The Red Baron in popular culture

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Fokker Dr.I. Replica of the famous Manfred von Richthofen tri-plane at the ILA 2006
Fokker Dr.I. Replica of the famous Manfred von Richthofen tri-plane at the ILA 2006

The following is a list of mentions of Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, in popular culture.

Contents

[edit] Popular fiction

[edit] Movies

  • 1927: A Richthofen-based character appears briefly in the WWI-epic Wings, directed by air combat veteran William A. Wellman.[1]
  • 1930: The Red Baron was a character in The Howard Hughes film Hell's Angels.
  • 1963: In the film The Great Escape, a photo of Richthofen with Anthony Fokker and two other men is on the back wall (upper left photo) in Colonel von Luger's office. [2] [3]
  • 1966: The George Peppard World War I film, The Blue Max; the Red Baron is briefly shown in this film.
  • 1970: In the Blake Edwards movie "Darling Lili," set in World War I and starring Julie Andrews and Rock Hudson, the Red Baron is more accurately portrayed as quieter and more reserved than portrayed in "The Blue Max" (where the Baron comes across as rather pompous) and was played by actor Ingo Mogendorf.
  • 1971: The Roger Corman movie, Von Richthofen and Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, focused on the titular characters, and starred John Phillip Law as Richthofen. [4]
  • 1991: In The Rocketeer, a veteran pilot from the war regales a young girl about the time he "was shot down by the Red Baron."
  • 1994: Revenge of the Red Baron; Mickey Rooney portrays a former WW I pilot haunted by a doll version of the Red Baron that flies a toy plane. Also stars Tobey Maguire and Laraine Newman. [5]
  • 2008: The Red Baron movie, see there

[edit] Television

  • In Hogan's Heroes, a popular TV series about a German prisoner-of-war camp in WWII, the camp's commander, Colonel Klink, during WWI, while piloting a plane, panicked and crashed, causing his passenger, the "Blue Baron," to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.
  • George Lucas' television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles featured the Baron as a character, played by Marc Warren. [6]
  • In one episode of the British television show "Blackadder Goes Forth", entitled "Private Plane", the Red Baron makes an appearance when Captain Blackadder and Baldrick are shot down and captured by the Germans. Richthofen is portrayed by Adrian Edmondson as a homosexual who lacks a sense of humour but tries to make up for it, parodying traditional British views of Germans on this subject. He relishes the chance to take on his greatest adversary, but when he meets him he launches into a soliloquy and is unceremoniously shot dead by this nemesis, the much less romantically minded Lord Flashheart, who declares, "What a poof!"
  • Richthofen was featured in an episode of "Fantasy Island," in which a patron of the island wished to save the Baron from his doom. (Oct. 27, 1979) [7]
  • Richthofen has been featured on two different shows on the History Channel. Once for Unsolved History and recently Man, Moment, Machine.
  • In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, when Mandy was walking out to Grim's dog house, where he slept, Grim complained that he should have his own room because the Red Baron keeps shooting his dog house--a double reference to Snoopy's "dogfights" with the Red Baron atop his doghouse.
  • The Red Baron appeared as a villain in the original Scooby Doo series.
  • The character of the Red Lynx in the SWAT Kats, is a parody to the Red Baron.
  • In the Wacky Races, the Red Max is a probable descendant of the Red Baron, since his car his similar to the Red Baron's plane.
  • In the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Shanghaied", when on the Flying Dutchman's ship, Spongebob mistakenly states that it belongs to the Red Baron.
  • In several episodes of Home Improvement, when they are doing Tool Time, there is a model of Richthofen's triplane hanging on the wall above the first aid kit.
  • In the episode of The Simpsons "Eight Misbehaven', one of Apu's octuplets portrays "The Baron" flying in a Red blimp with a German cross on it, which is obivous reference to The Red Baron.

[edit] Science fiction

[edit] Song references and bands

[edit] Video game references

There have also been a number of WWI flight simulators involving Manfred von Richthofen. They include Hunt for the Red Baron, written and published by Small Rockets, Knights of the Sky by Microprose, and Red Baron by Dynamix and published by Sierra Entertainment which was followed up by a less successful sequel Red Baron II.

