B15M

Do you like him personally or the part he played?

I am guessing that he always was a leader in his acting rolls taking chances and pushing things.

From reading your posts I think that is how you feel about your playing. Don't play it safe. Be a leader and take the chance.

Manny Laureano

Y'know...

When I first signed on to TM I didn't have an avatar because I had no idea what the word meant! I eventually figured it out and looked through the files to see what was available. I didn't want a trumpet picture, or a brand name. I saw that a lot of the movie and toon avatars were taken and didn't want to copy what someone else had done. I also was unsuccessful at uploading a pic from another source.

I noticed that the Duke was sort of sitting there by himself and unclaimed. He was a symbol for my generation of what the "above the fray" American male was. Patriotic (which he actually was), tough, honest, always the "good guy", and caring but not in the Alan Alda/Phil Donahue style that became part of '80's feminization of men.

He was an actor playing roles that appealed to a part of being male. He's not an actor that many younger ones today know. They probably wouldn't like his movies, anyway. There's much about his movies that would be regarded as politically incorrect as a result of what they're being taught today.

There never was any huge scandal that was associated with The Duke that I had ever heard (watch... now that I said that, some idiot will come up with a tell-all book with some dug-up dirt nobody cares about). If the Duke had been a musician, he would have been a bass player in a big band. Steady, a rock, doing his job quietly but dependably, and clearly. I figured I coud do worse with another symbol.

So, yeah... The Duke.

ML

B15M

How could you not like his movies? I still watch them.

Manny Laureano

Well, that's how I feel but you never quite know how people will react to things when they have grown up with a different set of values.

I'm glad you like them, anyway. I liked him in "The Cowboys". The Duke trying to be a reluctant "dad" to these little orphaned kids. Tough old bird trying understand them and vice versa.

ML

ScreaminRaider

I personally love John Wayne's movies. When I was a little kid, we used to go over to my great-grandparents every sunday after church, and we would watch The Duke all afternoon.

Clarino

Hey Manny, Since I've never heard you speak whenever I read your posts I hear it like "The Duke" is reading it to me. Is that weird?

Manny Laureano

Au contraire, mon frere... very cool. I'll have to remember that when we someday meet.

ML

gzent

No, trust me, pilgrim that's how he really talks!

trumpet blower88

Thats how I always felt, untill I saw the videos on the Monete website. Haha, for some reason I expected Manny to look a bit older, I don't know why... I guess I always figured Manny looked like "The Duke"... haha.

murph66

I had lunch with my daughter's new boy friend a week ago and found we had a lot in common. Not only were we both retired Army officers, we both loved John Wayne and his movies. We even agreed on what we felt was his best, "the Quiet Man."
John Wayne was a Shriner and at the Imperial Convention a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to ask some members of the Shrine Headquarters in Los Angeles a question I have always had concerning his membership- who put him through the initiation. One of them grinned at me and answered "nobody."