John Wayne

One of the greatest Hollywood actors, John Wayne, was making a movie in Baton Rouge. In 1970, a few friends and I were fortunate enough to be invited to his hotel suite to meet this great man.

We were a few minutes early and waited in his room for him to arrive from the days filming. Soon the big man himself "swaggered" into the room and waved hello and said to all of us, "Howdy pilgrims". We all stood up to greet him and get introduced. He graciously shook all our hands and invited us to have a seat while he freshened up a bit.

When he returned to the room I offered him my seat in a big lounge chair where I had been sitting. He refused, saying, "Oh, no, pardner, I prefer this straight kitchen chair". He mounted this chair like he would a horse, with straddled legs and his arms resting on the back of the chair. He reached for a big strawberry off the table, and ate it quickly and continued to visit with each of us, smiling all the time.

After settling down, I asked him which of his 140 films had been his favorite movie to appear in. Without hesitation he replied, "A movie I recently filmed in Colorado called "True Grit", and I will be disappointed if I don't get the big award for it". After a bit, we all left his room with great memories of the "Duke" and of course we later saw this movie.

The next year, he was awarded his only Oscar for the best actor of the year in "True Grit".