A Blog For Thelma Todd
Thelma Todd was a star of silent movies and later the talkies. She is remembered as much today for her mysterious death as she is for her films. In this blog, we take a look at Thelma Todd, her movies, and various commentaries.
A number of movie stars died in automobile accidents in the thirties, including Dorothy Dell, Marjorie White, and Tom Mix. And it almost happened to Patsy Kelly. Patsy and Jean Malin were in a car that went into the ocean. She made it out and he didn't.
Publicity photo showing Patsy Kelly with a doctor and Thelma Todd, taken while Patsy Kelly was recovering from the accident.
Original caption on the back of the photo.
Jean Malin used to work at the Club Abbey, a queer joint in New York. After it was shut down by the authorities following a shoot-out involving Dutch Schultz, he went to work at the Club New York in Hollywood and appeared in two films, ARIZONA TO BROADWAY and the Joan Crawford vehicle DANCING LADY; in the former movie, he portrayed "Ray Best", a female impersonator who dressed in the manner of Mae West and sang "Frankie and Johnny". Malin was cast in a third movie, "Double Harness" (1933), but his performance was discarded and he was replaced by another actor; the president of R.K.O., B. B. Kahane, disgusted by Malin's performance, remarking, "I do not think we ought to have this man on the lot on any picture—shorts or features."
In ARIZONA TO BROADWAY Jean Malin uses the line "You can be had", which Thelma Todd used around the same time in the movie SITTING PRETTY, where it also was intended to be a Mae West reference.
Pat DiCicco, Jean Malin, Thelma Todd, and Lois Wilson at the Club New Yorker in Hollywood, 1932. The wife of Jean Malin was involved in prostitution, as was DiCicco
The Club New Yorker
Thelma Todd's friend Sally Eilers at right, next to Jean Malin and Harriet Parsons. This was around the time that Sally Eilers and Thelma Todd went to England together.
Some people said Patsy Kelly was bad luck. They said that she was followed around by a string of tragedies. Patsy Kelly herself said that she had a history of bad things happening to people who had been around her. "You see, something, darned if I know what it is, has happened to me since I came to this crazy town. Every I loved, turned to, needed, has gone, just like Thelma. It was Jean Malin, that swell New York actor and impersonator, first. I'd been a friend of Jean and his wife for years in New York. Then I went down to the Ship Cafe' that night of Jean's disappearence. I glanced up at the flashing sign over the door that said 'Jean Malin's last night', and as clearly as I'm hearing you, a voice said, 'Be careful, it is his last night.' He backed his car into the ocean off the end of a pier just one hour later.We were all submerged in the water. Adrenalin worked with me. It didn't with Jean." And then there was Thelma Todd: "Thelma. She gave me everything I needed. Got me on my feet. Gave me confidence and true friendship. And then she went. I had Ralph Farnum my agent left. He took my hand, fought my battles, and gave me advice. He went too, just a few weeks ago... but Thelma is always near me."
In later years, Patsy Kelly often talked as if Thelma Todd were somehow still around her.
That's Carole Lombard on the cover.
I don't believe in things like curses on people, myself. Sometimes bad things just happen to people. And if they're famous, or infamous, you hear more about it than you would otherwise.
It's unfortunate that these misfortunes befell these people, but to say they were actually caused by someone because of bad luck is just superstition.
Anita Garvin was the lady who sat on a pie in THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY.
Roach tried teaming Anita Garvin and Marion Byron in a couple of films as a sort of female Laurel and Hardy team.
Two Girls and a photographer deal with difficult lighting.
Two guys and a girl dealing with another fine mess.
FROM SOUP TO NUTS, 1928
Here we see Anita Garvin and friends in HATS OFF, a lost film.
Stan Laurel with Anita Garvin, Lorette Loredo, and Georgette Rhodes in BLOTTO.
There were foreign language versions in French and Spanish, and each of the other girls got the part in one of the foreign language version.
Lupe Velez once told Anita Garvin that she was "Leetle" and that Anita Garvin was nicely "Beeg and Fot". Which somehow isn't quite what I would have said myself.
In 1979, Anita Garvin and her husband Red Stanley attended a Sons of the Desert meeting and were photographed with fellow Roach star Rosina Lawrence.
At the age of 87, Anita Garvin, one of the great, albeit unsung,
slapstick queens of films passed away in 1994 at the Motion Picture Country
House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. In her last years Anita was very
frail. Nevertheless, I was able to obtain the following interview from her in
the course of my earlier research on Mabel Normand. Anita began her career on
the stage as a young girl, appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies. One of her
earliest recollections was of how Will Rogers allowed her, of all the Ziegfeld
girls, to hold his rope. After some years working and touring with vaudeville,
she went into films where she first got a job with Al Christie. Later, she went
to work for Hal Roach and appeared in films with, among others, Mabel Normand,
Zasu Pitts, Charley Chase and Thelma Todd. It is her work, however, with Laurel
in Hardy in some of their silent films, like From Soup to Nuts and Battle of the
Century, however, for which Anita will probably be best remembered. In the late
thirties, Anita later quit films to settle down and have a family when she
married band leader Red Stanley. The marriage lasted happily 49 years, up until
his death, and Anita always a maintained great loyalty, love and affection for
him. As all who knew her can attest, Anita was one of the most sweet, funny and
warm people you could possibly know. Although she is greatly missed, she will
not be forgotten.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WTS: You appeared with Mabel Normand in a three reeler, "Raggedy Rose," at
the Roach studios. What are your very earliest recollections of her?
