David Compton Tallichet

[sgt hawk]

I believe the first time I became aware of Dave Tallichet was in the early 70's in an article in "Air Classics" and if you have traveled any, and love airplanes, you have been to some of His Areo squadron theme restaurants. There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Tallichet's contribution to the Warbird Community is without equal. The amount of aircraft from fighters and bombers of WWII to C-130's of this era, that he has saved is remarkable at best. Let us celebrate his life and mourn the passing of a dynamic and unique individual. God speed Dave, I hope to fly with you sometime.
Greg Hawkins

[JohnH]

Wow I'm shocked. I met him quite a few times when I used to spend every Saturday at Chino and I had lunch with him in 92. He was an interesting guy, always nice to me. His collection was amazing and I'm greatful to have gotten to know him a little bit. There's pictures I've been able to take and experiences with warbirds, such as his incredible B-26 Marauder now owned by Kermit Weeks that I wouldn't have even come close to having if it weren't for David Tallichet. Godspeed.

John

[Scott Rose]

Posted for Rob Rohr:

Hi All,

Words cant describe my feelings right now, as many of you know I've been working on a book on the early Warbird Owners and Operators, as a side project I decide to do a separate book on David and his impact with in our Community.

As many have already point out David passion for warbirds was second to none while we all agree that he did things to his own beat, he did save so many rare aircraft. Not only did he save allot of aircraft but he started one of the very best Restruant Chain in the United States plus he was a Vet. of the 100Bomb Squadron and flew 35 Combat missions.

I first meet David in 1979 at Owls Head Transportation Museum he had brought up his third B-25 Dick Foote introduce to me and that start a friendship that has lasted over 20 years David had a pronoun impact on me when it came to aircraft recovery's and preservation. But he also was the first person who noted that I had a nack in the Kitchen and made the suggestion that I should try my hand at being a Chef which I did and over the years I have become rather succesfull in this endeavor.

David was one of those rare folks who would light up a room when he walk thru it always telling a story about how he got this or that type of aircraft. My favorite story is how he got permission to recover the A-26 down in Central America, basically it goes like this David was on trip and stop in Nicaragua and found five A-26 in the weeds he ask the base commander about them and was told if you want them make us an offer well David made them an offer and with in hour David had purchase 5 A-26.

We with in the Warbird Community have lost one of the early legends and I have lost a good Friend.

May you rest in Peace David.

Rob

[Jake Fendermen]

I met David at Superbatics Air Show in Topeka about 1984. He was getting ready to fly the B-17 and I asked if I could ride along. Without hesitation, he said "hop in"and as you might expect, it was a great ride. He was one in a million! Godspeed Dave.

Jake Fendermen
"Those were the days".

[oscardeuce]

Hand Salute!

[mustangdriver]

I met David at Superbatics Air Show in Topeka about 1984. He was getting ready to fly the B-17 and I asked if I could ride along. Without hesitation, he said "hop in"and as you might expect, it was a great ride. He was one in a million! Godspeed Dave.

Jake Fendermen
"Those were the days".

For as many bad stories there are, there are also great ones like that. I saw that first hand several times, and got to go along on taxi test in the B-17 several times.

[krlang]

Thank you,

Thank you for travelling in your B-17 with a Popcorn Machine.
Thank you for owning a chain of restaurants and liking the popcorn shrimp at the 99.
Thank you for parking your B-17 with the flat spot on the tire in front so you could get it changed at the hanscom show.
Thank you for the Key Lime Pie with Lorna Doone Crust.
Thank you for all those 130 some odd airplanes!
Thank you for all the stories we have told, heard, seen over the years that will go on and on and on.

Godspeed David

[JohnH]

Was very glad to see David get a nice write up in yesterday's Times. There was a paid obituary for him earlier in the week and they probably saw that and decided to write him up. They even mention the Marauder!!! The article mentions internet "billionaires" but Kermit Weeks is certaintly not rich from the internet. I emailed the same writer and they never did write about Tex Hill, which I can't understand why. Some of you may not know his sister was Margaret Tallichet , she was a B level movie actress in the 1930s and 40s who married William Wyler of Memphis Belle fame. She passed away on May 3, 1991, the day after Dave tried unsuccessfully to fly his Marauder at Chino. That was a huge media day, with original co pilot Howard Smiley being present.

