"Strategic Air Command" Movie

Yeah it's a good one, for sure although June Allyson gets pretty annoying.

There's also some really good C-124 footage. Watch for the "scanner" standing up in the open navdome while they taxi.

Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter and a few others make a cameo in the movie at the beginning.

I agree that June Allyson gets annoying, but I recorded the aircraft scenes off the air on a separate dvd so I can watch the real stars of the movie.

Don't forget that civilian Bonanza V tail sharing one scene with a Boeing transport.

And the KC-97s on the way to Kadena. There's a C-47, a C-97 too I think, and some great inflights of Thunderjets.

And of course the great Harry Morgan.

It was kind of wild watching the B-36 shaking as they were running the engines up on the first takeoff sequence. Wish there was a mold for the B-47 model they used for the emergency landing at the end, but the Hasegawa kit is still a good one.

Remind me, whats the model like? I remember that they supposedly filmed the Stratojet cockpit scenes in a gate guardian somewhere.

The original B-52 design had a tandem seat cockpit too. I found a picture somewhere of Tex Johnson sitting in it.

Remember Tex doing the slow roll over Sea Fair  on the 707 maiden flight?  

One comment I have about the movie is about the scene of Jimmy Stewart glancing at the wing fire.

IIRC, somewhere I read that the pilot could not actually sit in the cockpit and view the aircraft engines.

The pilot had to rely upon aircrew further back in the aircraft to watch the engines.

Can anyone confirm this?

BTW..............a view of the engineer station.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/b-36-peacemaker-360-degree-cockpit-view-826469619 

goldhammer

Remember Tex doing the slow roll over Sea Fair  on the 707 maiden flight?  

Still an impressive display no matter how many times I see it.

Well not exactly, but Dad was there.

wn.com/tex_johnston_rolls_a_707

Well the lore in engineering circles was that it was a 1G roll and there was a cup of coffee on a flat spot somewhere that stayed full.

www.toptenz.net/.../b52_01.jpg

YUP !

Another good SAC movie is "Gathering of Eagles."  I was in SAC at the time.  The IG Rock Hudson depicts was based on an actual IG, known as "sundown"- he gave unit commanders until sundown to get out of a unit that failed an inspection.

I remember my dad telling me his base had a surprise inspection by none other than General Curtis LeMay himself. Said it was a highly intense, stressful affair, and he was just a lowly A2C at the time.....

I couldn't imagine being told to be out of a unit by sundown! Wow!!

You guys do know that Jimmy Stewart was in real life a USAF bomber pilot and retired as a General in the Reserves. Many of the big Hollywood stars had served in the military and some had highly decorated service records. Quite a different crowd from today's spoiled movie stars.

That's true PJ.

plasticjunkie

You guys do know that Jimmy Stewart was in real life a USAF bomber pilot and retired as a General in the Reserves. Many of the big Hollywood stars had served in the military and some had highly decorated service records. Quite a different crowd from today's spoiled movie stars.

Oh, yes. Very Much aware of it. He retired as a Brigadier General (he was promoted to Major General after he retired by Ronald Reagan). He even had command of Dobbins Air Reserve Base just north of Atlanta for awhile. He also participated in a combat flight over Vietnam (Arc Light, I believe it was called).

And you are dead on, plasticjunkie - you don't see any of today's celebrities claiming to have served their country. There are a few active sports stars that can make that claim, though.

Not exactly a SAC movie,but how about Dr Stangelove with th cowboy riding the nuke all the way down.

Tojo72

Not exactly a SAC movie,but how about Dr Stangelove with th cowboy riding the nuke all the way down.

I'd say it's definitely an SAC movie!

Peter Sellers was to play Colonel Kong, but he broke his leg. Which is why two of his other characters are sitting down all the time.

They wrote John Wayne, who declined to even respond, they wrote Dan Blocker who said "No", and Slim Pickens took the part. Legend has it he wasn't told it was a (black) comedy.

"Nightmare!"

"Colonel Batguano, if that really is your name".

I will have to respond here :

I have an old Videotape ( remember those ?  ) Of that Movie . Always did respect those who did serve .

I remember the first time I watched Strategic Air Command. My dad was in SAC at the time and we were living on a B-47 base in England. During the scene when Jimmy Stewart walks into the hangar and is shown the B-47 for the first time, all the airmen in the base theater booed and threw trash and popcorn at the movie screen. It was funny as heck.

When you got fired in SAC in the day, you were off the base on the first thing that smoked.  It was one of those deals wherre you went into the office 5 minutes after and asked to see the fired guy, and it was like "who, no one here by that name".  Was a couple of Captains at Beale that I wished that had happened to........

This is the best scene from the movie. The footage from the cockpit, at cruise, is pretty fantastic as well. Folks in Ft Worth I talked to that were around back then said the loudest thing they ever heard was when a 36 took off!

I always thought Jimmy looked a little old to be playing major league baseball.  I wonder if there really were a lot of disgruntled Air Force reserves getting the call up for SAC.

Gotta imagine that there were. Seems Hollywood was a little more cooperative with the military in those days.