Paint on panel 25" x 25" Inscription on the backside reads: In 1956 the film, The Searchers, was released. It starred John Wayne and was directed by John Ford. Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards, was a stubborn bastard. He was a former Confederate soldier and a bitter racist who was fond of the cynical expression, “that’ll be the day.” In the film’s final scene, Wayne’s character finds some redemption by saving his young niece from a Comanche tribe and returning her safely to her family – but he disappears just as the film ends, forever shackled to the demons of his generation. At some point, a young Buddy Holly went to see that movie, and not long after leaving the theater he penned the hit, “That’ll Be The Day.” His career took off from there, blazing toward the stratosphere until his tragic death on a snowy night in February 1959. A plane carrying him crashed to the Earth in darkness, landing in a frozen field outside of Clear Lake, Iowa, which just happens to be 150 miles from Winterset, Iowa, the town where John Wayne was born in 1907. “That’ll Be The Day” was the first song John Lennon (The Beatles) learned to play on guitar. And The Searchers is often cited as the most influential film of all-time, with the most notable praise coming from Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas (Star Wars.)
