Episode 83

John Wayne Home-town Museum in Winterset, Iowa

🎙️

We visited the John Wayne Hometown Museum in Winterset, Iowa! We will talk about the highlights of John Wayne's iconic career, particularly in Western and military movies, and discuss his impact on American film history. We reflect on the museum's extensive collection of artifacts, including movie posters, costumes, and personal items, which provide an immersive journey through John Wayne's life and movie career. We also touch on the museum's tribute to John Wayne's involvement with the armed forces and his dedication to portraying the military in a positive light.

🚕 Google Map to John Wayne Birthplace Museum (Winterset, IA)

🎥 John Wayne Museum

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Transcript
John Wayne:

Some words can give you a feeling that make your heart warm.

John Wayne:

Republic is one of those words.

John Wayne:

Meryl,

John Wayne:

you and.

John Wayne:

your brothers stand clear, you today.

John Wayne:

Stand clear and you won't get hurt.

John Wayne:

Tell the truth, Mr.

John Wayne:

McLintock.

John Wayne:

We weren't doing nothing.

John Wayne:

Well, that's not important right now.

John Wayne:

James?

John Wayne:

Good morning, Daddy.

John Wayne:

It's been some time since I've seen you.

John Wayne:

Ten years, I think.

John Wayne:

Wanna quit, quit.

John Wayne:

Go on back to the bottle, get drunk.

John Wayne:

One thing, though.

John Wayne:

Somebody throws a dollar in a spittoon.

John Wayne:

Don't expect me to do something about it.

John Wayne:

Just get down on your knees and go after it.

John Wayne:

That's my steak Valance.

John Wayne:

But you heard him, dude, pick it up.

John Wayne:

I said you, Liberty.

Scott:

Jen, we have learned episode in Spotify.

Jenn:

That's cool.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

So someone commented on Spotify on the Lincoln Presidential Museum.

Scott:

They said, I learned that I need to visit that museum.

Scott:

That is 100 percent true.

Scott:

This is I can't really tell what the name is.

Scott:

It looks like an abbreviation.

Scott:

The facility seemed, seems so historically immersive.

Scott:

I love both talk with history and walk with history.

Scott:

Thank you so much for your content.

Scott:

Well, thank you so much.

Scott:

Just going to say day diva.

Scott:

Dega

Jenn:

Diva.

Jenn:

Dig a diva.

Scott:

the Spotify name is, but that's awesome.

Jenn:

But that's awesome.

Jenn:

That's the whole point.

Scott:

That's the whole point.

Scott:

We're hoping to teach you something and prompt you to go

Scott:

out and visit that location.

Scott:

That is literally our goal for walk with history and talk with

Jenn:

That is, that is it in a nutshell.

Jenn:

We also had something else happen to us on the road.

Scott:

Oh yeah, so for our Talk With History listeners, you guys will enjoy

Jenn:

So we have painted the back of our car Walk with History, YouTube,

Jenn:

and Talk with History, podcast.

Jenn:

And we also put our Venmo on there in case anyone wants to help us out for

Jenn:

gas money or coffee or things like that.

Jenn:

And we were driving.

Jenn:

to our, to our historic location over the weekend and I was beside a, a trucker.

Jenn:

I was in the passenger seat, Scott was driving and he held up his phone and on

Jenn:

his phone I could see he was listening to the Talk With History podcast.

Jenn:

He was pointing at his phone, yeah, being very dangerous on the

Jenn:

road and pointing at his phone and showing me that he was listening

Jenn:

to the Talk With History podcast.

Scott:

podcast.

Scott:

Yeah, so that, that was neat because I was driving and Jen was like, Ah,

Scott:

a trucker just like showed, showed me his phone and what he was looking at.

Scott:

And I was like, Oh no, where is this going?

Scott:

And he said, no, no, no, no.

Scott:

It was our podcast.

Scott:

He showed us our podcast cover that he was listening.

Scott:

So actually, you know, if that gentleman's listening, you know, thank

Scott:

you for, you know, seeing that on the car and for, for showing us that you're

Scott:

supporting the podcast by listening.

