The Fall of Saigon

"I remember the tail gunner on the helicopter -- they look like giant bugs -- and it was the prettiest thing I every saw -- when I saw that guy sitting at the back of the helicopter, I knew we'd made it then." (Doug Potratrz, U.S. Marine in Vietnam)

"The temperature in Saigon is 112 and rising" said the broadcaster on the radio in Saigon, Vietnam on April 29, 1975.  The weather report was followed immediately by the playing of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas".  Was it Christmas in April?  No, this was the cue that Operation Frequent Wind had commenced, the evacuation of American and South Vietnamese civilians from South Vietnam in the closing hours of the war.  The iconic image, captured by Hubert Van Es, shows the desperate souls climbing up a ladder onto the roof of the U.S. Embassy to board a helicopter to freedom.  

When "White Christmas" stopped playing on the Saigon radio, busses started arriving at key points in the city ready to load up with refugees.  The goal was to take as many civilians as possible to two escape locations, the American Embassy and the Defence Attache Office.  Helicopters, their propellers whirring, sat ready to transport the refugees from these locations to the South China Sea where they were picked up by aircraft carriers.  

The plan went so well that American military personnel were able to load each bus three times rather than once.  The overflow of refugees was evident when they reached the South China Sea:  pilots on the U.S.S. Okinawa and other ships were given the order to dump already emptied helicopters overboard or even ditch them in the sea since there was no more room for them on the aircraft carriers.

Operation Frequent Wind participants were successful in evacuating 7000 refugees in a two day period.  In all, 675,000 refugees were evacuated from South Vietnam in the dying weeks of the war, double the number evacuated at Dunkirk.  Sadly, 400 third-country civilians were left behind at the embassy and/or the Defence Attache Office.  The musical Miss Saigon, inspired by the iconic rooftop photo, is based on a couple who is separated during the final days of the war.  

Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.  The ladder used to evacuate hundreds from the rooftop of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon sits now in the Gerald Ford Museum.

Note:  For more information, read Last Men Out:  The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam (Bob Drury & Tom Clavin).

Linda the Llama in Times Square

Inge Morath's photo "A Llama in Times Square" courtesy all-that-is-interesting.com.

Linda the Llama poked her head out the window of her taxi as she headed down Broadway in Times Square,  on her way from ABC Studios.  The story would run in Life Magazine on December 2, 1957 under the caption "High Paid Llama in Big City".  The llama lived in a Manhattan browstone with her trainer.  But the story didn't end there:  the brownstone also housed cats, dogs, birds, a pig, a kangaroo and a miniature bull.  

Linda the Llama's photographer was Inge Morath, known for her surreal images.  Morath was also known for other offbeat photos:  a driver with a poodle as a passenger, Chinese soldiers climbing a giant statue of Buddha, and frantically dancing girls from Iraq to Iberia.  Nonetheless, "A Llama in Times Square" became Inge Morath's most iconic photo.  It would appear in classrooms, calendars, museums and magazines (Oprah Winfrey's "O").  

Morath did a series of photographs of Marilyn Monroe on the set of "The Misfits".  On the set, she met Monroe's husband Arthur Miller.  Later, the two would marry.  

Leningrad Maestro Saves Cello

During the siege of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days, 1.2 million civilians died.  The survivors lived a ghost city in which buildings were destroyed, food was scarce and disease was rampant.  One source of joy was music. Leningrad, known for its symphony, was desperate for music.  The symphony continued to perform from 1941 to 1944, despite the siege.  Symphony Seven, which later became famous, was a product of the Leningrad Siege. The photo below shows a man recovering a cello in almost pristine condition from the rubble of a bombed out building.  

Note:  For more information, read Leningrad:  Siege and Symphony (Brian Moynahan).

The First 3-D Film

Women dress up in their finest dresses, jewellery and hats.  Men wear their dashing suits and ties. Patrons pay for their tickets and are handed a pair of glasses, glasses that they have never seen before.  Then they promptly take their seats in the palatial theatre, a theatre that is full by showtime.  The lights are lowered, the curtain rises and the patrons don their 3D glasses.

It is December of 1952, the premier of Bwana Devil, the first full feature 3D film.  Directed by Arch Oboler and starring Robert Stock,  Barbara Britton and Nigel Bruce, the movie is set in British East Africa early in the 20th Century.  Men are hard at work building the Uganda Railway.  But there is one problem:  lions. Two lions are on the loose and railroad workers are being attacked, even killed.  Three big game hunters are hired to hunt down the lions.

