to live in many places I have come to love, they have never been John Wayne, and they have never taken me to that bend in the river where the cottonwoods grow. Deep in that part of my heart where the artificial rain forever falls, that is still the line I wait to hear.

Anyway, a toast to the Duke on his 110th birthday.

BTW, where is my copy of The Searchers?

7 Comments

April 12, 2017

This and that

by chuckofish

Recently I discovered that Brenda Ueland, author of If You Want to Write, wrote an autobiography. I found a used copy online and ordered it.

Brenda Ueland was a wonderful free-spirited girl growing up in Minnesota, and she seems to have always managed to keep that inner light. Many women lose it for various reasons: anxiety, depression, responsibility…but Brenda remained true to herself and honest. I find her fascinating. Although we are very different, we see eye-to-eye on most important things.

In other news, did you know that yesterday was the 55th anniversary of the release of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? Please note that this was the first occasion of John Wayne calling someone “Pilgrim” in a film.

Tonight would be a good occasion to watch this great, great movie. I like to think of my parents going to see it in 1962. Did my brother go? He was 11. I remember going to see it at the movies, but it must have been when it was re-released at some point. I think I was about 8 or 9 or 10, because I was really still too young. I mean I was quite traumatized by Lee Marvin who was so scary.

There is real violence in this movie–too bad beatings of James Stewart and Edmund O’Brien, you will recall. Martin Scorsese, who is a big fan of director John Ford, never learned that it’s what you don’t see that is so scary.

Anyway, it also makes for good Holy Week fare, since this movie is about personal sacrifice and all that. John Wayne gives up everything for love, (spoiler alert) shooting Liberty Valance and burning down his house.

I will also note the passing of Don Rickles the other day. He appeared in one of my favorite WWII submarine movies early in his career in a straight part. Can you spot him in this German-dubbed scene from Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)?

This would be another good movie to watch–while toasting old Don, alias Mr. Potato Head.

And, finally, here’s a good word from Joyce Meyer.

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God has blessed me, and I am happy!

5 Comments

February 2, 2017

Thursday chuckle

by chuckofish

Here are a few examples I found recently of movie posters that bear no relation whatsoever to the film they are allegedly marketing.

I mean seriously. Fort Apache (1948) takes place in the desert and was filmed in Monument Valley, Arizona. There are no Indians in canoes. And if there were canoes, John Wayne would know better than to stand up in one.

Are you kidding me? Words fail. “Men and women on the last frontier of wickedness”–if that’s what you were expecting, you were in for a big disappointment!

I wonder if this marketing method–i.e. blatantly wrong illustrations–ever worked.

Weird.

Have a good Thursday, or Friday eve, as we say in flyover land.

3 Comments

January 19, 2017

Happy birthday, Mary, Dolly and Buffy!

by chuckofish

Can it be January 19th already? Zut alors! Readers of this blog may remember that this is the birthday of our dear mother, as well as Dolly Parton and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Truly a day to celebrate!

Here is a photo of our little mother holding one DP who is one-year old.

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I think my older brother (age 6) took the picture because 1) the look on our mother’s face and 2) the artful set-up of the snapshot, the empty garage taking a prime part of the photo.

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There are other snaps in this series taken by my mother of the baby in the stroller and of Cowboy Chris. But I’m betting my brother picked up the camera and said, “Let ME take a picture of YOU!”

Anyway, I’m glad he did.

Well, I plan to toast Mary, Dolly and Buffy tonight. (Drynuary turned out not to be a thing.) In their honor, I may watch one our mother’s favorite movies. Possibilities would be: