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Above And Beyond (1952 Film)
''Above and Beyond'' is a 1952 American World War II film about Lt. Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the pilot of the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. Directed by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, it stars Robert Taylor as Tibbets and features a love story with Eleanor Parker as his wife. James Whitmore plays security officer William L. Uanna.The story of the dropping of the atomic bomb is treated as a docudrama, with the film focusing on the relationship between Tibbets and his wife. Plot Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. ( Robert Taylor) is assigned to a dangerous mission in testing a new bomber, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The perilous assignment has caused his wife Lucy (Eleanor Parker) to worry for his life and whether their marriage can survive the constant separations. After a year of scrutiny, Maj. Gen. Vernon C. Brent ( Larry Keating) who championed Tibbets as a test pilot, selects him to lead a new unit in the Pacific war, flying the B-29, arm ...
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Melvin Frank
Melvin Frank (13 August 1913 – 13 October 1988) was an American screenwriter, film producer and film director. He is known for his partnership with Norman Panama and their work on films such as '' Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House'' (1948), '' White Christmas'' (1954), and '' The Court Jester'' (1956). He also directed films such as '' Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell'' (1968) and '' A Touch of Class'' (1973). Life and career Born to a Jewish family, Frank met his future collaborator Norman Panama in 1933 when they were both at the University of Chicago. After graduating, they formed a partnership in 1935 which endured for four decades; first writing for Milton Berle before becoming writers for Bob Hope's radio show. In 1941, they sold their first script to Paramount Pictures, '' My Favorite Blonde'' (1942), which starred Hope. They worked for Paramount for five years where, among others, they wrote '' Road to Utopia'' (1946), starring Hope and Bing Crosby, for which they rec ...
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Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the Superfortress was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing, but also excelled in low-altitude night incendiary bombing, and in dropping naval mines to blockade Japan. B-29s dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only aircraft ever to drop nuclear weapons in combat. One of the largest aircraft of World War II, the B-29 was designed with state-of-the-art technology, which included a pressurized cabin, dual-wheeled tricycle landing gear, and an analog computer-controlled fire-control system that allowed one gunner and a fire-control officer to direct four remote machine gun turrets. The $3 and a half dollar cost of design and production (equivalent to $6769 billion in 400), fa ...
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Marilyn Erskine
Marilyn Erskine (born April 24, 1926) is an American actress who started performing at the age of three on radio, and has since appeared in radio, theater, film and television roles from the 1920s through the 1970s. Early life Erskine was born in Rochester, New York on April 24, 1926, and was in show business from early childhood. She attended the Professional Children's School in New York. Radio career Erskine started her performing career at the age of three years, appearing on a local radio show in Buffalo, New York. She also appeared on the nationwide CBS radio show ''Let's Pretend'' sometime between 1929 and 1937, where children played all the roles in adaptions of fairy tales and other children's stories.Dunning, John (1998) "On the Air: the Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio" Oxford University Press, pages 391-393; She played Gail Carver in the soap opera ''Lora Lawton'', which ran on NBC 1943-1950, Jane Brown on ''Young Widder Brown'', which ran on NBC 1938-1956, and Cherry ...
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William Sterling Parsons
William Sterling Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5 December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He is best known for being the weaponeer on the ''Enola Gay'', the aircraft which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm the bomb in flight. While the aircraft was en route to Hiroshima, Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay, and inserted the powder charge and detonator. He was awarded the Silver Star for his part in the mission. A 1922 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Parsons served on a variety of warships beginning with the battleship . He was trained in ordnance and studied ballistics under L. T. E. Thompson at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia. In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer between the Bureau of Ordnance and ...
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Larry Gates
Lawrence Wheaton Gates (September 24, 1915December 12, 1996) was an American actor. His notable roles include H.B. Lewis on daytime's ''Guiding Light'' and Doc Baugh in the film version of ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' (1958). He played the role of H.B. from 1983 to 1996 and won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor at the 1985 awards. (He had previously played the role of District Attorney Eric Van Gelder on ''Guiding Light'' in 1977 and 1978.) Gates may be best remembered for his role in the 1967 film version of '' In the Heat of the Night'', where his character Eric Endicott is part of a famous scene involving him slapping Sidney Poitier's face and getting slapped in return. Early years Gates was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota. As a chemical engineering student at the University of Minnesota, he acted in student plays. Some of his early acting experience came at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. His interest in acting led him to change his collegiate focus, a ...
