Last week California lawmakers shot down a proposal to declare May 26th “John Wayne Day” in honor of the iconic actor’s birthday. At issue were comments that “The Duke” had made in a May 1971 interview with Playboy. At the time of the interview, Wayne was reputedly the highest-grossing actor in Hollywood history.
In an interview that seems delightfully caustic due to the two generations of Sensitivity Creep that have unspooled in the interim, Wayne refers to Midnight Cowboy as “a story about two fags.”
Regarding what were then known as “American Indians” but are now referred to as “Native Americans,” Wayne said:
I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that’s what you’re asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.