Scott:

As you heard from the intro, we're going to talk about John Wayne's

Scott:

birthplace, actually his hometown museum.

Scott:

We're going to talk about his actual birthplace next for next week's episode.

Scott:

But one thing I did want to say that we got kind of a neat Story from

Scott:

one of our YouTube comments because this is the video that just posted

Scott:

last Wednesday on walk with This is actually from my daddy's green eyes

Scott:

and she said the green berets, right?

Scott:

So a lot of we had a lot of comments on favorite movies and we're gonna talk

Scott:

about John Wayne's movie career a little bit tonight and the green berets at least

Scott:

a lot of it was filmed at Fort Benning, Georgia She said where my husband's

Scott:

father was stationed at the time.

Scott:

John Wayne played football with some of the men there Including my father in law.

Scott:

This is my daddy's green eyes commenting.

Scott:

And on that day, my husband, who was two years old at the time, was on base.

Scott:

John Wayne held him for a while.

Scott:

We are both huge John Wayne fans, and he sure wishes he could remember

Scott:

his time in the Duke's arms.

Scott:

Thank you for taking us to this museum.

Scott:

What a great place to visit.

Scott:

I just thought that was so cool.

Scott:

Because it's, it's always neat to kind of...

Scott:

Interact with someone who's either knew the person or had an experience with some

Scott:

that someone that we've covered on the

Jenn:

Sure.

Jenn:

And I, you know, I think that's so endearing.

Jenn:

We have a lot of John Wayne to cover.

Jenn:

So it's not going to be all in this episode.

Jenn:

We're going to also talk about movies.

Jenn:

Scott has finished my top 10 and he has ranked his top 10 and we will

Jenn:

go more in depth into those today will just be an overview of his

Jenn:

birthplace museum as so the location of his museum in which is at Iowa.

Jenn:

And basically like an overture of his movie career.

Scott:

Iowa, and so this is the tail end of our Reston Road

Scott:

Trip.

Scott:

One of the places that we wanted to stop by and we're very glad we did.

Scott:

This is Winterset, Iowa.

Scott:

So Jen, tell us about not so much Winterset, Iowa, but why this museum

Jenn:

Sure, and I'll be honest, I probably would not have

Jenn:

stopped in Iowa for anything.

Jenn:

We were driving back from South Dakota on our way to Ohio, and it's on the

Jenn:

way, but there's, there's no reason to stop in Iowa except for this, for me.

Jenn:

So Winters at Iowa is where John Wayne was born.

Scott:

And John Wayne was born Marion Morris.

Jenn:

Marion Robert Morrison on May 26th, 1907.

Scott:

And so we'll talk about his actual birthplace in a little bit more

Scott:

about his life and family next week

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

Mm hmm.

Jenn:

We were

Scott:

we were there because they had a great Everybody kind

Scott:

of knows the Fort Worth Museum.

Scott:

That's probably the bigger one.

Scott:

But this one was absolutely amazing

Jenn:

So this museum claims to have the largest diversified collection

Jenn:

of artifacts of John Wayne.

Jenn:

So diversified.

Jenn:

I think it means more than just movie props because

Jenn:

they have a bunch of posters.

Jenn:

They have a bunch of different things people wore.

Scott:

had art.

Jenn:

They had art, they had a big replica of the Alamo.

Jenn:

When he was the director of the movie.

Scott:

of the they had other things, you know, items from the movie.

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

And we'll talk kind of more about some of the items that you see throughout the

Jenn:

And they have some really great stuff in the gift shop.

Jenn:

So if you're interested in that as well, but I thought it was just a

Jenn:

really great museum to John Wayne.

Jenn:

It has a big statue of him out in front.

Jenn:

It lists his movies on tiles around the statue.

Jenn:

It's named John Wayne Drive.

Jenn:

So it's 205 South John Wayne Drive.

Jenn:

So they really embraced that.

Jenn:

It's their hometown hero.

