Tallmantz B-25H N1203 (43-4643)

Paul Mantz and Stillwater

Paul Mantz was well established as a movie pilot in the 1930s. He had learned to mount cameras on a variety of aircraft, holding his Boeing P-12 and a Lockheed Orion as favorites.

Mantz, being a shrewd businessman, saw an opportunity presented in the postwar sale of surplus warplanes by the U.S. government. He purchased the first available field-size lot of worn-out fighters and bombers in February 1946 and became the owner of 475 aircraft stored at Searcy Field, located at Stillwater, Oklahoma. He organized a company with two partners to dispose of the aircraft. Mantz envisioned creating a small air force of World War II aircraft that would be used to monopolize the post-war Hollywood aviation film productions. Such was not the case, as he could not find any studio sponsors willing to foot the bill for a small air force. So, Mantz selected eleven from the field of 475, and had the rest scrapped by his partners. Before they were scrapped, however, the aviation fuel was drained from all the fuel tanks and sold off, the resulting bonanza exceeding the original $55,000 purchase price (yep, that’s $115.79 per airplane). The unneeded aircraft, now with empty fuel tanks, were then disassembled at Stillwater, the components being loaded onto freight cars and shipped off to be smelted for their aluminum content.

Among the eleven saved by Mantz were a single B-17, three P-40s, a P-63, and one A-20. Of more importance, Mantz carefully selected two P-51C Mustangs and B-25H s/n 43-4643. The Mustangs were to become his brace of very successful post-war air racers, winning the Bendix race in 1946, 1947, and 1948. The B-25, meanwhile, was destined to become The Smasher.

B-25H 43-4643

The B-25H Mantz selected was s/n 43-4643, built by North American at Inglewood, California, and delivered in March 1944. It was assigned to domestic units during the war, becoming a TB-25H trainer. It was declared surplus in October 1945 and sent off to Stillwater for disposal.

Initial Uses of N1203

Mantz registered the airplane on May 28, 1946 and flown to Grand Central Air Terminal at Glendale, California. It was put to work quickly by Mantz, reportedly being used in the summer of 1946 to film shots that appeared in Best Years of Our Lives. It was modified to accept camera mounts in the tail, waist, and nose, though the early nose shots were evidently through the removed emergency exit hatch located there. 

After filming Best Years of Our Lives in mid-1946, t sat in disuse on the Mantz ramp at the Lockheed Air Terminal (Burbank) for two years. In May 1948, it was used to film Fighter Squadron at Oscoda, Michigan and southern California. After that, it was used by Mantz for cloud-seeding rainmaking in Arizona and Mexico for the balance of 1948.

N1203 and Filming Twelve O’Clock High

Between May 4 and May 17, 1949, Mantz and N1203 were on hand for filming sequences of the 20^th Century Fox film Twelve O’Clock High. Most of the on-location filming was done at two of the auxiliary fields located near Eglin AFB on the Florida panhandle using twelve USAF  B-17Gs repainted and re-equipped as 1943 B-17F and flown by USAF flight crews. The logbook records that five photo missions were conducted totaling about 17 hours of flight time. Viewing the completed film, only a few brief scenes shot during these flights ended up onscreen. The studio rear-projection backdrop film showing a B-17 formation behind a B-17 cockpit mockup for interior cockpit scenes was some of the footage shot at that time.

N1203 and Early 1950s Projects

Between March and June 1950, Mantz and the B-25 were hired by Howard Hughes’ RKO Pictures to reshoot air-to-air sequences for Jet Pilot, a hazy 1950s John Wayne film that Hughes somehow cobbled together over the span of eight years, not being released until 1957. While based at Edwards AFB, Mantz filmed USAF pilot Chuck Yeager flying his old X-1 and also some F-86s for the air-to-air sequences. A copy of the contract between RKO and Mantz exists. The rate for Mantz was $500 a week plus $150 per day when flying; the rate for N1203 was $250 per flight hour and $250 per day of standby time.

