American Titan: Searching for John Wayne by Marc Eliot Read Free Book Online Page A

hypnotized by the girl that he doubts whether he spoke a dozen words all evening.”
    The following weekend, only a few days before practice was to resume at USC in preparation for the fall schedule, Duke drove to Balboa to spend some time with Josie, as he was now calling her. Because it was the summertime, he had let his hair grow longer than allowed at USC. It was a look he picked up from some of the other cowboy actors at the studio, who wore it that way for westerns.
    This Friday night, during which he was with her in a supper club, someone tried to pick Josie up right in front of him. As Wayne later remembered, “Some punk alongside pipes up, ‘Forget about him, lady; not with that long hair.’ So I sat her down and went over and explained very quietly to him that if he would step outside, I’d kick his fuckin’ teeth down his throat. That ended that.”
    Saturday during the day, and on Sunday after church, he took Josie to the beach. On his off days he had become a proficient bodysurfer, and wanted to show off for her. She watched from the sand as he had himself towed by speedboat out to the bigger waves. He caught one too late and was slammed all the way to the bottom of the ocean. When he bobbed to the surface, he felt severe pain in his upper body. He had separated his right shoulder and broken his collarbone. The next day he could barely use his right arm, and at practice, Coach Jones, unaware of his injuries, accused him of having no guts and demoted him off the first string. For the rest of that year, Duke had to wear a specially fitted harness that restricted his movements and made it difficult for him to play. 13
    The next fall, he was dropped from the team and lost all his privileges, including team workout meals, which he had counted on to save on food money. He was ostracized for those meals by some of his fellow classmates who were not on football scholarships and resented his free ride. He spent his sophomore year trying to stay in school without being able to play football, but it was no use. In the spring, he quit USC, moved out of the garage apartment he’d shared with his friend, and found a small, run-down place in Beverly Hills, not far from where Clyde was now living.
    His father was extremely disappointed when he found out, and Mary was furious. She believed USC was her son’s only chance to become a lawyer. And she had her hands full trying to bring up Robert by herself. The boy, as handsome as his older brother, was not nearly as ambitious. He wasn’t interested in studies, working, or anything except going to the beach. When he dropped out of high school at the end of the 1927 academic year, Molly blamed Marion for having set a bad example by leaving USC and insisted that he had to let Robert move in with him. She claimed she couldn’t take care of him anymore; he was too lazy and she was too tired, and Clyde too sick to take him in. Maybe living with his older brother would be good for the both of them.
    Duke reluctantly agreed even though he didn’t appreciate Robert tagging along wherever he went. He spent a lot of time talking with the boy, and he eventually convinced him to go back and finish high school, which he did. Robert later attended USC and played football for the team as a fullback, in 1932 earning the letter that his older brother never got. Nonetheless, Duke was happy for him.
    Despite Clyde’s and Mary’s continuing to separately try to convince Duke to return to school as well, he insisted his mind was made up. He had seen the last of USC, and it had seen the last of him. Dropping out also put an end to his relationship with Josephine. At first, he was too embarrassed to face her. When he finally did call her, she told him her parents, the diplomat Dr. Saenz and his wife, who were socially well set in their community, did not approve of his lack of social status and his association with the “dirty” film industry. Worst of all, he was Presbyterian, not Catholic.