LIVE and learn. Having attended college during the latter part of the Vietnam War years, I was instilled with the notion-as-fact that John Wayne, at least as much as Richard Nixon, was the symbol of dim-witted and intolerant Americanism.
Wayne was to be dutifully despised, even to the point of changing the channel when the station carried movies he made in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s.
And there was that ill-advised trip he made to Harvard, where a raucous crowd of anti-war students chewed him up and spit him out. At least that was my full, and until last Sunday, lasting understanding.
It was a raucous session at Harvard, alright, and while the audience attempted to verbally eviscerate Wayne, the Harvard-“Duke” game ended in a tie, with both sides in surprisingly good humor and with the development of something that was totally unexpected. The result went widely unreported: mutual respect.
The Harvard episode, including footage from the day, was covered within “John Wayne: The Unquiet American,” a one-hour, warts-and-all documentary that appeared last week on Ch. 13/PBS.
An aging Wayne, who at first glance appeared additionally vulnerable by his declining health, sat on a stage. The Duke had allowed himself to become a sitting duck, the old flag-waving fool. To make matters worse, instead of ignoring barbs mortared from the audience in the form of rude, rhetorical questions, he answered them.
And he came as close as anyone could to winning the day before an assemblage mostly predisposed to despise him.
When a question/statement was shouted about his pro-war politics – Wayne smiled and, without reciprocal rancor – said, “Good thing you weren’t here 200 years ago or the tea would’ve never made the harbor.”
It was a clever answer, a disarming answer. It made people laugh – and not at him.
When another loaded question was hollered about Wayne’s politics and “how he looks at himself,” Wayne replied, “I look at myself as little as possible.” More laughs.
When someone went for the cheapest of shots, shouting something about Wayne’s toupee, Wayne, whose real name was Marion Morrison, stayed cool. Stroking the top of his head, he said, “This is real hair. It’s not mine, but it’s real.” More laughs, and, if we’re any judge of the nature of laughter, they were warm laughs.
Two editors of the 1974 Harvard Lampoon, fellows who had attended that session, then appeared in a current interview. They spoke of how Wayne was originally thought to have been hopelessly foolish to have consented to sit in the crosshairs of such an audience.
But by session’s end, they said that there were many who found themselves actually – and incredibly – liking John Wayne. They still disliked his politics, of course, but was he any different from many of their parents?
As I said earlier, until last week my lasting impression of John Wayne – cemented by his Vietnam-era visit to Harvard – was one of a simplistic, robotic actor and flag-waver, made-in-America for the simplistic American masses.
But he was more than that. Live and learn.
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By the time the Kobe Bryant case is adjudicated, anyone who owns a pair of his signature sneakers – or knows someone who does – will have qualified as a Bryant character witness on a cable news network.
Last week, on Fox News Channel, a fellow named Guy Stewart appeared via satellite from Philadelphia. Stewart was presented as someone who’s tight with Bryant. After all, seven years ago, they were high-school teammates.
And when was the last time he spoke with Bryant?
“The last time the Lakers were in [Philly] to play the Sixers,” said Bryant. A check of last season’s NBA schedule shows that date to have been Dec. 20th. Heck, anyone slightly less tight with Bryant would qualify as a total stranger.