One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since; its earliest documented telecast took place in Denver Friday 26 June 1959 on KBTV (Channel 7).
Created under the working title '20 Hours by Air', the pace set in 1933 for transcontinental passenger flights, the production updated its name to '13' to match the recent feats of aviation pioneers Wiley Post, Jimmy Dolittle, and Roscoe Turner.
The Second-Unit's footage involved an actual flight from Newark to Los Angeles and shows the terminal facilities on United Air Lines' then-new transcontinental route network.
Coincidentally, Adrienne Marden's (Stewardess Ann McKenna) last feature film appearance would be in 'Airport (1970)', also an air disaster genre movie, as passenger 'Mrs. Gertrude Cochran' (uncredited).
The Boeing Model 247 airliner, prominently featured in the story, was introduced in 1933. With a capacity for 10 passengers, the aircraft set a cross-country record of 19 1/2 hours on its San Francisco to New York City inaugural flight.
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