Read Online To Kill the Duke by Sam Moffie, Vicki Contavespi - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Sam Moffie, Vicki Contavespi
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his breath. “No, just move it back a few weeks.” Powell hated doing this. Not just because it was John Wayne, but because next to being put on hold, Dick hated all the meetings that were scheduled and then pushed back in the movie business.
If I had a dollar for all those cancelled and moved-back meetings, I might be half as rich as Howard
, he thought…
on second thought, a quarter as rich.
He watched Howard Hughes’ plane take off and then asked the rental car driver for a phone book. He also asked where he could find the local newspaper, so he could announce what was going to be taking place by way of having a chat with the paper’s editor and owners. Then, he could take out an ad. This way, he could find all the right places to purchase items, hire extras and keep the area humming about the movie that was being filmed in their back yard. Dick Powell was a big fan of keeping the locals happy.
He also asked the driver why he had a metallic taste in his mouth when he settled into the car Hughes had reserved and paid for.
“Sir, it’s not you,” the clerk replied. “It’s been like that for a few years. You’ll get used to it.”
“Of course I will. I live with the pollution of Los Angeles,” Powell said.
Dick and June enjoyed their few days together. The drive from Utah back to Hollywood energized both of them. Furthermore, June even came up with a few suggestions for the male lead.
“John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum and of course Randolph Scott. After all, it’s an 11 th -century western,” she said after reading through the script.
And now, a few weeks after that suggestion, he had a luncheon meeting scheduled with one of his favorite people in Hollywood — John Wayne. They were going to talk about how the blacklisting was starting to settle down and whether or not some of the names associated withit should be accepted back into the fold. Wayne was against it. Powell wanted to be friendlier; he figured that all of the people named had been punished enough over the last few years and it was time for Hollywood to regroup. Besides, the men named were all of superior talent.
“Mr. Wayne is already in your office,” Miss Burchett announced as Dick made his way into his office.
“He’s always early, and I tried extra hard to be in my office even
earlier
today,” Powell said to his secretary as he opened the door to be greeted by a big bear hug from the Duke himself.
His parents must have brought him up right, too,
he thought.
The Duke — John Wayne. A mountain… no, an entire mountain range of a man. No one in Hollywood was casting a larger shadow than the man now hugging Dick Powell. Wayne had a lot of critics inside some Hollywood circles, not to mention the self-proclaimed intellectual leaders of the left (no one ever could tell Dick how they became the anointed ones) mostly because of Duke’s right-wing politics and nothing else. And in a place like Hollywood, which was far left of center to everything, it was amazing how John Wayne dominated the industry.
“Box-office appeal,” was how one member of the intellectual left described Wayne’s strength. Oscar Millard told this to Dick after Oscar had been to a party that was dominated by screenwriters, poets and authors. And being a screenwriter, Oscar knew a lot of left-leaning men and women, all of whom seemed to be writers.
“That means the majority of Americans are like him,” Oscar had replied to the fellow who was a poet.
“No…,” said another listener to the conversation “they want to
be
him.”
And that is what Oscar Millard told Dick Powell about his friend John Wayne-
American men want to be him, and American women all want him
.
“And the roles he plays and gets all reinforce the image that we fight when it comes to Wayne and the right-wing of our community,” a fiction writer announced to the small circle that was debating John Wayne at the party.
“But it isn’t just one man,” said
If I had a dollar for all those cancelled and moved-back meetings, I might be half as rich as Howard
, he thought…
on second thought, a quarter as rich.
He watched Howard Hughes’ plane take off and then asked the rental car driver for a phone book. He also asked where he could find the local newspaper, so he could announce what was going to be taking place by way of having a chat with the paper’s editor and owners. Then, he could take out an ad. This way, he could find all the right places to purchase items, hire extras and keep the area humming about the movie that was being filmed in their back yard. Dick Powell was a big fan of keeping the locals happy.
He also asked the driver why he had a metallic taste in his mouth when he settled into the car Hughes had reserved and paid for.
“Sir, it’s not you,” the clerk replied. “It’s been like that for a few years. You’ll get used to it.”
“Of course I will. I live with the pollution of Los Angeles,” Powell said.
Dick and June enjoyed their few days together. The drive from Utah back to Hollywood energized both of them. Furthermore, June even came up with a few suggestions for the male lead.
“John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum and of course Randolph Scott. After all, it’s an 11 th -century western,” she said after reading through the script.
And now, a few weeks after that suggestion, he had a luncheon meeting scheduled with one of his favorite people in Hollywood — John Wayne. They were going to talk about how the blacklisting was starting to settle down and whether or not some of the names associated withit should be accepted back into the fold. Wayne was against it. Powell wanted to be friendlier; he figured that all of the people named had been punished enough over the last few years and it was time for Hollywood to regroup. Besides, the men named were all of superior talent.
“Mr. Wayne is already in your office,” Miss Burchett announced as Dick made his way into his office.
“He’s always early, and I tried extra hard to be in my office even
earlier
today,” Powell said to his secretary as he opened the door to be greeted by a big bear hug from the Duke himself.
His parents must have brought him up right, too,
he thought.
The Duke — John Wayne. A mountain… no, an entire mountain range of a man. No one in Hollywood was casting a larger shadow than the man now hugging Dick Powell. Wayne had a lot of critics inside some Hollywood circles, not to mention the self-proclaimed intellectual leaders of the left (no one ever could tell Dick how they became the anointed ones) mostly because of Duke’s right-wing politics and nothing else. And in a place like Hollywood, which was far left of center to everything, it was amazing how John Wayne dominated the industry.
“Box-office appeal,” was how one member of the intellectual left described Wayne’s strength. Oscar Millard told this to Dick after Oscar had been to a party that was dominated by screenwriters, poets and authors. And being a screenwriter, Oscar knew a lot of left-leaning men and women, all of whom seemed to be writers.
“That means the majority of Americans are like him,” Oscar had replied to the fellow who was a poet.
“No…,” said another listener to the conversation “they want to
be
him.”
And that is what Oscar Millard told Dick Powell about his friend John Wayne-
American men want to be him, and American women all want him
.
“And the roles he plays and gets all reinforce the image that we fight when it comes to Wayne and the right-wing of our community,” a fiction writer announced to the small circle that was debating John Wayne at the party.
“But it isn’t just one man,” said
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