With a Song in My Heart is a 1952 American biographical musical drama film that tells the story of actress and singer Jane Froman, who was crippled by an airplane crash on February 22, 1943, when the Boeing 314 Pan American Clipper flying boat she was on suffered a crash landing in the Tagus River near Lisbon, Portugal. She entertained the troops in World War II despite having to walk with crutches. The film stars Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, Robert Wagner, Helen Westcott, and Una Merkel. Froman herself supplied Hayward's singing voice.
The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was a large long-range airliner developed from the C-97 Stratofreighter military transport, itself a derivative of the B-29 Superfortress. The Stratocruiser's first flight was on July 8, 1947. Its design was advanced for its day; its relatively innovative features included two passenger decks and a pressurized cabin. It could carry up to 100 passengers on the main deck plus 14 in the lower deck lounge; typical seating was for 63 or 84 passengers or 28 berthed and five seated passengers.
William Walton Butterworth was an American diplomat. He was United States Ambassador to Canada. Butterworth is best known for his work on Asian-American foreign relations, particularly during the clash of the communists and nationalists in post-war China. He was also instrumental in laying the groundwork for the European Union via his work with the European Coal and Steel Community and European Economic Community.
Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The playful romantic comedy is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. It features the songs "Yesterdays", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Let's Begin", "You're Devastating", "Something Had To Happen", "The Touch of Your Hand" and "I'll Be Hard to Handle".
Pan Am Flight 214 was a scheduled flight of Pan American World Airways from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Baltimore, and then to Philadelphia in the United States. On December 8, 1963, while flying from Baltimore to Philadelphia, the Boeing 707-121 crashed near Elkton, Maryland. All 81 passengers and crew on the plane were killed. The crash was Pan Am's first fatal accident with the 707, which it had introduced to its fleet five years earlier.
Ellen Jane Froman was an American actress and singer. During her thirty-year career, she performed on stage, radio, and television despite chronic health problems due to injuries sustained in a 1943 plane crash.
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" is a show tune written by American composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical comedy Roberta. The song was sung in the Broadway show by Tamara Drasin. It was first recorded by Gertrude Niesen, with orchestral direction from Ray Sinatra, Frank Sinatra's second cousin, on October 13, 1933. Niesen's recording of the song was released by Victor, with in the B-side "Jealousy", a song featuring Isham Jones and his Orchestra. The line "When your heart's on fire, smoke gets in your eyes" apparently comes from a Russian proverb.
Frank Josef Cuhel was an American athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metre hurdles.
"Yesterdays" is a 1933 song about nostalgia composed by Jerome Kern with lyrics by Otto Harbach. They wrote the song for Roberta, a musical based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. "Yesterdays" was overshadowed by the musical's more popular song, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", which was a number one hit for the Paul Whiteman orchestra.
Roberta is a 1935 American musical film released by RKO Radio Pictures and directed by William A. Seiter. It stars Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and features Randolph Scott, Helen Westley, Victor Varconi and Claire Dodd. The film was an adaptation of the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta, which in turn was based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller. It was a solid hit, showing a net profit of more than three-quarters of a million dollars.
Leave It to Me! is a 1938 musical produced by Vinton Freedley with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The book was a collaborative effort by Samuel and Bella Spewack, the former of whom also directed the Broadway production. The musical was based on the play Clear All Wires by the Spewacks, which was performed on Broadway for 93 performances in 1932, and which was filmed in 1933, starring Lee Tracy, Benita Hume, Una Merkel and James Gleason.
Lovely to Look At is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy, based on the 1933 Broadway musical Roberta.
Pan Am Flight 1104, trip no. 62100, was a Martin M-130 flying boat nicknamed the Philippine Clipper that crashed on the morning of January 21, 1943, in Northern California. The aircraft was operated by Pan American Airways, and was carrying ten US Navy personnel from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to San Francisco, California. The aircraft crashed in poor weather into mountainous terrain about 7 mi (11 km) southwest of Ukiah, California.
Pan Am Flight 1-10 was a Pan American passenger flight from London to Shannon Airport, part of a flight around the world from San Francisco, California, to New York City. On 15 April 1948, the Lockheed Constellation serving the flight crashed 725 meters (2,379 ft) short of Runway 23 at Shannon. Ten flight crew and 20 passengers died in the crash; 1 passenger survived with minor injuries.
Benjamin Franklin Robertson Jr. was an American writer, journalist and World War II war correspondent. He is best known for his renowned Southern memoir Red Hills and Cotton: An Upcountry Memory, first published in 1942 and still in print. A native of Clemson, South Carolina, a horticulture graduate of Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina, class of 1923, and writer for The Tiger, the college student newspaper. He was an honorary member of Gamma Alpha Mu local writers fraternity. He died in 1943 in a plane crash in Portugal. The SS Ben Robertson, launched in Savannah, Georgia, in 1944, was named for him.
Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base was an international airport for seaplanes located in the city of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It takes its name from the Lisbon neighbourhood of Cabo Ruivo. The airport was, especially throughout the Second World War, a major gateway and escape route for intercontinental air travel.
Roy Rognan was an American dancer and acrobat. He was killed in 1943 in the crash of the Pan American operated Boeing flying boat Yankee Clipper in Lisbon which also killed Tamara Drasin and injured Jane Froman and Rongan's wife, Jean.
Pan Am Flight 160 was a scheduled cargo flight which crashed on November 3, 1973. The Boeing 707 of Pan Am crashed after smoke in the cockpit prevented the crew from keeping control of the aircraft, killing all three occupants on board.
The Yankee Clipper was an American Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat, best known for on 20 May 1939 beginning the first scheduled airmail service between the United States and Europe. It crashed on 22 February 1943, while attempting to land on the River Tagus at Lisbon, in Portugal killing 24 and injuring others while attempting to land at Lisbon. Among the dead were writer and war correspondent Ben Robertson and singer, Tamara Drasin.
