John Wayne is one of the biggest movie stars in history. In the late 60s he was in Houston, Texas filming scenes for a movie called “Hell Fighter,” the story of oil field firefighter Red Adair. At the same time, Ken Schulze and I were in Houston for a weekend series that the Astros were playing.

On Sunday morning of that weekend, Ken got up early and yelled at me, “You want breakfast cause I’m going down.” I didn’t go. It wasn’t but about 10 to 15 minutes later when Ken called the room. He said, “You’re not going to believe this, but guess who’s in here eating breakfast? It’s John Wayne.” I started throwing some clothes on but a couple of minutes later he called back and said, “Don’t worry about it, he’s gone.”

When Ken got back to the room he said, “You know what, I’m going to try and get a hold of him here in the hotel. Who knows, he might give us an interview.” I said, “Yeah, right.” So, not knowing a phone number, or room number, or suite number, Ken called the desk and said, “Can I have Mr. Wayne’s suite please?” And the phone starts ringing.

I listened in sitting next to Ken as this unmistakable voice answered the phone and it was that long, drawn out, “Hello.” Ken said, “Mr. Wayne?” He said, “Yes.” Ken introduced himself and the radio station that we were with and said, “I was just wondering if we could get together and maybe get a short interview with you?”

John Wayne, after a pause of about 5 seconds where I fully expected him to slam down the phone, said, “You know what, under normal circumstances I would be happy to. But my wife and my kids flew in yesterday and this is the only full day I have off and I told them I would give this day to them and I just can’t back out on that. But,” he continued, “if you will come to the set tomorrow, we can take care of whatever you need.”

That was the end of the conversation. I was impressed by it and had a deeper appreciation for John Wayne than ever before. We didn’t stay until Monday so I don’t know if he would have fulfilled his promise or not. I think he would have.

I was anxious to see that movie “Hell Fighter” when it came out because I knew I had that small connection to it. Turns out to be, in my opinion, one of the worst John Wayne movies ever made. But I still had great memories watching the movie simply because of the chance we had to meet the legend himself.

I never even saw him. Ken did, as well as seeing his wife and a couple of his kids. But he always told me, “I’m actually glad you didn’t see him.” I said, “Why?” He says, “Because he’s bald.” I don’t even like that picture in my brain so I’m glad I didn’t see him like that. I much prefer to see him with a hair piece on in a really good western.

Anyway, it was a big deal for us that weekend. Such a big deal that I don’t even remember if the Astros won or not.

Until next time, so long everybody.

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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].