VOL. XIII, NO. 7
FEBRUARY 11, 1972

Westerner Editor Attends Premiere
January 16 was a bitterly cold day to be walking the windy streets of downtown Chicago, but I had a good reason. I was on my way to the Bismark Theater to see the preview of John (Duke) Wayne's new movie, "The Cowboys." I, like many of you, enjoyed him in "True Grit" and recently on T.V. in a few good examples of the old "shoot-em-ups."

The audience at the theater included 400 high school newspaper editors who had been invited by Warner Brothers. The story of the picture is "pure Wayne," but it has a new element - 11 youngsters, ranging in age from 9 to 17. They are the cowboys.

The action of movie centers around a cattle drive across the rugged West during the 1870's. Along the way, Wayne (as old-time rancher, Wil Anderson, fights them, fathers them, and fumes with them, causing the boys to grow up.

Surprisingly Duke dies in his latest film. But he does it heroically, and the cowboys revenge his death as the audience cheers.
 After the movie, Wayne sauntered on the stage of the Bismark to say a few words. I'm sure that the promotion men were worried about how the predominantly young audience would react to the 64-year-old actor.

John Wayne's out-spoken, patriotic attitude came out strongly as he gave the audience bits of fatherly advice, but the onlookers cheered him enthusiastically with his every sentence. Even if all of the students didn't totally agree with his words, they respected the strong and positive common sense of John Wayne.

Afterwards there was a lunch-eon and press conference at the Bismark Hotel. It was sponsored by WLS radio and Larry Lujack officiated. John Wayne and four of the cowboys from the picture were on hand to answer questions that were put to them by the student editors.