WEB: In June 1964, Chinese film history changed forever. Previously, Southeast Asian cinema had been dominated by two families — the Shaw family, headed by Run Run Shaw, and the Loke family, headed by Loke Wan Tho. The latter was a veritable empire that owned rubber plantations, banks, cinemas, and a movie studio called Cathay. Founded in 1953, Cathay specialized in urbane, Westernized musicals and comedies, whereas Shaw Brothers Studios, with its muscle-headed nationalism, was shooting squarely at the lowest common denominator.

Cathay-Keris Films Pte. Ltd.
This week's featured series at the New York Film Festival shines a light on China's great forgotten movie studio, Grady Hendrix writes. Above, Grace Chang stars in Tian-lin ****'s 'The Wild, Wild Rose' (1960).
Shaw made money, but Cathay earned the prestige with such high-class talent as screenwriter Eileen Chang (author of Ang Lee's new film, "Lust, Caution"). But on June 20, 1964, fate would vault one company over the other for the rest of time. With both film studios in attendance at the Asian Film Festival in Taiwan, Loke Wan Tho and Run Run Shaw were each invited on a sightseeing tour. Run Run begged off, Loke agreed to go, and when the plane carrying him, his wife, and his chief executives crashed, Cathay crashed with them. Today, Shaw Brothers rules the memories of Chinese film fans and Cathay's stable of stars are long forgotten.


Civil Air Transport Flight 106


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  (Redirected from Civil Air Transport Flight B-908)


Civil Air Transport Flight 106
Accident summary
Date
20 June 1964
Summary
Engine failure and loss of control
Site
Shenkang, Taiwan
Passengers
52
Crew
5
Fatalities
57
Survivors
0
Aircraft type
Curtiss C-46D Commando
Operator
Civil Air Transport
Registration
B-908
Flight origin
Taichung Airport (TXG/RCLG)
Destination
Taipei-Sung Shan Airport (TSA/RCSS)
Civil Air Transport Flight 106 was a Curtiss C-46D Commando[1] operated by the Taiwanese airline Civil Air Transport that on 20 June 1964 crashed near the village of Shenkang in western Taiwan, killing all 57 people aboard.
Contents
1 The accident
2 The aircraft
3 Causes
4 Passengers
5 References
The accident
Shortly after take-off from Taichung the No.1 engine failed and during the recovery the aircraft turned to the left impacting the ground left wing low in a nose down attitude.
The aircraft
The flight was being operated by a C-46D, regn. B-908, (C/n 32950), which had flown 19,488 hours from 1944 to 1964
Causes
Primary cause of the accident was the failure of the No.1 engine, compounded by mishandling during the recovery / return to Taichung Airport.
Passengers
Among the dead were 20 Americans, one Briton and members of the Malaysian delegation to the 11th Film Festival in Asia, including businessman Loke Wan Tho and his wife Mavis.[2][3]