The stage lights at Camp Pendleton cut out at 9:15. The USO coordinator stood in front of 300 soldiers shipping to Vietnam at…
Summer 1945. On a Hollywood set, a decorated war hero turned [music] director humiliated America’s biggest movie star in front of 50 people.…
The Copa room at the Sands Hotel was packed to capacity on November 3rd, 1962. A Saturday night, the Rat Pack was performing.…
The Texas heat was brutal. July 17th, 1958, Old Tucson Studios, right in the middle of filming Rio Bravo. Howard Hawks was directing.…
They laughed first, soft chuckles at the far end of the table, then louder, more confident laughter that followed him all the way…
The night Kirk Douglas publicly challenged John Wayne’s gun skills began like any other glittering Hollywood gala with champagne flowing, cameras flashing, and…
In Hollywood, they used to say nobody could intimidate a producer. They controlled the contracts, the schedules, and sometimes even the careers. But…
March 1961, a school teacher in rural Montana asks her 12 students to write one sentence to John Wayne. It’s just a classroom…
1966, one of the most famous restaurants in Hollywood. A young man sits down at an empty table. [music] He’s just earned his…
It’s the early 1970s and John Wayne is sailing off the California coast with his son Michael when he’s handed a screenplay. The…