John Wayne is well-known and adored for playing the famous cowboy.
Yet we were never aware of how particular that star was about a certain aspect of their appearance.
John Wayne is regarded as one of the biggest cinema stars in history as a result of his illustrious career. He personified the idealized American virtues of his period and represented the strong, reserved cowboy or military archetype.
But, his legacy is under question, and in recent years, an increasing number of people have questioned John Wayne’s macho persona both on and off the screen.
Did you also know that the renowned actor was particular about the kind of pants he wore for movies?
Wayne was skilled at presenting himself to people and audiences, but it was director Henry Hathaway who made the actor’s main concern known.
Wayne and Hathaway collaborated on six significant movies throughout the years.
In 1941’s The Shepherd of the Hills, their debut motion picture, Wayne played Young Matt, a tenacious mountaineer out to exact vengeance on the father he never knew.
The following movie they made was the 1960 drama North to Alaska, in which Wayne starred as Sam McCord. Sam is one of two prospectors, along with a con guy, who are struggling with romantic problems.
The pair’s third movie came out in 1965. Wayne portrayed the oldest of four sons in The Sons of Katie Elder, who seek vengeance after their father was killed and their mother was defrauded.
Wayne starred as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn in the 1969 picture True Grit, which is the most adored project the two of them collaborated on. In order to find and execute her father’s killer, a little girl seeks Cogburn’s assistance.
Tale of the Lost (1957) and Circus World (1964), the other two movies produced by the Hollywood titans, did not enjoy the same level of popularity as their previous three blockbusters.
Hathaway’s interactions with John Wayne are covered in depth in Scott Eyman’s book John Wayne: The Life and Legend. The filmmaker claimed that Wayne was picky about the kind of jeans he wore. He was so meticulous that his clothes might as well have been his top concern.
One amusing aspect of Wayne Hathaway continued by saying:
“Wayne is pickier than anyone in the world about the jeans he wears. It drives him nuts unless he gets the thinnest kind of material. Then I said, “You have to wear homespun,” to him. For Christ’s sake, you cannot wear poplin or cotton gabardine. You must dress in homespun.
A quarter of a century later, Wayne was staring at the poster for The Shepherd of the Hills on the wall of Hathaway’s office on the Paramount property.
Do you remember those terrible pants, Wayne reportedly said as he regarded the “homespun” pants he was sporting in the billboard.
Wayne understood the value of a Western style to his viewers and the genuineness of his productions.
Wayne’s grasp of what his viewers wanted to see is what made him the icon he still is today, despite many critics of the actor claiming that his personas were not distinctive or diversified across different films.
While some have criticized John Wayne’s performance, there is no doubting that he is a very American figure, which is what I appreciate about him.
