Aviation Movies x5: To the Wild Blue Yonder

Kathy and I saw the new Top Gun: Maverick movie recently at The Grand in Stamford. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it got me to thinking about other classic movies dealing with aviation, planes and pilots. All of these movies listed here were made before there was any such thing as computer-generated effects, so when it looks like the pilots are performing amazing feats of aerial daring-do, they really are.

As always, I’m not saying these are the best films ever made, and it’s certainly not an exhaustive list of aviation movies. And remember this is for “Classics,” which for our purposes applies to movies that are at least 30 years old. Otherwise, I might have to include 2004’s The Aviator with Leonardo Di Caprio and Cate Blanchett, or 2012’s Red Tails with Cuba Gooding, Jr, Terrance Howard, and Michael B. Smith.

But I digress.

5. Top Gun, 1986 – Tom Cruise stars as “Sierra Hotel” naval aviator Pete Mitchell, call sign “Maverick.” He gets sent to the Navy’s elite school for air-to-air combat, learns what it means to be part of a team, struggles with great personal loss, and finds love along the way. Tragically, veteran stunt pilot Art Scholl was killed while filming a flat-spin maneuver for this movie. Also with Anthony Edwards, Kelly McGillis, Meg Ryan, Val Kilmer, and Tom Skerritt, and directed by Tony Scott.

4. The Right Stuff, 1983 – Who’s the best pilot you ever saw? Okay, yes, the book by Tom Wolfe is better, but this is still pretty good. The movie opens with Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepherd) breaking the sound barrier and goes on to cover the development of the American space program, the origins of NASA, and choosing the first seven Mercury astronauts. Also with Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, and Barbara Hershey.

Robert Redford stars in 1975’s The Great Waldo Pepper, one of my favorite movies about planes and pilots.

3. The Great Waldo Pepper, 1975 – Robert Redford stars as a barnstorming pilot in the 1920s, a veteran flyer of World War I, who struggles to find the same honor and chivalry on the ground that he knew in aerial combat. Directed by George Roy Hill, and co-starring Susan Sarandon, Edward Herrmann, Bo Svenson, and Geoffrey Lewis. Most of this movie was filmed in (and above) the Texas Hill Country, and the aerial shots were not filmed in a studio – that really IS Robert Redford out there, climbing out of the cockpit, without a parachute.

2. The Blue Max, 1966 – Young George Peppard plays handsome but obnoxious pilot Lt. Bruno Stachel. Disliked as lower-class and overly ambitious, he tries to gain acceptance among his fellow pilots in the German Air Force of 1918 by earning the “Blue Max,” the highest German medal awarded for aerial combat, given for shooting down 20 enemy planes. Also starring Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp, and James Mason. This movie has a number of absolutely amazing aerial sequences.

1. The High and the Mighty, 1954 – Written by aviation writer Ernest K. Gann from his novel, and directed by William Wellman. What does it really mean to be a “pilot,” to push the envelope and test the limits? John Wayne stars as the First Officer on a commercial flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, under airline Captain Robert Stack. Also with Claire Trevor, Paul Fix, and Phil Harris. This movie would become the template for every big disaster picture made in the 60s and 70s, and Robert Stack would parody his character in the 1980 spoof, Airplane! But this is truly a classic.

Five more favorite films about flying –

Wings, 1927 – Winner of the first Academy Award for Best Picture, and the only silent movie ever to win it. Clara Bow, Buddy Rogers, and Gary Cooper star in a great flick about pilots who fall for the same nurse.

Only Angels Have Wings, 1939 – Cary Grant as a pilot trying to run an aerial cargo service in South America and deal with Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth. Also starring Thomas Mitchell (1939 was a busy year for him!) and directed by Howard Hawks.

The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress, 1944 – A documentary about an actual B-17 bomber successfully completing 25 combat missions over Europe; directed by noted filmmaker William Wyler.

