At present we dwell in a sure kind of monoculture which, as evidenced by the “Harry Potter” reboot collection, has gone nostalgia-mad. However in any other case, issues have by no means been extra fractured. We’re all on our personal cultural journeys, changing into immersed in varied subcultures facilitated by the web and social media. It is for this very motive that Hollywood does not maintain the type of cultural sway it as soon as did, because the rise of streaming platforms has despatched the business right into a scramble to maintain up with the general public’s more and more fragmented consideration. When you think about the truth that, in 2025, Nielsen confirmed YouTube had turn out to be the primary distributor of TV content material within the U.S., beating each different broadcaster and streamer (together with Netflix), you will get an actual sense for a way the cultural panorama has modified so dramatically in the previous couple of a long time.
It is the type of factor somebody like John Wayne may absolutely have by no means imagined. We have heard quite a bit in regards to the dying of the film star lately, and to some extent it is true (though placing somebody like Timothée Chalamet in your film is not going to harm ticket gross sales). However there’s positively a way that the kind of star exemplified by the Duke simply is not a factor any extra. Wayne was a monolith of the pre-internet age monoculture, the place everyone had a considerably shared expertise. He represented one thing elementary about the best way tradition labored within the twentieth century. It wasn’t simply that folks went to see his films as a result of they starred John Wayne, it was the best way by which the actor got here to embody sure values and signify a shared thought of what it meant to be a proud American — and maybe even a decent member of society. As time went on, he grew to become a extra polarizing determine, however there isn’t any doubt he remained an icon all through his life.
You would be hard-pressed to discover a modern-day equal, just because we do not have these shared concepts any extra, so it is really fascinating to look again on the man’s profession as a lens by which to view twentieth century tradition. Take his first TV particular, for instance — a grandiose NBC extravaganza full of stars of each kind which merely would not occur as we speak.
John Wayne did not love TV, however his first TV particular was a giant deal
Regardless of the actual fact he appeared in a number of small-screen productions, John Wayne wasn’t the most important fan of TV. He did have an uncredited TV function you’ve got in all probability by no means seen, and the Duke’s secret cameo on “Gunsmoke” is a little-known treasure. However he primarily steered away from committing to any episodic collection, preferring the large display as a spot to inform his tales and broaden his legend.
By 1970, he was already well-established as maybe the most important film star of the century. However he confirmed no indicators of slowing down, and that 12 months specifically was a giant one for the Duke. His pushback in opposition to Paramount for promoting the TV rights to “True Grit” sparked a authorized battle, however he additionally received his first Oscar for his efficiency within the film as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn. One other first got here that 12 months when Wayne hosted his very first TV particular — an elaborate star-studded affair that belongs so completely to the age of the monoculture that rewatching it now could be like discovering some type of historic curio.
Wayne was the host of “Swing Out, Candy Land,” a celebration of American historical past that was a light-hearted however reverent affair which the New York Instances known as “a paean of patriotism.” It featured vignettes that dropped at life varied moments in American historical past, with Wayne showing between every and speaking viewers by the story of their homeland utilizing an enormous map of the USA, which he ambled throughout to reveal the expansion of the nation over the a long time. Other than the novelty of Wayne agreeing to seem on the small display in his first TV particular, “Swing Out, Candy Land” was notable for the unimaginable forged of actors, dancers, comedians, and musicians it assembled, a lot of whom had been up to date stars whereas others had been legends of earlier eras.
Swing Out, Candy Land belongs to a bygone age
“Swing Out, Candy Land” featured so many huge names it truly is unimaginable that NBC pulled it off. George Burns, Glen Campbell, and Johnny Money performed themselves, alongside Jack Benny as “Man Who Finds Silver Greenback.” “I Love Lucy” star Lucille Ball offered the voice of the Statue of Liberty, marking one more collaboration between her and her good good friend John Wayne, who had appeared on her beloved CBS sitcom within the 1955 episode “Lucy and John Wayne.” Different notable appearances included Bing Crosby as Mark Twain, William Shatner as John Adams, Dean Martin as Eli Whitney, and Bob Hope as himself. That is not even half the ensemble.
The one time this type of congregation of stars happens as we speak is at an award ceremony or on the “Saturday Evening Stay 50” anniversary particular. To see legends like Wayne, Cosby, Money, Ball, and others gathered collectively in a single manufacturing like this will need to have felt like a very momentous event, one which was little question a flashbulb reminiscence for the collective consciousness of the time. Certainly, “Swing Out, Candy Land” grew to become the highest-rated present the week it aired and ended with Wayne delivering some patriotic phrases to encourage and uplift viewers earlier than the forged sang “God Bless America” in unison.
Are you able to think about something like this current now? You would possibly even be fairly glad we do not have to witness this type of unabashed celebration of American patriotism, however it’s nonetheless fascinating as a cultural artifact. Only one 12 months later, Wayne would set about dismantling his picture by giving an notorious interview to Playboy by which he took the Civil Rights motion to process and claimed Native People had been egocentric for attempting to carry onto their land. However in that temporary second in 1970, when dozens of stars had been singing “God Bless America” on TV whereas the nation watched, it will need to have appeared like nothing was ever going to vary.
