Marion Robert Morrison was born on May 26, 1907, to a pharmacist named Clyde Leonard Morrison and his wife Molly Alberta Brown. The boy was the grandson of a civil war veteran. Marion weighed a whopping 13 pounds at birth.
Young Marion did not care much for his name. He had an imposing Airedale Terrier named Duke that was his constant childhood companion. A local fireman acquaintance began calling the boy “Little Duke,” and the name stuck. This was how one of the most enduring legends in the history of Hollywood came to be named after his dog.
After the family moved to Palmdale, California, young Marion Morrison thrived at both football and debate. He applied for the US Naval Academy but failed to gain acceptance. Morrison played football at the University of Southern California but had to give up his scholarship after breaking his collarbone during a bodysurfing accident.
As a favor to his former USC football coach, famed Hollywood director John Ford hired Morrison as a prop boy. The young man subsequently landed several uncredited roles in several forgettable B-grade films. His first real role was listed as “Duke Morrison” in the 1929 film Words and Music.
Film director Raoul Walsh noticed Morrison moving studio furniture and cast him in his first starring role in the 1930 movie The Big Trail. Walsh and Fox Studios chief Winfield Sheehan felt that Marion Morrison was not a moniker befitting a proper movie star. The two men considered Anthony Wayne but felt that handle sounded too Italian. The two executives eventually decided to call the young man John Wayne. The actor was not even present for the meeting. For his first proper movie, John Wayne was paid $105 per week.
The Big Trail cost a breathtaking $2 million to produce. That’s about $31 million today and an unprecedented sum in the world of 1930’s filmmaking. The movie was shot in a revolutionary 70mm format that most movie theaters of the day were not equipped to manage. Despite critical acclaim, The Big Trail was a monumental flop.
John Wayne hit it big in 1939 with John Ford’s Western epic Stagecoach. He ultimately starred in 142 movies and along the way became the personification of rugged American frontier manliness. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1969 as the one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn in True Grit.
Whether he was a gunslinging frontier lawman, a hard-charging Marine assaulting Mount Suribachi, or a Special Forces Colonel battling the VC in the jungles of Vietnam, John Wayne’s many tough-guy roles were invariably associated with firearms. A gun enthusiast himself, later in his career Wayne also grew extremely wealthy. Given his significant net worth and instant worldwide name recognition, obtaining Wayne’s personal endorsement and financial support could be a real boon for any commercial product. Back in the early days of the Military Armament Corporation, the manufacturers of the famed Ingram M-10 submachinegun very nearly killed him.
The Players
Jim Sullivan was born in Nome, Alaska, and went on to become an esteemed gun designer, working on such weapons as the AR-15, the Mini-14, the Ruger M77, the Stoner 63, and the Ultimax100 light machinegun. While working for Hughes Tool Company Sullivan badly wanted to secure John Wayne’s support. He even designed a .22 rifle he called the Waynegun in an effort at currying the Hollywood heavyweight’s favor.
The Military Armament Corporation was an evolutionary development from the earlier SIONICS Company. SIONICS stood for Studies in Operational Negation of Insurgents and Counter-Subversion and was the brainchild of a larger-than-life WW2-era OSS officer named Mitch WerBell. In 1969 WerBell joined forces with Gordon Ingram to produce and market the M-10 submachinegun.
The M-10 was a simple pressed steel SMG offered in both 9mm and .45ACP calibers. A subsequent miniaturized version firing .380ACP was called the M-11 and remains one of the most compact man-portable automatic weapons ever produced. When combined with WerBell’s revolutionary two-stage sound suppressor the M-10 seemed destined for greatness. All WerBell and MAC needed was John Wayne on their team.
Flirting with Disaster
The site was a duck shooting club outside Newport Beach, California. Wayne and his handlers showed up to be wooed by both Sullivan and the MAC mob. Sullivan arrived in period Seattle garb—a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. The MAC demo team was outfitted in matching dapper blue blazers festooned with the gold MAC logo. Like Elijah and the prophets of Baal atop Mount Carmel, the two competing entities vied for supremacy.
John Wayne had any number of well-publicized vices, and alcohol was high on the list. This particular afternoon the Duke was generously lubricated with his favorite adult beverage. Jim Sullivan exercised his Waynegun to the delight of the big man himself. The MAC team also burned scads of bullets through their hyperactive little subguns. Their piece de resistance was a live-fire demonstration of the radical MAC operational briefcase.
