“I’m all right, I’m prepared for this!” Dusty Rhodes yelled as he launched himself from the Golden Gate Bridge.
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After the war, people were looking for entertainment in 1940's San Francisco, but TVs were not yet common in homes, public hangings were history and the 49ers hadn’t joined the NFL yet. So when crazy people did crazy things in public places, excited crowds would gather. And they did for the Hollywood stuntman’s attempt to sail off the Golden Gate Bridge on Feb. 6, 1948.
“If I make it, I’ll have publicity and be on my way,” Rhodes told a friend who later testified at the coroner’s inquest. For his big ticket to stardom, Rhodes was inspired by a circus performer named Frank Cushing who was plucked out of the bay the previous year after claiming that he had just leaped from the bridge, though no one was there to see it.
Rhodes’ press agent, Susan Todd, told reporters that Dusty had painstakingly calculated the speed of his fall, how he would hit the water and other details, as he did when he prepared for his movie stunts."This will be the biggest jump of my life," he told her.