It was late 1959 or maybe early 1960 when Hollywood invaded Oxnard, CA to use as a location for the film “North to Alaska.”  Cable plays that movie often nowadays. Anyhow, I was a reporter, a photojournalist, with the Ventura Star, a nearby daily newspaper, 

So I ran over to Oxnard, to find total confusion on the beach with hundreds of people and lots of big machines, and a big boat beached in the surf.  I soon saw John Wayne over on the steps of his trailer. 

I grabbed some machine coffee, approached the star, did my howdies, chatted a bit, assured him I wasn’t after an interview (which would’ve given him problems), shot that photo and left. 

He was real nice, never called his PR people. Just nice.