Scott:

Their hometown here.

Scott:

Well, because, and the funny part was, it's easy to get It's easy to look up.

Jenn:

It's off the interstate.

Scott:

the interstate.

Scott:

It's off the interstate.

Scott:

But it's a little ways off the And it's kind of out in the middle of Iowa

Scott:

in the cornfields and the farmland.

Scott:

And it was very much like you could kind of picture this small town.

Scott:

like kind of had that because you were, I wouldn't say completely off

Scott:

the beaten path, but you weren't near any major metropolitan area.

Scott:

No major national park.

Scott:

Like this town is kind of, is known for

Jenn:

Yeah, and unbeknownst to us, County.

Scott:

That's right.

Jenn:

Because we got there and we saw they had like movie stuff of

Jenn:

the Bridges of Madison County and I'm like, what county are we in?

Jenn:

And they're like, Madison County.

Jenn:

And I'm like, is this like where the Bridges of Madison County?

Jenn:

was from and they're like, yeah, it was filmed here.

Jenn:

It's based here.

Jenn:

I'm like, Oh my gosh.

Jenn:

So that's also, and I liked that movie.

Jenn:

That's a Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Meryl Streep movie.

Jenn:

And that's also, it was filmed there on location.

Jenn:

They have eight covered bridges and that's also kind of the

Scott:

Another

Jenn:

another draw of the area.

Scott:

let's walk us kind of through the different sections

Scott:

of this, this John Wayne

Jenn:

Sure.

Jenn:

So you walk straight into the gift shop basically, and they give you a movie

Jenn:

and the movie is part of your ticket.

Jenn:

And the movie just goes over John Wayne's.

Jenn:

It's an overture of John Wayne's life and of him being born there.

Jenn:

Now, again, his name is Marion Robert Morrison, and that'll be his name all

Jenn:

the way up until his movie career.

Jenn:

He starts as a B actor in in westerns.

Jenn:

And even then he's not really listed on the credits.

Jenn:

And when he's first listed on credits, it's Duke Morrison.

Jenn:

And we'll talk more about where the Duke comes from.

Jenn:

His dog growing up was named Duke, but it was actually the producers.

Jenn:

When he starts to get more mainstream, they sit down and

Jenn:

they name him and they quit.

Jenn:

They were going to call him Duke Wayne, but they thought it wasn't

Jenn:

understood, you know, and people weren't really gravitate towards it.

Jenn:

So someone just produced it, let's just do John.

Jenn:

So then John Wayne was born.

Jenn:

He didn't even pick it.

Jenn:

So you walk in, you do the gift shop.

Jenn:

You have a lot of great movie posters, a lot of great memorabilia there.

Jenn:

And then over to the movie and then across from the movie, there's basically

Jenn:

two big rooms and they are just immersive of everything from his Career

Jenn:

and it kind of walks you through him.

Jenn:

He went to USC.

Jenn:

his

Jenn:

family eventually moved to California.

Jenn:

He goes to USC on a football scholarship.

Jenn:

He gets injured and starts working at the movies there because

Jenn:

that's, it was a job industry.

Jenn:

I mean, your great grandfather worked in the movie industry.

Scott:

is right smack there next to Hollywood.

Scott:

You know,

Jenn:

And so he,

Scott:

easy transition for someone that was tall and good

Scott:

looking and, you know, athletic

Jenn:

and I think he started basically as a, as a hand, as a stage hand.

Jenn:

Like he just was moving stuff around.

Jenn:

I mean, big guy, right?

Jenn:

He's 6'3 6'4 1 2 but and so he's moving stuff around and someone spots him, much

Jenn:

like the Harrison Ford story, right?

Jenn:

Someone spots him, and they're making these B level Westerns, and they just

Jenn:

kind of throw him in these Westerns.

Jenn:

And that's where he kind of gets his start, and he's, he,

Scott:

that was like in the 20s?

Scott:

Yeah, that was

Jenn:

in the 20s.

Scott:

Because his first big movie, if I remember correctly, was in 1930.