AG: I think I just loved her. When I was a kid I adored her, I worshipped
her. But after I met and worked with her she was just a normal person!
WTS: That's how it always seems to turn out, doesn't it?
AG: (laughing) Yes.
WTS: How did she compare in popularity with someone like Mary Pickford?
AG: Oh she was a big star. They were close as being the same as far as
(fans') admiration and love for her. She was married to Lew Cody, and he was an
angel. He would always be standing by on the set for her. She was losing her
mind about that time - or having some kind of problems, and he was absolutely
wonderful!
WTS: He was some ladies man wasn't he?
AG: Oh yes, the women loved him!
WTS: What was it like playing with Mabel in "Raggedy Rose?"
AG: Mabel was hard to work with. She would move her way - which would confuse
you if you were working with her. She kept you jumping, you didn't know what to
expect. One thing I remember which she didn't do perfect was that she couldn't
find her spot. She would get a little wild and not stay within camera range
where she was supposed to be, if you know what I mean. But you must realize that
this happened in her later days. She was trying to make a come back at that time
(1926), but it didn't work out.
WTS. What do you remember about Charley Chase?
AG. What I recall is that he always wanted me to wear a blonde wig. But my
hair was jet black then, now it's pure white. At that time he liked blondes for
some reason or another so I wore a blonde wig. He was a real nice guy.
WTS. I noticed that you wore the blonde wig in "Raggedy Rose?"
AG. That because she (Mabel) was dark - like opposites.
WTS. Her hair was black wasn't it?
AG. Maybe it was dark brown, but I thought it was black.
WTS: About that time, (1926) did you ever hear comments, said behind her
back, to the effect that she was all washed up?
AG: Yes, but I never listened to that. I liked her, she was nice. But I only
worked with her on the one picture, so you see it's hard to remember very much.
It's so long ago.
WTS. It was "Battle of the Century" where you fall on the pie.
AG. They (televison) ruined the cutting of that one. You know they had to fit
it into a TV version. Originally as I slipped and fell on the pie I get up and
walked back the way I came. They had an insert of a damp spot just in the shape
of the pie and it wasn't funny. They just ruined it.
WTS. Laurel and Hardy loved music, didn't they? Did you get to see that side
of them?
AG. Oh yes. Babe had a beautiful singing voice.
WTS. Did you only see them on the set, or what was your relationship?
AG. I knew Stan and his wife and the baby. I say "baby" but she's an old
woman now like me. I knew them socially they were nice people.
WTS. I know you worked with Al St. John, who, along with and in the company
of Keaton, Arbuckle and Cody, was an accomplished practical jokester off the
set. Was Laurel ever like that?
AG. No. Stan was the type that concentrated on the picture at all times;
thinking of funny things to happen.
WTS. Did they (L & H) ever have disagreements among themselves?
AG. No never, absolutely never. I swore that after what they wrote about
Thelma Todd, you know "Hot Toddy," I swore after I was interviewed on the thing
I would never do this again: because they screwed the whole thing up! They were
absolutely out of their minds. There wasn't anything in that book that was worth
five minutes of her time. What they did to Thelma Todd! "Hot Toddy" they liked
the title, but I could see through whoever wrote it. (groans) Oh God!
WTS. That was Andy Edmonds.
AG. I know Andy Edmonds. But I knew Thelma very well, and she was straight
laced. She never went through all these things. And she (Edmonds) even got my
husband and I - had our business and things - she got that all wrong. It was at
the old Monmart on Hollywood Blvd. near Highland. She had us on out on the strip
someplace before there was a strip. She got everything backwards. And she
interviewed me and I gave her the straight scoop on Thelma. But I think she just
decided she knew because she probably liked the title "Hot Toddy" and thought
she was going to make it "Hot Toddy!"
WTS. In the pictures, you are rarely smiling. You seem like you are scheming
with that wry, dead-pan expression of yours.
AG. I never over-acted in other words.
WTS. There alway seems to be something going on behind your eyes like you
knew what you wanted, and were going to have it. Where did that character come
from?
AG. It was me, just me. A lot of these things I could be doing something and
I said this is isn't funny so I put a little something into it; trying to make
it funny. You know, I did mostly comedy or wicked women. [(laughing) Yea, I know
what you mean.] There is a charicature here in my room that Nancy Bourbon [Nancy
Beiman] did and she caught that in the sketch that she made. I thought "how did
she get the expression there?" But she did!
WTS. You really were an incredible doll and a lot more attractive and
talented than movie history on the surface has seemed to have given you credit.