Mantz was busy in the early 1950s. One notable flight occurred on January 13, 1951. Mantz and N1203 were on location for the several weeks of January filming for the RKO production of Flying Leathernecks while based at MCAS Pendleton, near San Diego. For one sequence to film a bombing run, a technician erroneously detonated explosives early, just as Mantz was approaching the target at a very low altitude, the resulting blast slightly damaging N1203. Don Dwiggins in his book Hollywood Pilot notes they somehow staggered back to Burbank with Mantz saying “We had to practically rebuild it…but we sure pleased the director.” The logbook actually records the B-25 landing back and Camp Pendleton and was flying three days later for more filming. The logbook entry for the flight just records “Building blown up.” Mantz’s publicity skills often approached his skills as an aviator.

On March 13, 1952, Mantz, flight engineer Cort Johnston, and a film crew from Warner Bros. departed California for Alaska to support the filming of Top of The World, starring actor Dale Robertson. N1203 and crew were based at Ladd Field near Fairbanks for a month, until April 14, when they returned to Burbank. During that time, flights were made out to Barter Island on the northern coast of Alaska, as well as locations closer to Fairbanks. The film’s plot centered on USAF arctic operations, and featured SB-17G air-sea rescue aircraft and some dramatic air-to-air footage shot by cinematographer William Clothier. Also reported, Paul Mantz filmed an actual rescue mission using N1203, footage that turned up in the 1955 theatrical release. Between the ferry flights both ways, flying to filming locations in Alaska, and the actual filming, nearly 80 hours of flight time were added to the logbook of N1203.

Cinerama

With the coming of Cinerama, which required a wide-screen view for the bulky three-camera assembly, Mantz modified the B-25J nose he had mounted to accept a special nose glass piece that offered a panoramic distortion-free view. The first Cinerama film, 1952’a This is Cinerama,  had Mantz flying his B-25 at low level on a U.S. tour during the months of June and July 1952. Over the next decade Mantz became the Cinerama pilot. A total of seven actual three-strip Cinerama productions were filmed (not counting the faux-Cinerama films of the mid-1960s). Mantz and his B-25 were utilized in four of the seven true Cinerama films, This Is Cinerama, (1952), Seven Wonders of the World (1956), Search for Paradise (1957), and How The West Was Won (1962). 

N1203 and the Cinerama Camera Nose

In April 1954, N1203 had a nose job. The visually-crude makeshift camera nose utilized to film This Is Cinerama was discarded. In its place, Mantz had nearby Long Beach Airmotive construct a purpose-built custom camera nose. As documented in maintenance records, the construction utilized components of a standard B-25H glazed nose, probably the to-be-discarded old camera nose. The original attach ring and fittings, where the nose attached to the fuselage, were utilized as the starting point, but the floor structure was completely rebuilt and lengthened, allowing a wide, flat base for camera mounts. The sides of the nose section were widened and were essentially parallel moving forward from the attach points. The nose section was enlarged vertically both above and below the lines of a normal B-25H nose. Parts from a B-17 ball turret, presumably the large mounting ring gear, were used to construct a camera turntable and operating mechanism. And, five 20”x 26” camera windows were installed, along with two large hatches installed on the top of the nose, one on each side, to allow camera loading and unloading.

But, the most distinctive feature was the large, curved, wrap-around Plexiglass that provided clear camera viewing forward and to each side of the B-25. The curved section of the glass was an optically-clear cylindrical section with only minimal distortion where the glass flattened out to the sides of the fuselage. The aircraft paperwork shows the modifications completed on April 12, 1954.

Though this distinctive camera nose is usually called the ‘Cinerama nose,’ it was actually developed to allow conventional but bulky motion-picture cameras to be easily installed and operated, and also provide flexibility in shots ahead and to each side of the cameraship. 

Other 1950s Filming with N1203

The new camera nose and all the camera positions proved ideal for a variety of motion pictures filmed in the 1950s. It’s first use was just after the modifications were completed, filming some stunning B-36 footage for Strategic Air Command. Later films included Fate is the Hunter, Wings of Eagles, The Spirit of St. Louis, and Around the World in 80 Days.

Disney’s Circarama and CircleVision

And when Walt Disney decided to film a feature using a nine-camera 360-degree process, initially dubbed Circarama (later Circle Vision), in 1957, Mantz and his B-25 were called upon to carry the heavy camera and, through a complex mount, suspend it from beneath the bomb bay of the bomber during aerial filming. The result was America the Beautiful that debuted in 1958 at the Brussels World’s Fair. It later became a staple at Disneyland and other Disney worlds, and was reshot for 1967. Tallmantz would complete several other Disney Circle Vision projects between 1962 and 1975.

