Some movie stars buy luxury cars, multimillion-dollar homes or diamond-encrusted teeth. Mark Nash bought a mini-bicycle.
Actually, movie star is probably overstating the Montrose native’s film career, considering his only credit is the 1969 Western “True Grit” when he was in sixth grade.
But along U.S. Highway 50 and 550, in Ridgway, Ouray and the mountains perched above both rural towns where “True Grit” was filmed, anyone who played a little or large part in the John Wayne classic is considered lucky.
“It was a kick,” said Nash, 50. “I got on as an extra because my parents were involved in the local theater. My folks took me down to Ridgway, and they said, ‘We want you.’ ”
On Sept. 8-9, Ridgway will honor Wayne’s 100th birthday with the first True Grit Days. The festival will include visits by Kim Darby, who played young Maddie Ross in the movie, as well as Western-movie stars Angie Dickinson and Johnny Crawford. Music, cowboy poetry, vendors and tours of movie locations also will be part of the western-themed weekend.
The highlight, or at least the idea that kicked off the whole event, will be a showing of “True Grit” on a movie screen in Heartwell Park, the same park featured in the opening minutes of “True Grit,” and the same park where Nash can be seen in the film pushing another child on a swing.
The park, full of children playing on a recent summer day, still looks much as it did in the film, minus three criminals hanging from gallows.
Originally, Barb Morss, one of True Grit Days’ organizers, was ecstatic with simply showing the movie, which was re-released on DVD in May in honor of Wayne’s 100th birthday, on a 50-inch plasma screen at the Ridgway Fire Department. The Chamber of Commerce planned to sell popcorn and Junior Mints and make a few bucks.
Morss, who has lived in the quiet town with one stoplight for 32 years, said the idea popped into her head after waking up in the middle of the night.
Then people kept coming to her with suggestions of events to add to the movie showing.
“It just exploded,” Morss said. “I don’t know if people are excited yet, but they are going to be. It’s going to be a huge event, and it’s going to be fun.”
‘EVERY MAN WANTED TO BE JOHN WAYNE’
The spirit of “True Grit” lives on at the True Grit Cafe at 123 N. Lena in Ridgway.
A gravel road still runs in front of the restaurant.
It is nearly impossible to eat a slice of pie at the cafe without catching a glimpse of a cowboy hat-wearing, gun-toting Wayne in the posters, photos and sketches lining the cafe’s walls.
One of the restaurant’s front walls appeared in the movie as a backdrop.
Tammee and Dale Tuttle purchased the cafe 11 years ago, partly because Tammee’s background is in the hospitality business. Tammee credits her husband with the final decision, though. He is a big Wayne fan.
“The only reason we have a restaurant or anything in the hospitality industry is because it’s the True Grit Cafe,” Tammee said.
Actually, Dale contributed most of the interior decorations.
“We had quite a bit of memorabilia,” Tammee said.
Recently, a group of bikers came to the restaurant just to look around.
Tammee estimated that nearly 80 percent of the restaurant’s clientele are tourists, many interested in Wayne or at least intrigued by the idea of dining where a real Hollywood movie was filmed.
The “crazy” Wayne fans are between 39 and 58 years old, Tammee said.
“He is their hero,” she said.
No kidding. Ask Steve Guy. Although Guy has lived in Ridgway only a year, he jumped at the opportunity to serve as chairman for the True Grit Days committee.
Guy, 47, is a “huge” Wayne fan and first saw “True Grit” as a 9-year-old at a drive-in movie theater in St. Louis, far from the remote and breathtakingly beautiful meadows and jagged peaks of Ouray County.
He can recite nearly every line in the movie from memory. He said he’s seen “True Grit” about 400 times.
“Every man wanted to be John Wayne,” Guy said. “He’s the epitome of the average guy out to save the world.”
‘EVERYBODY IDOLIZED HIM’
Standing 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing about 220 pounds during the filming of “True Grit,” Wayne was far from average.
By the late 1960s, few Hollywood stars shined brighter than Wayne.
By 1968, when “True Grit” was filmed, Wayne was riding horses and trudging along rocky terrain with one lung. The other had been removed because of cancer.
Wayne ultimately died of stomach cancer June 11, 1979, three years after his final movie was released.
