John Wayne exhibit opens in Las Vegas for NFR run

To movie fans, the items once owned by John Wayne are mementos from a legendary Hollywood star. To Ethan Wayne, they’re also something else: Dad’s stuff. They don’t make movie stars like John Wayne anymore, and an exhibition that opened today at South Point offers a few clues about why that is. Called “John Wayne: Spirit of the West,” the exhibit encompasses 2,000 square feet devoted to the Oscar-winning actor’s personal and professional lives. The exhibit is free and open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Dec. 14. Featured are film props, memorabilia, personal mementos and photographs. Items include Wayne’s cowboy hat from “Big Jake,” his personal copy of the book “The Searchers” and coffee mugs with 24-karat gold handles of the kind that he gave to cast and crew members on movie sets. “They’ll sort of be taken through his life, starting as a little boy and how (the family) made their way West,” Ethan Wayne said. “Just basically his life story from Iowa to ‘The Shootist.’” For Ethan Wayne, the second-youngest of Wayne’s seven children and president of John Wayne Enterprises, one item that stands out is the Motion Picture Studio Mechanics membership card issued to “Duke Morrison” — Wayne’s real name was Marion Morrison — for the years 1929 and 1930, when he was hired as a prop man’s assistant. With that card, “he went from being a student-athlete at USC to sort of throwing his hat in the ring in a new industry, motion pictures, and he started (by) sweeping the floors,” Ethan Wayne said. The card represents John Wayne’s “first job in film, and he still had that when he died. It was in his dresser drawer, so it had to be significant to him.”...MORE