Saturday, October 24, 2009

Remember the Titans

I covered a high-school football game last night between the West Forsyth Titans and the Reagan Raiders. The Titans remained undefeated -- they're 9-0. The game was tight in the first half -- 14-11 at halftime -- but West pulled away at the end. Reagan played a great game against a tough team, and I made deadline for the Winston-Salem Journal.

 It was a joy to talk to West coach Adrian Snow. I interviewed him last year for a feature for the Surry Messenger, but I'd never met him in person.

Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com.


EDITOR@WORK blog entries

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Riding with John Wayne


CLIP FROM THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALENCE

My wife Holly and I often watch John Wayne movies, some of them pretty often. We watch Hatari and Donovan's Reef on a regular basis (we watched the latter last night). If you ask what she wants to watch, Rio Lobo is usually mentioned. We've watched Rio Bravo and El Dorado twice each within the last month or two.

We'll watch Rio Grande, Rio Lobo, El Dorado, Angel and the Bad Man, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon or perhaps Stagecoach. I often want to watch The Quiet Man or The Hellfighters, and we'll settle on McQ, The Sons of Katie Elder or Tall In The Saddle. We used to watch McLintock two or three times a year.

Holly never wants to watch The Searchers, Red River, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence or Hondo. Or The Cowboys. Perhaps she perceives them as violent. In the case of The Cowboys or The Shootist, maybe she doesn't want to watch Wayne's character die. I watch them alone, same with True Grit, when she's at work, although she did watch Hondo with me a few months ago.

It's funny, but she mentioned last night that she liked Hondo because of Geraldine Page; they didn't pick an unrealistic beauty, like Grace Kelly in High Noon. Maybe she's warming to Hondo. Personally, I like John Wayne, Michael Pate (the Indian chief) and Ward Bond. Pate also played in McLintock, and he and Wayne referred to the "remembered fight" in Hondo. Pate was British, I think, but he made a wonderful Indian.

I have Trouble Along the Way with Donna Reed, Chisum, Big Jake and Islands in the Sky, an eclectic group of movies. I also have the Train Robbers and the Comancheros. In the Train Robbers, Wayne's character apologizes to Christopher George. Someone asks George what's wrong with Wayne; "Not a DAMN thing!" George replies. I loved that.

No, I don't watch all of Wayne's movies. Some of his early movies were terrible, and I've never cared to see the Voyage Home or the Green Berets.

I wasn't a big John Wayne fan when I was a kid. Now, I watch his movies regularly. Now, I am a big fan.

Or maybe I just like watching a guy named Marion Morrison.

NOTE: Tears came to my eyes when I just re-watched True Grit. I'd seen it before, when Mattie invites Rooster Cogburn to have a spot beside her in the family plot. But this time I got it; she had invited him to be family.

Trivia: The Boston Celtics' John Havlicek was nicknamed Hondo because he was a John Wayne fan.

 UPDATE: The first time I saw The Undefeated (John Wayne, Rock Hudson), I didn't like the ending. So I didn't want to watch it again. Then I saw it again and realized the former Union soldiers were giving in to the Mexicans to save the former Rebel soldiers. And it pleased me.

VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE

 • John Wayne's Coolest Scenes #16: Steak, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962)

 • "McLintock!" Stefanie Powers' John Wayne memories, difficult horses & Gene Autry! A WORD ON WESTERNS

 • "Big Jake" John Wayne memories with co-star Chris Mitchum A WORD ON WESTERNS

 • John Wayne: Five Great Entrances

• John Wayne best moments

• The best of John Wayne

• John Wayne's fight scenes


EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com
EDITOR@WORK blog entries

Blog entries from The Auto Racing Journal
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

PILOTS' MISTAKES and MORE

The flirting that brought down a Boeing 747 - Cameroon Airlines Flight 070 PILOTS' MISTAKES and MORE Flying with Celebrities: My Memorab...

  • Links to San Francisco 49ers websites
    49ers logic and reason Q+A: How SF might build around Brock Purdy and Brandon Aiyuk NEW Full Interview: Joe Montana on His Love for Dw...
  • REMEMBERING M*A*S*H
    Did HARRY MORGAN save MASH? NEW MEMORIES OF M*A*S*H The Most Important Episode of MASH Things MASH Producers Hid From Fans (332) 20 "M...
  • A MISSED SLAM DUNK
    Tom Gillispie's resume In the winter of 1983-84, I was covering high school basketball for a small daily newspaper in the mountains...