One of the all time greats, why no messages??

His fate in diving films apparently did not dissuade the Duke from enjoying the sea. Surprisingly, he seemed happier underwater than in the saddle (there's a pun there somewhere) and became quite the dedicated diver and seaman. Is that a yachting cap? No, it's the Duke's toupee!

I've had the pleasure of recoiling at the sight of Tyrone Power, Sr. only once, in "The Big Trail," and have no idea if his truly frightening visage was purely the result of makeup worthy of Lon Chaney or some genetic deformity. Talk about a Bluto or Brutus (or whatever the name was of Popeye's cartoon nemesis)! That he could spawn a dreamboat like Tyrone Jr. makes me wonder what a beauty Mom must have been.

Had such a brute shown up on the trail in "Red River," slim-hipped Matt would have shot him on sight simply for offending him aesthetically. Still, the prospect of Tyrone Sr. menacing the lovely Dru would have been worth the price of admission. (I dare say, she latched onto Matt so quickly in the film because filthy beasts like Power had constituted the bulk of her clientele in that profession of hers she was so desperate to escape.)

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Sorry if the garlic bread remark threw you off your feed. Just what does one eat with octopus? Fava beans and a nice chianti? Different film, I fear.

Put complete faith in Paul's recommendations; he is indeed a trusted guide. For Hollywood Babylon, though, you may wish to rely on someone like me to be your Dark Lord. As you have just seen "Stagecoach," perhaps the following will amuse you. According to the bio I'm reading, John Wayne's second wife was a Mexican party girl he stole from Ray Milland. It seems Ray treated her like the woman of questionable virtue she might have been, whereas Duke treated her the way the Ringo Kid treated Dallas (Claire Trevor) in "Stagecoach." He won her heart with boyish, naive, reverent kindness and good manners, and even after the inevitable divorce a decade or so down the road, he always referred to her as the love of his life. The fiery Chata did aim a loaded .45 at him one night, though, meaning she likely shared, if only sporadically, your wish to see the big lug gunned down.

As for the Duke being a switch-hitter, as you put it, there is no evidence that he was anything but a manly man (and while this discussion might seem better suited to the Monty & Cherry thread, I shall proceed nonetheless). Aside from Marlene, there seems to have been a paucity of womanizing but a plethora of dubiously platonic friendships with bombshells like Maureen O'Hara. Working as he did in a sea of pansexuals (Hollywood being what it is), the archconservative JW was surprisingly at ease in their presence; Paul tells me, though, that Wayne decked Laurence Harvey for making a pass at him on the set of "The Alamo" ("Just one night, Duke, let me be your queen" was reportedly Harvey's rather graceless proposition).

Then, too, Duke's real name was Marion; he walked like a pansy who overcompensated; he favored suits to dungarees; he spent most of his free time on yachts and beaches. Somewhat incongruously in light of his public image, Wayne was quite the metrosexual in private life (that term not yet having been invented, of course). For those of you out there not up on the current lingo, don't be alarmed: the word merely refers to men who are fashion and grooming conscious. That Wayne appeared to be. All man with his buddies, and a diffident gentlemen with the ladies. Seems like an okay bloke to me.

I fear modern women like yourself may recoil from Wayne's later screen persona. Seeing his days were numbered as a romantic lead, he started playing older men while still a young one ("Red River" is just one example), and matured into essaying Western and military characters too rough, tough, gruff, and (with the passage of years) borderline ugly to have much romantic appeal. Leonardo DiCaprio he ain't. But for guys like me who are sadly undergoing a similar metamorphosis, he's somewhat of a patron saint.