John Twang a draft-dodger?? Ok. Maybe "dodge" isn't the right word... maybe 'avoid' fits. And actually, John was still service-age. He was 34 by about half a year when the war started. And he didn't push to enlist, he allowed Republic Studios to file for a hardship exemption claiming he was a sole provider. His "fall back" claim was that he had a bad knee from his USC football days. Funny how that didn't stop him from riding a horse throughout his cinematic career. But full military service just wasn't in his cards...
John Ford's claimed in his bio that he essentially begged Wayne to get personally involved in the efforts to serve the country militarily, thinking that his avoidance would hurt his career if his dragging feet became public common knowledge. To no avail. Wayne let the studio handle his "enlistment efforts".
For a man who supposedly made such enthusiastic and devoted attempts to join the military (or at least, his fans claim that), John Wayne sure made the most of his opportunity in Hollywood while other age-eligible "leading men" left to serve.
In 1942 alone, despite his full calendar and his devoted all-consuming attempts to enlist (in which he found the time to 'inspire the country'
with his role in
"The Flying Tigers"), he found the time to *star* in
six more movies that year--meanwhile, Jimmy Stewart, a year younger, famously was the first Hollywood star to enlist (and campaign for front-line service).
JIMMY, not John, fulfilled
his personal sense of duty when he was 36... he flew his first bomber mission over Germany at 36; and was promoted to major when he was almost 37 (still in front line service). Of course Jimmy was a single solitary example of TRUE patriotism. We can't count the likes of Humphrey Bogart; who was refused re-enlistment because of his age (41). And volunteering his boat and weekly "patrol" service in the Coast Guard doesn't count for patriotism at 44yr of age. Yeah, right. One wonders if John Wayne made his USO appearances because he was shamed into it by Humphrey Bogart's Africa tours...
But just to be fair, we'll allow that one of the movies John starred in may have been "in the can" before its' release in 1942--that still means that he made at least six of his movies in 1942 while the American public waited with bated breath for John Wayne. That film production doesn't count the eight more films he made between '43-45. HELL, his last military 'service', "They Were Expendable" began filming in early 1945. Maybe he thought his film "service" compensatory for failing to make a bona fide attempt to serve. As was pointed out, he
DID petition for OSS service two years after the war broke out
in 1943, when guilt and reputation probably finally weighed on him... erroneously listing his home address (at his ex-wife's) and all. One wonders why it took 2-1/2 years to find his patriotic enthusiasms. Those of us who aren't enthralled by his reputation think differently of him.
By the way, it wasn't Vietnam nor the "left" or "Commie Hollywood revisionists" who woke me to John's works, it was my father. He served in Europe during the war. I can remember in grammar school asking about something in a John Wayne war movie... I was in 7th grade by 1962, so my father's answer was "pure"--no Vietnam, no left, no revisionists... "TURN THAT SHIT OFF!!! WE'RE NOT WATCHING THAT MAN IN A WAR MOVIE! HE NEVER FOUGHT!" I never ever forgot that; the vehemence he felt about John Wayne's image, 'way back when none of us kids knew of a "leftist" view.
.jpg)