Twelve O’Clock High, 1949 – Gregory Peck as the tough-as-nails commander of a “hard-luck” squadron of B-17s in World War II. This is an awesome story of real leadership. Dean Jagger won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and Hugh Marlowe co-stars.

The Spirit of St. Louis, 1957 – Jimmy Stewart stars in a docudrama about Charles Lindbergh’s first successful trans-Atlantic flight. Directed by Billy Wilder.

Well, that’s about it, so now please return your seat backs and tray tables to their full upright and locked positions and prepare for landing. And save me some popcorn.

My Most Unforgettable Character: Gordon Baxter

One of the most interesting people I’ve ever known was a pilot, a radio DJ, and a writer for several of the little weekly papers in our corner of East Texas: someone I greatly admired and wanted to be like. His name was Gordon Baxter.

Bax was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on December 25, 1923. He was also an entertainer, singer and emcee for little country bands in that area. I grew up listening to Gordon while I was getting ready for school, mostly on AM radio powerhouse KLVI in Beaumont. He was on every morning beginning at 6:00 am. For the first hour, he would play only gospel songs – he called it “Come to Jesus” music. He featured a lot of Mother Maybelle and the original Carter Family Singers.

He would talk about how beautiful the dawn was. He would tell funny stories about everyday things. One morning he kept playing the same song, over and over, and when someone would call to complain, he told them he was playing different songs – their radio must be stuck. He would play music guaranteed to poke fun at the folks who took themselves too seriously – “Little boxes, on the hillside, little boxes, made of tickey-tackey” was one that I especially remember. And he loved to make his audience consider things that sometimes made them uncomfortable. “Go on, think about it,” he once said during the Civil Rights struggles in the late 1960s. “How would you feel if you were black? How would you want people to treat you?”

He used to say that radio was the most personal of all forms of mass communication. “It’s from my lips to your ears,” he would say. “What’s more personal than that?”

Gordon was good friends with another Beaumont radio personality, J.P. Richardson. Baxter and their other friends mostly knew him as “Jape,” but he was more famously known as “The Big Bopper” for his breakout hit record, “Chantilly Lace.” When Richardson was killed in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, Bax wrote a song, “Gold Records in the Snow.” Later, he did an on-the-air, moment-by-moment description of his friend’s funeral procession.

Bax served in the Merchant Marine in the South Pacific during World War II. When his ship was sunk out from under him, he joined the Army Air Corps and became a gunner in B-17s. More than once, I remember, he would fly a little single-engine aircraft into the edge of a hurricane and radio back a live report to his listeners on the Upper Texas coast.

Flying was his real passion. When the editor of Flying magazine visited Beaumont in 1970, Baxter cornered him as he was heading out the door and shoved three of his articles into the man’s hands. He stood there and read them, then asked, “Why aren’t you writing for us?” And so his column, “Bax Seat,” began and continued for more than 25 years. He also wrote for Car and Driver magazine, as well as authoring a dozen different books, most of which are still in print.

When the editorial board at Flying wanted to do a feature about an old-school, “seat-of-his-pants” flyer learning to fly by instruments, they asked Gordon to do it. He said, “Instrument flying is an unnatural act, probably punishable by God.” But he went ahead and did it. I remember hearing him talk about it on his radio show and write about it for the magazine. He went on to earn a number of advanced aviation certifications, but in his heart, he always remained an open cockpit, stick and rudder, “pasture” pilot.

Gordon Baxter – Pilot, Author, DJ

I got to meet Bax on several occasions. Once, for a high school dramatic reading assignment, I read a story he had written about going skydiving and breaking his ankle. “It was worth it,” he wrote. “Any good folly is worth whatever you’re willing to pay for it.” I called Bax later, to tell him about it. He laughed and dedicated the next record to my high school speech teacher – “The Day I Jumped from Uncle Harvey’s Plane,” by Roger Miller.

Gordon died June 11, 2005, leaving behind a wife, nine children and 16 grandchildren. Among other honors, he has been inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame and the Lone Star Flight Museum. His family donated his broadcasting archives – 50 years of recordings – to Lamar University and their campus radio station, KVLU, which still airs his “Best of Bax” program every week.