But those who were in “True Grit,” helped with the movie or lived in Ridgway during the filming of “True Grit,” remember a man larger than life.
“I met John Wayne on one of the side streets,” Nash said. “I asked him for his autograph. He was kind of grouchy. I was kind of disappointed.”
But Wayne signed a card and sent Nash on his way.
Bob DeJulio, a Montrose artist who helped with the “True Grit” set designs, remembered many people getting nothing more than a glance at Wayne.
“I met him briefly,” said DeJulio, 76. “He was always swarmed by a million people, so they kept him away.”
Gene Adams, 84, recalled Wayne as a back door kind of guy, avoiding the main thoroughfares and entrances when possible because “he said the public drove him nuts.”
Adams, a Ridgway resident, said he met Wayne at a bar during the filming of “True Grit.”
They would drink whiskey together after hours, Adams said.
“In person he was just like he was in the movies,” he said. “I thought a lot of him. I liked him.”
Wayne handled a horse like a cowboy, smoked like a chimney and mingled with the locals at bars. He endeared himself to many Americans looking for a patriot and a down-to-earth type of hero.
Despite director Henry Hathaway’s order that a stunt man finish the movie, Wayne jumped the four-post fence at the end of “True Grit” because he wanted to. He even glanced toward the camera as a way to authenticate to viewers — and Hathaway — that he could do with one lung what most Americans would never do.
“Everybody idolized him,” Nash said. “They still did after he left.”
Many still do, which is why Ridgway wants to honor Wayne and the movie which earned him his only Academy Award.
‘IT’S ABOUT THE SAME ...’
A Fort Smith Saloon sign still hangs near True Grit Cafe, paying homage to the 1880s Arkansas town that Ridgway was supposed to resemble during filming.
The fire house for the movie is still painted red with “Fire Department” in white lettering, but it is now an art studio.
The horse stable where Maddie Ross buys “Little Blackie” is now a post office.
Ridgway had an estimated population of 200 in 1968. It now has about 800 residents, “if everyone’s at home,” Morss said.
Some of Ridgway’s streets remain unpaved. Subway is the only chain restaurant. Ouray County is far from urbanized.
Linda Frank, vice president of Light Source & Imagery, produced the special features on the collector’s edition DVD of “True Grit.”
She visited Ridgway to do a then-and-now piece for the special features.
“It’s about the same size. Most of the buildings look exactly the same, for the most part,” Frank said. “I really wasn’t surprised only because I’m originally from Colorado.”
Hathaway selected Ridgway because of his familiarity and affection for the area.
True Grit Days organizers said people they’ve spoken to remember the filming of the movie as a positive experience and a unique opportunity for Ridgway because filming was done in the actual town. Morss, Tuttle and Guy are proud Ridgway is associated with the movie.
“To me, it’s a movie about honor and keeping your word,” Morss said. “In those days, a handshake was your word. When somebody has grit, they have perseverance, tenacity, honor and determination.”
True Grit Days organizers are hoping the upcoming event triggers a swell of support for the movie and its memory.
DeJulio, who put together a photographic portfolio of the sets for the Ridgway Public Library, plans to set up a booth to display and sell his art.
When he was busy helping with the lettering on all the sets that appeared in “True Grit,” he made nearly $2,000 a week between all the overtime and Sunday shifts.
He also was offered a job touring the country to work on movie sets.
“I wish I would have taken it sometimes,” he said. “Hollywood pays real well.”
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Melinda Mawdsley can be reached via e-mail at mmawdsley@gjds.com.
THE CELEBRATION
The first annual True Grit Days is set for Sept. 8-9 at Town Park.
The celebration starts at 10 a.m. Sept. 8 and ends when the showing of “True Grit” finishes. The movie begins at dusk.
During the day Kim Darby, Johnny Crawford and Angie Dickinson will make appearances and sign autographs.
There will be vendors, a beer garden, music and poetry readings.
At 8:30 a.m. Sept. 9 there will be a breakfast in the park.
“True Grit” movie location tours will be offered by reservation.
For more information on True Grit Days, call 1-800-220-4959, e-mail RACC@RidgwayColorado.com or visit www.truegritdays.com.
