How did Swoosie Kurtz get her name? From the plane of an American hero
Posted: June 2025
Some movie stars have very unique names. But there’s only one Swoosie.
Swoosie Kurtz has probably been asked thousands of times — maybe tens of thouands of times — how she got her name.
That name didn’t come from some show-business agent. It came from a couple of heroes of World War II.
Swoosie’s father, Col. Frank Kurtz, was not only a bronze-medal-winning Olympic diver. An accomplished young pilot, he was stationed in the Philippines and came under Japanese attack two days after the Pearl Harbor bombing. He was the personal pilot for Gen. George Brett (like the baseball player). Several accounts call Frank Kurtz “the most decorated Air Force pilot in World War II.”
Hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, a B-17D Flying Fortress known as Ole Betsy was attacking Japanese forces that were invading the Philippines. Ole Betsy suffered heavy damage off the coast of Borneo and was repaired in Australia with parts from other planes, prompting its pilot of early 1942, Capt. Weldon Smith, to call it the “Swoose,” based on a popular song about a half-swan, half-goose.
In spring 1942, Col. Frank Kurtz took over the Swoose, which Brett used as his personal transport. At one point, the Swoose carried Lt. Cmdr. Lyndon B. Johnson. According to the Air Force Museum, the Swoose had “the unique distinction of being in operational service from Pearl Harbor to the end of the war.”
The Swoose would have other pilots. But after the war, it was Col. Kurtz who persuaded the city of Los Angeles to save the plane as a war memorial rather than scrap it for the metal, as happened to most planes.
Kurtz’s wife, Margo Rogers Kurtz, was the pride of Omaha, born there (as was Swoosie) and married there. Margo, an author, could fly a plane solo and toured with Hollywood celebrities to support the war effort. She lived to 103½.
From clips of the Omaha World-Herald of 1944 and 1945, it appears the happy parents-to-be decided well in advance what they would call their baby daughter — “The Little Swoose.” It looks like “Swoosie” is what stuck. (It seems like her official name might be more along the lines of “Margo Jr.,” but that’s beside the point.) (It also seems like the Chicago Tribune caption above of April 5, 1978, may be taking artistic license with some details.) The name is cute. It’s not a show-business creation. It’s a tribute to The Greatest Generation.
Swoosie’s credits — 98 of them on IMDB — include “Against All Odds,” “Reality Bites” and the spectacularly hilarious “Liar, Liar.” She says of her name, “It’s unforgettable. I’m the only one.”