The scariest part of the movie is the fact that it was based on a true story.  The Tsavo maneaters were lions who terrorized and killled many railroad workers in Uganda at the turn of the century.  British engineer Lt. Col.l J. H. Patterson was hired to hunt them down, which he succeeded in doing.  His book The Man Eaters of Tsavo, was published in 1907.  

Ninety seven minutes after the movie starts, the credits run and the curtain descends.  The patrons remove their 3D glasses and slowly exit the theatre.  LIFE photographer J.R. Eyerman packs up his camera and returns to the photo studio where he develops the now iconic photograph of the audience at the premier.  

Life photo by J.R. Eyerman courtesy all-that-is-interesting.com.

Nixon Says Goodbye to the White House

"Defeat does not finish a man, quit does.  A man is not finished when he's defeated.  He's finished when he quits." (Richard Nixon)

The White House staff stood waiting.  The reporters had their microphones ready.  The cameramen had their cameras focussed.  The helicopter was warming up.  Finally, President Nixon walked the longest walk of his life:  the one from the door of the White House, across the green lawn, to the helicopter which would take him into exile.  For two years, Nixon had been haunted by the nightmare of Watergate.  Two reporters from the Washington Post discovered a story which would be featured on the nightly news for months.  The media wanted to know:  Did he or did he not know about the break-in at the Democratic headquarters in the months leading up to the last election?  Try as he might to deny it, the White House tapes revealed that he did in fact know what went down at Watergate.  And he would pay for it dearly.  While he was the only President to date to visit Communist China, he was also the only President to resign.  But if he was going to leave, he was going to do so on his own terms.  The President and his wife walked to the waiting helicopter, their heads held high.  Just before Nixon boarded, he turned to the waiting crowd and made a gesture that Winston Churchill made famous during World War II -- the V for Victory salute.  The world had not heard the last from Richard Nixon.  

Note:  For more information read All the Presidents' Men by Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward.

i.usatoday.net

Rescuing Italy's Art Treasures

"[It was] a large and important undertaking in terms of giving pleasure to a people that have suffered and in establishing happy relations between these people and and their present military governors."
 (Captain Deane Keller, Monuments Man)

The Helen-of-Troy like horse made its way through the streets of Florence escorted by military vehicles.  The townspeople, umbrellas perched over their heads as the rain pummelled them, cheered as they watched the giant statue make its way back to its rightful place.  "Cosimo tornato!" yelled one carriage operator.  The Equestrian statue of Cosimo, which had sat in the Piazza della Signoria since 1598, was removed and stored for safekeeping in the 1940's.  After V-E Day, it was dusted off and returned, along with its rider in a separate transport, to the piazza.  After being ruled by a Fascist dictator for two decades, and then occupied by the Germans, the Italians were relieved to see their art treasure returned in one piece.  It went a long way to lifting their spirits after a vicious war on which, at different times, they sat on both sides of the fence, the Axis and the Allies.  Viva Italia!

www.thetimes.co.uk

Breakfast at Tiffany's

"Moon river wider than a mile
I'm crossing you in style someday
Oh dream maker, you heartbreaker,
Wherever you're going I'm going your way."

Her iconic hairdo would set the fashion for the 1960's:  the beehive with the frosted bangs, set high on her head with the shiny tiara.  Her eyes are doe-like.  Her lips form a bow.  Her classy black dress with matching elbow length gloves is understated.  Her pearl necklace completes the ensemble.  And her foot long cigarette holder, also a trademark of the Sixties.

Audrey Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.  She portrays a Manhattan socialite who befriends a starving writer in her apartment building, played by George Peppard, who hasn't had anything published for months.  Soon after meeting the handsome writer, Holly's ex-husband appears, from the backwoods of Texas, claiming that they married when Holly was only 14.  Holly sends her ex packing, claiming that she's in love with someone else.  

One day, the writer catches a break and finds out one of his short stories is about to be published.  He rushes to tell Holly.  They spend the day together, touring Manhattan and doing the things they always dreamed of doing.  At Tiffany's, the writer has a Cracker Jack ring engraved and presents it to Holly as a gift.  While the writer knows he is falling in love, Holly is not convinced she feels the same way, claiming she wants to marry a wealthy man named Jose.  Will true love win out?