The Gun
The M-10 was indeed a revolutionary little firearm. Heavy at more than six pounds, the little gun would nonetheless tuck into some of the tidiest spaces. As a result, MAC engineers contrived the operational briefcase.
The original “Special Purpose” briefcase was designed for the .380ACP M-11. Later versions accommodated the larger guns. These devices began as standard leather attaché cases specially modified with wooden blocks and Velcro to carry a MAC submachine gun. A mechanical linkage manipulated the trigger. A small pivoting business card holder occluded the hole that spewed the bullets. A special abbreviated sound suppressor was eventually built for the larger guns.
To fire the weapon the operator would hold the case sideways and squeeze the external trigger. As the gun was not externally accessible that meant the case contained a hot open-bolt submachinegun with the safety off. The original cases retailed for $90 and were frankly deathtraps. One of these deathtraps very nearly killed John Wayne.
The Accident
The specific details have been lost to history. We know that the case in question carried a full auto .45ACP M-10 submachine gun. One version holds that the recoil from those heavy .45ACP rounds cycling at around 1,000 rpm allowed the thing to get away from the operator. Another story was that the trigger linkage failed and resulted in a runaway gun. Yet a third is that in his excitement the man demonstrating the device held it backward. Regardless, the operational briefcase ran amok and sprayed the spectator area with a swarm of .45ACP projectiles.
Jim Sullivan, who had nothing to do with the MAC company, purportedly wisely ran for safety. John Wayne was supposedly not terribly perturbed. Rumor has it that when the dust settled he had not even spilled his drink. Regardless, as the demonstration wrapped up John Wayne thanked everyone involved but declined to invest in a gun company.
The Rest of the Story
MAC only made guns for some four years. The original mission was to convince the US Army to replace all of its aging M1911A1 pistols with fast-firing MAC submachine guns. Had they been successful the number of ventilated Privates littering military firing ranges boggles the mind. In 1973 MAC folded, and in 1975 their assets were sold at auction. The fact that I was nine years old at the time and unable to participate remains one of the greatest travesties in all of human history.
John Wayne was married three times and divorced twice. He fathered some seven children in total. His second wife, a Hispanic woman named Esperanza Baur, became convinced he was having an affair and tried to kill him when he came home late from the wrap party that followed Angel and the Badman. She tried unsuccessfully to shoot him as he walked through their front door, and Wayne divorced her soon thereafter.
John Wayne began losing his hair in the 1940s and wore a toupee for most of his professional life. He was an inveterate lifelong smoker, consuming up to six packs a day. He developed lung cancer in 1964 but was declared surgically cured after the removal of his entire left lung along with four ribs.
Wayne was also an alcoholic. His directors would try to shoot his scenes in the morning as he was almost invariably intoxicated by noon. In the lyrically ridiculous 1956 movie, The Conqueror, John Wayne played a curiously Occidental Genghis Khan. The movie was filmed in the Utah desert downwind from the site of a recent US Government nuclear test. 91 members of the cast and crew subsequently developed cancer, including his costars Susan Hayward, Pedro Armendariz, and Agnes Moorehead as well as the director Dick Powell.
Wayne’s was a lonely conservative voice in Hollywood, one of the most intolerant communities on the planet. His controversial 1971 interview with Playboy Magazine where he discussed such stuff as race relations and welfare earned him few friends in Tinseltown.
Fun fact—According to an article in Readers Digest Magazine John Wayne carried the same revolver throughout all of his Western movies.
Wayne ultimately developed stomach cancer that killed him in June of 1979. Engraved upon his tombstone he requested the words “Feo, Fuerte y Formal.” This translates to “Ugly, Strong, and Dignified.”
“The fact that I was nine years old at the time and unable to participate remains one of the greatest travesties in all of human history.”
Well, at the tender age of 11, I had the privilege of firing a few .22 LR rounds from the then-new AFAIK American Arms 180 sub gun at Hendrickson Range up the canyon from SLC UT. The factory rep during the preceding demo said he was also testing some super-high velocity ammo from an un-named maker. One of two of them banged loud out the ejector port but didn’t jam the gun. Notable was the laser sight and an amusing story about it from a prison, which later replayed on the silver screen in several versions. The ammo was CCI (I scrounged a few cases from the ground) Stinger before they reinforced the back end of the brass.
So, there IS some justice in the world. Sadly, you weren’t there to enjoy that one. But I’m sure you’ve had a few satisfying brushes with history since then. Cheers!
