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Film
will feature historic
legends Spruce Goose
and Walter Cronkite |
`Dream to Fly: Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose,'
will premiere Dec. 7 at Mack Theater in McMinnville |
By Gunnar Olson, Newberg
Graphic reporter
E-mail Gunnar at golson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 In a deep sleep one night Katherine Huit dreamed of Walter Cronkite sitting
in the pilot’s seat of the Spruce Goose.
Out of context, her dream about the legendary TV journalist and the historic
flying boat sounds silly. But to hear the rest of her story a person would almost believe
her if she said the vision came to her during waking hours.
Huit is the the director of collections at Evergreen Aviation Museum in
McMinnville, and for the last three years she has immersed herself in the history of the
Spruce Goose.
Her project: a documentary of Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose.
“I was living, eating, sleeping, dreaming the flying boat,” Huit
said. “When it hits the big screen it’s going to be really neat.”
The result of her efforts culminates in McMinnville next weekend. Her film,
“Dream to Fly: Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose,” will be showing one time
only at 1 p.m. Dec. 7 at the Mack Theater, 510 NE Third St.
Regular admission is $12. Museum members receive a $4 discount. To purchase
tickets, call 502-434-4007.
Following the film will be a reception and book signing at the museum. The
book is about Howard Hughes, once the richest man in the world, written Jack Real, a
friend of Hughes who lived with him the last four years of his life. “The Asylum of
Howard Hughes” tells of the rise to success, as well as his tumble into drugs and
depression.
The day of the premier, in addition to being the anniversary date of Pearl
Harbor, marks two years since restoration of the Spruce Goose was completed at the museum.
The Flying Boat arrived at Evergreen in 1993 and had been under construction since. The
famous plane was taken apart and shipped on barged up the Pacific coast and the Columbia
and Willamette rivers to a spot near Dayton, where it was loaded on trailers and hauled to
a temporary hangar near the Evergreen Aviation headquarters, where it sat for nearly a
decade before it took up residence in the newly-constructed museum.
For a long time the hull of the airplane stood without its wings, looking
that much more like a boat, Huit said. It was a turning point in Huit’s emotional
involvement in the project when the wings were reinstalled.
“That’s when it came to life for me,” she said. This airplane
is a treasure — an American aviation treasure. That was a driving force, that told me
this story really needed to be told.“
Huit said she hopes the documentary tells the entire story behind the Spruce
Goose, as well as of the engineering contributions Howard Hughes and his team made to
aviation. She hopes to get the movie out to the broadcast media, as well.
In her research she came across a photograph of Cronkite interviewing Real.
So when she had the dream about Cronkite in the boat, she wasn’t wondering where it
came from. Instead, the dream inspired her to contact Cronkite.
“So I got this idea that maybe Walter Cronkite might be the person to
narrate this (documentary),” Huit said.
Cronkite did indeed agree to narrate the film.
“I wrote the script,” Huit said. “He read it, and it —
wow! Literally, the dream came true.” |
|
From Nov. 29,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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