By Roland
Schaefli
“This is
crazyâ€, Ethan Wayne whispered, as the bids in the auction started to climb way
over the estimates. The youngest son of movie legend John Wayne and other
members of the Wayne clan were present at the Beverly Hills auction on Oct 6th,
announcing that this would be the once in a lifetime shot for fans to get a
piece of the Duke, “and we’re not going to do it again†– and still, they could
not imagine that the fans would dig so deep in their pockets to collect their
father’s artifacts. The total of the two day sale eventually exceeded $5.4
million, a portion of the proceeds of which will fund the John Wayne Cancer
Foundation.
Only
weeks after John Wayne passed away in 1979, his house in Newport Beach was
sealed, an intensive inventory was taken of the Duke's personal items. Michael Wayne, then head honcho of
Wayne Enterprises, locked it all up. The boxes were transported in a warehouse almost to be forgotten for three decades, a la The Lost Ark. When
Michael passed away, Ethan (named after Wayne’s character in ‘The
Searchers’) took over running Wayne Enterprises. Michael had often mentioned his plans to open a John
Wayne museum, and it was well known among collectors that he had retained many of his father's film costumes. Why then, after all
this time, does the family allow the personal property – over 700 items - to be
scattered all over the world? “Michael had 30 years to do it – so why didn’t
he?â€, Ethan makes his point to Cinema Retro. His explanation why he feels great
about the auction is as simple as it is touching: “My father inspired people
through his films. And people have been calling the office for 32 years, asking
for a hat, a vest, a shirt. Because they have this strong connection. So for
me, I look at all these items, and they're going to go all over the world, and
they're going to inspire people. So all that attitude of John Wayne will be out
there living with these items, all over the globe.â€
Still, that
global interest even caught Heritage, the world’s second-largest auction house,
by surprise. The preceding internet bidding had already generated a lot of
interest, Wayne’s saddle alone got many thousands of hits, and the number of bidders who
registered for phone bidding set a new record in Heritage’s history, 150 people.
550 bidders from around the world were sitting in front of their computers and
about 40 die-hard fans were actually at the floor bidding. The bidding war took
a lot longer than the auctioneers had anticipated.
World
records were set this day for cowboy hats. The stained Stetson he not only put
on in several horse operas but also on the cover of the LP ‘America Why I
Love Her’ sold for $100,000 ($119,500
, if you want to count buyer’s premium and tax.) By comparison ,Yul Brynner’s Magnificent Seven hat once sold for
comparatively modest 7000 bucks.) Some lucky fellow got the gun belt from which
the Duke drew to rid the town of El Dorado from some bad guys for $68,000. The
iconic bib shirt the man who shot Liberty Valance once wore found a new home
for $40,000. When Wayne accepted the Oscar for his portrayal in ‘True Grit’,
he mentioned he “should have worn the eye patch 35 years agoâ€. It sold for $40,000.
Some Wayne aficionado will have the privilege of reading the actor’s
annotations in the script from ‘The Searchers’ and somebody else thought
Wayne’s last driver’s licence is easily worth $75,000.
The
biggest surprise came when they moved out the Green Beret Wayne wore in the 1968 Vietnam War movie. It was sold for $150,000.
Meanwhile in Lone Pine Film Festival in California, Edward
Faulkner (who appeared with Wayne in this film along with several others)
was equally surprised. Ed’s daughter has his Green Beret, “and
when I
get back, I’m gonna have a talk with herâ€. He was pleased that John
Wayne, 32
years after his death, gets this kind of attention. Yet Faulkner told us
he
knew for a fact that Patrick Wayne took the selling very hard. Wayne’s
Number 2 Son could be spotted in the aisle but left it to his younger
brother to
address the crowd and media. Patrick let us know he kept just a few
personal
mementos to himself. “Really, I didn't take that much. But when we we're
in New
Orleans one time he bought a table and chairs at an antique stores for
his
home. That was something I took because I was with him at that time.â€
Patrick
was amused by the question if he had any intention of buying his own
jacket
from Big Jake for himself. “I have one of those jackets as well. There
were doubles.â€
The
final
showdown of the tenderers took place in the Hyatt Regency Hotel Plaza,
aptly bordered to the old Fox lot where Wayne, then a nameless property
boy,
was discovered more than 80 years ago. Patrick Wayne let us in on a
secret:
“This is a lot of material but not all of it.†And Ethan has more on his
mind: he wants to put the remaining property, awards, costumes,
personal mementos on a touring expedition, a five year project Wayne
Enterprises started
working on last year. And the fans will have a lot to do with yet
another
project. When Ethan took over, he discovered sacks full of fan mail. It
inspired a book on the last letters John Wayne was never been able to
answer.
They will give insight to what the people saw in the man back then. A
fascination that, as the auction proved, remains in place today.
(All photos copyright Roland
Schaefli. All rights reserved.)