1962 LUFTHANSA AIRLINES

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Applause] after two years of planning a major motion picture was in final stages of preparation at paramount studios hollywood california to be filmed entirely on location in sweden denmark and germany pearlberg seton's the counterfeit traitor starring william holden lilly palmer and 15 top european stage and screen personalities posed many problems in air transport lufthansa german airlines was selected to solve these problems while lufthansa's representative conferred with producer william pearlberg and writer director george seton on both passenger and air freight requirements cargill was being assembled for priority shipment and picture making always seems to be priority [Music] there was activity and other fake tests for lovely lily palmer who portrays an allied intelligence agent art directors hal pereira and tommy larson checked hundreds of construction plans for european sets [Music] west coast terminus of lufthansa san francisco was the american staging base for the multi-million dollar production and tons of vital equipment passed through the bay city william holden was already in europe awaiting the arrival of pearlberg seaton and miss palmer they boarded the 707 boeing jet for the flight to frankfurt via montreal in paris crew members followed several days later [Applause] [Music] total flight time to frankfort in comfort and luxury was always less than 14 hours cargo time in transit from hollywood to frankfort busy hub of lufthansa's continental operations was always less than 24 hours day after day the movie cargo descended on frankfurt for immediate transshipment full film production personnel and cargo transferred here to lufthansa's inter-european service consisting of by counts constellations and metropolitans next stop sweden first locale for filming [Music] cameras were set up in the colorful swedish countryside and it's fenced studios in stockholm and exterior filming was alternated with production on the sound stages the crew as well as the cast was international all expert in a painstaking art [Music] one of the first interiors was a grand hotel room scene between holden and british actor hugh griffith all right ready action erickson i'm not here to debate your case i'm here to ask you one question would you like to get off the blacklist naturally what do i have to do be a spy true life story of allied spy eric erickson portrayed by holden the counterfeit traitor was being filmed where it actually occurred during world war ii the sun was sometimes elusive and french cinematographer john bergwa used his blue glass frequently in 1943 ericsson landed at this spot on the swedish coast after a dangerous fishing boat trip from denmark completion of the swedish filming was a series of scenes between holden and griffith who won an academy award for his memorable performance in ben hur stockholm's brahma airport handled the sudden influx of passengers and air freight smoothly and then it was airborne again destination denmark copenhagen the city on bicycles and more than a thousand were used for the first big shot here in town hall square called rodwood by the danes in the heart of a large city picture making is always complicated traffic has to be controlled assistant directors must set and coordinate background action it sometimes seems confusing to onlookers and of course there are always spectators hundreds sometimes thousands [Music] the day was long and rough but by sundown all was normal again in rather splashing filming resumed the following day here in kangen's neutral or king's new square behind the cameras is famed hotel dongle terre this day shooting covered part of erickson's escape from germany after his activities were discovered by german counter-intelligence officers the danish underground eventually assisted him to safety [Music] but there was also drama in another part of copenhagen wardrobe coordinator frank salve discovered that one of holden's hats scheduled to work the following day was missing this was not too surprising for it was one of more than two hundred thousand separate items cataloged for lufthansa shipment overseas [Music] plans between lufthansa and pearlberg seaton had made provisions for this type of emergency and this was the first request to lufthansa for special cargo handling and it bridged two continents and an ocean although eight thousand miles away the studio was as near as a cable blank in a telephone call and vast dependable aircraft while lufthansa worked out the problem the company continued filming in midtown copenhagen until dusk a 15-hour day was not unusual for the movie company [Music] next morning the location was copenhagen's quaint old fish market and the picture makers prepared for the day's work awaiting one important item which was at this moment arriving at modern new castro airport one of lufthansa's metropolitans was making the delivery a very special delivery the final chapter in the transocean saga of holden's hat was about to be written 100 yard dash by wardrobe man saudi and holden was ready so was the company you're all set louis john okay continued for another three weeks once again time to pack hamburg germany and a stay of three months was next on the schedule offices were closed down all of the vast paperwork involved in a major production was assembled and loaded into boxes the company moved as a self-contained unit bustling city on the elb hamburg is germany's greatest seaport and the studios of real films located 20 minutes from the center of hamburg was the new home for the counterfeit trader company many of germany's finest pictures are made here at real this was an every morning ritual for lily palmer and the other members of the cast and crew a greeting at the gate and then the sound stages fix the lights go ahead and fix them you know when i was young i made a vow to live comfortably and lavishly