Aviation Books: Hunting Warbirds - The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II

Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II, by Carl Hoffman
Ballantine Books, 2001
241 pages. No index. 16 pages of b&w photos.
Library: 623.746 HOF

Description
"Winged treasure" they call them-the lost remains of the great American fighter planes and bombers that won World War II. Hellcats and Supperfortresses, Corsairs and Dauntlesses. Produced by the thousands at the height of the war, and then cast off as scrap in the decades that followed, these warbirds are now worth literally anything-fortunes,families, even lives-to the people who search for them. Like many men, writer Carl Hoffman was bitten by the warbird bug as a child. But he never imagined that he would one day witness and participate in a heroic adventure himself-the most audacious warbird rescue attempt of all time.

The crash of the Kee Bird B-29 Superfortress made banner headlines in 1947 when a team of Air Force pilots pulled off the near-miraculous feat of locating the wreck in Greenland and snatching its stranded crew from the teeth of the arctic winter.

For nearly half a century, the almost perfectly intact warbird lay abandoned on a lake of ice-but not forgotten. Fifty years later, with collectors paying upward of a million dollars for salvageable WWII planes, two intense fanatics, legendary test pilot Darryl Greenamyer and starry-eyed salvage wizard Gary Larkins, hatched the insane idea of launching an expedition to Greenland to find the Kee Bird, bring it back to life, and fly it out.

In this riveting adventure of man, machine and history, the quest for winged treasure ultimately extends far beyond the search for the Kee Bird. Hoffman literally crisscrosses the country to track down the key players in the high-stakes warbird game.

He meets a retired Midwestern carpenter who crammed every inch of his yard with now-precious warbirds during the lean years when they were considered junk; attends an air show where crowds go wild at the sight of four of the fourteen airworthy B-17s flying in formation, speaks to pilots and mechanics, millionaire businessmen and penniless kids-all of them ready to drop everything in pursuit of these fabled planes.

"These planes are a sickness, that's all there is to it," one warbird fan tells Hoffman as he lovingly polishes his vintage B-17. In this superbly crafted narrative, Hoffman turns the warbird craze into the stuff of high drama and awesome adventure. Hunting Warbirds takes us to the heart of one of the most fascinating obsessions of our time.

TV: The Andy Griffith Show, episode 1, The New Housekeeper

The Andy Taylor show is available on DVD, or it can be watched on computer via Netflix.

3 October, 1960

Andy Griffith - Sheriff Andy Taylor
Ron Howard - Opie Taylor
Don Knotts - Deputy Barney Fife
Frances Bavier - Aunt Bee Taylor
Frank Ferguson -Wilbur Pine
Cheerio Meredith - Emma Brand
Mary Treen - Rose

Inside the office of the Mayberry sheriff and justice of the peace, Andy Taylor is performing a wedding ceremony. When he gets to the part about "If anyone has anything to say to stop this marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace," Opie says he has something to say. Through the dialog it is revealed that Rose has been Sheriff Andy Taylor's housekeeper, and has raised the now 6-year old Opie Taylor for many years. Now she's getting married and will, of course, no longer be working for the Taylors.

Aunt Bee - who raised Andy Taylor when he was a boy - comes to be their new housekeeper. But Opie is stubborn and wants Rose back.

In other scenes, we meet Barney Fife for the first time. He is gung-ho because he wants to prove to the townspeople that he was given the job as deputy because he was best man for the job, not because he was Andy's cousin.

So gung ho is Barney that he actually arrests Emma Brand (Cheerio Watson) for jaywalking. She's an elderly lady who walks with a stick (although it will be revealed in future episodes that she exaggerates her ill-health.)

Opie continues to be distant toward Aunt Bee. Rose could play baseball and fish. Andy gets the idea of teaching Aunt Bee how to play baseball and fish, but both experiments are disasters.

The final straw is when Aunt Bee accidently lets Opie's pet bird out of his cage.

Aunt Bee decides she must leave, as Opie will never accept her. She goes in to Opie's room early in the morning to kiss him goodbye. Then she takes her luggage down to the truck where Andy will drive her to the bus station.

Opie, who'd only been pretending to be asleep, runs down and tells her not to go. If she leaves, what will happen to her? She can't do anyhing! She must stay so that they can take care of her.

So Aunt Bee stays, and the episode ends with Andy on the porch playing his guitar and Aunt Bee knitting.

1948 British Businesses: Pomeroy Makeup

This advertisement appeared in the September 1948 issue of Theatre World.

Text
Decolletage by Dior
A famous French designer has brought back
the extremely daring decolletage....
unsurpassed for great occasions in a woman's
life. Such splendour naturally demands the
perfect grooming and meticulous make-up
which are such an essential part of this
"New Look".

Lovely women use Pomeroy.

