I have one of the few (rare) surviving copies of the book size "Alamo" press release created by PR legend Russell Birdwell for the film...A first (and possibly last) attention-getter of its type...(Birdwell, of course, is best known for getting a bit of media attention for "Gone with the Wind.")...Cheers!
This was John Wayne's great vanity project. He had been pushing the story for at least twenty years by the time it was made, with himself as Davy Crockett. By all accounts the shoot was a nightmare, between investors demanding that he shoot in Texas rather than Mexico (a favourite location of Wayne's) and showing up in their airplanes while scenes were being shot, to having his beloved mentor John Ford showing up and telling him he was doing it all wrong. Of minor concern was the fact that Richard Widmark truly disliked him, and Laurence Harvey drunkenly suggesting that they have sex with each other. According to people who know, by the time that the production wrapped John Wayne was smoking six packs of cigarettes a day. It's a wonder that the movie is as good as it is (take that however you want).
3 comments:
Why do we love this movie so much?
Bill,
I have one of the few (rare) surviving copies of the book size "Alamo" press release created by PR legend Russell Birdwell for the film...A first (and possibly last) attention-getter of its type...(Birdwell, of course, is best known for getting a bit of media attention for "Gone with the Wind.")...Cheers!
This was John Wayne's great vanity project. He had been pushing the story for at least twenty years by the time it was made, with himself as Davy Crockett. By all accounts the shoot was a nightmare, between investors demanding that he shoot in Texas rather than Mexico (a favourite location of Wayne's) and showing up in their airplanes while scenes were being shot, to having his beloved mentor John Ford showing up and telling him he was doing it all wrong. Of minor concern was the fact that Richard Widmark truly disliked him, and Laurence Harvey drunkenly suggesting that they have sex with each other. According to people who know, by the time that the production wrapped John Wayne was smoking six packs of cigarettes a day. It's a wonder that the movie is as good as it is (take that however you want).
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