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

1 Popular fiction
2 Movies
3 Television
4 Science fiction
5 Song references and bands
6 Videogame references
7 Board game references
8 Food brands
9 Sports
10 Rhinebeck Aerodome
11 Notes

[edit] Popular fiction

In the comic strip Peanuts, and in later television specials, one of Snoopy's fantasies portrays him as a World War I flying ace (Arthur Brown's nickname was Snoopy), piloting a Sopwith Camel and carrying a personal grudge against the Red Baron.
Snoopy's fictional connection with the "Bloody Red Baron" led to a series of popular song recordings on the subject, by the group The Royal Guardsmen (see music section).
Corto Maltese, a character by Italian cartoonist Hugo Pratt, witnesses the defeat of the Red Baron.
The troubled main character of DC Comics's Enemy Ace comics is based in part on the Red Baron.
Richthofen is one of the main characters in Jeffrey Shaara's book, To the Last Man.
The second volume in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series, The Bloody Red Baron, features a vampire Richthofen who undergoes treatment in order to transform into a large bat-like creature and dispense with the need for an aeroplane.

[edit] Movies

1927: A Richthofen-based character appears briefly in the WWI-epic Wings, directed by air combat veteran William A. Wellman.^[1]
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.
1971: The Roger Corman movie, Von Richthofen and Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, focused on the titular characters. ^[4]
1991: In The Rocketeer, a veteran pilot from the war regails 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]

[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 Blackadder and Baldrick are captured by the Germans. Richthofen is portrayed by Adrian Edmondson as insane and lacking a sense of humour.
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.
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.
In the episode of Spongebob called Shanghaied, Spongebob mentions the Red Baron
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.

[edit] Science fiction

In Space: Above and Beyond, reference is made to a "Chiggy von Richthofen" and several fighter squadrons are sent to destroy him in "Operation Red Baron."
In Fred Saberhagen's science fiction short story "Wings Out of Shadow", which is part of the Berserker series, a captured historian uses "personality modules" based on several World War I fighter aces, including Richthofen.
Char Aznable of Mobile Suit Gundam is based partialy on the Red Baron, nicknamed the Red Comet. Both are aces famous for their striking red vehicles.
In an episode of Swat Kats called The Ghost Pilot, the Red Lynx is a clear reference to the Red Baron.
In the Battlestar Galactica episode "Scar," there is an ace Cylon Raider who is based on the Red Baron

[edit] Song references and bands

"Snoopy Vs The Red Baron" (The Hotshots, 1973)
"Red Baron" (Vince Guaraldi)
"Red Baron/Blue Max" (Iced Earth)
"Crimson Rider" (Masterplan)
"Not the Red Baron" (Tori Amos)
"Red Baron" ("The Bicycling Guitarist")
Snoopy vs. The Red Baron (The Royal Guardsmen, 1966)
Return of the Red Baron (The Royal Guardsmen)
The Smallest Astronaut (The Royal Guardsmen)
Snoopy for President (The Royal Guardsmen)
Snoopy's Christmas (The Royal Guardsmen)
Barón Rojo
Barão Vermelho
Gold Hick (Guided by Voices)

[edit] Videogame references

Red Baron by Dynamix

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 by Roy Brown.
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".
Star Wars X-Wing Saga
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 a first world war pilot complete with the red barons signature Fokker 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]

[edit] Food brands

Red Baron brand logo

An American frozen foods manufacturer, Schwan Food Company, has adopted his nickname on Red Baron Pizza accompanied by an image that looks substantially unlike Richthofen. The image includes a handlebar moustache, which the real Richthofen never had.

[edit] Sports

Baseball pitcher Rick Sutcliffe was nicknamed "The Red Baron", because of the color of his beard and hair.

[edit] Rhinebeck Aerodome

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. ^[10]