John

David Tallichet, 84; WWII pilot collected and restored planes

By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 11, 2007
David C. Tallichet Jr., a World War II bomber pilot who made his money building destination restaurants and often spent it preserving warplanes, a hobby he once called "foolish" for its expense but which turned him into a leading collector of the aircraft, has died. He was 84.

Tallichet, whose restaurants include the Proud Bird adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport and 94th Aero Squadron near Van Nuys Airport, died Oct. 31 at his home in Orange of complications related to prostate cancer, said his son John D. Tallichet.

"There is no other person in the country who is so singularly responsible for the preservation of these aircraft," said Gary Lewi of the American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, N.Y. "He saved the aircraft for another generation, but he also used them to pay tribute to those who flew them."

As recently as July, Tallichet flew his B-17 Flying Fortress to a Michigan air show and was honored as the last World War II combat pilot who was still flying the rare aircraft, his family said.

Last year, the Airpower museum gave him a lifetime achievement award and said he "understood the importance of these aircraft in an era when the vast bulk of them were being fed into the smelter."

In 1989, he piloted the B-17 bomber across the north Atlantic so it could appear in the title role of the movie "Memphis Belle," about the first U.S. bomber crew to fly 25 missions over Europe during the war.

At one point, Tallichet owned as many as 120 planes -- one standout was a Martin B-26 Marauder -- but he had fewer than half that many in recent years. In the early 1990s, he began selling some to buyers an associate called "Internet billionaires," who could afford the $30,000 it might take to replace an engine.

A visit to the Smithsonian's National Air Museum in the early 1960s inspired Tallichet to go into the airplane restoration business.

He had flown more than 20 World War II missions over occupied Europe as the co-pilot of a B-17 bomber, which he considered "a living symbol of American courage and sacrifice," Tallichet told the New York Daily News in 1998.

Among his first purchases was a P-51 Mustang fighter for $13,000. He owned, and usually flew, such historical craft as B-25 Mitchell bombers, Korean-era MiG jets, P-40 Tomahawk fighters and giant B-29 bombers.

Trudging into the jungle to hunt down planes and carting aircraft parts out of the Canadian Rockies brought out the adventurer in Tallichet, who enjoyed the horse-trading that went into collecting, his son said.

Yet when it came to acknowledging his legacy, "he was of the Jimmy Stewart, 'aw shucks, what are you talking about?' school, but he knew that the icons he flew at air shows around the country would make a difference in people understanding our past," Lewi said.

The means to build his private air force came from Specialty Restaurants Corp., a destination-restaurant business he established with Sea World founder George Millay. Their first location, the Polynesian-themed Reef in Long Beach, opened in 1958 and more than 100 other restaurants across the U.S. followed.

Now chaired by Tallichet's son John, the Anaheim-based company operates 25 restaurants in nine states, including the Odyssey in Granada Hills and the Castaway in Burbank. The company also built Ports O'Call Village in San Pedro.

From the outset, the company specialized in what it called "the Disneyland effect" and created fictional histories to go with its restaurant concepts, the Nation's Restaurant News reported in 1985. Its World War II-themed restaurants include several 94th Aero Squadron eateries decorated with war memorabilia.

Military Aircraft Restoration Corp., a subsidiary of the restaurant company, was established to handle the vintage aircraft but largely made money manufacturing replicas. They have been used as props in films such as "Pearl Harbor" (2001) and "Collateral Damage" (2002) and often grace the entrances of airplane museums.

David Compton Tallichet Jr. was born Dec. 20, 1922, in Dallas.

He attended the University of the South in Tennessee, the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University in Texas, but left before completing his English degree.

During World War II, he joined the Army Air Forces and remained on active reserve status until 1957.

After the war he worked for the Hilton Corp., and in 1955 he managed the Lafayette Hotel in Long Beach. After the hotel hosted a Miss Universe pageant, he married the contestant from Indiana.

In addition to his wife, Carol, and son John of Newport Beach, Tallichet is survived by a daughter, Catherine Ann of Jackson Hole, Wyo.; two other sons, William of San Pedro and James of Jackson Hole; and four grandchildren

[Warbirdnerd]

I found this article from a Long Beach paper:

Tallichet found adventure in sky, eateries
WWII and lifelong pilot, theme restaurant developer kept passions to end.
By Greg Mellen, Staff writer
Article Launched: 11/07/2007 08:39:05 PM PST


LONG BEACH - David Tallichet Jr.'s head was often in the clouds, literally and figuratively.
As an aviator and former combat pilot, he flew World War II-era aircraft until the final months of his life. As a businessman, he was constantly dreaming up new concepts and schemes for the themed restaurants operated nationwide, including his first, The Reef Restaurant in Long Beach.

