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Duke let loose a four-letter word here and there, and I didn’t mind a bit, so we got on really well. After lunch, we were on our way back to the studio to begin work and I heard Duke whisper to Bond, ‘I’ll be goddamned if she doesn’t walk like Arly.’ Arly was the character I was to play. My part wasn’t the stereotype Western woman in a long frock. I wore a cowboy hat and trousers, and that gave me a sort of butch look. The costume was actually uncomfortable, but it made me look the part as Duke and the director [Edwin Marin] wanted it. Actually, it was the first time I felt that I was not well liked by a director. Maybe he didn’t like to see a woman act like a man. Duke was very protective of me and let the director know he was to treat me with respect.

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“One evening when we’d finished filming, I was leaving the studio when I noticed two large women waiting for me in a car. They followed me as I drove home and I managed to lose them. They did the same for the next three evenings and I took different routes home each night, managing to lose them. I started getting worried about this and told Duke. He said, ‘Oh my God, don’t you know that they’re lesbians?’ Now believe it or not, I’d never heard the word and I asked Duke, ‘What’s a lesbian?’ And he told me. I said, ‘Oh my God! They think I’m one.’ Duke said, ‘I’ll deal with it.’

“The next evening Duke and Ward Bond were right behind me as I left the studio. They went over to the two women, said something to them, and I never saw them again!

“Duke was very patient with me, except on one occasion. I had taken riding lessons and had ridden Blackie, the horse I was to ride in the film, quite a few times, and I felt like Blackie and I had become good friends. So I told Duke and the director I was okay on a horse.

We were shooting a scene where we ride along on horseback, delivering our dialogue. We rehearsed it a few times and rode at the same speed as the camera truck. When we came to shoot the scene, a bell rang which was the signal for the camera operator. Blackie just took off and I was so embarrassed.

“Duke just smiled as I regained control of Blackie and rode back to him. The crew had to scrape out all the tire marks which ran for almost a mile so they wouldn’t show when we shot the scene again.

But when the bell rang for the second time, Blackie took off again.

“This time Duke was clearly irritated and said, ‘I thought you said you could ride that damn horse.’

“On the third take the same thing happened, and Duke got really mad. He said, ‘I’ll ride that blankety blank horse and you ride mine.’

So we changed horses, everything was prepared to go again, and when the bell rang, Blackie took off with Duke trying to get control of it. He was furious now and swearing at the horse. Then the trainer came over and said, ‘I forgot to tell you. Blackie is a former racehorse. He thinks the bell is the start of a race.’

“Well, that made Duke laugh and it was decided not to use the bell again.”

Before the film’s release in September 1944, Wayne received 21184_ch01.qxd 12/18/03 1:42 PM Page 92

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news which delighted him. With much of the American military forcing the Germans back in Europe, the forces were short of men for the impending assault on Guam and Saipan in the South Pacific.

All 2-A deferments had been canceled and Wayne was issued with a 1-A, which meant “available for military service.”

Paul Fix said, “Duke was all for it, but Republic stepped in again and got their attorneys to file an appeal against Duke’s 1-A, claiming he was more important to the war effort through his film work than actual service. The studio won and Duke was reissued with the 2-A.

It broke his heart. Anyone who says Duke purposely avoided enlisting doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

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Cold War in Hollywood

In November 1944, the divorce case went to court. Because Californian laws required a specific reason for divorce, Josephine, with Duke’s agreement, charged him with