Tondelayo

What's in a Name?

It's a good question and I was more than a little curious about the name of the B25 - Mitchell "Tondelayo"

So I started asking around and no one seemed to know where the name Tondelayo came from. So I started doing a little research.

I discovered that Tondelayo was a character in the 1942 movie "White Cargo". Tondelayo was played by the star Hedy Lamarr. The movie is about a group of Englishmen in a tropical colony driven to distraction by sultry Tondelayo. I'm English and so this makes complete sense to me, although it may not be just an English thing, but I digress :o)

So the B25 - Mitchell "Tondelayo" is named after a movie character played Hedy Lamarr and the pin-up image on the side of the aircraft does look like Ms. Lamarr, so there we have it.

Oh and the name "Tondelayo", turns out Tondelayo is a Cherokee Native American Indian name that means priceless as in a jewel.

Unless you know different of course :O)

Mike Wardley, 2008.