  • Wings, a Cinemaware title in which the player is an Allied pilot in France during WWI, follows the vicissitudes of the Red Baron, from his rising to his death.
  • Empire Earth has a German campaign in which four missions allow the players to control Manfred von Richthofen.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a radio-controlled aircraft called "Red Baron"
  • Shining Force 2 has a Red Baron character.
  • Skykid depicts the fanciful air journey of the "Red Baron" and the "Blue Max".
  • Titles for the Atari system in the 1980s, and in 2006 by Namco for Playstation 2, PSP, and Xbox game systems have also been released. [8]
  • Red Baron 3D WWI Combat Flight Simulator.
  • A flight game called "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" was released recently and is a computer game with Snoopy as the protagonist. The game is available for Playstation 2, the PlayStation Portable and the PC.
  • One of the Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves villains, the world famous fighter ace called the Black Baron, is an obvious reference to the Red Baron.
  • The PC game Star Trek: Judgment Rites features the character Trelane from the original series TV episode Squire of Gothos imagining himself as World War I pilot complete with the Red Baron's signature Fokker Triplane.
  • The arcade version of Trivial Pursuit included a player avatar called "Baron von Rightoften", designed to resemble the Red Baron.
  • In the Nintendo DS game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, one of the characters is named Manfred von Karma. Like the Red Baron, he is known for having a perfect career. He also receives his comeuppance from a single bullet.
  • In RollerCoaster Tycoon, an installed track design for the stand-up roller coaster is titled "Red Baron".
  • The Red Baron is mentioned in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as a codename.
  • An MS-DOS PC video game, written in QBasic, called Red Baron 2573, in which the player pilots a laser-armed starfighter-like spacecraft called the "Red Baron".
  • In Thrillville: Off the Rails there is an arcade flying ace named Barry von Richtoven who is referred to several times as "The Red Barry" and flies a triplane.

[edit] Board game references

  • The Red Baron was the inspiration for Avalon Hill's 1970s board game "Richthofen's War," one of the first WW I aerial combat board games. [9]
  • The Red Baron was also prominently featured in "Snoopy & The Red Baron", a Milton Bradley skill game released in 1970.

[edit] Food brands

[edit] Sports

  • Formula One driving legend Michael Schumacher has been dubbed the Red Baron due to his German heritage and his fame as a driver for the red colored Ferrari team. Interestingly enough, like Richtofen, Schumacher has a younger brother, Ralf Schumacher who followed in his brother's steps as a driver, much like Lothar did with Richtofen.
  • Baseball pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, during his career was nicknamed "The Red Baron", because of the color of his beard and hair.
  • Former St. Louis Blues player, and current University of Michigan head hockey coach Red Berenson was also nicknamed "The Red Baron", both due to his hair color, and his last name.[10]

[edit] Rhinebeck Aerodrome

  • The exploits of Richthofen and his peers inspired Cole Palen to create Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Palen is credited with creating the kit-plane craze in the U.S., and was instrumental in restoring and/or retrieving priceless examples of WW I aviation. Palen built a replica Fokker Dr I, which he flew in hundreds of simulated dogfights at Rhinebeck. [11]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wings at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ The Great Escape at the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ Kilduff, Peter (2000). The Illustrated Red Baron: The Life and Times of Manfred von Richthofen. Cassell, 101. ISBN 1-85409-530-7. 
  4. ^ The Red Baron at the Internet Movie Database
  5. ^ Revenge of the Red Baron at the Internet Movie Database
  6. ^ Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ^ Fantasy Island at the Internet Movie Database
  8. ^ Snoopy and the Red Baron (1983), Snoopy vs The Red Baron (2006), Snoopy vs The Red Baron (2006) XBox version
  9. ^ Richthofen's War
  10. ^ Joe Pelletier's
    Greatest Hockey Legends: Red Berenson
  11. ^ Rhinebeck Aerodome Official website