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  Photo of the week 34 (September 28)

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Author Topic:   Photo of the week 34 (September 28)
heng44
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Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
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posted 09-28-2005 08:07 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

As Al Shepard was preparing for his Freedom-7 mission in the spring of 1961, he received a photo from Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, who were filming “Road to HongKong” in London. The photo showed the two entertainers dressed in fake spacesuits and had the following inscription: ”To Shepard & Grissom: We’re ready! Bing & Bob”.
In return Shepard and his backup Gus Grissom had this photo made and sent it to London with the inscription: “To Crosby & Hope: We’re ready too! Shepard & Grissom”.

Ed Hengeveld

BMckay
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From: MA, USA
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posted 09-28-2005 08:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BMckay   Click Here to Email BMckay     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Great photo- I wonder who has the signed photos?

nasamad
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From: Essex, UK
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posted 09-28-2005 10:22 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for nasamad   Click Here to Email nasamad     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

Thats great Ed, I'd seen the photo many times but never knew the story behind it.

Imagine those two pics framed next to each other !

Adam

heng44
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From: Netherlands
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posted 09-28-2005 10:32 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

gliderpilotuk
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posted 09-28-2005 11:20 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for gliderpilotuk   Click Here to Email gliderpilotuk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
ROFL/LMAO

These photos just get better and better!

Thanks
Paul

ejectr
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From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002

posted 09-28-2005 11:58 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for ejectr   Click Here to Email ejectr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Gee.....comparing that "Shepard" to the examples posted on the "Opinions" forum....it doesn't look typical at all.

MrSpace86
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From: Gardner, KS, USA
Registered: Feb 2003

posted 09-28-2005 04:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MrSpace86   Click Here to Email MrSpace86     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
It was probably signed by Grissom.
-Rodrigo

nasamad
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posted 09-28-2005 06:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for nasamad   Click Here to Email nasamad     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

lol, great images Ed, who owns them now ?

Going by the G in Grissom I'd say Gus signed the astro's one as well.

Adam

heng44
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From: Netherlands
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posted 09-28-2005 11:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I have an unsigned version; I have no idea where the signed version is...

Ed

John Charles
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From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 09-30-2005 10:15 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for John Charles     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ed,

These are great photos. I saw the Hope and Crosby film not so long ago, and it was a typical "On the Road" movie, but the rocket scene made it more interesting. In the movie, they put on spacesuits tailored for large monkeys to escape from the bad guys, and were accidentally launched into space.

But I wish there were dates on those photos. As I recall, no one officially knew Shepard was "it" until May 2, 1961, when his name was announced at the same time as his first launch attempt was scrubbed. Up until then, it was officially Glenn-Grissom-Shepard all as candidates for the first mission, although the simulator technicians supposedly guess it was to be Shepard because he was spending the most time in the simulators.

So how did Hope and Crosby know ro send the photo to Shepard and grissom before May 2, unless they were hanging around the sims?

And why Grissom instead of Glenn, who was officially the backup to both Shepard and Grissom. This makes me think that the actual exchange of photos took place after Grissom's flight in July 1961 but before Glenn was named in Nov. 1961.

Anyone have more info?

By the way, I Googled the movie and the best info I could find (www.eofftv.com) was that it was released on April 27, 1962, in Finland, on May 22 in the USA and on May 28 in Sweden.

[This message has been edited by John Charles (edited September 30, 2005).]

heng44
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posted 10-01-2005 03:17 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
John, you make a good point. The signed photos come from an issue of Life, but I don't have the complete issue and thus I do not know the date. Because of the phrase "we are ready" I assumed it must have been before Shepard's flight, but as you correctly state that would not be possible, because he was not yet officially the prime pilot.

Because the film was released in 1962 it would now be more logical to assume that the photo was sent by Hope/Crosby after the Shepard and Grissom flights, somewhere in the second half of 1961.

Ed

John Charles
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From: Houston, Texas, USA
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posted 10-01-2005 01:23 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for John Charles     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Ed,

Thanks for the tip! According to my handy-dandy directory of Life magazine articles on space-related topics (compiled by Glen Swanson a few years ago), that was the issue for Friday, Nov. 10, 1961. Mystery solved!

Still, if they were published in Life with the inscriptions already on them, then they must have been exchanged earlier than that--sometime between July and early Nov. 1961.

Unless someone finds the originals and they have a date on them, that may be as close as we can get.

------------------
John Charles
Houston, Texas

heng44
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Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
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posted 10-01-2005 03:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thanks for that date, John. I had been wondering about that. It all makes sense now.

Ed

John Charles
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Posts: 339
From: Houston, Texas, USA
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 01-10-2006 09:07 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for John Charles     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by heng44:
Thanks for that date, John. I had been wondering about that. It all makes sense now.
Ed

Epilogue: In reviewing some old notes, I "re-discovered" that the Shepard-Grissom/Hope-Crosby photo exchange was documented in the Wednesday, Nov. 1, 1961, issue of Space News Round-Up, the weekly on-site newspaper of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center. The photo was captioned, “Al and Gus and Bing and Bob Swap Suits.”

------------------
John Charles
Houston, Texas

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