8.19.2006

WINGS & WHEELS, Part II

Well, we made it to the Wings & Wheels show at Teterboro Airport. This year the event had free admission. When we got there we saw why. It wasn't nearly as big as the last show they held there.

Times have changed, we're sure, but the last show had a lot more to offer.

In fact, we're sure the ride-in-the-bomber was a lot less money a few years ago. That was one of the flourishes we were going to enjoy this year but when we saw the price, even Aunt Tonoose agreed, it was a lot of money for a plane ride in a vintage B-17 Bomber.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

A few years ago, there was on display one of the aircraft used in the Berlin Airlift. There were Vietnam war era fighters. Heck, there was a WWI era bi-plane that looked like it was made out of paper.

But this year there were a few private planes, a Port Authorty helicopter, a fire truck and a huge runway sized snow plow, some vintage Jeeps, a few half-tracks and some old cars.

Inside the big building - or hangar, as I was corrected - the table displays of knick-knacks was limited. Again, the last show had lots of places to leave your money and take home a memorable souvenir of the event or aviation history.

We're glad the show has been revived, but we were disappointed that it was so small this year.

If you get a chance, you should visit the NJ Aviation Hall of Fame, which is located on the east side of the airport. It has a gift shop with books and souvenirs - including a copy of From the Earth to the Moon, a history of NJ's contribution to flight.

Let's hope the next Wings & Wheels show can return to the show's former glory.




Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

8.18.2006

WINGS & WHEELS EXPO - Teterboro, NJ

Wings and Wheels ExpoSaturday and Sunday
Aug. 19 and 20, 2006
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.


Display of Modern & Classic
Military & Civil Aircraft

TETERBORO AIRPORT
Access to parking & shuttle from Industrial Road, off Route 46.
Google Map
For More Information

Free Admission, this year!


Aunt Tonoose has promised to send me up in the "Yankee Lady" B-17 WWII Flying Fortress.

She says she'll wait on the ground and take pictures of me waiving out the window.

You, too, can inquire about a passenger ride - we passed one up last time around and longed for the once-in-a-lifetime experience ever since.

We enjoyed the cross section of old and new aircraft the last time the show was held.

Maybe we'll see you around the fair.


Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.

8.16.2006

REALLY BIG SHOES

I see where a few north Jersey theater groups are putting on live shows that I would be interested in.

Not in any particular order:

The
Paper Mill Playhouse will present A WONDERFUL LIFE. They bill it as "A musical adaptation of the Frank Capra film "It's a Wonderful Life." Book and Lyrics by SHELDON HARNICK Music by JOE RAPOSO; Directed by JAMES BRENNAN."

The film has long been one of my favorites, along with Jean Shepherd's A Christmas Story (You'll shoot your eye out, kid!).

An added personal delight to the film version of It's A Wonderful Life is that the screenplay was finished off by a Belleville, N.J.-born and Nutley, N.J.-raised woman named
Frances Goodrich. Along with her husband Albert Hackett, she wrote scads of classic sreenplays, including most of the Thin Man series.

Whenever I see George Bailey in that small town, I think of Nutley of about 100 years ago - when Goodrich was a child - with snowstorms, kids sledding into the creek, the bridge over the Passaic River into Lyndhurst. I've got to think that Goodrich took a lot of the small town details from her own childhood in North Jersey.


The Paper Mill is also presenting a musical version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers based on the film and a play. The Hacketts also did the screenplay for that film.

Kean Stage is putting will present And Then They Came For Me - Remembering the World of Anne Frank. If you recall the movie or the play based on the Diary of Anne Frank, the play and film were created from the book by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. They won the Pulitzer Prize for the play.
Copyright © 2006 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
The Real Nick & Nora

Frances Goodrich Links