In John Wayne's own words, "There have been a lot of stories about how I got to be called the Duke.  One was that I played the part of a duke in a school play, which I never did.  Sometimes, they even said I was descended from royalty!  It was a lot of rubbish.  Hell, the truth is that I was named after a dog."

John delivered newspapers in the morning with his trusty Airedale, Duke.  The local firemen called them "Big Duke" and Little Duke." 

Later The Duke accepted a full scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California his head coach fixed him up with a job as an assistant prop man on the set of a John Ford movie.  The rest is history....