Now this one’s really obscure! Yesterday, on BBC2, the 1939 Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers’ film ‘The Story of Vernon & Irene Castle’ was being shown. I noticed that the aerial sequences – set in France and Texas – featured S.E.5as (in France) and Curtiss JN-4s (in Texas). Now amongst the shots of models and earthbound cockpit mock-ups were what appeared to be shots of real aircraft flying. As these sequences featured members of the cast of the film, one assumes that they were not ‘cut & pasted’ footage of an earlier vintage. Maybe Curtiss JN-4s were still relatively abundant in the USA in the late 1930s but could the same thing be said of S.E.5as? Does anyone know anything about the filming of the sequences featuring these aircraft and from where RKO Radio Pictures sourced the aircraft used?
Footnote: what I saw may have been S.E.5es.
By: avion ancien - 20th November 2011 at 19:43
It was on the French website – the second of the hyperlinks in post #2 – that mention is made of the ex-RAF S.E.5a that was owned by Paul Mantz and was amongst his collection of vintage aircraft that were sold off after his death. It relates that after being acquired by a museum in the USA, it was sold to an English owner in 1985 as G-BLXT and was de-registered in 2000. It says that it is believed to have gone into deep storage at the famous (infamous?) Greenham Common warehouse. Presumably it’s still there?
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November 20, 2011 at 3:27 pm