HOLLYWOOD IN THE AIR
The birth of aviation and cinema go hand in hand. Though cinema had a few decades on aviation *), the opening of the first narrative silent film The Great Train Robbery (by Edwin S. Porter) in the week of 19 December 1903 at the Comedy Theater in New York coincided with the first successful powered flight by the Wright brothers on 17 December 1903. Within a few years aviation cinema really took off.
*) The world's earliest surviving motion picture Roundhay Garden Scene dates from 1888 and the world's first commercial public screening — a film by the Lumière brothers — took place in 1895 in Paris.
When we take a look at history, the advent of aircrafts offered numerous possibilities. Airmail services were operating since the 1910s and it became common practice throughout the 1920s and 1930s. These airmail aircrafts would often carry passengers, in fact it was the postal service that gave start to the commercial airlines later on (commercial aviation wouldn't be profitable until the 1930s). At the beginning of WWI airplanes were primarily used for reconnaissance (determining the enemy's position and movements) but by the end of the war they could carry and drop bombs and thus became an integral part in future combat. In the 1920s pilots were also participating in air races where speed was the main focus. Another popular use of aircrafts was for entertainment with pilots taking their planes up in the sky for air shows. Stunt pilots and daredevils, the so-called barnstormers, ruled the day. Barnstorming *) is a term I just recently discovered in relation to aviation. The barnstormers appealed to the public for their dizzying and death defying stunts but they also offered affordable joy rides and the public could experience a flight for the first time. Incidentally, the barnstormers proved to become very important to the film industry.
*) "Most barnstorming shows followed a typical pattern. On any given day, a pilot, or team of pilots, would fly over a small rural town and attract the attention of the local inhabitants. The pilot or team of aviators would then land at a local farm (hence the name "barnstorming") and negotiate with the farmer for the use of one of his fields as a temporary runway from which to stage an air show and offer airplane rides to customers. After obtaining a base of operation, the pilot or group of aviators would fly back over the town, or "buzz" the village, and drop handbills offering airplane rides for a small fee, usually from one to five dollars. The advertisements would also tout the daring feats of aerial daredevilry that would be offered. Crowds would then follow the airplane, or pack of planes, to the field and purchase tickets for joy rides. The locals, most of whom had never seen an airplane up close, were thrilled with the experience. For many rural towns, the appearance of a barnstormer or an aerial troop on the horizon was akin to declaring a national holiday; almost everything in the town would shut down at the spur of the moment so that people could purchase plane rides and watch the show." (Quoted from: www.centennialofflight.net)
When Charles Lindbergh (who had been an airmail pilot and a barnstormer) took his self-built plane The Spirit of St. Louis and flew it across the Atlantic Ocean in the first non-stop transatlantic crossing from New York to Paris in 1927, he made history. It also made people aware that flying was not only for daredevils to do crazy stunts but it could also serve as a means to bring a person from A to B. The common man took an interest in aviation and signed up for flying lessons. Airfields sprung into life and many people got their pilot license. Also among film people were aviation enthusiasts who operated their own airfields and owned their own planes (e.g. Cecil B. DeMille, Howard Hughes). With Amelia Earhart setting numerous aviation records and being the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932, female aviation became popular as well. With the popularity and rise of commercial flights and the founding and development of the Army Air Force during WWII and thereafter, aviation had become an essential part of popular culture and would be explored and innovated further.
Let's go to Hollywood now. The movie industry was fascinated with the new technology of aircrafts and decided to capitalise on the public's interest in aviation. From the beginning of the silent era aviation played a part in Hollywood cinema. Planes were daring and exciting, even had a romantic appeal, and the ever-present danger appealed to movie-going audiences. The majority of the public would see an airplane on the screen before they would see it in real life. Aviation-themed films started to become popular in the 1920s which culminated in the first Oscar for Best Picture for William Wellman's Wings (1927).