Jenn:

1930, The Big Trail.

Jenn:

That's his first leading role.

Jenn:

And again, so these, these B Westerns, he's just having these

Jenn:

little bit parts and stuff.

Jenn:

But yeah, that's when he gets his first big role.

Jenn:

But it really isn't until 1939, so nine years later when he's in

Jenn:

stagecoach with John Ford, that he...

Jenn:

is a breakout movie star.

Jenn:

It's when he does that role.

Jenn:

I think he plays the Ringo kid or something.

Jenn:

I think it's Ringo kid.

Jenn:

He plays it.

Jenn:

Yeah, I think he actually plays like a bad guy.

Jenn:

But he's like, he is a cowboy who stopped in the stagecoach.

Jenn:

And he kind of is almost like an anti hero even then, but he has this great close up.

Jenn:

And I even think Martin Scorsese is like that close up is just what draws you

Jenn:

into him because he has a movie star

Scott:

He totally does, and it was really, I had never really kind of looked

Scott:

into kind of the younger John Wayne.

Scott:

But you look at him, you know, I think I show a clip somewhere it was either

Scott:

in that one or it was in the next week's video of him in the 1930 and he's he's

Scott:

so young and he says he's skinny right but he's a built skinny and he's just

Scott:

a tall presence he's he's he's just a he's a big man but he's a handsome

Scott:

He's a man, especially when he's young.

Scott:

He's got that thin kind of movie star look face, and even as he ages throughout

Scott:

his career when a lot of the rest of us kind of know him a lot better, I

Scott:

mean, he, he ages pretty well and I can absolutely see why someone would

Scott:

be like, Hey, you come over here and let me have you start standing in as

Scott:

a B movie, this role in that role.

Scott:

And then he kind of just naturally

Jenn:

Yeah, John Wayne in through his film career, he'll make an 179 films.

Jenn:

And for three decades, he's a top box office draw.

Jenn:

So think for 30 years, you put John Wayne on in your movie, you're

Jenn:

going to sell a ton of tickets.

Scott:

that was the cool thing about this museum is that it really

Scott:

takes you from the beginning, right?

Scott:

So if you kind of go in the gift shop, hang a right, you're going to go right

Scott:

into the beginning of his movie career.

Scott:

And it does a great job of saying, here's John Wayne in the thirties

Scott:

and here's him in the forties and the fifties and the sixties and have all

Scott:

this memorabilia and movie posters on the wall and not just American

Scott:

movie posters, but movie posters from

Jenn:

posters from overseas

Scott:

It was really neat to see that

Scott:

too,

Jenn:

It's, they just have like a plethora, that's why I can see why it's

Jenn:

diversity, diversity of artifacts because they have the jacket he wore in The

Jenn:

Searchers, he had the shirt he wore in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valens, they

Jenn:

have the eyepatch he wore in True Grit, they have the brochure from the Oscars

Jenn:

when he won the Oscar for True Grit.

Jenn:

But what I really loved about it is it really shows the

Jenn:

growth of his movie career.

Jenn:

It shows, and I was reading like What do people say about John Wayne's acting and

Jenn:

Siskel and Ebert said of John Wayne, he's the kind of person who you didn't know if

Jenn:

he was acting when he was making a movie.

Jenn:

Is this him?

Jenn:

Or is he playing a part?

Jenn:

And he really was a lot of those.

Jenn:

He, he said he learned as an actor to be a reactor, not an actor.

Jenn:

And so he was really trying to be in the moment when someone

Jenn:

was saying lines to him.

Jenn:

How would you react to that?

Jenn:

How would you answer that?

Jenn:

How would you respond to that?

Jenn:

And he also credits himself with fight scenes with the heavy.

Jenn:

So the heavy is usually the bad guy or the, the, The antagonists

Jenn:

to the protagonists and so the heavy would always fight dirty.

Jenn:

But John Wayne said he brought the fighting dirty to the good guy.

Jenn:

So the good guy would always be clean cut and never doing anything dirty

Jenn:

and the bad guy would fight all dirty.