In early 1975, a new Army training test was being used for the mortar platoons in the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, CO. Every platoon that took the test was failing. I was the Squad Leader for the Forward Observer squad/section for our platoon. I got everyone together, all three of us, and we decided that one small change to the Call For Fire, could shorten the time it took. It was a bit like “shooting from the hip.” We called it “John Wayneing The Round.” Our platoon ended up acing the test. We got a free week off; and, a while later, some men came to Fort Carson from Aberdeen Proving Grounds, selecting our platoon to try out some new, classified equipment… All because we John Wayned the round. Loved John Wayne, and could think of no one else whose name would fit…
He was the quintessential American Hero and good guy, but to me his best film–and acting–was the one in which he displayed psychopathic tendencies: The Searchers. He was misogynic, a swaggering bully and a killer with what now would be depicted as “selective” racism from the quiche-eating Hollywood set–he hated Comanches, particularly a war chief called Scar. If the Hollywood elite hadn’t detested him so much his acting surely would have been nominated for an academy award. He had it all, including hard luck with women and wives. But he was a real American and exemplifies America: powerful, empathetic, sometimes flawed, but always willing to brawl if it’s necessary, or sometimes, just fun.
Great story… Comments not positive about the man are unfortunately from ignorance and not realizing times we’re different back then…. To stand for what you believe in in a world of Hollywood elitist was enough to make him a bigger than life legend to me. The movie Quiet Man was all you have to see to be a John Wayne fan! Very well written article…interesting.
The Duke was and will always be the quintessential American. Confident, determined, and honorable. Too bad so may of the recent generations don’t understand that. But I have to say that in my 2 1/2 years in Iraq I was always proud of our troops whenever I saw them among the other country’s soldiers and I think John would have been too.
I enjoyed the article and always have enjoyed the John Wayne movies.
I dont know any Movie or TV actors, so I can not relate to the depth of their actions, convictions or values.
Another words, none have earned my respect for being in a movie; but sometimes I am entertained by them.
When you start with the BEST everyone else is an anticlimax.
Back in 1966 I was first mate, on a 64ft. Rhodes ketch rigged, sail boat. We sailed into Acapulco, Mex., and dropped our anchors. A gentleman rowed over to us from a converted US Navy Destroyer escort, or it may have been a mine sweeper. The man was fairly large and bald, he asked our “skipper” Phil De Vita, if any of us would like to play poker that evening, on his converted yacht, anchored next to us. We replied ” Sure”. The gentleman rowed back to his grey painted “warship/yacht” I told Phil, our captain, ” Boy that mans voice sure was familiar, but I don’t recognize him”. Phil said “That was John Wayne and his yacht “The Wild Goose” That evening we rowed over to the “Wild Goose” and played “Penny Ante Poker” with John Wayne, he wasn’t drinking at that time, but he had all kinds of beer, wine and hard liquor for us. The “Duke” was a good poker player and had a great sense of humor, most of all he was a fun loving and entertaining gentleman. To this day, I don’t remember who was the big winner that night.
It seems like all of you were winners that night.
John was a very good actor in all his movies I give him thumbs up and my dad had a look alike loved his movies wished they both still around
Hell of a Man , Met him in the Long Bin NCO club in Vietnam . Some thing and Time I will never forget . .. May God rest his soul . …
In the 1970s, shortly after McQ was filmed, a taxi company I worked for near the SeaTac Airport bought the Chevy that John Wayne shot up down on the beach at Salt Water Park, fixed it up and put it into service. I drove it occasionally and it ran fine; the only problem being that whoever patched it up, missed a bullet hole under the rear fender well on the driver’s side and it would whistle at freeway speeds (55 mph) as I headed into Seattle. People would ask me, sometimes quite alarmed, what that sound was. Invariably I would shrug it off saying, “Oh, just a left over bullet hole from when John Wayne shot the car up.”
Even with all of his supposed faults, few others have come close to his legend and fame. It’s too bad that so many young people today do not know of John Wayne and what he stood for. Too often those with less ability and fortitude choose to criticize those like John Wayne who could talk the talk, walk the walk and walk the talk.
When a legend diverges from the facts — print the legend!
Ah, you must have seen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Top-notch performances from The Duke, Jimmy Stewart, and Lee Marvin. And especially Woody Strode as the faithful and kind and courageous Pompey. Worth seeing again. Back when Senators who got famous on a fib were could still be otherwise honorable. Oh, never mind, that was fiction. Like the legend, it *should* be true.
