When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne author decries “deification” of actor as distortion of history

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.

“The truth is John Wayne is a hero in real life. When he survived lung cancer surgery he changed the way the world looks at the disease. He raised millions for cancer research and now, long after his death, his John Wayne Cancer Center in California is continuing to break new ground in the treatment of cancer and the search for a cure.”

When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne media tour continues

Richard Douglas Jensen, author of When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne, appeared on WFLA 100.7 FM, the talk radio giant in Tallahassee, Florida. The Morning Show with Preston Scott featured a half-hour segment discussing the controversial new book, which details the turbulent private life of the movie icon.

When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne receives strong, mostly positive reaction during author media tour

   As he continues his media tour promoting When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne, author Richard Douglas Jensen has encountered strong audience reactions to the book -- and most of it has been positive.
  "Talk radio audiences are not timid when it comes to expressing their opinions," Jensen said. "We knew that people across the world have very strong opinions about John Wayne. Most of this is due to his strong Republican politics, which came to define him in his later years. So, when I started appearing on talk radio shows, I thought I'd get some hostility. It hasn't really happened."
   Jensen said callers to radio shows have been overwhelmingly positive. "They're intrigued. They find out that the book is heavily footnoted and sourced and that it's a serious biography that peels away all of the public relations gloss and they are deeply interested in what the book has to say."
   Some callers are skeptical, Jensen said, and some are upset because of the rumor fostered by some John Wayne fans with blogs that Jensen accuses Wayne of being a closeted homosexual.
  "When they find out that in the book I explain that I could find no evidence of homosexuality and that I argue specifically that Wayne was not a homosexual, then they calm down and listen to the facts," Jensen said. "I explain the root causes of John Wayne's emotional issues was his mother's abuse of him as a child and the early death of his father. These caused tremendous emotional upheaval in his life and impacted his definition of masculinity. Wayne had trouble relating to women his entire life. His abuse as a child scarred him so deeply that he was an alcoholic from the time he entered college until his death."

   Jensen concludes a week-long series of talk radio appearances in Florida Friday. He then travels to New Mexico.

New John Wayne bio wrongfully attacked by Wayne zealot in blogosphere

   The new biography of John Wayne, entitled When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne, was attacked this week by a blogger who runs a John Wayne fan site. In what can only charitably be called a "review," the blogger launches into a tirade against the book and its author, Richard Douglas Jensen.
   "I expected this to happen," Jensen said Sunday. "There are many people who revere the screen image of John Wayne without knowing anything about the facts of his life. I knew there'd be backlash, and that's fine."
   Jensen said the blogger doesn't even have his facts straight. "Oh, typically, you have bloggers who foam at the mouth and fire off opinions masquerading as 'facts.' Part of the job of a biographer is to find and reveal facts, not mythology. The book has over 22 pages of footnotes which document the information in the book. Also, many of the quotes in the book are directly from Wayne's own family. There is not one anonymous quote in the entire book."
   "What surprised me was that he took the time to research me and write a scathing attack on me personally," Jensen said. "But I'm a big boy. I've been shot at, stabbed and run over when I was a cop, and I've been targeted more than once by someone wanting to kill me during some high-profile criminal cases I've tried, so some chicken shit blogger doesn't worry me."
    Jensen's media tour in support of the book continues this week with a series of radio and television interviews throughout Florida.

    "People are interested in the book, and most who have read it -- unlike the blogger -- realize it paints a complete picture of a very complex, flawed, but ultimately heroic man."

John Wayne biographer continues media tour for When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne

Richard Douglas Jensen, the author of When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne, continued a media tour promoting the landmark new biography with an appearance on WAAY-31 ABC TV's First News.
   The book is a deconstruction of the screen icon's life story, exposing the actor's turbulent and violent personal life, his childhood of abuse and the impact that abuse had on his self-esteem and personal relationships.

John Wayne biographer begins media tour

Richard Douglas Jensen, author of When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne, began a media tour to promote the controversial new book today with a stop at the Fred Holland Morning Show. The Alabama-based show is syndicated on AM and FM stations throughout the Tennessee Valley region.
   The book, which chronicles the turbulent and violent private life of the screen icon, deconstructs more than 80 years of mythology about the actor, and paints a moving portrait of Wayne's personal life.
   When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne is available exclusively from Amazon.com in trade paperback and Kindle versions.
   To schedule media interviews and for further information, contact Kujifanya Jina, public relations at Raymond Street Publishers, at raymondstreetpublishers@gmail.com.

Author of When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne begins media tour

    NASHVILLE – The author of the new John Wayne tell-all biography begins a media tour next week with a series of radio and television interviews.
    Richard Douglas Jensen said the book, entitled When The Legend Became Fact - The True Life of John Wayne, is a reexamination of the life of the film icon without the haze created by more than 80 years of public relations spin.
    “The private John Wayne was much different from the public John Wayne,” Jensen said. “He was far more complex, and he struggled with demons left over from his childhood suffering from his mother’s child abuse. These demons led him to struggle with controlling his violent temper and left him with a lifelong struggle with alcoholism.”
    Jensen is scheduled to appear live Tuesday, May 15, on the Fred Holland Morning Show on WTKI 14.50 AM - 92.9 FM. The interview will air at approximately 7:15 a.m. The show is syndicated, and it is also available online at http://www.wtkiradio.com/listenlive.html.
    On Friday, May 18, Jensen is scheduled to appear on WAAY 31 First News at 6:15 a.m. WAAY is the ABC affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama.
    Viewers out of the Huntsville area can watch the interview online at http://www.waaytv.com/default.aspx.
    Other radio and television interviews are tentative and will be announced when they are confirmed.
    Jensen has been interviewed by newspapers throughout the world, including Jakarta, Indonesia and Belfast, Ireland regarding the just-released book.