Jenn:

And John Wayne said when he was learning and acting, he would have to throw

Jenn:

everything in the kitchen sink at him too.

Jenn:

to pull off the stunt, to pull off the scene.

Jenn:

And so he thought, well, why wouldn't the good guy also throw a chair?

Jenn:

Why wouldn't the good guy also try to push him out of the way?

Jenn:

So he, he said he brought that to, to acting where the good guy was also

Jenn:

going to do all the same kind of, you know, scrappy kind of fighting.

Scott:

didn't realize that because he really was one of those characters in

Scott:

the early, you know, kind of, I wouldn't call, I don't know if it's considered

Scott:

the golden age of cinema, but he really helped shape what you're you're.

Scott:

your hero, your, your, I'll call it the stereotypical hero, you know,

Scott:

kind of embodied in partly because just like you said, you didn't know.

Scott:

And that's kind of some of the, the aura around John Wayne you know, a

Scott:

lot of the good characteristics of his characters, he seemed to also

Scott:

embody outside, you know, of the movie

Jenn:

or at

Scott:

And people, or at least people put that on him, and I think

Scott:

he kind of embraced it for the most

Jenn:

Yeah, I think he found that important too.

Jenn:

I know.

Jenn:

And we will go more into his life.

Jenn:

In the next podcast, this is his movie career, but I know it really bothered

Jenn:

him that he never served in the military.

Jenn:

And so he was really proud to make all the military movies.

Jenn:

And we talk about that as well.

Jenn:

And he really wanted to, to show a positivity to the armed forces.

Jenn:

And he tried to serve in the military and he actually tried, John Ford had left to

Jenn:

go work in the Navy and work for the OSS.

Jenn:

And so John Wayne had tried to.

Jenn:

enlist that way, but he couldn't because he was too old.

Jenn:

He actually was too old and Pearl Harbor happened.

Jenn:

He was 34.

Jenn:

And that was why he wasn't able to join the military.

Jenn:

But he tries and John Ford actually gave him like a couple

Jenn:

missions and he did them.

Jenn:

So he gets like honorary member.

Jenn:

But I like that he Always wanted to show the positivity of that and I know

Jenn:

we talked about Green Berets no one really wanted to make a movie about

Jenn:

the military during Vietnam and he stepped up and did it and A lot of it.

Jenn:

He was older to make that movie, but he wanted to portray The military the

Jenn:

army in a positive light and he know he knew he had a lot of star power at

Jenn:

the time So for me, I just I really wanted to show that And they really

Jenn:

do a good job of honoring his military

Jenn:

acting career, and so,

Scott:

a whole section.

Scott:

So if you're walking into

Jenn:

mm hmm,

Scott:

right.

Scott:

First off, if you're ever in the Iowa area, which I don't know.

Scott:

I'm not sure much what's out there and not knocking on Iowa itself.

Scott:

I just don't know much about the state, but if you do decide to go visit, you

Scott:

would walk in, hang a right, you're in the big kind of, this is the primary

Scott:

room where most of the displays are.

Scott:

And it's taking you through his career throughout the decades.

Scott:

It kind of loops all the way around.

Scott:

Then you getting over.

Scott:

things like true grit, and they start having different sections.

Scott:

And so they've got a military section about some of the

Scott:

military movies that he made.

Scott:

And so some of the naval roles that he played in the army roles that he played

Scott:

and, and showing, I mean, they have like some of his, his costumes, you know, they

Scott:

have a lot of kind of actual actual movie.

Scott:

things that he wore and items from all these different movies.

Scott:

And so there's a whole military section there.

Scott:

It's actually right next to, like, a whole display of kind of tribute

Jenn:

Yes, yes.

Jenn:

Yes.

Scott:

so some of them were kind of, not all of them are actually from the movie.

Scott:

Some of them were actually tribute, you know, kind of made to look like

Scott:

whatever revolver he had in some western

Jenn:

That was neat.

Jenn:

So, you know, you think of John Wayne.

