Happy Bottom Eighth in the East
Ridgewell Airfield Commemorative Association Happy Bottom 70 years ago this month a famous American actor came to Ridgewell. Fresh from filming ‘Mr. Winkle Goes to War’, Hollywood star, Edward G. Robinson, arrived to christen a new B-17 in honour of his wife. On 5 July 1944, Ridgewell came to a standstill. Not just for the war, but for movie actor Edward G. Robinson (alias "Rico" Bandello, a small-time crook from the movie, Little Caesar) who’d arrived to christen a new B- 17G which had recently been assigned to the 532nd Bomb Squadron. Base Chaplain James Good Brown was one of the first to greet him. He was left suitably impressed. “What a man!” Brown later wrote. “Of all the actors who came to the base, he showed the most human interest. He was never acting. He just wanted to walk around the base talking to the President—Dave Osborne men, and the men wanted to talk to him.” Chairman—Jim Tennet Robinson broke his gangster persona making the watching Treasurer—Jenny Tennet Secretary—Mike Land men howl with laughter when he announced that he was Membership Secretary—Alan Steel naming the new aircraft ‘Happy Bottom’ after his wife, Historian—Chris Tennet Gladys, which he cleverly mispronounced, ‘Glad Ass’. Volunteer—Monica Steel The actor was a big hit. “When he left the base, he left with Aki Bingley several thousand men as his friends,” said Chaplain Brown. DEDICATED TO THE MEN OF RAF 90 SQUADRON, 94 AND 95 MAINTENANCE UNITS AND USAAF 381ST BOMB GROUP Newsletter JULY 2014 Sadly, Happy Bottom didn’t fare so well.
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