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Uzal Girard Ent
Uzal Girard Ent CBE (March 3, 1900 – March 5, 1948) was an American Army Air Forces officer who served as the commander of the Second Air Force during World War II. Early life and education Ent was born on March 3, 1900, in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. After attending grade school and high school in his hometown, he enrolled at Susquehanna University. During World War I, Ent left to enlist as a private in the infantry in 1917. He transferred to the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps and was promoted to sergeant in the 59th Balloon Company in March 1919. Ent received an appointment to West Point and was commissioned into the Army Air Service in June 1924. Career On May 30, 1928, he was the co-pilot of a balloon in the National Balloon Race, starting at Bettis Field in Pittsburgh. During the race, Ent's balloon was struck by lightning over Youngstown, Pennsylvania. The lightning strike killed the pilot and set the balloon's hydrogen-filled envelope on fire. Ent co ...
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Silverplate
Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop an atomic weapon, "Silverplate" eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well. The original directive for the project had as its subject line "Silver Plated Project," but continued usage of the term shortened it to "Silverplate". Testing began with scale models at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, in August 1943. Modifications began on a prototype Silverplate B-29 known as the "Pullman" in November 1943, and it was used for bomb flight testing at Muroc Army Air Field in California commencing in March 1944. The testing resulted in further modifications to both the bombs and the aircraft. Seventeen production Silverplate aircraft were ord ...
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Paul W
Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo Paul & Paula * Paul Stookey, one-third of the folk music trio Peter, Paul and Mary * Billy Paul, stage name of American soul singer Paul Williams (1934–2016) * Vinnie Paul, drummer for American Metal band Pantera * Paul Avril, pseudonym of Édouard-Henri Avril (1849–1928), French painter and commercial artist * Paul, pen name under which Walter Scott wrote ''Paul's letters to his Kinsfolk'' in 1816 * Jean Paul, pen name of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763–1825), German Romantic writer Places * Paul, Cornwall, a village in the civil parish of Penzance, United Kingdom * Paul (civil parish), Cornwall, United Kingdom * Paul, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community * Paul, Idaho, United States, a city * Paul, Nebrask ...
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Silverplate B-29 Enola Gay
Silverplate was the code reference for the United States Army Air Forces' participation in the Manhattan Project during World War II. Originally the name for the aircraft modification project which enabled a B-29 Superfortress bomber to drop an atomic weapon, "Silverplate" eventually came to identify the training and operational aspects of the program as well. The original directive for the project had as its subject line "Silver Plated Project," but continued usage of the term shortened it to "Silverplate". Testing began with scale models at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, in August 1943. Modifications began on a prototype Silverplate B-29 known as the "Pullman" in November 1943, and it was used for bomb flight testing at Muroc Army Air Field in California commencing in March 1944. The testing resulted in further modifications to both the bombs and the aircraft. Seventeen production Silverplate aircraft were ordered in August 1944 to allow the 509th Composit ...
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Enola Gay
The ''Enola Gay'' () is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel (United States), Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and destroyed about three-quarters of the city. ''Enola Gay'' participated in the second nuclear attack as the weather reconnaissance aircraft for the primary target of Kokura. Clouds and drifting smoke resulted in Nagasaki, a secondary target, being bombed instead. After the war, the ''Enola Gay'' returned to the United States, where it was operated from Walker Air Force Base, Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico. In May 1946, it was flown to Kwajalein for the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in the Pacific, but was not chosen to make the test drop at Bikini Atoll. Later t ...
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Tinian
Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern Marianas. Tinian's largest village is San Jose. Tinian is just south of the Northern Marianas' most inhabited island, Saipan, but north of the populated Rota to the south. The island has many World War II historical sites, cattle ranches, and beaches. There was a 5-star casino that operated from 1998 to 2015; the remaining are other hotels/resorts and a golf course. The main Saipan access is a short airplane ride from the international airport or a charter boat. Tinian is part of the United States and the CNMI. Along with Guam, it is the westernmost U.S. island in the Pacific. History First settlers The Mariana Islands, of which Tinian is one, were the first islands settled by humans in Remote Oceania. It was also the first and t ...
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Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, and Nevada to the west. In comparison to all the U.S. states and territories, Utah, with a population of just over three million, is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 13th largest by area, the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 30th most populous, and the List of U.S. states by population density, 11th least densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two regions: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which includes the state capital, Salt Lake City, and is home to roughly two-thirds of the population; and Washington County, Utah, Washington County in the southwest, which has approximately 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in ...
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