i kept that promise but this stuffy little place means more to me than all of us can you take it more in here and george this yeah an old junkers 52 one of the first lufthansa passenger planes was flown in from switzerland for scenes in counterfeit traitor the sight of it in the jet vapored skies over hamburg was startling to say the least escorted by pretty lufthansa stewardess eva crema honeymooners doug and mary bradshaw who had jetted over from new york were in for a treat an unexpected opportunity to see behind the scenes and having just stepped off a jet they could also easily see how aviation had grown in 20 years buildings in that direction said the pilot of the yonkers 52 and the old workhorse was soon acting fulfilling its role of 1941. the bradshaws and the stewardess lunched with the movie makers and then decided to tour the city hamburg offers the tourist a variety of spectacle the inner ulster hamburg's beautiful landlocked lake was first on the agenda on its shores are some of hamburg's finest hotels and [Music] [Applause] restaurants [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] then st michael's church with its famed statue of saint michael slaying the [Music] [Applause] dragon [Applause] the best view of hamburg and the elb is offered from the tower of the church the sightseers took full advantage [Music] no tour of hamburg is complete without the busy harbor and a long trip by boat consumed the rest of the pleasant afternoon it had been an exciting day for the newlyweds meanwhile the picture company had called a wrap in hollywood terminology finished for the day exposed film was extracted from the debris camera and the messenger was standing by to speed the negative to hamburg's flu [Music] flugal again provided special service in the expedition of the film from the location to the labs in paris film was rushed through customs and placed on a bike out by teletype lufthansa offices throughout the system were alerted provisions were made for immediate transfer in dusseldorf by midnight paris time the film was being processed and pearlberg seton saw rushes of the day's work within 48 hours so [Applause] filming in hamburg's huge railway station the hauptbahnhof completed activity in the seaport city over a thousand extras were employed and pearlberg seton chartered two world war trains for the week of shooting once again the brute light swung into action once again a gallery of spectators away from the cameras technical work goes on makeup always needs freshening and german star carl raddatz underwent a quick repair job [Applause] movement of the train was symbolic the company was on the move again too this narrow flight card into west berlin became historic during the airlift of 1948 when air force and navy transport planes roared down in an endless belt bringing food and coal to the beleaguered city no strangers here pearlberg and seton filmed the big lift during the height of the gigantic military operation temple hop with its mile-long terminal building appears lonely and almost deserted due to the tense political situation and under restrictions of the four power treaty lufthansa is not permitted to fly into berlin but does maintain cargo and passenger offices and hopes to resume service in the near future [Music] once again the familiar blue and yellow truck and more movie cargo handled with dispatch this time headed for the berlin hilton headquarters for the company first day of work was scheduled for the kamaguri former hall of justice producer pearlberg and holden departed the hotel for the set [Music] but let bill holden tell you about berlin [Music] i hadn't been to berlin in several years i asked our driver to swing by a few historic spots berlin's famous professional has been restored and is its main street we could see ruins of the kaiser wilhelm memorial the new congress hall humorously called the pregnant oyster by berliners near the reichstag [Music] the brandenburg gate separating east and west berlin our cast and crew eventually toured east berlin and came back with a sigh of relief from this point we went on to location a major film company is almost completely self-sufficient on location taking everything from generators to food wagons and a first aid unit pearlberg seton's caravan encircles the kamikarich and inside our crew members drawn from seven nationalities have been preparing since dawn for the days filming now it was my time to go to work next day second of a month schedule in berlin was tense the company moved to the spray river boundary between east and west berlin on the opposite bank was communist territory our observers across the river were curious the east german police boat stopped its patrol for a moment to look us over despite the setting of this scene lily was in a gay and playful mood and we began our acting chores a moment later [Applause] climax of our month of filming in berlin was a night sequence eric erickson the true life counterfeit trader flew over from stockholm to witness the completion of the berlin scenes i found this swedish american former spy to be a remarkable man [Applause] here we reenacted the quick aftermath of an air raid seton called for action and got it [Music] [Applause] [Music] ah [Applause] filming last throughout the night and into the early morning finally we got the last shot picture finished job over packing crating and traveling was a head full of tired makers of the counterfeit trader they had filmed in three countries in four cities and in many towns and hamlets it was now october they had left hollywood in may collectively they had traveled over 350 000 lufthansa air miles during the filming lufthansa transported 23 tons of cargo with speed and efficiency teamwork is the basis of a top film production company and lufthansa german airlines starred as a member of the team in the making of pearlberg seton's the counterfeit trader for paramount release [Music] you