The author of When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne says the deification of the author is distorting history.
“Go to the magazine rack at your favorite book store,” Richard Jensen said recently, “and go to the ‘Western lifestyle’ section and you’ll see glossy magazine covers with John Wayne there every month. Inside these publications you will read glowing articles about the Duke’s life that border on deification of the actor.”
Jensen said the magazines depict Wayne as the quintessential heroic American, a true-life hero. “They glorify his image as the perfect American man, the perfect American father, the perfect American idol.”
“These magazines sell this image to an adoring public for a profit. They gloss over the truth – that the John Wayne image on screen was markedly different from the man himself.”
Jensen’s book is a tersely written expose on the actors private life of drinking, womanizing, bullying of family, friends and co-workers, and covers in detail Wayne’s insecurities and his inability to relate to women – a result of abuse he suffered from his mother as a child.
“Now the Wayne estate, i.e. Duke’s surviving children, have a vested interest in this. Duke’s image is licensed on thousands of products and they’ve just released a glowingly positive book about their dad. That’s fine, and wonderful, but these magazines are heralding that book and ignoring mine because my book will cut into their bottom line.
“God forbid someone prints the truth about a favorite actor,” Jensen laughed. “The problem is, it’s not the truth and the public doesn’t realize they’re being sold a fantasy.”
When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne continues to sell briskly, according to its Nashville-based publisher, Raymond Street Publishers, LLC. This, despite a push from the Wayne faction to squelch the book.
A recent defection from that wall of denial came from a Wayne insider.
Brian Downes, the director of the John Wayne Museum in Winterset, Iowa posted a highly negative review of the book as soon as it was released. When other critics quibbled with Downes’ negative review, and it was revealed Downes hadn’t actually read the book, Downes retracted his comments and said, “I'm nearly finished with the book and I've come to like it very much.” He added that the book had what he felt were factual errors, but it was “enjoyable nonetheless.”
Jensen said readers want to know the true story of famous people, warts and all.
“People are interested in the true history,” Jensen said. “They don’t want the spin. They want to know the truth.
