Warbird Information Exchange

Gang, Here's the interesting story about the WW2 Era Beech D-18 used in the film "It's a MAD MAD MAD MAD World". Apparently, Frank Tallman's famous Billboard Crash really killed the airframe. Check it Out:

http://www.hbw.addr.com/madworld2.htm

http://www.dixiewing.org/aircraft/c45/index.htm

http://www.hbw.addr.com/madworld.htm

http://members.cox.net/mkpl4/mmmmw/thumb.htm

Digger

Man, that was a funny movie. Wish they had more parts with Don Knotts and the Three Stooges. A classic.

Did they really fly the 18 threw a billboard?

Wasnt the billboard made of styrofoam...and didnt it get caught up in the intakes and almost choke out the engines? At least thats what Ive heard.. Anyone know?

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Trae

I remember hearing something about them putting another windshield inside the aircraft behind its original one for safety. Something along those lines anyway.

Regards,

The chase at the end of the movie was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen! I'll have to find it and check out the Beech 18 scene.

Canso

The second windshield was an armored piece out of some ex-military aircraft. Before the stunt through the billboard, Tallman correctly predicted the failure of at least one engine, which did happen as anticipated. I bel;ieve it was only one of the engines that failed.

It has been reported that either Chino or Orange County Airports were where the billboard scene was done, but I'd put my money on Orange County. It just looks more like the terrain around O.C. Airport and it would make sense that the scene would be shot close to Tallman's home airport.
LOVE THE MOVIE!
Jerry

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There really aren't any hills like that within a couple of miles of Chino Airport. Unless he was doing about 600 knots I think it unlikely that this was filmed at Chino given the statement that there was a runway just beyond the sign.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Scenes Shot at the Rancho Conejo Airport

Newbury Park, California



The 1963 movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," includes several scenes showing Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett chartering a twin-engine plane, a Beechcraft D-18, and flying it to an airport loudly identified by the man in the control tower (Carl Reiner) as "Rancho Conejo Airport." Buddy Hackett ends up flying the plane after the pilot (Jim Backus, best known as Thurston Howell in Gilligan's Island) gets drunk and is knocked unconscious. Col. Wilberforce (Paul Ford) is brought in to give Hackett flying instruction over the radio. Jesse White, radio tower operator, says, "Why don't we just shoot 'em down and be through with it."
Paul Ford, second from right, and Jesse White, radio operator, right. Other two are Eddie Ryder, control tower staffer, and Carl Reiner, controller.

Almost all these scenes were, indeed, filmed at the no-longer-existing Rancho Conejo Airport in Newbury Park, California, a part of the city of Thousand Oaks. Click on the photos below to compare scenes from the movie with the current topography. Lower parts of pictures are from the movie; upper parts are photos taken in Newbury Park (or elsewhere) in 2003 (and later). Click on the wide panoramic photo below to see Newbury Park skyline. (To enlarge the panoramic photo in Internet Explorer you may need to go to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, Multimedia, and turn off the Enable Automatic Image Resizing.)

The Rancho Conejo Airport, which was described by the Los Angeles Times as the "The finest executive aircraft facility on the West Coast," was in operation for about five years, beginning in 1960. In the mid-1990s the ground level was raised a few feet and the entire airport area was covered by a gated community of homes.

While the dramatic movie flight ends in Newbury Park, other airports appear earlier. Rooney and Hackett board the plane at an airport surrounded by what look like fir trees. I do not have a clue where that airport is or was. But the plane definitely lifts off from the Palm Springs Airport. The Internet Movie Database (repeated on Amazon) says the plane flies through a roadside billboard at the Chino Airport, and the plane definitely flies through an open-ended hanger at the Santa Rosa Airport in northern California.

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There is a website that shows shots of that old airport and some scenes from the movie.

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/CA/Airfields_CA_Ventura.htm#ranchoconejo

Hello,

FYI my father owned this aircraft at the time the film was made and it was not damaged in the bill board fly through; it did have its nose tank damaged when taxied into the restaurant/hangar by a board that the left engine tossed into the body. If you watch that clip you'll see the impact.
The plane was eventually sold to an Alaska air service where it was destroyed in a crash. Too bad. I was only 5 or so at the time, but I do remember flying over Disney land out of OC airport (now John Wayne) and watching the fireworks from above.
Also, he bought the plane from Davis-Monthan AFB back in the late 50's for $5800.

RW
PS my dad is almost 90 but still kicking and living in Mariposa, CA.

The key to the billboard scene is that the steel frame of the billboard was original. He practiced for hours (as was typical of Tallman's approach) using a lightly made replica frame. He had to hit that sucker dead square or he would have been toast. In his book Tallman says the board surface was made of balsa wood and along with one engine going out the leading edges took quite a beating really affecting the handling qualities and that was something he hadn't figured on.

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Funny, funny movie!! It's now become sort of a place marker as I think the only cast members still alive are Sid Caeser, Johnny Winters, Mickey Rooney, Stan Freeberg, Carl Reiner, and Jerry Lewis. Not bad for a movie that'll be 50 in a few weeks.
I always thought Actress Madelyn Rhue was one hot lookin' gal

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The open ended Quonset style hanger mentioned is still in use in Santa Rosa CA>

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Where's that, some place in PV?