Nov 292010
Still haven’t figured out who this is. The F-102’s look like early models (with a particularly odd and droopy “U.S. Air Force” painted on the sides), so my guess would be mid/late 1950’s.
Photos from the SDAM via Mark Nankivil.
These are pretty much exactly the sort of photos the USAF doesn’t use for publicity anymore.
Apparently the woman in the photos was a celebrity of some type… if not a famous movie actress, she may have simply been the “Miss America” contestant from whatever this state was. Seems like back in the day, military PR guys liked the idea of hot chicks checkin’ out hot jets.
23 Responses to “F-102 + Bombshell”
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I’m not sure but maybe an old picture of Marilyn Monroe.
Heya, Scott!
Did a little bit of searching… still don’t know who the blond bombshell is, or the wing nut in his knickers, or the creepy civilian “polishing his keys”, but the plane is a F-102A, 54-1396, the personnel bird of the 327th Fighter Interceptor Squadrons CO, Col. Charles Regney. It was named the “Purina Checkerboard Special”.
See here: http://www.specialtypress.com/specialty/contentfiles/491.pdf
I’m seeing the plot to a Mad Men episode.
Try “Joi Lansing” as the name of the girl.
I think I remember seeing this woman on television shows of the late 1950’s early 1960’s. I don’t think she was a “Marilyn Monroe” caliber of star. I’ll ask my wife, she seems to remember the stars from this era far better than I.
Great blog BTW.
Jayne Mansfield is the woman in these pictures. She was indeed a Marilyn Monroe look-alike and was known as “the working man’s Monroe.” She was killed in an auto accident in Louisiana 06/29/67 at the age of 34.
I looked at pictures of Joi Lansing on Google Images and I don’t *think* it’s her. A little hard to tell since a lot of the bleached blonds from that ear tend to look very similar. Definitely in the right time frame I think though.
can it be this are promo fotos for Hollywood Movie, were the USAF play a role ?
It’s definitely not Joi Lansing or Marilyn. She is likely a starlet that only ‘flashed’; but she is a beauty, and this looks like a promo shoot, but not a movie set. I still think these babes looked better that most of what we see today.
Her bustline is around the size of Mamie Van Doren’s as well as the facial features and dark eyes.
The tail area-rule bulges on the F-102’s tail were called “Dagmars” after a well-built TV actress of the time; maybe that’s her:
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/attachments/giulietta-giulia-1954-65/122948d1227535971-1956-giulietta-spider-info-dagmar-life.jpg
Nah, the smile and the whole face doesn’t look like Dagmar. Also, I think the unknown actress is younger than Dagmar based on that 1961 Life magazine picture and when the pictures being discussed appear to have been made.
I definitely agree she’s a darn good looking woman.
Ring on the left hand indicates she was married at the time, if that helps.
> Her bustline is around the size of Mamie Van Doren’s
I haven’t even *thought* of MVD since I last saw the MST3K episode with her in it… more than a decade ago. Out of curiousity I looked her up on Wiki; much to my surprise, she’s still around. And she looks remarkably good for being near 80. Of course, there may be liberal use of plastic surgery, photoshop & makeup, but still…
Scott, I really think that’s Carroll Baker the actress, you might want
to check out “The Big Country” which by the way has the best
cowboy music going 🙂
I can remember her face and a couple of the images in the context of a movie full of 1950’s jet aircraft. I asked my wife who watches more old movies than I do but she doesn’t recognize her either.
It is not Carroll Baker though that was my first guess.
I think Rick has found the answer.
Heya, all!
She isn’t Carroll Baker. Compare the two… this ones face is a little more triangular where CB’s is a little more round. Also, looking at old pics, it looks like CB had pencilled on eyebrows where this one has actual “hair” eyebrows.
Little more digging, the 327 FIS, the unit that owned this bird, was based at George AFB in California. They got their first F-102A’s in 1956. This plane also appeared at the National Air Show in Ohio. As all you see in the background is nothingness or other F-102’s, I’d say this pic was taken at George.
I found another photo of the same F-102 (41396):
http://stellar-views.com/images/F-102_Delta_Dagger_41396.jpg
That was from Westover AFB Mass.
Carroll Baker is the closest match so far. If you look at the bottom picture of the unknown woman here: http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/whois.jpg you see her with her chin up which makes her face look less round and is closer to the pose used in most of the professionally photographed shots of Carrol Baker out on the web.
That said, I don’t think it is Carroll Baker. The unknown woman’s nose is a bit thinner and is more upturned at the end. Unless Carrol Baker had a nose job at some later point (which isn’t evident in any of the pictures I find on Google Images) then I don’t think she’s our unknown woman.
That said, glad someone pointed her out. She’s a damn good looking woman of that era. Bonus points for the fact that there just happen to be some rather tasteful (and quite tame by today’s standards) Playboy shots of her out on the web.
How about Barbara Lang?
[…] F-102 + Bombshell […]
Barbara Lang – see posting at this address: “http://jetpilotoverseas.wordpress.com/category/f-102-delta-dagger/”