Looking up at the appropriately named “Saddleback Mountain,” it’s easy to imagine John Wayne — the biggest cowboy movie star ever — stradling the twin peaks and riding off into the heavens.
But of course Duke, as he was called, wasn’t a real cowboy any more than he was, in a movie by the same name, a Green Beret.
Wayne, however, was, by his own admission, a “white supremacist.”
At a time in which the pain of racism arises all too often, Wayne’s beliefs are something Orange County, and particularly our elected officials, can no longer ignore.
Yes, I’m talking about changing the name of an airport with the initials JWA.
Towering actor
By the time my grandparents moved to Orange County in 1965, Wayne — who lived in Newport Beach — was a legendary and beloved actor and that is something that no one can take away.
In 1939, Wayne rocketed to stardom in John Ford’s film “Stagecoach.” Six-foot-four, barrel-chested and weighing 240 pounds, he went on to appear in scores of movies, was a top box-office draw for three decades and won a best actor Oscar in 1969 for “True Grit.”
He boldly supported the Republican party in a Hollywood not exactly known for supporting the GOP. Yet Wayne’s stature was such that when the actor was nominated in 1979 for a Congressional Gold Medal, the “libs” — as some call Democrats today — supported the award.
In applauding the medal, Robert Aldrich, president of the Directors Guild of America, quipped, “It is important for you to know that I am a registered Democrat and, to my knowledge, share none of the political views espoused by Duke.”
Still, Aldrich declared, “Because of his courage, his dignity, his integrity, and because of his talents as an actor, his strength as a leader, his warmth as a human being throughout his illustrious career, he is entitled to a unique spot in our hearts and minds.”
The following year, President Jimmy Carter posthumously awarded Wayne the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Heck, on the year marking Wayne’s birthday centennial in 2007, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, inducted the actor into the California Hall of Fame.
But those were less examined times and arguably less informed times.
Three years ago, the California Legislature voted down a proposal to name Wayne’s birthday, May 26, “John Wayne Day.”
The reason? Wayne’s views on race.
On the record
In 1971, Wayne opened up in a lengthy Playboy magazine interview.
“We can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks,” Wayne told Richard Lewis, the interviewer. “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”
Now, Wayne was no fool and no neophyte when it came to the media. He was just a loud and proud, um, bigot.
“I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves,” Wayne continued. “Now, I’m not condoning slavery. It’s just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can’t play football with the rest of us.”
Huh?
“I will say this, though: I think any black who can compete with a white today can get a better break than a white man. I wish they’d tell me where in the world they have it better than right here in America.”
It’s enough to turn your stomach, perhaps even enough to boycott John Wayne Airport.
And there’s more.
On “perversion” Wayne opined to Playboy, “Wouldn’t you say that the wonderful love of those two men in ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ a story about two fags, qualifies?”
It wasn’t the first time Wayne disparaged the LGBTQ community.
In his book “John Wayne: The Life and Legend,” Scott Eyman offers this quote from a conversation between Wayne and Kirk Douglas about a Vincent van Gogh film in 1957:
“Christ, Kirk, how can you play a part like that? There’s so goddamn few of us left. We got to play strong, tough characters. Not these weak queers.”
In the Playboy interview, Wayne also shared his views on American Indians. “Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
While discussing a Native American protest on Alcatraz Island, Wayne said, “So as far as I’m concerned, I think we ought to make a deal with the Indians. They should pay as much for Alcatraz as we paid them for Manhattan.”
Then the actor offered this: “I hope they haven’t been careless with their wampum.”
Learning from the past
To be sure, Wayne was a complicated and complex man.
His three wives were Latina. He spoke fluent Spanish. And his son, Ethan, as recently as March defended honoring his father by keeping the name John Wayne Airport.
“It’s unfair to judge someone on something that was written that he said nearly 50 years ago when the person is no longer here to respond,” the John Wayne family stated earlier this year after a tweet from a screenwriter went viral.
“Regardless of color, ethnicity or sexual preference, (our) father taught us to treat all people the same, with respect.”
The family makes a point and when the city of Newport Beach two years ago named a park in Wayne’s honor it was no big deal.
But when it comes to plastering someone’s name on an international airport that sees nearly 1 million passengers a month, there must be careful, considered and continued thought.
What was OK in the late 1970s when supervisors named JWA is not necessarily OK in today’s world — and perhaps it never should have been acceptable.
When I drive by or fly out of John Wayne Airport, a place most of us simply refer to as “John Wayne,” I don’t always think about the actor and his dark statements. But when I do, I am troubled.
For many people it’s worse. Being forced to buy and carry around an airline ticket that unavoidably honors someone’s racism is an insult.
I suspect even Wayne would look back on this slice of his legacy and reconsider more than a few things.
On a Newport Beach hill, a green grass cemetery rises above the blue Pacific. Near a tree and low on the ground, a modest brass plaque serves as Duke’s headstone.
The plaque features big John Wayne riding a horse and includes the actor’s favorite phrase:
“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.
“It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.”