TLS signed “Duke,” one page, 7.25 x 10.25, personal letterhead, April 29, 1954. Letter to C. J. Tevlin of RKO Studios, in full: "Enclosed you will find copy of a letter I've sent to Howard Hughes. The facts in that letter you have admitted to me are true. I want you to be sure to confirm this to Mr. Hughes." A brief postscript reads: "I am awaiting word from you as to the time of the meeting."
Included is the referenced carbon copy typed letter addressed to RKO studio head Howard Hughes, unsigned, four pages, 8.5 x 11, marked in the upper right corner, “Recd by Howard Hughes, 2-4-54.” The letter, in part: “My racket isn’t writing letters any more than answering them promptly is yours. I am obliged to write you again because there does not seem to be any other way to get the truth to you. I must get some serious beefs off my chest, and it is vitally important for me to invite some unadulterated facts to your attention which I don’t believe are ever placed before you…My beefs are very simple. At the other studios and for my own company, in which I have a huge stake, I seldom get involved on a picture for more than eight to ten weeks over-all. I am paid top terms for this time. At RKO, for obvious reasons, I wind up giving six months of my time—for a fraction of the compensation paid me by the other studios and for only a portion of my present market value. You can resolve this problem easily by paying me what the others do for the two remaining pictures I owe you, and I must ask for this because of the abnormal amount of my time you tie up…
Are you aware of the fact that had I not wanted to show you the same spirit of fairness you (but not your studio executives) displayed to me, I could have found a convenient way, like other stars in the business, to evade the two pictures I now owe you under a certain California court ruling that you are as familiar with as I am? Are you aware of the fact that I completed my services on ‘Flying Leathernecks’ for RKO on January 27, 1951? Under the terms of my contract, RKO was to have been ready with its next picture no later than March, 1952. No suitable material was submitted to me. Any stories I suggested were frowned upon and ignored. I still had to hold the beginning of ’52 open for an RKO picture. I had conferences, suggested material, and was politely brushed off.
As a consequence, in May, five months later, I took a job at another studio. For three years now, I have had your two commitments hanging over my head. Both should have been finished a year ago. Because of your studio’s inertia, I have not only lost considerable sums of money by being forced to wait around, but, what is more important, I have been unable to make any dealings ahead of time for pictures on exact dates because there was always the possibility that RKO would preempt my time. I am speaking of outstanding quality pictures. These are the very essence and lifeblood of an actor’s existence. I could have long since had another John Ford picture, which I loved, ‘The Long Gray Line,’ in production and by now a completed entity…One after the other, I have lost important pictures at the other major studios because of the great length of time you tie me up in each picture…
To sum it all up, so far this picture has cost me five months in 1952, three months in 1953, and it’s a cinch it will be four months in 1954. I say this is ridiculously unfair. I suggest and urge that I be paid a fair amount of money for my time from now on for this picture and for the assignment which you have that follows…I wish to remind you that in my 25 years in the business I have never acted in any way unreasonable that would cause me to be put on suspension by any studio, and that I have to date never been in a picture that was not momentarily successful. Every top director I have ever worked with has had complimentary things to say about my cooperation and enthusiasm on a picture. Because of these things, I say that RKO has no excuse for treating me in the manner they are now doing. Therefore, I feel I am deserving of an immediate answer as to assignment and money in my dealings with RKO.” In fine condition, with light irregular toning.
By early 1954, RKO Pictures was in a freefall and studio head Howard Hughes was attempting to buy out all of RKO's other stockholders. Wayne, who would soon be celebrating the success of his Warner Bros. feature The High and the Mighty, made several films with RKO between 1939 and 1956, with his last officially distributed RKO film being The Conqueror, an over-budgeted historical epic that comically miscast Wayne as the Mongol warrior-ruler Genghis Khan. Wayne’s other RKO commitment was likely the Hughes-presented Jet Pilot, a Cold War adventure-romance with complex flying sequences that 18 months to film and years of red-editing; the film was released in 1957, well after Hughes had sold RKO to the General Tire and Rubber Company for $25 million.
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