Everything But the Flak

[BlackDog]

I just got done reading (again) Martin Caidin's book on how 3 B-17's were ressurected from near death and flown across the Atlantic to film "The War Lover". I know Caidin died a few years ago, but what of the rest of the crew's? I have Google searched the names of Greg Board, John Crewdson, Don Hackett and Les Hillman, the only marginal success I got was Crewdson, and that was just his name in credits of various films he worked on.

Curiosty is getting the best of me. Any ideas where to go would be greatly appreciated.

[Stoney]

Don Hackett was one of the pilots in "Catch 22", saw him about 15 years ago and he was in bad health then, would have to assume he is no longer with us.

[Lynn Allen]

What is the name of that book?

TIA & Cheers,

Lynn

[Jack Cook]

What is the name of that book?

See title of this thread!

[aerovin]

Don Hackett has passed on. I had a chance to visit with him inside a DC-6 back in the 1980s as he was getting ready to ferry the ex-air tanker from Santa Rosa, CA, to Arizona. His recollections of his film exploits were more fiction than fact, at least from what I can determine. (For example, he claimed he did the belly landing in War Lover, something obviously in error as that was the Mantz landing lifted from Twelve O'Clock High.)

Crewdson was killed in a helicopter accident in the late 1960s, I think.

Greg Board quickly left the USA in 1966 just ahead of an arrest for alleged gun running and fraud. Read an excellent account of this in Hagedorn and Hellstrom's Foreign Invaders. He turns up as an airplane dealer (or did) down in Australia but I doubt if he could be very active anymore.

The book was entertaining but some of it was a bit far-fetched, as far as I'm concerned. Caidin was more impressed with himself and his friends than most people were.

[Lynn Allen]

What is the name of that book?

See title of this thread!

Roger That

[BlackDog]

The book said that Crewdson did the bellylanding, though it kinda does look like the "12 O'clock High" landing from a different angle.

I'm not going to say Crewdson wasn't killed in the 60's, but I found his name in the credits of a few James Bond flicks ("For Your Eyes Only", "The Spy Who Loved Me", and "Her Majesties Secret Service"), filmed in the 70's and early 80's.

Like I said, I was interested to find out what happened to the whole crew.

Board left the US in a hurry, eh? Well, I googled Aero Associates, the firm Board was with when he renovated the 3 forts, and it was based out of Australia. I guess that makes a bit of sense then.

The book said that 2 of the forts were canibalized for parts for the first one. Any idea if it is still alive? I couldn't begin to know where to look for registration numbers, etc.

[Pat Carry]

BlackDog, The 3rd B-17 does still exist today. Its 44-83563 called "Fuddy Duddy" and its one of the 11 airworthy forts around today . This B-17 was just recently sold to Martin Aviation in So. California. Check www.warbirdregistry.org/b17registry/b17-4483563.html for a history of the plane.

[aerovin]

The book said Crewdson did the buzz job on the airport, the most impressive one I've ever seen on or off film. I don't think the book mentioned the belly landing at all. Viewing the film, it seems the 4th B-17 (the ex-Israeli airplane) was used as the set after the Mantz belly landing sequence where the crew exits the airplane and Robert Wagner walks around to the nose section.

Checking my records, I see that Crewdson was killed circa 1983 in a helicopter crash.

[BlackDog]

Hey cool!!! I took a tour of "Fuddy Duddy" THis summer when it was on tour. Sure wish I had known...

Reading that book got me to rembering the wild and crazy stuff I was involved with in other ventures. No international incidents, but there were a few occasions where the questions "Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?" were raised. Nothing aviation related, and nothing illeagle, just out of the ordinary, and a lot of fun with some serious, hard partying professionals.

[Jerry O'Neill]

Just a trivia note...when "Fuddy Duddy" was flown back to the U.S. after filming omn the UK was completed, she was sent on tour to promote the film.
They painted the film's title in red under the wings, and threw leaflets promoting the movie out of the aircraft. When she was later in Geneseo being worked on, they discovered some of those leaflets under the floor boards.
Jerry

[Jase]

Ah yes, Marty Caidin... He'd tell it like it was, even if it wasn't!!!!!

Lotta fun to hang around, but make sure you had hipwaders on for the "Now this is No S#^%...." stories...

And that damned picklehaube (sp?) spiked German helmet he used to wear flying his Ju-52 that he later sold to Lufthansa...

[corsair166b]

The stories might be a bit...ummm....EMBELLISHED, but they sure make for good reading and the world is poorer for the loss of characters like Caidin and his gang....I have 'Ragwings and Heavy Iron' in my collection and count it as one of my more cherished books...

M

[Jase]

Oh, no question, the world *is* a poorer and less amusing place with the loss of folks like Marty and John Crewdson. Some real larger than life Characters there.

[p51]

The book said that Crewdson did the bellylanding, though it kinda does look like the "12 O'clock High" landing from a different angle.

That landing is the one from “Twelve O’Clock High.” You can clearly see the markings are the same as the plane that was bellied in to Ozark field for that movie. These are markings that don’t appear anywhere else in the film. You can clearly see the nose art is different from the plane that bellies in when you see the plan that Robert anger runs up to. I think that makes it clear that it isn’t the same plane. As for it being a different angle, keep in mind that the original belly landing was filmed from several different cameras (including supposedly one that the B-17 went right into) but they chose to use the one wide shot in the final film.