Thursday, May 23, 2019

Posted without a title, and now I'm fixing that


Wed., October 9, 2002 - Called Raymond Iversen.  Went to Book Club in evening.
Thurs., October 10, 2002 - Tom came in evening for the usual routine.  Cool enough to have chili soup.  Myrtle called in a.m.
Fri., October 11, 2002 - Have seen some good movies -- among them "The Pink Submarine" & "Casablanca".  Mary & kids here in evening.

Not finding a movie named "The Pink Submarine", I wonder if Grandma meant "Operation Petticoat".  In any event, I hope she saw the latter as I recall it being pretty funny.

Here's some information on the movie from wikipedia, much shortened from what was available:

The film tells in flashback the misadventures of the fictional U. S. Navy submarine, USS Sea Tiger, during the opening days of the United States involvement in World War II. Some elements of the screenplay were taken from actual incidents that happened with some of the Pacific Fleet's submarines during the war. Other members of the cast include several actors who went on to become television stars in the 1960s and 1970s: Gavin MacLeod of The Love Boat and McHale's Navy, Marion Ross of Happy Days, and Dick Sargent of Bewitched.

Some of the plot points of Operation Petticoat were based on real-life incidents, such as:

     The evacuation of one Navy nurse and several Army nurses from Corregidor to Australia by the submarine USS Spearfish;
     The sinking of the submarine USS Sealion at the pier at Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines;
     The torpedoing of a bus by the USS Bowfin;
     Captain Sherman's letter to the supply department at Cavite on the inexplicable lack of toilet paper (based on an actual letter to the supply department of Mare Island Naval Shipyard by Lieutenant Commander James Wiggins "Red" Coe of the submarine USS Skipjack);
     The need to paint a submarine pink because of a lack of enough red or white lead undercoat -- heat from the burning USS Sealion also scorched off the black paint on the nearby USS Seadragon; for a time, the submarine fought with only her red lead undercoat visible. This led Tokyo Rose to disparage American "red pirate submarines";
     Another possible source for the "pink" submarine is the decorated USS Harder, commanded by Samuel David Dealey. Under the belief that a pinkish tint would help with camouflage, especially near dawn and dusk, Dealey added pink to the light grey that was standard for the Navy's Measure 32 paint scheme.

Photo from wikipedia

No comments:

Post a Comment