Jenn:

he has played these larger than life figures, but the thing is, like John

Jenn:

Wayne has aged and a lot of those military movies he's playing, he's a

Jenn:

lot older than the rank he's portraying.

Jenn:

But I do like they, they do, they have the carriage for the quiet man there.

Scott:

That was

Jenn:

So we talk about that because we've both been to Kong.

Scott:

in the other wing,

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

And because they, the bigger that's that needed an area for bigger.

Jenn:

And so we talk about Maureen O'Hara because John Wayne has had a lot

Jenn:

of great co stars Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Lee Marvin, Dean

Jenn:

Martin, Ron Howard, end of his life, Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn.

Jenn:

Like he is, he is.

Jenn:

able to hold his own as a leading man with all of these A list actors.

Jenn:

And so, Maureen O'Hara, of course, he's been in a couple movies,

Scott:

Very well known.

Scott:

Those two.

Scott:

Those two

Jenn:

Yes, and so, we had gone to Kong, and we put in some pictures.

Jenn:

We stayed in Nashville Castle, and we walked through there.

Scott:

2010.

Scott:

went to Kong.

Scott:

And so it's funny, I was actually looking at some of those

Scott:

pictures of, of, that was right.

Scott:

I'd gotten out of the

Jenn:

Mm

Scott:

back in and it was 2010, but some of those places down in Kong, right?

Scott:

So in, in Kong, if you're listening, if you've ever seen the quiet man, you

Scott:

know, this little Irish based movie a little bit different for him, not your

Scott:

typical Western, but one of our favorites and the, the downtown area of Kong.

Scott:

They, I mean, they had actually filmed that area and they had recently redone,

Scott:

but one of the plaques was like from 2008.

Scott:

They had only finished kind of dressing it up, you know, just before we got there.

Scott:

It was really neat.

Jenn:

But one of 2008, and they have like

Scott:

do.

Scott:

They have like a whole corner of like what a set would look

Scott:

like and like him on lighting.

Jenn:

And because they talk a lot about John Ford and his cinematography and

Jenn:

the searchers is probably my idea and not just Quiet Man, which has great

Jenn:

cinematography, also John Ford, but the searchers has great, you know,

Jenn:

the settings of Monument Valley.

Jenn:

And then the man who shot Liberty Valance.

Jenn:

with Jimmy Stewart.

Jenn:

True Grit is when he wins his Best Actor award.

Jenn:

But they also go into like The Shootist, because that's also with Jimmy Stewart.

Jenn:

That's his last movie with Ron Howard.

Jenn:

And then you're going to get a bunch of the different scripts,

Jenn:

any little kind of memorabilia they have from those bigger movies.

Jenn:

She wore yellow ribbon, the Cowboys, I think they had a shirt from the Cowboys.

Jenn:

But they have all these little pieces that you can walk around and go, Oh, yeah.

Jenn:

Oh, yeah.

Scott:

One of the things that you pointed out very briefly in the

Scott:

video that I thought was really cool was a painting by Andy Warhol.

Jenn:

I love

Scott:

was really cool.

Jenn:

Yeah, so Andy Warhol has done a, one of those overlap screen art

Jenn:

portraits of John Wayne as a cowboy.

Scott:

I mean, I was kind of surprised, like, was it a print?

Scott:

I, I, I, I imagine it had to be a print because it was like an Andy Warhol.

Scott:

They're not going to be hanging out there in the

Jenn:

No, an original Andy Warhol.

Jenn:

That's probably worth 150, 000.

Jenn:

It's probably in the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Jenn:

But no, you can buy a print.

Jenn:

They were selling them in the gift shop, and I do love it.

Jenn:

I probably won't get it in one point.

Jenn:

But they have a real life kind of replica of the Alamo.

Jenn:

So when John Wayne directed the Alamo, and he did get an Oscar nomination for it.

Scott:

Was that, so was that the only movie that he had

Jenn:

Yeah, yeah,

Scott:

And I remember, and I put it up as a little kind of pop up

Jenn:

Mm

Scott:

that the, he wanted, I guess he wanted to direct

Scott:

this movie about The Alamo.