London Salon: 174 New Bond,St, W.1

Skin food, cleansing cream, beauty milk, powder, lipstick, dathos (for extra dry skin), day cream, hand lotion, astringent lotion, foundation cream, make-up base
Prices from 18 6 to 4/ - (including purchase tax)

Theatre: Simon Lack in Cage Me A Peacock, 1948

Simon Lack had a long and successful career as a character actor - appearing in movies, on TV, on stage, and on the radio. (Indeed, as part of the BBC Drama Repertory Company he appeared in probably over a hundred radio productions.)

I recently acquired some Theatre World magazines from England, and will be sharing scans of the actors in them in this blog.

I start with Simon Lack because he's the main reason I acquired these magazines.






In 1948, Simon Lack co-starred in a musical called Cage Me A Peacock, based on a popular book of the time by Noel Langley.

Music: Eve Lynd
Lyrics: Adam Leslie
Book: Noel Langley
London production opened at the Strand Theatre on June 18, 1948 and ran for 337 performances

Collatinus - Ballard Berkely
Lucrece - Yolande Donlan
Mercury - Bill O'Connor
Cassandra - Linda Gray
Sextus - Simon Lack
Dionysus - Richard Littledale
Volumnia - Mai Bacon
Octavius - GEorge Bradford
Britannicus - - Simon Traherne


Simon Lack far right as Sextus. Lucre (Yoland Donlan) far left. Man gesturing towards her, Collatinus (Ballard Berkely).


Bill O'Connor as Mercury and Linda Gray as Cassandra direct Sextus and Casso in search of Lucrece. Simon lack far right.


Simon Lack as Sextus plighting his troth to Althea (Lucrece)


Sextus and Althea in fond embrace


Sextus sees his bride with Octavian

Books: Consequential Strangers, by Melinda Blau and Karen Fingerman

This book is off-topic, but it's so interesting that I thought I'd share it.

There's an old saying, "I shall only pass this way but once, so any little good I can do, let me do it now, for I shall only pass this way but once."

We pass strangers every day - each one of them has their own problems and preoccupations. A smile from you might change their life - so might a frown or a casual insult (such as sneering at their weight, or something of that nature.)

It costs nothing to give someone a friendly smile, and you never know what it might accomplish as the stranger at whom you smile goes on to struggle through his or her day.

Consequential Strangers: The Power of People who Don't Seem to Matter, but Really Do, by Melinda Blau and Karen Fingerman
W W Norton and Co, 2009
219 pages, plus Appendices, notes and index. No photos
Library: 155.927 BLA

Description
They punctuate our days, but we take them for granted: our barista, our car mechanic, a coworker, a fellow dog lover. Yet these are the consequential strangers who bring novelty and information into our lives, allow us to exercise different parts of ourselves, and open us up to new opportunities. They keep us healthy and are invaluable when we're sick. They fuel innovation and social movements. And they are vital in times of uncertainty.

In their unprecedented examination of "people who don't seem to matter," psychologist Karen L. Fingerman, who coined the term "consequential strangers" collaborates with journalist Melinda Blau to develop an idea sparked by Fingerman's groundbreaking research. Drawing as well from Blau's more than two hundred interviews with specialists in psychology, sociology, marketing, and communication, this book presents compelling stories of individuals and institiutions, past and present.

A rich portrait of our social landscape-on and off the internet-it presents the science of casual connection and chronicles the surprising impact that consequential strangers have on business, creativity, the work environment, our physical and mental health, and the strength of our communities.

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction - The Birth of a Notion
1. The Ascendance of Consequential Strangers
2. The View From Above
3. Beyond the Confines of the Familiar
4. Good for What Ails Us
5. Being Spaces
6. The Downside
7. The Future of Consequential Strangers
Epilogue: The Postscript is Personal
Appendix I: 20 Questions
Appendix II: The Occupation Test
Notes
Index

British TV: Enemy at the Door: Episode 1

Just after France fell during WWII, in 1940, the English military evacuated the Channel Islands - in particular Guernsey. The German military move in and occupied it themselves. They stayed there for 5 years - trapped, as the war went against the Germans, and ended up surrendering at war's end.

In 1970, a TV series called Enemy at the Door was filmed.

English actors played both the German and English roles - and those that portrayed the Germans did not use German accents.

Here's a few screencaps from episode 1.

The Germans arrive and introduce themselves to the island governing body

Simon Lack as Major Freidel, and Alfred Burke as Major Richter

Simon Lack.







Simon Cadell at far right, as Hauptsturmfuhrer Reinicke .












Alfred Burke as Major Richter. American audiences will be most familiar with him as Gregorio Aunty from The Avengers in "The Girl From Aunty".


Richard Hurndall is the man on the left (John Ambrose). He appears on only 2 episodes. Known to American audiences as the First Doctor in The Five Doctors (replacing the deceased William Hartnell.) Hurndall had worked with Simon Lack on the radio serial, "Paul Temple and the Van Dyke Affair". Indeed, in the last ep of this serial, Lack's character threw Hurndall's character off a train.

Bernard Horsfall as Dr. Philip Martel. He was in "The Cybernauts" as Jepthcott, and Martin Fox in "The Fear Merchants."