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| Above, the John Wayne Statue with the Great Western Savings headquarters in the background. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
One of the Facebook John Wayne fan groups posted photos of the statue of the Duke at what was once the headquarters of Great Western Savings. Wayne made television commercials for Great Western that brought in a lot of clients.
Great Western Savings is gone, but the statue remains.
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| Above, the east side of the statue. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
From Roadside America:
This building was the headquarters of Great Western Savings and Loan, one of the largest savings and loans in the nation. John Wayne did television commercials for Great Western from 1977 until his death in 1979. As a tribute to their celebrity spokesman, Great Western commissioned in 1984 a full-sized bronze statue of the actor by noted American western-motif sculptor Harry Jackson to stand in front of their headquarters. The building was later sold in 1992. Magazine publisher Larry Flynt obtained the building and statue in 1994, and sold the building in 2013.
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| Above, a view of the statue from its base. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Back in 1985, I was in the Wilshire and La Cienega area of Los Angeles and stopped and took a few pictures of the statue. It is actually in Beverly Hills at 8484 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA. This was about eight years before I worked at an insurance company a few blocks east on Wilshire Blvd.
The photos that accompany this blog post were taken during that visit.
Here is a 1977 commercial featuring two of his children:
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