His film “The Big Trail” is definitely worth a watch. It was an early experiment (1930) with wide screen and is available in blu ray.
It involves the outfitting of a wagon train and its adventures on the Oregon Trail. Naturally Wayne is the leader.
Also the young Wayne was quite a lady killer.
This wasn’t a low-budget production: the most eye-popping scene was when the train had to cross a river from a high bluff. The entire train was lowered one wagon at a time on ropes.
A piece of MAC Trivia…
Here’s the real story as relayed to me by Mitch WerBell IV back in the day.
The operational briefcase contained a Military Armament Corporation M11/380 smg equipped with a SIONICS 2 stage suppressor. The FARM in Powder Springs, GA was home to spooks, mercs & various Caribbean, Asian & African paramilitary groups. Mitchell Livingston WerBell III was no stranger to covert ops & specialized weaponry as he was a former OSS *problem solver*. He was financed by the 54/12-303 GROUP through an outfit known as Quantum Ordnance Bankers. He trained agents for the Bay of Pigs Invasion & has been linked to key figures in the JFK assassination. An associate of his by the name of Robert Vesco was in large part responsible for the bankruptcy of his Corporation as he fled the country with a significant chunk of the C.I.A.’s *black bag* money.
Marion Morrison aka John Wayne was invited to the encampment for demonstrations of WerBell’s & Gordon Ingram’s “Whispering Death”. The incident almost had tragic consequences as the technician slated to showcase the brutal knockdown power of the small Ingram smg had inadvertently reversed his hold on the briefcase. The Duke was standing directly behind the case… with the *business card* at crotch level. WerBell casually sauntered over… whispered in the tech’s ear… the case was 180’d… the lever on the bottom was shoved forward… & 30rds impacted the intended target in a little over a second. The thermal NOMEX lining, fresh wipes & subsonic nature of the ammo yielded 29dB of reduction; the DUKE was impressed.
Not much has been written about that day & most is of anecdotal reference from associates of Mitch’s son who went on to open a shop called “Brigade Quartermasters”.
It wasn’t until hours later that what had actually happened was revealed to the larger than life Hollywood Star… who supposedly replied with a grim chuckle: “You don’t say!!!!” In ’74, the Ingram 9mm M10 went on to be the co-star of the film: “McQ”.
Nice. I remember reading much of which you speak on the Werble/MAC story in the original Soldier of Fortune Magazine. Brigade Quartermaster had adverts there also. This article sure brings back good memories of the old days.
Enjoyed the article and I have enjoyed John Wayne’s movies, but I don’t think he was anyone I would be friends with. Mean drunks and bully’s are people I do not tolerate.
I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A FAN OF JOHN WAYNE,SEEN MOST OF HIS MOVIES.SURE HE HAD HIS VICES, DON’T EVERYONE
MINE WAS SMOKING, I FINALY QUIT.
Having read many books about Duke’s career I was captivated by your commentary. And amazed at your own life. Perhaps it would make great reading. Incidentally, my stepson climbs mountains and I totally agree a helicopter makes more sense. Not only safer, the views would be far superior.
I’d like to see Dr. Dabbs’ gun library.
What the article doesnt mention is to generate interest in the movie the studio set up raffles around the country and the winner got to blow out a full mag at a shooting range by the theater. Imagine doing that in cities and towns in America nowadays.
And then there was the “John Wayne bar”. It came stacked in a C- Ration can ( C, Combat,Individual). A thin wafer of chocolate covered toffee. But it was horrible and not for eating. It was for wanging at the little beggar kids. Thrown properly, like a reverse frisbee it had a curving trajectory with a maximum effective range of 50 meters. Probably the best anti personal weapon the Army ever came up with.
I loved John Wayne movies but i always noticed in his westerns that he never took one hand off the saddle horn in the scenes where he would ride a horse . Im guessing maybe he was a little scared of horses or being overly cautious.
Then you need to watch True Grit, where he rode his horse at a gallop with the reins in his teeth, while firing his rifle with his right hand & his revolver with his left.