N1203 and Tallmantz Aviation

Mantz and N1203 were utilized to film numerous other features in the 1950s, and they carried on when the operation was merged into Tallmantz in November 1961.

On May 17, 1962, Tallmantz purchased another B-25 to be used as a new cameraship to supplement the capability it already had with N1203. That aircraft was B-25N N1042B (s/n 44-30823). In the decade that followed, N1042B became the primary Tallmantz camera ship, usually piloted by Frank Pine, while N1203 (and Mantz) took a back seat in the subsequent film work. 

However, N1203 was still heavily utilized. Some of the 1960s features that are knows to have utilized N1203 are Gathering of Eagles, Mad Mad World, Von Ryan’s Express, Flight of the Phoenix, 1000 Plane Raid, Catch-22, and Lost Horizon. Mantz was killed in the 1965 production of Flight of the Phoenix but his prized camera ship continued with Tallmantz and, in fact, was used to carry Mantz’s remains back from Yuma after the July 1965 accident that took his life.

Catch-22 in Mexico

N1203 was utilized as one of the two camerships used to film Catch 22 in the first half of 1969 at Guaymas, Mexico. It was painted in AAF camouflage for the role and can be seen in the background of some of the resulting footage in the film.  After the film work for Catch-22 was completed, N1203 returned to its Orange County base.

Tallmantz Replaced N1203 

N1203 enjoyed sporadic use in the subsequent five years, including filming the wide-screen Standing Up Country and assignment to special miliary project. One of the military projects it was use for was the flight simulator project SEEKVAL.

However, Frank Tallman eventually made a decision that placed operational considerations above sentimentality. The old Mantz B-25H had not enjoyed any significant system upgrades since the 1940s and Mantz, in an effort to quiet the interior of the B-25 for his filmmaker companions, had covered the inside walls with thick sound insulation. All that made N1203 a mechanic’s nightmare. Tallman probably sat in his office next to the flight line and looked at tired N1203 and the row of Hayes updated B-25Ns parked nearby, all for sale for dirt cheap prices by the studio that made Catch-22. Tallman decided to retire N1203 in favor of a B-25N, N9451Z, a Catch-22 veteran. The camera nose was removed from N1203 and, for the first time in a quarter century, a standard B-25J nose was mounted.

Sale of N1203 in July 1975

It was sold on July 2, 1975, to E. Scott Stucky and Lawrence Leang of, ostensibly, Moundridge, Kansas. What followed in the subsequent year was a series of sales back and forth between several parties including Vickii Meller of Burbank, California, and Leroy Sansom, also of Burbank. At one point, N1203 was observed to be parked at Van Nuys with the markings of Talisman Aviation on the nose. During this period, Frank Tallman was contacted by the Drug Enforcement Agency about suspected drug-running activities of what everyone thought was still a Tallmantz airplane. However, nothing conclusive can be found in the record about the actual activities of the old B-25.

Crash of N1203 in September 1976

In any event, and in a not too surprising outcome, B-25H N1203 suffered a fatal crash near Santa Marta, Colombia, on September 4, 1976. Three were aboard the aircraft. The pilot was killed and the others, including one-time owner Leroy Sansom, suffered injuries. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was legally owned by Vickii Meller. U.S. State Department cables supporting the crash investigation stated that the owner claimed to have sold the B-25 to John Goodson, of the “Anhauser Corp.” and did not know the pilot killed flying the B-25. When contacted by investigators, the Anhauser Busch Co., the only similarly named U.S. corporation, knew nothing of Goodson or the B-25. The investigative trail quickly petered out. The FAA ultimately cancelled the N1203 registration in 1981 when correspondence to the last legal owner, Vickii Meller, was returned due to an invalid address.

Legacy?

One has to wonder what would have become of the airplane had Mantz lived. He had a soft spot for his B-25, and one suspects it would have just been retired alongside one of his blood red P-51C Bendix racers, NX1204, that was proudly displayed at his Movieland of the Air museum.