JOHN WAYNE STORIES
This new page is dedicated to personal stories submitted about meetings, or near meetings with John Wayne. Submissions can be emailed or posted on the message board for consideration. Both addresses are listed on the main webpage.
I would like to begin this page with several stories that I can tell which occurred to my wife and to a close personal friend.
To begin with, my Wife was a florist for many years before I married her. She owned her own store in South Orange County, and as all fans know, the Duke lived in Newport Beach. At some point my wife had been contacted by Dukes daughter Aissa for flowers. It seemed their regular florist couldn't make an arrangement on time, or something along those lines so my wifes shop became a "backup florist", so to speak.
Because the calls were not frequent, this was not something that was much of a big deal until one day the phone rang. My wife says she answered it and the voice on the other line identified himself as John Wayne. Having only dealt with the daughter in the past, my wife was highly skeptical.and responded with something like, "yeah and I'm Peter Pan". Needless to say this irritated Duke, but he was polite and said he would have his secretary call back. When She did call, my wife was so embarrassed that she provided the arragement, which included a bottle of wine, free of charge.
The second personal story has to deal with my youth. While attending college, I took a job as a security patrolman. In that capacity, I met and made friends with a number of men that were field alarm technicians in the same company. Back in those days, these were the guys who responded to alarms and repaired them at all hours of the day or night. One of the accounts that we had was John Waynes Home in Newport Beach.
Apparently one night the alarm to Waynes home went off. Back in those days it was practice to send the police on such alarms and dispatch an "alarm man" as well. Well in this case one of my friends was sent on the call. On his arrival the home was very active, he told me. He told me every bell in the house was ringing and the sound was deafening. But despite all that noise, my friend told me that he could hear the distinct voice of John Wayne screaming, " SOMEONE TURN OFF THESE GODDAMN BELLS!".
Upon investigation my friend told me what appearred to have happened was that someone had accidently pushed one of the robbery alarm buttons which activated the alarm. Duke, who had possibly had a few that day, went around the house pushing all the rest of the buttons trying to turn the bells off, which only made the problem worse because the bells would not quit ringing until all the buttons were reset.. My friend said he spent a good half hour resetting each of the buttons in the house with Duke hot on his heels screaming "Turn off these Goddam bells".
Needless to say, once the home was quieted down, so was Duke. My friend (who did a great impression of the duke) told me that after he explained what had happened Duke was quite cordial and apologized for his attitude towards my friend. This story may lose a little in the telling, but I thought it was funny as my friend told it. I wouldn't want Duke screaming at me.
Other's experiences with the Duke!
Larry
The Day I Met "The Duke"
Wed Feb 24 13:14:07 1999
One day in the summer of 1966 I had the pleasure of meeting John
Wayne. However, as a young Marine serving in Vietnam, it wasn't
under the most pleasurable circumstances. Under a blistering sun
amidst the sounds of screaming jets, hovering helicopters and two
distant mortar rounds "The Duke" arrived at our Marine unit at
DaNang. After leaving Hill 327 and 3rd Marine Division Hdqrts
word had relayed rapidly that he was in our area of operations. I
had considered any opportunity to meet Mr. Wayne or say hello
remote at best but suddenly there stood the stalwart, legendary
movie star clad in Marine jungle utilities and ball cap. Now after
almost 33 years I don't recall our exact conversation, but I
remember shaking hands and welcoming Mr Wayne to our outfit
and he thanked us for the job we were doing. He was amiable and
gracious, paused for a photo with me, and autographed a
Vietnamese piaster. The photo and the autograph make a
memorable conversation piece and serve as an eternal reminder of
my many fond---though often bittersweet---experiences serving as a
young Marine in Vietnam and of that summer day in 1966...the day
I met "The Duke."
Anneliese Kennedy
Green Berets
Sat Aug 22 08:03:05 1998
This is a John Wayne/family anecdote. When John Wayne was first preparing to make "The Green Berets", he made a quiet, quick initial visit to the Special Forces Training Center at Ft. Bragg, NC. My dad was serving on the staff, and was then a major, if I remember correctly. He was assigned to serve as Mr. Wayne's military escort that day during his tour of the Center. Mr. Wayne invited him to ask my mother to join them for lunch, after which he would be leaving the Post. Dad had his office personnel spend all morning trying to reach my Mom, and have her meet him at the O'Club. Unfortunately, she got the message too late, and arrived just as Mr. Wayne's car was pulling away. You can imagine her chagrin when she met Dad on the O'Club steps and found she had just missed lunching with John Wayne. Dad was impressed with Mr. Wayne, and enjoyed very much his time with him. Many years later, in 1985, while attending Mass at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, CA, the priest had everyone at the beginning of the service turn and greet the people around them. I spoke to those behind me, and turned towards those in front, and was flabbergasted to find myself face to face with Michael and Patrick Wayne. They had been visiting the area to participate in a showing of John Wayne portraits. I managed to control my reactions (we were, after all, in church), as I figured they wouldn't want attention drawn to them. After Mass, they spent a few minutes in conversation with my husband and I about the Mission. I never did have the courage to mention my father's meeting with their father nearly 25 years before.