Golf in 'The Aviator'

[Marty Bonnar]

I was watching (and thouroughly enjoying) 'The Aviator' on telly last night. Despite finding it difficult to really see Leonardo as HH, he did a pretty decent job.

There were a couple of golf-related moments:
Hepburn teaching Hughes Golf.
Them landing a BIG plane on a fairway somewhere in LA (I think)
Hughes trying to crash-land the XF-11 at LACC.

How much of this was true and how much was screenplay? Did he own any of the golfing real estate in the area? I think they mentioned his house was overlooking the fairway where they landed. Was that also LACC? Were the scenes filmed at the actual locations?

Perhaps Mr Huntley has some memories/stories?

FBD.

[Eric Franzen]

I also enjoyed the movie.

Found this:


Hole in One: Golf Courses  
Golf courses set the scene for Hughes' most significant events, from falling in love with Hepburn to his near-fatal plane crash.
 
1.  Woodland Hills Golf Course  
The scene of Hughes' first date with Katharine Hepburn was staged on this golf course. Naturally, Hepburn scored more than one hole in one.
21150 Dumetz Rd, Woodland Hills | (818)347-1476
 
2.  Wilshire Country Club Golf Course  
Hughes took everything he did seriously, including golf. He cared so much about the sport that he bought a home adjacent to this course in Hancock Park, where he carried out his romance with Hepburn. Today the home is owned by a CAA agent.
211 S. Muirfield Rd, Hancock Park
 
3.  Los Angeles Country Club  
Probably not Hughes' favorite LA course. When his XF-11 plane started malfunctioning, he aimed to crash-land here, missing the green and tearing up the surrounding Bev Hills neighborhood.
10101 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills | (310) 276-6104

[john_stiles]

I think there are some stories of HH landing a plane (small?) on a fairway at Bel-Air.  

Also, there are some legends of beautiful actresses hanging out on his nearby house balcony causing considerable distraction to HH's golf opponent.  

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Martin,
At Woodland Hills, where Hepburn and HH enjoy 9 holes of golf, it's a Billy Bell Sr. course. The bunkers you see in the film are the ones recently redone by Geoff Shackelford, in-house with the superintendent. However Geoff was not responsible for the colorization effect used in the movie! I can assure you the course is in fact normal verde color!

In the movie, DeCaprio/Hughes is seen and heard telling Odie, is assistant that he was going to try to make the Wilshire Country Club. As noted in the above post, that in fact was wrong. In the real life scenario, Hughes was aiming for The LACC (I would suppose #5 considering the length as well as his flight path where he ended up crashing) and they actually used a shot of him pointed at The LACC in the movie. I have the clipping around here somewhere, but I can't post it right now but I think he hit about 3 or 4 houses, as well as killed one civilian on the ground, and it's a miracle that he didn't kill more. From what I've got from the LA Times archives, it's pretty accurately portrayed in the movie with the exception to the quote of where he was trying to land the plane.

At Wilshire CC, the scene where he is landing his plane is taken on the fairway of the 6th hole, which then the plane was then moved over to the 8th for the shot of the actual house which overlooks the 8th green/9th tee.

The story that Adam Clayman and myself were told about Hughes and his house at Wilshire was that he coaxed Ava Gardner to look out for him and his golf partners when they got to the 8th green/9th tee-- come out on the balcony, dressed in a pretty much see-thru neglige' of sorts. This would allow him to take advantage of a press on the 9th!

[Tom Huckaby]

Martin,
At Woodland Hills, where Hepburn and HH enjoy 9 holes of golf, it's a Billy Bell Sr. course. The bunkers you see in the film are the ones recently redone by Geoff Shackelford, in-house with the superintendent. However Geoff was not responsible for the colorization effect used in the movie! I can assure you the course is in fact normal verde color!

Geoff did work at Woodland Hills CC?  COOL!  That place has great meaning to me... site of so many high school hijinx... place where I was a junior member for two glorious years... memories.....like the corners of my mind....

 

[Marty Bonnar]

Reason to be Cheerful Part 5:
Why I love GCA.

Where else could one legitimately discuss golf course architecture WITHIN the context of Ava Gardner's nightwear? Next we'll hear from Tom Paul and those wild weekends at the Connecticut mansion home of the Hepburn clan...

GCA - Cool!

FBD.

[Tim Leahy]

Martin,At Woodland Hills, where Hepburn and HH enjoy 9 holes of golf, it's a Billy Bell Sr. course. The bunkers you see in the film are the ones recently redone by Geoff Shackelford, in-house with the superintendent. However Geoff was not responsible for the colorization effect used in the movie! I can assure you the course is in fact normal verde color!

Geoff did work at Woodland Hills CC?  COOL!  That place has great meaning to me... site of so many high school hijinx... place where I was a junior member for two glorious years... memories.....like the corners of my mind....

When I was in college at Pepperdine over the hill, we would drive out and sneek on after 5pm in the summer, when the pro went home. Very fun course and you can see some the holes on the old shows on the Golf Channel Sam Snead celebrity challenge golf series.

[David Kelly]

It is hard to pin down what is true and what is untrue about Hughes and many stories have taken on a life of their own.  For instance most sources say it was Jean Harlow not Ava Gardner who would appear on the balcony of Hughes' house overlooking the 9th hole at Wilshire.  That story makes sense as Hughes had stopped playing golf (1939) by the time Gardner came along.

As for the crash of the XF-11 near the Los Angeles Country Club, Hughes was trying to land on the 9th fairway at LACC but could not clear some houses adjacent to the course so he attempted to land  between houses on Linden Dr.. The right side of his plane hit a house at 803 Linden Dr. and tore off a piece of the wing which ripped through the house at 805 Linden.  A Marine Sgt. saw the crash and was the one who pulled Hughes out.  Other than Hughes, nobody was hurt in the crash.

I know Hughes lived in two different homes overlooking golf courses -  the home overlooking the 9th at Wilshire CC and a later home behind the 10th at Bel Air CC.