Scott:

Yes.

Scott:

But the movie studios would only agree to fund it if he starred in

Scott:

it.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

And he plays Davy Crockett.

Scott:

Davy Right.

Scott:

And so he is not really playing, you know?

Scott:

Yeah.

Scott:

His, his, his typical character.

Scott:

But I, I, I can see how a movie studio, he'd be like, yeah, we will let you direct

Scott:

something, but you need to be the starring role because he's just this massive,

Jenn:

a massive

Jenn:

draw.

Jenn:

Now don't get me wrong, John Wayne played some characters that he didn't quite fit.

Jenn:

He played Genghis Khan in a movie.

Jenn:

Didn't quite fit that.

Jenn:

He played, if you, The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Jenn:

He plays a centurion, who with Jesus, kind of odd.

Jenn:

You're like, oh, that's John Wayne.

Jenn:

What?

Jenn:

That's weird.

Jenn:

But he's, I don't even think he, I think he might have one line in the movie.

Jenn:

But he is a box office draw.

Jenn:

But, He also has a persona that people are used to seeing him in, and it's

Jenn:

usually very Western or military.

Jenn:

I would say even Quiet Man, he fits that persona, but it's a leading

Jenn:

man who is almost like a broken man, maybe coming back up into

Jenn:

his own, and playing something off character like that was always good.

Jenn:

Not been quite fit for him, but we talk about him winning the

Jenn:

Oscar for true grit, which I don't think is his best performance.

Jenn:

I do like him as Rooster Cogburn, but I really love him and the searchers and he

Jenn:

receives his Oscar from Barbra Streisand.

Jenn:

And when he leans over to think to take it from her, he says beginners luck in her

Scott:

he'd been in the industry already for 30 plus

Jenn:

and she just thought it was like the cutest thing.

Jenn:

And he actually cries like he wiped the tear it away when he thinks the audience.

Scott:

he also say, well, he was on stage.

Scott:

He's like, if I had known that this was going to happen, I would

Scott:

have put that eye patch on sooner.

Jenn:

because he didn't want to wear it.

Jenn:

That was one of the biggest things when he was making the movie.

Jenn:

He didn't want to wear the eyepatch.

Jenn:

And actually we've talked about this before.

Jenn:

The eyepatch is actually see through.

Jenn:

It's actually like a gauze that you could actually see through.

Jenn:

And if you look at it, it's there in the museum.

Jenn:

If you look at it, you can kind of see where it's not quite a full

Jenn:

eyepatch, like a leather eyepatch.

Jenn:

So it made it easier probably for him to act, but yeah, it was, I really enjoyed.

Jenn:

Those are basically the big two rooms with a lot of,

Scott:

the, the other room that didn't have as much of the movie posters

Scott:

again, was kind of like, there was like a quiet man's section, Alamo section,

Scott:

and then they actually had a bunch of kind of personal life type stuff.

Scott:

They had like one of his

Jenn:

One of his cars is there.

Jenn:

A lot of his fan mail.

Scott:

fan mail, which that was really cool to see.

Scott:

And we showed that pretty well in the video of all these

Scott:

letters that were written to him.

Scott:

And it was neat to see someone's, someone's handwriting that says, John

Scott:

Wayne, movie star, Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Scott:

It was really neat to see that because you could tell that Probably was an adult,

Scott:

wasn't an adult that wrote that particular letter that I showed in the video.

Scott:

He was probably a, you know, a child or someone younger.

Scott:

But then they showed like a bunch of his like leisure wear that he would

Scott:

normally wear, you know, out on his boat.

Jenn:

Well, and you have to think, we're going to talk more about this in

Jenn:

his lifestyle, but John Wayne is a big family man, has seven children, and

Jenn:

he's a big proponent around Hollywood.

Jenn:

He's going to give a lot of his wealth away.

