Aug 15, 2008 4:13 pm US/Eastern
Chicago Air & Water Show: Bill Murray Has Landed
To Celebrate Its 50th Anniversary, The Event Expands To 3 Days
(CBS)
An exuberant Bill Murray landed safely on a lakefront beach after parachuting from a plane at the 50th annual Chicago Air and Water Show.
The actor, clad in a gold-colored jumpsuit, joked that he was nervous about jumping from 13,500 feet and almost reconsidered.
Afterward, he pretended for a moment to stagger as if dizzy, then smiled broadly, waved to the crowd and shook hands with members of the US Army Golden Knight Parachute Team.
Murray, 57, made the tandem jump strapped to Staff Sgt. Joe Jones of the Golden Knights, the same Army team that jumped with former President George H.W. Bush.
City officials say Murray is participating to show his support for the Illinois United Service Organizations.
Two million people are expected to pack the lakefront this weekend for the Chicago Air and Water Show, and on Friday morning, a crowd was swarming on North Avenue Beach hours ahead of time.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show, the event will last three days, instead of two.
The Air and Water Show is always awash in excitement, but this year it will also be studded with celebrities. See the three-day schedule here.
Murray's jump followed former "Brady Bunch" star Florence Henderson's performance at the national anthem.
Other celebrities with Chicago roots who are participating in the show include actor Gary Sinise, who is scheduled to perform with his band Lt. Dan Band.
By the 11 a.m. hour, the North Avenue Beach was already getting crowded.
The celebrity contingent brought a sizable number of people to North Avenue Beach extra early. They were treated to the sight and sound of an F-18 Hornet buzzing along the beach at 600 mph.
Any piece of the beach is valuable viewing area. Some people arrived before dawn, unpacked their gear, and dug into the sand until the entertainment gets underway.
"To see the whole show, you really have to be close, especially if you're going to have kids with you or whatever," one man said. "If you're set up further back, they can't see anything over everybody's heads, so we've got the prime spot here."
"We brought our umbrella, and our beach chairs, and a blanket, and we have relatives meeting us; in fact, my brother and sister-in-law are staying downtown," a woman said. "We're going to make a whole weekend of it."
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