Tallichet, who was born in Texas, died Oct. 31 after a battle with prostate cancer. He was 84.

"He'd say he got a slow start, but once he got going he made up for it," John Tallichet said of his father.

After serving in World War II, where he flew B-17 Flying Fortresses on more than 20 combat missions in Europe, Tallichet began working for Hilton Hotels, eventually becoming general manager of the Lafayette Hotel in downtown Long Beach in 1955.

It was there that Tallichet met Cecilia, his first wife and the mother of his four children.

Several years before, he had visited a remote restaurant in the Midwest that drew large crowds because of its backwoods theme.

That gave Tallichet the idea of creating restaurants that featured not only good food but exotic or historic atmospheres.

That eventually led to the opening of the Polynesian-themed Reef Restaurant in 1958, when the idea of a concept restaurant was still rather new and bold. Shortly after, Tallichet opened Ports O' Call in San Pedro and a food dynasty was in the making.
Under the banner of Specialty Restaurants Corporation, Tallichet would go on to become a pioneer in the industry, opening more than 100 eateries nationwide with themes ranging from World War II combat aeronautics, often in locales with views of airports like the Proud Bird in Los Angeles, to Cajun atmospheres, to South Sea islands to restaurants with mining motifs.

Tallichet's accomplishments were only outpaced by his dreams, it seems.

"I remember he wanted to create an aviation theme park," John recalls. "As a kid growing up, I would see all these plans on the walls for shopping areas and villages that never got built."

"He was always excited about the next deal," says son Bill Tallichet, who is now general manager of The Reef.

In the 1960s, Tallichet envisioned a revolving restaurant atop the International Tower in Long Beach. At another time, he actually leased land in Florida for a park that was later scrapped.

"My dad was a creative thinker," John said. "He always saw things differently."

John, who now runs Specialty Restaurants Corporation, says he remembers his father always with a yellow legal pad in his hands either dreaming up a new scheme or reminding himself what needed to be done next.

Tallichet's success as a businessman allowed him to indulge his other passion, flying.

Tallichet was the founder of Military Aircraft Restoration Company. By John's estimation, at one time his father had about 40 working airplanes and another 100 or so in different stages of rehabilitation.

Tallichet provided many of the Corsairs that were used in the television show, "Black Sheep Squadron." He also owned and flew the "Memphis Belle" bomber featured in the 1990 movie of the same name, as well as many others.

In January, Tallichet was recertified to fly the craft and piloted it to Michigan, where he was honored as the last WWII combat pilot still flying the plane.

Bill remembers his wheelchair-bound dad on the telephone with a friend making plans to fly his B-17 back to Cleveland just days before he died.

In his pursuit of WWII aircraft, Tallichet was one of the first to venture to remote locales in places such as Libya and New Guinea.

While the flying was adventurous, both sons say it also allowed Tallichet to exercise his business talents and passions.

"He loved the art of negotiation," John said. "So, while there was the adventure of flying, there's also a lot of horse trading that goes on with these old planes and he loved that."

"His passion was doing business," Bill remembers. "He'd get more passionate about saving $100 buying a car."

Tallichet's sons continue to work with the restaurant company their dad created.

Bill says The Reef had the best year in its history last year. And although Specialty Restaurants Corporation has downsized since its heyday, it still runs a number of eateries in the Southland and nationally and has expanded into catering.

David Tallichet is survived by his wife, Carol Margaret Tallichet of Orange; daughter Catherine Ann of Jackson Hole, Wyo.; son William Robert and his wife Jasmin of San Pedro; John David and his wife Karen of Newport Beach; and James Lee of Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Private funeral services have already been held, but a celebration of Tallichet's life will take place Nov. 17 at Orange Hill Restaurant, 6410 E. Chapman Ave., Orange, between noon and 3 p.m.

The family requests that memorial donations be made to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, Okla., 73123-1718 or online at www.cancer.org.

Found it here:
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_7399790

[APG85]

He is definately deserving of an entry into:

http://www.findagrave.com/

Loads of famous people can be found there including pilots, astronauts, generals, you name it. Paul Tibbets already has a bio there...