"I went out and had these special shoes made. It's nothing new, I don't know if you know, John Wayne is 6'4 and wears 3-4 inch lifts in his shoes. I don't know who he wants to be bigger than, but he does and it an old, old custom, I certainly did not invent it. In my case, it was more necessary than it was for Duke Wayne. I had these shoes made and 2 to 3 inch lifts inside and the heel was another 2 and half inches or so and I walked around that way, wherever I could without falling over"
In a 1959 article just after he began to become famous with Splish Spash etc, it states "he stands five- nine-and-a-half".