So thanks, Bax – thanks for keeping us company, for the great songs, the way you made us laugh, and the way you made us think. For the way you loved flying, and the way you made us love it, too. You were definitely one of a kind.

Thoughts While Traveling

Kathy and I are just back from our vacation, and we had a wonderful time. We went to the Metroplex and got to spend time with our son there, then we flew to Baltimore and spent a few days with our daughter there, whom we hadn’t seen since before Thanksgiving. We were able to go to a Rangers game and we visited Washington, DC, saw a lot of famous sights and historical sites, and ate a bunch of really good seafood. And in the coming weeks, I’ll tell you more about where we went and what we saw, but for now, I want to share some observations I had while we were on our trip – random thoughts about traveling.

This was the first real trip we have taken together in over two years, partly because of moving back to Haskell, and partly due to the pandemic. And as a lot of people have observed, we were definitely happy to just be going SOMEWHERE – she and I are both fully vaccinated, and it’s just nice to be able to be “out and about,” to see different locations and some new faces. So here are some things that I noticed in the midst of our goings and comings:

It’s been a very green year. All the way on our drive over to Ft. Worth and Dallas, we both kept talking about how pretty and green the countryside was and is. By this point in a normal year, the grass would be brown, the wildflowers would all be long dead, and even the trees would be looking droopy and dried up. Not this year. The grass is still lush and green, and it’s nice to see. And Thank You, Lord, for the rain.

“O say, can you see?” We went to a Rangers game Saturday afternoon at the new Globe Life Field ballpark – it is air conditioned with a retractable roof, and a very comfortable place to watch a ballgame. (The Rangers lost in extra innings to the A’s.)

Anyway, I was in line at a concession stand before the game started, and had just gotten to the register, to pay the man for our order, when we heard the familiar opening notes of the Star-Spangled Banner. The cashier said to me, “Just a moment, sir – we will wait until the anthem is finished.” I glanced around and sure enough, everywhere I looked, all the concessionaires were standing still, in a posture of respect, and the whole area fell silent.

In my mind suddenly, I was with my mom and dad, my brothers, and our grandmother, and we were at an Astros game in the late 60s. I looked over and noticed that my grandmother wasn’t singing, so after it was finished, I asked her about it. She reminded me that one of her brothers had been killed in Korea, during an enemy rocket attack, and she said that the lyric about “the rocket’s red glare” was painful for her to think about.

Just then, the anthem was over, and I remembered that I was in line, buying nachos and sodas – but now with unspoken gratitude to the management there for putting commerce aside for three minutes and honoring our National Anthem and all that it means.

A lot of smiles. I have to admit, I was a little anxious about my first plane ride in a couple of years. Not because I’m afraid of flying, but because of all the horror stories that have been in the news in recent weeks regarding the extremely disruptive behavior of many travelers. I’m sure you’ve heard these stories, as well, about passengers going crazy on flights, acting disorderly, even trying to open exit doors in midair.

But those worries were absolutely pointless. From the TSA agents to the Southwest ticket and gate staff, to the flight and cabin crews and our fellow flyers, everyone seemed to be smiling and patient, and just trying to get to their destinations with a minimum of fuss and bother. It was nice.

Taking off is the best part. My favorite part of any flight has always been that moment that comes after you’re finally on board and seated, with all of your gear stowed and the seat backs and tray tables in their full upright and locked position. The plane is taxiing along and finally gets to the runway, then turns and gets lined up for takeoff. The engines begin spooling up, and then it happens: You start rolling down the runway, and you notice the seat back pushing harder and harder against your spine. You’re rapidly picking up speed and you notice the bumps of the expansion joints in the concrete below you, as the physics of flight take over and the pilots turn a 90-ton tricycle into a jet airliner. The nose lifts, then the whole plane, and off you go, into the wild blue yonder.

I love it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best part of the whole flight.