A brief story behind John Wayne and Wyatt Earp...
John Wayne was only his stage name, his real name was Marion Morrison and as a very young actor just starting out he met and spent considerable private time with Wyatt Earp, yes the real Wyatt Earp, who was hired by Paramount Pictures in 1927 to advise the studio on all things old west since the studio was producing mostly western films after sound films became commercially successful...
The young actor asked Earp to teach him all about how cowboys at the time walked, talked, and so on, he admired Earp... when Wayne was finally able to complete his western character he actually did a perfect imitation of Wyatt Earp as that western character... Wayne then auditioned for his first film and was hired for the part based on that character he adopted from studying with Earp and studying Earp's own mannerisms in every way, e.g., his walk, his talk, everything...
Over the years, that Earp persona became John Wayne himself... today, when we see John Wayne on the screen we're looking at Wyatt Earp, e.g., the mannerisms, the walk, the talk, the full persona of Wyatt Earp in every way...
One of the studio executives at Paramount came up with the idea of hiring Earp as an adviser, the executive's name was Mayer... Mayer traveled to Ohio to meet with Earp who was in his mid 70's and retired... 25 years later Mayer joined with Metro and Goldwyn to begin their own film studio which is known today as MGM, it was created in 1952...
Wyatt Earp (the original John Wayne) in 1869:
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