If you knew anything about horses, then you’d know that most of the horses that were ridden by guys like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Randolph Scott, Pat Robertson, Audie Murphy, Joel McCrea, etc. and even Roy Rodgers were stud horses and were often well trained “cutting” horses. Cutting horses are trained to respond instantly to leg and neck cues and can easily toss a rider, even the best trainer – even the trainers will hold the horn when the horses are doing their work. These actors also rode the same horse in most of their movies, some even owned them. These actors couldn’t afford to be accidentally thrown and injured. Holding the horn doesn’t make you less of a “cowboy” or man!
Agreed, I rode a very tall stud (18 hands, named Butterscotch) for years, trained as a cutting horse, that damn Equine was a handful.
I hated him, and he hated everyone but his owner and trainer, who was perchance one hot Lady.
But when he ran, and jumped, he was amazing.
You never turned your back, you never let go of the reins or horn, and you NEVER took your eyes off him if you were within range of him. SOB once caught me off guard and bit the hell out of my ass!!!
Excellent article. I appreciate your eye for detail. Thank you. 😀👍
Frequently saw John Wayne along with Richard Boone in Kona, Hawaii. I grew up on the Big Island of Hawaii and my family had one of the largest coffee farms in Kona. Also did a lot of fishing for Opelu and long line fishing for Ahi.
in the above shirtless picture,he pissed his pants!
Great article to read
The DUKE was and will always be a peoples man
He had faults but who doesn’t. We should all follow his example. The world would be a better place.
Yeah, he was “the man”! Conservative in Hollywood. Now we have Tim Allen… a very different kind of “man’s man”…. but at least he’s standing up for himself!
Well, there’s Tom Selleck, and Chris Pratt has caused a fair amount of heartburn out there, there’s ol’ Clint Eastwood (sorta), and Dean Cain and James Woods. What’s the name of that semi-secret club of conservatives out there? They could probably meet in a large phone booth, but there’s still a few of them.
Although I like Selleck, he’s not as conservative as the rest, I think he straddles the fence more.
Do not forget Kurt Russell. I like the Libertarian beliefs that are in him.
WW 11 draft doger
Hardly, he was 34 by the time the war broke out. My father was 3 years younger and was turned down at that time.
Actually he attempted to get in the military but was turned down. It was the result of an accident on set during an underwater scene in an earlier movie with pirates and ship salvage. I cannot remember the name right now but I have seen it. During an underwater scene, he damaged his inner ear, or eardrum, that caused permanent damage to his ear/balance.
There has never been a world war eleven. Besides back then they were very selective of who actually was allowed to enlist. His broken collar bone may have been a reason to eliminate him.
BTW have you ever served on the military?
He applied for Annapolis before he became famous and was not accepted. Doesn’t seem a reluctance to serve. The timing just wasn’t right.
He tried numerous times to enlist. He even reached out to others in Hollywood that did enlist to try and get in including Ronald Reagan and Ford who both worked in the training and propaganda films for the Army. He was turned down for multiple physical limitations including a previously broken leg that did not heal back straight.
His distinctive walk was caused by one leg being slightly shorter than the other. Probably enough to keep him out.
My dad was turned down during the Vietnam draft for flat feet.
Great Read. Enjoyed it very much. A big Duke fan for sure. Thanks.
That you John Wayne? Is this me????
If all men were more like John Wayne the world would be a better place. I miss him.
I dont know about that. I liked Wayne’s movies, and most of his public political stances (although he sided with Carter about the US giving up control of the Panama Canal, a head scratcher there) and I have a pretty good collection of his movies, but the man was an actor, and loved that “lifestyle”. In a lot of ways, he was no different than the rest of that crowd; he had the mores of a tomcat if you believe only half of the recollections of other actors and especially actresses who knew him, his drunken parties and general alcoholism were legendary as Will here mentions, and his choice of wives isn’t that of the reasoned man he portrayed in his movies. Baur, mentioned here, was a dancer and made a living as an escort in 40s Hollywood before Wayne found her. She tried to shoot him in a drunken rage because of Gail Russell, who was a mess (and another alcoholic) herself, that Wayne was supposedly platonically “comforting” during Angel and the Badman. His next wife Pilar was another dancer in Mexico trying to get her start.
Like I said, I enjoy his movies, and like how he gave the Left fits in Hollywood, but I’ve known much better men I’d rather hold up as an example of good men to emulate.
I agree completely with Dallas H. He thought more of himself than he did of anyone else, including his country. Talk was cheap.
The majority of those who look up to Wayne or idolize him are actually idolizing the men he portrayed. Now Audie Murphy, that is a guy to look up to!