Flashback: Celebrating The Duke’s 40 years in film and that Paramount gathering

 Flashback: Celebrating The Duke’s 40 years in film and that Paramount gathering

I had these two photos (below) out yesterday so thought I’d put them to good use here. These photos are believed to have been taken during the West Coast premiere of True Grit at the Chinese theatre in Los Angeles on June 13th, 1969. Although according to the AFI, its original premiere took place in Little Rock, Arkansas the previous day on June 12th. The gathering of stars in attendance here seems to suggest that this was more likely to be the Los Angeles event. 

The premiere was also a good opportunity to celebrate John Wayne’s 40 years in films, as the cake displays The Big Trail 1929 – True Grit 1969. 

The stars included (left to right, Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Rock Hudson, Fred MacMurray, John Wayne, James Stewart (who was still making westerns such as Bandolero! and The Cheyenne Social Club), Ernest Borgnine (who’s latest film, The Wild Bunch would open in L.A. 5 days later), Michael Caine, and Lawrence Harvey. 

At first glance, it’s Michael Caine who perhaps looks the most unlikely of the bunch. A working-class cockney actor appears almost ‘lost’ among such an array of Hollywood stars. But Caine would later explain, "It was quite weird. I came to do a picture with Shirley MacLaine and she wasn't there. She was working on another picture and she was just finishing up. She couldn't get there for two weeks. So, until we officially had the party welcoming me to Hollywood, I was in this very luxurious suite in the Beverly Hills Hotel and no one talked to me. No one came. They just paid the bills and that was it. So, I used to sit in the lobby looking for movie stars. That's where I met John Wayne for the first time and we became friends — not close friends, we hardly moved in the same circles, but we became very deep acquaintances" (from Caine's memoir, The Elephant to Hollywood).

…that Paramount gathering

This wasn’t of course the first time that The Duke had been pictured with Clint, Lee Marvin and Rock Hudson. They previously met up for a famous Paramount publicity still (taken at the studio) during the production of True Grit and Paint Your Wagon. Marvin can be seen still wearing his Ben Rumson beard; Clint was in full costume - as was Wayne and True Grit co-star Kim Darby who also appears in one of the photos shaking hands with Barbra Streisand. Also seen in one of these photos is actor Yves Montand and head of Paramount Robert Evans. I’m not sure what Rock Hudson was doing at the studio at this time, or Streisand and Montand. However, Paint Your Wagon was of course an Alan Jay Lerner co-production, and as Streisand and Montand would soon appear together next in Paramount’s ‘On a Clear Day You Can See Forever’, (also written by Alan Jay Lerner and adapted from his book), it’s quite possible that they were both at the studio for early pre-production discussions. 

It’s also interesting to note that the True Grit premiere photo clearly shows that Rock Hudson has since grown a moustache – as he would appear alongside John Wayne in their next movie, The Undefeated, a western for 20th Century-Fox which went into production some 4 months earlier in February, 1969.