This is the first of a two part CHMTC episode, on the lives and careers of two of the most successful beefcake actors ever produced by Hollywood. The western icon, John Wayne and the blonde seafaring giant, Sterling Hayden.

John Wayne was a promising college student, who through the fates became one of the most successful movie stars that ever graced a Hollywood movie. Tall, handsome and virile, Wayne's love for his country influenced his films, his career and his love-life. Most of all it led to a search for redemption, to make up for his failure to serve in World War II. Along the way he became a staunch opponent of anything he considered to be Un-American, including it seems, certain types of civil rights, which in his view did not fit with the American dream. It also led to the creation of Wayne's great passion, his epic 1960 movie the Alamo.

Listen and enjoy the telling by Mrs Classic Film Fan of the eventful life and career of the late, great and decidedly imperfect, John Wayne, together with the trials and tribulations he suffered in making his great passion The Alamo.