This Day in History - 13 September 2013

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 13, 1969

            Forty-four years ago, John Wayne ("The Duke") made a surprise visit to Exhibition Park, enjoying the horse races and signing auto-graphs for fans.

            Wayne, his wife Pilar, and son Ethan, 7, made the appearance at the track after returning from a six-week fishing trip to northern B.C. and Alaska.

            It wasn't the only time Wayne would visit B.C., a province that became one of his favourite playgrounds for sport fishing.

            In the summer of 1971, he attended a bathtub race between Nanaimo and Vancouver, an annual event staged as part of the Sea Festival.

            He was made an honorary gover­nor of the Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society. Time magazine took notice of the offbeat sporting event and ran a story under the headline "Rub-A-Dub-Dub, Nuts In A Tub."

            There are also photos of him fish­ing in Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, and on the Coquitlam River. Wayne is also said to have visited Qualicum Beach on several occasions, where he would stay at the Crown Mansion after sailing his yacht, The Wild Goose, up the Strait of Georgia.

            Wayne, whose real name was Marion Mitchell Morrison, was an Academy Award winner who epitomized rugged masculinity. He was best known for starring in western movies, as well as for his distinctive calm voice and walk.

            His first leading role came in the widescreen epic The Big Trail in 1930, which led to more roles leading up to John Ford's 1939 Stagecoach, which made him an instant superstar.

            Wayne would go on to star in 142 pictures, primarily typecast in western films.

            The last movie he made was The Shootist in 1976. He plays an aging gunslinger battling cancer.             Wayne died of stomach cancer in 1979. In June 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Wayne 13th among the greatest male screen legends of all time.

Tiffany Crawford, Vancouver Sun