Happy 100th Marion Robert Morrison

The Duke (& another Iowa Boy) John Wayne would have been 100 today. He was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, IA. He didn't spend much time there. His dad, Clyde Morrison, who was a pharmacist, had to leave the area due to health problems when Marion was 3. Eventually the family ended up in California. While at USC Tom Mix got him a job as a prop man. There he met John Ford & began getting bit parts in movies. Eventually he went on to be in over 250 movies over various genres. & while he is mostly remembered for his patriotism & his Westerns & War movies he was actually quite talented in other areas. Here he shows off his talent

as a singer (The Dean Martin Show):

& as a dancer (The Fighting SeaBees):

He also appeared several times on Laugh-In where he showed off his comedic talent (& a willingness to spoof himself). On 1 appearance he did the following poem entitled The Sky:

"The sky is blue, the grass is green.

Get off your ass and join the Marines."

Still, it is his many great movie roles he will be remembered for, too many to list here. My favorite Wayne movie is Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo. In it he plays Sheriff John T. Chance. He co-starred with Dean Martin (1 of his best roles), Ricky Nelson, Walter Brennan & Angie Dickinson. Unfortunately, the trailer isn't available for posting (you can see it here) but here is a video of the song My Rifle, My Pony and Me as sung by Dino & Ricky Nelson:

Winterset, IA has a John Wayne museum in the works & is having a centenial celebration this weekend.

HAPPY 100TH DUKE!