Anything with Duke : 이전블로그

+ http://www.filmstew.com/showBlog.aspx?blog_id=1004

3/14/2007 at 4:29:22 PM

Back in the day when people actually bought CDs, one of the regular fixtures of year-end industry sales figures was guitar sex god Jimi Hendrix. Even though he was long gone, his musical legacy – carefully reconstructed after his death by producer Alan Douglas - was a perennial single album and boxed set bestseller.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that every single year the good folks at Harris Interactive have asked Americans who their favorite movie star is, polling respondents in non-prompted fashion rather than directing them to pick from a list, John Wayne has made the cut. He was third on the list in 2006, maintaining his position from 2005, and since this Harris Poll was first launched in 1994, he has been first once (1995) and second on five different occasions.

If Wayne was synonymous with anything, both onscreen as a hero and off screen as a cancer battler, it was the sentiment of courage. On April 21st, in advance of the Duke’s 100th birthday (May 26th), the first ever John Wayne Courage Award will be presented in Newport Beach, CA, the beachside enclave that Wayne for many years called home. This recognition of movie and arts trailblazers is all part of “Ten Decades of ‘The Duke’: The Official John Wayne Centennial Celebration (April 21-28), a sister event to the Newport Beach Film Festival that is being produced in conjunction with the star’s family.

For those of us who drive along Sunset Blvd., it is almost impossible when gliding by the Sunset Tower Hotel not to envision that cow that Wayne is said to have once kept on a balcony for easy access to fresh milk. And in Glendale, CA, where I happen to live, there is no bigger droppable celebrity name, by virtue of his football star days at Glendale High School, than that of JW.

But perhaps biggest of all, this month marks the launch of the first ever official John Wayne fan club and website at JohnWayne.com. The man who went from Winterset, Iowa to lead roles in a record 142 motion pictures finally has his cyber shrine, and no doubt it will be another hub of remembrances.

There are only two other movie stars who have had comparable runs to Wayne on that aforementioned Harris Poll. One is Clint Eastwood, fourth last year behind Wayne and first over the years twice, and Mel Gibson, tied last year with Johnny Depp at seventh and also first over the years twice. But for the Baby Boomers segment of those 1,147 polled last December, Wayne is tops. So you can bet members of that demo will be partying loudest of all as D-Day approaches.