John Wayne
Film Mafia
Hollywood Sex Pests As revealed in Brownwing's book, it was not just aspiring actresses who were subjected to humiliating ordeals in order to secure advancement. "Whilst it is quite well-known that the young Clarke Gable engaged in oral sex with fellow MGM player William Haines in order to establish himself at the studio, less well known are legendary hard man John Wayne's use of casting sessions to seduce up and coming young male contract players," claims Brownwing. "During the 1940s the outwardly conservative and heterosexual Wayne would regularly attend screen tests with director John Ford, in order to size up potential conquests. He'd get Ford to order the young hopefuls to take off their shirts and enact scenes which required them to lift heavy objects or bend over a lot." When he'd picked out his likely targets, Wayne would arrange for Ford to call them back to the studio - usually late at night - for a bogus final screen test. Instead of the director and a camera crew, the bewildered young actors would find themselves alone in an otherwise deserted studio with an amourous Wayne, who would typically be clad only in a Stetson and a pair of pearl handled Colt .45s holstered on his gunbelt. This seduction technique proved surprisingly successful for 'The Duke' - his conquests allegedly included Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea and Montgomery Clift, with whom he had a torrid affair during the making of Red River in 1948.