John Wayne photo from “Stagecoach” attributued to Ned Scott

While researching John Wayne photos on the Motion Picture and Television (MPTV) website, I found a photo which resembled Ned Scott’s style of portraiture but which carried no assignation as to originator or film. The description merely stated “John Wayne circa 1931”. I was spending time running through the many John Wayne photos on MPTV because I was writing an article for my John Wayne page which summed up Ned Scott’s experiences with Wayne on the two films which they both worked together. To further boost my writing inspiration, I also reviewed the Stagecoach movie booklet which Ned Scott had saved in his own scrapbook, and which I have posted on this archive website. Walter Wanger Productions created and published this booklet to promote the movie Stagecoach in 1939. Along with some interesting text about the historical aspects of the film, the booklet carries many of Ned Scott’s images from his own work on the film. One of these images happened to be the same image that MPTV had in its John Wayne file with no assignation. Having strong suspicions about a photograph’s origin, and proving that origin are often two different things. But here this time the coin finally slipped home while my jaw dropped in embarrassed surprise. I had it in front of me the whole time, right there in my father’s booklet! Now the origin and film for that image have been updated, thanks to the great people at MPTV. And I am proud to show the world another fine John Wayne photo by Ned Scott from the movie “Stagecoach”.

John Wayne as Ringo Kid in “Stagecoach” by Ned Scott