The hug John Wayne wouldn’t have given up for the world: “I’m proud to have had his friendship”
One fateful night in 1962, while John Wayne was on a promotional tour for his film Hatari!, he saw something that boiled his blood, like the coffee over an open flame that he’d pretended to cook so often.
The Duek had clocked off for the evening. Spending time in Michigan with his son Patrick, Wayne decided to treat his offspring to dinner. With a bit of luck on their side, about an hor away in Ontario, one of Wayne’s friends was performing, so the two men jumped in a car and hauled ass to make it on time, entering through the back entrance to avoid the spotlight.
As soon as he entered the smoky, dark venue, Wayne could feel a thick tension in the air, like cowboy stew hanging in the oxygen. He looked up on stage and saw his friend Sammy Davis Jr trying to entertain the audience. Usually, such an exchange is swift. The entertainer delivers high quality entertainment, and the audience applauds. This time, however, Davis Jr was being roundly heckled by those in the darker side of the room.
Davis Jr was Black, of course, and despite being a world-famous member of the Rat Pack, that didn’t mean he was in for plain sailing everywhere he went in North America. The country still hadn’t outlawed segregation at that point – in fact, it wouldn’t happen for another two years – meaning many of his public appearances balanced on a knife-edge.
Wayne, who was friendly with a few members of the Rat Pack, primarily Dean Martin and Davis Jr, looked up at his buddy struggling on stage, and thought, “To hell with that.” According to his son, he immediately took to the stage, to the surprise and delight of the audience, and threw his arm around a relieved Davis Jr. As he pulled the smiling singer close and hugged him tight, the endorsement of one of Hollywood’s most iconic movie stars did the trick. The atmosphere of uncertainty, discontent, and fear instantly transformed into euphoria.
Fast forward 17 years, and Davis Jr was able to return the favour with a hug the Duke wouldn’t have missed for the world. On April 9th, 1979, Wayne made his last public appearance at that year’s Academy Awards ceremony. The legendary actor, who by that point looked achingly frail thanks to his battle with stomach cancer, presented the ‘Best Picture’ category, and gladly announced The Deer Hunter as the winner.
For many watching the ceremony at home, though, the winner was incidental. Seeing Wayne on the Oscars stage for one last hurrah was the reason they’d tuned in, and when host Johnny Carson invited a group of Wayne’s pals on-stage to celebrate with him, a fitting final image was solidified for one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars.
The cherry on top of the cake, though, was the warm hug Davis Jr gave Wayne, the man who’d rescued him on stage all those years ago. He embraced him so tightly, in fact, that Wayne can be seen wincing in the photo, and Ava Gardner was quoted as saying, “Sammy felt really bad because he’d given Duke a really tight hug, not knowing that Duke was in such terrible pain.”
To Wayne, though, a little pain was worth it to have such a special experience with his friend, and such a fitting sendoff from the industry he’d dedicated his adult life to. He passed away only two months later, and in his 1989 memoir Why Me?, Davis Jr poignantly noted, “I’m proud to have had his friendship.”
