fore becoming a star in 1939"s STAGECOACH, John Wayne established his persona in a number of B-Westerns in the 1930s. In WINDS OF THE WASTELAND, Wayne plays a Pony Express rider who finds his days are numbered with the advent of the telegraph. It was made after Monogram, which had produced Wayne"s earlier Westerns, merged with Mascot Pictures to form Republic, which resulted in higher budgets for the films.