Lights, Camera, Castle

1957 Natalie Wood Movie Filmed at the Air Base

Natalie Wood stayed in Merced County for a few weeks in early 1957 filming the movie Bombers B-52 on location at Castle Air Force Base in Atwater. Photo: Castle Air Museum 

Hollywood came to Merced County in early 1957. It arrived in the form of movie star Natalie Wood and a film about military air power.

Over the recent Veterans Day holiday, a Hollywood movie starring Natalie Wood was played on the big screen at the Merced Theatre. The film, while not a blockbuster or even a critic’s choice, has a distinction we can hold close for generations.

Parts of the movie, titled Bombers B-52, were filmed at the Base in early 1957. Most of the scenes depict the large landing strip that is still in use by private and public sector customers who use the former base in a reimagined role as an industrial business park.

Natalie Wood and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. share an embrace for the movie Bombers B-52 on location at Castle Air Force Base. Photo: Warner Brothers trailer. 

The storied history behind the fences of the former Castle Air Force Base in Atwater continues to be gathered and documented for future generations.

The Base closed as part of a Clinton-era realignment effort in the 1990s, but the Castle Air Museum holds many of the documents and items that fill the background about World War II and Cold War-era military air power.

The Castle Air Museum has an exhibit on the filming of Bombers B-52 in its indoor exhibit building. Visitors can see photographs the Air Force took while the crew and stars were in sight.  

Visitors can even see two military uniforms and a red dress worn by the actors in a display case.

Natalie Wood danced with local teens at a fund raiser event for polio during her time filming the movie Bombers B-52 on location at Castle Air Force Base. Photo: Castle Air Museum exhibit. Photo: Warner Brothers Archives. Research done by Rick Marshall with help from Allen Thompson.

The movie was directed by Gordon Douglas whose credits include movies with the likes of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lewis, and even Laurel and Hardy.

The screenwriter was Irving Wallace who would go on to write several novels and the non-fiction The People’s Almanac.

Natalie Wood, fresh off her role with the late James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, was the star of the picture. Her father was played by Karl Malden who we best remember from the television series The Streets of San Francisco.

Natalie’s character has a love interest played by then forty-year-old Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. who would later star in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and eventually on The FBI (the version that aired in the 1960s and 70s, not to be confused with the franchise currently on CBS).

But it’s not these stars who local audiences filed into the Merced Theatre to see on Veterans Day.

As far as Merced audiences were concerned, the star of this movie was Castle Air Force Base.

In this photo, Natalie poses in a Ford Thunderbird with the movie slate below the car door. Photo: Castle Air Museum.

While the love story between Wood and Zimbalist was intended to keep moviegoers entertained, the military side of the story involved the B-52 Stratofortress. This was a new bomber the Strategic Air Command wanted to introduce to America and the rest of the Cold War world.  

There are plenty of references to how this bomber is the biggest, most powerful conventional weapon in the world.

“The film tells that story real well,” says Castle Air Museum Executive Director Joe Pruzzo.

There’s no doubt some local folks still remember the film from when it was first released or some who were connected to the rollout of the Stratofortress.

On the Internet Movie Data Base website (IMDB.com) there is a comment posted from someone who was stationed at Castle in the late fifties. This person (no name was included in the post) stated he has photographs of Natalie Wood posing with some of his squadron mates.

Quoting from that post, “The high point was the low altitude flyover of a flight of B-52s. The segment where the landing gear is jammed was done in our maintenance hanger with the bomber on jacks with wheel well doors open.” 

"(left) Natalie Wood and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.  (right) Director Gordon Douglas and Karl Malden. Photos from the Castle Air Museum exhibit.

Some of the narrative in the Castle Air Museum exhibit tells of how Natalie attended a March of Dimes fundraiser dance with over two hundred people from the Teen Agers Against Polio organization. The narrative says the actress stayed at the Hotel Tioga. More than one hundred movie production workers were assigned to the movie.  

She was photographed dancing with Buddy Obenoskey, a Merced High School teen in 1957. By all accounts, she enjoyed the dance and was gracious to servicemen at Castle.

While the movie fan magazines may have had Natalie Wood on their covers in early 1957, Life Magazine was consumed with the story of the around-the-world flight with no landing for refueling. That flight began at Castle Air Force Base. To read more about it, go to: The Week Merced County Made the Cover of Life Magazine — Merced County Events

It’s interesting to note the film came out in 1957, the same year Castle Air Force Base made the cover of Life magazine. In January, three aircraft left Castle for a first-of-its-kind around-the-world flight with no landings for refueling.

Operation Power Flite (the Air Force used this spelling for naming the mission) tested the US's ability to refuel military aircraft from the air. That type of refueling was not done back in the fifties; Operation Power Flite proved it could be done.

1957 was a big year for Castle Air Force Base. The year began with an accomplishment that made the cover of Life magazine. It ended with the release of the movie Bombers B-52 which showcased Castle on the cinema screen.

The airmen of Castle were right in the middle of it all.  

Steve Newvine lives in Merced

You can read the column he wrote about Operation Power Flite by clicking on this link. The Week Merced County Made the Cover of Life Magazine — Merced County Events

His latest book is Beaten Paths and Back Roads, and is available at BEATEN PATHS AND BACK ROADS (lulu.com)or at the Merced County Courthouse Museum Gift Shop.  

Castle Air Museum: https://www.castleairmuseum.org/