Jenn:

So you think of the John Wayne Cancer Research Foundation, think about, he

Jenn:

started the tennis club in Newport beach.

Jenn:

It's still there today.

Jenn:

He liked to boat.

Jenn:

So

Scott:

actually got an airport named after

Jenn:

he has an airport named after him.

Jenn:

Yes.

Jenn:

So he, he was very much giving back to everybody.

Jenn:

And from what I've heard about him, if you approached him, he was very open

Jenn:

to signing autographs and meeting.

Jenn:

He was very, he loved his fans.

Jenn:

So even to have all that fan mail is understandable

Jenn:

because he did love his fans.

Jenn:

He loved interacting with his fans.

Jenn:

He just loved that connection he had to people.

Jenn:

And Like, I feel it.

Jenn:

I, John, I probably only lived for two years during John Wayne's life,

Jenn:

but I feel a connection to John Wayne.

Jenn:

Like, I like watching his movies and I feel like I'm watching my dad on screen.

Jenn:

So I can see how people would feel this connection to him and want to watch him.

Jenn:

But yeah, I really, We talk about his movie career.

Jenn:

I still watch new movies of his even today.

Jenn:

I went to the Turner Classic movie weekend and I saw she wore a yellow ribbon.

Jenn:

I had never seen that before.

Jenn:

And so there's still new movies of John Wayne I'm discovering,

Jenn:

but we're going to talk about our favorites and on another podcast,

Scott:

coming up in a future

Jenn:

if you have favorites of John Wayne, please let us know, or movies you want us

Jenn:

to watch or review, please let us know.

Jenn:

But yeah, I'm, it was a really great museum.

Jenn:

If you're a John Wayne fan, you have to get there.

Scott:

It was a to get there.

Scott:

Yeah, it's definitely worth, worth taking a day to get out to Winterset, Iowa to

Scott:

visit, you know, this John Wayne Museum.

Scott:

And I think it actually opened up around the same time as as the Fort Worth

Scott:

So thank you for allowing us to be your guides on a journey through the enduring

Scott:

legacy of John Wayne's illustrious all from the heart of Winterset, Iowa.

Scott:

The John Wayne Birthplace Museum is more than just a tribute to a cinematic

Scott:

icon, it's a journey through the themes that resonated throughout his career,

Scott:

the very themes that helped shape the landscape of American film history.

Scott:

As you walk through the museum, you can see the rugged individualism,

Scott:

the unwavering determination, and the unyielding sense of justice that John

Scott:

Wayne brought to life in his characters.

Scott:

His films were more than just entertainment.

Scott:

They were a reflection of the American spirit, and those themes from his

Scott:

films still resonate with us today.

Scott:

So thank you for listening to the Talk With History podcast.

Scott:

And please reach out to us at our website, talkwithhistory.

Scott:

com.

Scott:

But more importantly, if you know someone else that might enjoy this podcast,

Scott:

especially your fellow John Wayne fans out there, please share it with We

Scott:

rely on you, our community to grow, and we appreciate you all every day.

Scott:

We'll talk to you next

Jenn:

next time.

Jenn:

Thank you.

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About the Podcast

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Talk With History: Discover Your History Road Trip
A Historian and Navy Veteran talk about traveling to historic locations

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About your hosts

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Scott B

Host of the Talk With History podcast, Producer over at Walk with History on YouTube, and Editor of TheHistoryRoadTrip.com
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Jennifer B

Former Naval Aviator turned Historian and a loyal Penn Stater. (WE ARE!) I earned my Masters in American History and graduate certificate in Museum Studies, from the University of Memphis.

The Talk with History podcast gives Scott and me a chance to go deeper into the details of our Walk with History YouTube videos and gives you a behind-the-scenes look at our history-inspired adventures.

Join us as we talk about these real-world historic locations and learn about the events that continue to impact you today!

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Caught with every podcast. Discovered after learning about them through Pin-Ups For Vets when Jenn became an ambassador. WW II content my favorite.
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Thank you for the great podcasts and for sharing your passion! Love hearing about the locations you visit.