The production of aviation-themed films would not have been possible if it wasn't for the cooperation of the numerous barnstormers, mostly former war pilots, the daredevils who would take their planes and manoeuver them dangerously across the sky, spinning out of control in seemingly suicidal dives and pulling them out of the spin at the last moment. At times they would do dangerous wing walking stunts, even transferring between planes. The audiences loved it. There was a group of barnstormers, who had started at country fairs and became the elite group of Hollywood stunt pilots. These men didn't stay nameless. They were Ormer Locklear, Frank Clarke (the chief pilot for Hell's Angels), Dick Kerwood, Al Wilson, Frank Tomick, Paul Mantz and Dick Grace. They performed dangerous stunts which weren't without injuries. More than once these stunts would even be fatal. Paul Mantz was undoubtedly the most famous of the bunch of pilots and was killed during the filming of The Flight of the Phoenix as a result from a stunt. Dick Grace was also very well known, his specialty was controlled crashes. He did the stunt work for Wings where he performed four major crashes. Although Grace had been injured during his stunts (he broke his neck while doing Wings and had to be hospitalised with his neck encased in a cast), he was one of the few pilots who didn't die in an aviation-related incident. I was pleasantly surprised to learn there was also an accomplished female stunt pilot, Pancho Barnes, who performed as a barnstormer and appeared in many films from the 1920s and 1930s. Barnes' guest ranch near Edwards Air Force Base was a popular hangout for test pilots and movie stars in the 1940s and 1950s and her Happy Bottom Riding Club was a household name.
In those early days aerial scenes were shot from open cockpits with a mounted camera. In most cases the aerial cinematographer was a stunt man or fellow pilot. Not much credit have been given to them but one name keeps popping up, namely Harry Perry who did the photography for Wings. He shot spectacular aerial footage. Also Elmer G. Dyer's name came up as the first film cameraman to specialise in aerial photography.
Since cinema reflects what's going on in real life, the aviation themes varied throughout the years. With wars raging (WWI and WWII), films dealt with the topic of war, in many cases serving as war propaganda, trying to influence popular opinion on war or to recruit soldiers. Some early aviation films from the 1930s dealt with airmail companies (Air Mail, Ceiling Zero and Only Angels Have Wings). There are air force films about the training of pilots (Bombardier), air force films set in peace time, films dealing with the aftermath of war (The Best Years of Our Lives), films about test pilots (Chain Lightning), biopics of men who have been important to the history of aviation (The McConnell Story, The Eternal Sea, Above and Beyond, The Wings of Eagles). With commercial flights becoming more popular, films took place on passenger flights, mostly dealing with disaster topics like plane crashes or a plane hijack (Five Came Back, Zero Hour!).
In this post I've mainly highlighted the beginning stages of the aviation history with the stunt pilots and barnstormers, and this is also what I find most fascinating. I love watching aviation films from the 1920s/1930s, with the vintage aircrafts, the biplanes with the double wings, soaring through the sky, making spectacular nosedives. And watching those dogfights in WWI films, where enemy pilots fight one another, is truly exhilarating. I dedicated this month to watching as many aviation films as possible and I finally saw Wings, Hell's Angels and both versions of The Dawn Patrol. The aerial scenes in these films are stunning.
I've also been thinking about which aviation films I have watched up till now (excluding the ones I saw this month). They are: Only Angels Have Wings, The Best Years of Our Lives, Air Mail, Ceiling Zero, Sky Giant, Men Against the Sky, The Lost Squadron, Ace of Aces, The Marines Fly High, Devil’s Squadron, Five Came Back, The Eagle and the Hawk, The Last Flight, Non-Stop New York, Wings of the Navy, A Yank in the R.A.F., Pilot #5, Bombardier, Chain Lightning, No Highway in the Sky, Above and Beyond, The McConnell Story, The Eternal Sea, Zero Hour!, The Wings of Eagles, Parachute Jumper, Thirteen Hours by Air, Tail Spin, The Bride Came C.O.D., A Matter of Life and Death, Sky Murder and Nick Carter, Master Detective. Undoubtedly I have seen more but these are the ones that first come to mind and I intend to watch a great deal more.
Stay tuned for my upcoming March round-up post with the list of all aviation films I watched this month!
SOURCES/FURTHER READING:
U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission (a ton of information on 100 years of aviation history)
PHOTOS IN THIS POST FROM TOP TO BOTTOM:
*The Spirit of St. Louis (1957);
*The Spirit of St. Louis (1957) with James Stewart;
*Wings in the Dark (1935) with Amelia Earhart visiting Cary Grant and Myrna Loy on the set;
*Wings (1927) with Charles Rogers, Clara Bow and Richard Arlen;
*Lilac Time (1928), behind the scenes with Colleen Moore and stunt pilot Dick Grace;
*Director William Wellman during production of Wings (1927);
*Ceiling Zero (1936) with James Cagney and June Travis;
*Only Angels Have Wings (1939) with Cary Grant, Jean Arthur and Thomas Mitchell;
*The Eagle and the Hawk (1933) with Fredric March;
*The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) with Dana Andrews; (screenshot by me)
*Air Mail (1932) with Ralph Bellamy, Gloria Stuart, Pat O'Brien and Lilian Bond.
