What Was Your First John Wayne Movie?

I'm not sure, but think it might have been Fort Apache. It was watching Rio Bravo again many years later that got me hooked on these films.

Regards
Popol Vuh

Hi,
I can remember seeing Duke, when I was about7 or 8
back in the Fifties at my local Cinema.
They used to have Saturday Morning Matinees,
for the kids.
They used to show THE THREE MESQUITEERS
and the LONE STAR Westerns.
The first 'A' film I saw at the cinema,
was NORTH TO ALASKA, when it was released in 1960.

Hi,
For a pity I never saw JW movies in the cinema. The first one I saw was The Horse Solgiers. And for a pity it was translated in russian.

Goodness - that would have to go back to antiquity!!
It would have to have been one of the three Calvary movies, but I can't remember which one
"Rio Bravo" is the first that consciously comes to mind, but I had seen a number of JW's movies prior to that, just don't recall any specifics.
Cheers - Jay

My first Duke films were the old Black and White B-Movies seen at the old Fox Theater in Phoenix in the 1930s on Saturday afternoon. But the one that I remember the most was "Stagecoach" I think in 1939.

Chilibill

Hi Bill

I can't go back that far but mune was either Wake of the Red witch or The Fighting Kentuckian, both of which are still favourites of mine. I suppose I would have been about eight or nine and like ethan saw them second or third time around at the local flea pit.

Regards

Arthur

Hi Arthur,
You're right, when we were kids,
we didn't realise what flea pits they were,
dusty, dirty, seats probably full of bugs!!
but who cared, when we screamed our heads off
at the Duke and his sidekicks,
chasing the bandits away!!
It wasn't Duke they were frightened of,
it was that stupid Dummy!!!

Best Wishes,
Keith

The first I remember seeing was theCavalry trilogy.

Hi Kieth

The thing I remember most was at the Saturday morning picture clubs when the possee was chasing the outlaws and the film would go back and forth on first the outlaws (black hats) when we would all boo, and then on to the possee (white hats) when we would all cheer, and then back and forth to each with alternate booing and cheering. The movie makers of those days knew how to keep a juvenille audience's attention. After the film was over we would all ride down the street on an imaginary horse going 9omph firing shots with our finger, that fired fifty rounds a minute always richocted off of non exixting walls and never needed reloading.

If Duke Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and the rest of the stars of yesteryear are ever held to ridicule, the experts only needed to look at every picture house in every town city or village in England at 12 o'clock on a Saturday morning to know what pure innocent enjoyment really is, or am I just being naive.

Regards

Arthur

hi

cant rmrmber which one i saw first but i do remember watching one of his movies in the local picture house (with deck chairs for seating) watching cowboys and indians racing across the screen it was fun as we came to town to see them with all of the ringers and didnt they laugh their heads off with the way some of them rode their horses. at half time we would go across the road fore fish and chips and take them back into finish watching the movie just the best of times.

i think this movie may have been She wore a yellow ribbon not too sure but could have been

hooroo smokey

Hi Arthur,
Your post was brilliant and it just sums
up the whole experience.
You are so right about the Boos and Hisses, and alternate cheering.
Then there would be a whole load of ABC Minors,
all galloping off down the street.
Then I would go home and re-act the films, all over again.
No you're not naive, just remembering
the wonderful, innocent days, that they were,

Best Wishes,
Keith

Quote

Originally posted by ethanedwards@Aug 19 2005, 11:37 AM
Hi Arthur,
Your post was brilliant and it just sums
up the whole experience.
You are so right about the Boos and Hisses, and alternate cheering.
Then there would be a whole load of ABC Minors,
all galloping off down the street.
Then I would go home and re-act the films, all over again.
No you're not naive, just remembering
the wonderful, innocent days, that they were,

Best Wishes,
Keith

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What's odd is how similar the experiences of English youngsters was to that of American kids. Sounds almost exactly the same.

That sounds like the way we saw movies when I was a kid. Our local neighborhood theater would have a Saturday matinee each week - a cartoon, a serial chapter and one or two features, mostly westerns that ran around an hour each. A lot of nostalgia thinking about this!
Cheers - Jay

Quote

Originally posted by Jay J. Foraker@Aug 19 2005, 03:01 PM
That sounds like the way we saw movies when I was a kid. Our local neighborhood theater would have a Saturday matinee each week - a cartoon, a serial chapter and one or two features, mostly westerns that ran around an hour each. A lot of nostalgia thinking about this!
Cheers - Jay

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Back in the late Forties and early Fifties, I used to spend entire Saturday afternoons in the theater watching B grade westerns (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Lash Larue, and others). And like Arthur and Keith said, we'd all whoop and holler throughout the showing. (They'd kick you out of a theater for that now.)

Back then, kids under 12 could get in for a dime, while popcorn was another dime and soft drinks a nickel. Naturally, everybody lied about their age, even though adult admissions were only a quarter if I remember right.

My most impressionable years between 6 and about 14 were spent on an oil lease in the country with my grandparents. Grandpa bought me an old one-eyed mare to ride and I roamed all over the countryside on that horse. Lived a Tom Sawyer-like existence. Except for going to school, I was free as the breeze. Ah, for the good old days of yesteryear.

In fits and spurts, I'm working on an autobiography. Myd kids will probably be slightly shocked when they read it. :lol: :lol:

Hi Jim,
It's great that this thread has give us all an opportunity, to relive those magic times.
That's what's good about the JWMB, it gives folks a chance to get to know one another, and I'm sure Duke would be good about that!
It also makes me realise that our love of Duke is more than that, it seems to me the love of Westerns,was pretty much in our blood in those younger days.
It also shows, when we were kids, American or English, we all were going
to Saturday matinees, and all going home shooting black hats!!
The names you mentioned,Gene, Roy, Hopalong, Cisco, they were all my heroes,
we lived and breathed those cowboys, and from the looks of it we all still do!!

Best Wishes,
Keith

Keith;

You got that right I guess that Kids on both sides of the "Big Pond" think about Westerns the same way, :lol: But I still love the "Old Robin Hood Film" done in the late 1930s.

Chilibill

Hi Bill

I agree. It just come out on DVD and its as good today as it was then. I think that its one of those films that collectors will keep for posterity. I hope that the medium of DVD (if thats what it is) will help this to be achieved.

Regards

Arthur

Quote

Originally posted by William T Brooks@Aug 20 2005, 04:18 AM
Keith;

You got that right I guess that Kids on both sides of the "Big Pond" think about Westerns the same way, :lol: But I still love the "Old Robin Hood Film" done in the late 1930s.

Chilibill

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You mean "The Adventures of Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn of 1938, do you? I love this film too, Flynn as well.
Regards,
Vera

It's been probably 60 years since I saw my first John Wayne movie so it's hard to remember. But I think it was probably "They Were Expendable". Or possibly "Tycoon" or "Fort Apache". All I can really remember for sure was that it was sometime during the period 1945-1948 after WW2 ended.