AG. Well, I think that was because of my kids. I quit the business just when
I had a seven year contract on the Fox lot of Winnie Sheehan's desk waiting to
be signed and I wouldn't.
WTS. You'd married (band leader) Red Stanley then? (1930)
AG. Yes, fifty beautiful years of the most wonderful guy in the world!
WTS. What was his music like?
AG. Oh, his music was nothing compared to his dancing. He introduced the
"Charleston" in Paris. He was wonderful. A marvellous dancer!
WTS. I can see why he was dancing.
AG. He was darling .
WTS. And you're a great-grandmother?
AG. Yea.
WTS. Seems like things turned out all right for you.
AG. I don't know about that. I can't walk. I can't write.
WTS. O.K., but how old are you?
AG. Eighty-six!
WTS. Well that's pretty old, for pete's sake.
AG. You're darn tootin!
* * *
After first reading this interview some years ago, I checked HOT TODDY by Andy Edmonds and failed to find the mistakes about the restaurant that Anita Garvin was talking about.
Evidentally Anita Garvin was offended by Andy Edmonds' account of Thelma as
having a drinking problem, a drug problem, and being involved with the
infamous gangster Lucky Luciano. There are two sides on the drinking/ drugs/
morals issue. Hollywood gossip portrayed Thelma in a bad light, but
friends defended her. Hollywood gossip also linked Thelma with Lucky
Luciano, but according to the records it seems Luciano wasn't in the area at the time.
And here's some leg art with Anita Garvin in a blonde wig.
Klondike is a 1932 American film directed by Phil Rosen.
The film is also known as The Doctor's Sacrifice in the United Kingdom.
Plot summary
A doctor, Lyle Talbot as Dr. Robert Cromwell, is charged with murder, when a patient dies, after an experimental operation to remove a brain tumor.
His pilot friend, Frank Hawks as Donald Evans, convinces him to start a new life; and, they plot their course, across the Bering Strait. The weather blows them off course; and, they end up in Alaska.
"Doc" acquiesces, at Klondike's insistence. Although, having none of the facilities of a hospital. He believes that the operation is less likely to succeed, the longer it is delayed.
The operation seems to be a partial success. But, now, Jim will do anything to keep "Doc" from taking Klondike back to the States with him, even using his genius, with electricity, to electrocute him.[1]
For years KLONDIKE was considered a lot film. Eventually a copy was found and it was then released on home video.
I've seen online reviews that sounded as if they thought Thelma Todd played a vamp in this one. I would have said that here she played a good girl, those reviewers may have been thinking of her in other roles.
This is a dramatic film, made the next year after CORSAIR. But Thelma Todd found her greatest success in comedies and would continue to be associated with them in spite of her dramatic roles.
KLONDIKE was made by Monogram, which would later merge with some other poverty row studios to form Republic. Republic would be based in the old Mack Sennett studios and would even name one of it's stages after Mabel Normand. But Monogram would return as an independent studio after the merger.
Frank Hawks and Lyle Talbot crash-land in Alaska early in the film. Frank Hawks was in real life a famous flyer and would have been familiar to audiences of the day.
Thelma Todd as "Klondike". Here we see her with Henry B. Wathell. In the story, he has a son who needs an operation.
Thelma Todd and Lyle Talbot in KLONDIKE.
Not long after KLONDIKE was released, Disney came out with a Mickey Mouse cartoon called THE KLONDIKE KID. I'm inclined to think that any resemblance may have been coincidental, but Joseph Schenck ( mentioned on poster ) is part of our story and Mickey Mouse is as well.
Mae West came out with KLONDIKE ANNIE in 1936, and again it's likely that any resemblance might have been coincidental. But Mae West is also part of our story here.
Joi Lansing on the 1960 television series KLONDIKE. We've mentioned her here before as Hal Roach compared her to Thelma Todd and Jean Harlow a little earlier in her career.
A little about Lyle Talbot, who costarred with Thelma Todd in KLONDIKE.
Born Lisle Henderson in Pittsburgh, Talbot was raised in Brainard, Nebraska. He began his career as a magician's assistant and became a leading actor in traveling tent shows in the Midwest and briefly established his own theater company in Memphis. He went to Hollywood in 1931 when the film industry began producing movies with sound and needed "actors who could talk".
Three of his four children became journalists: Stephen Talbot (who also played Gilbert Bates on Leave It to Beaver) was for many years a documentary producer for the PBS series Frontline and "Frontline World" and is now the executive producer of "Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders." David is an author ("Brothers" about John and Robert Kennedy) and the founder and editor of Salon.com, and Margaret is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His other daughter, Cynthia Talbot, is a family physician and residency director in Portland, Oregon. After several brief marriages and countless romantic entanglements, Talbot in 1948 married a young singer and actress, Margaret Epple, who often used the stage name, Paula. They had four children together and remained married for over 40 years until her death in 1989.
Death
Talbot died in 1996 at his home in San Francisco, California, aged 94 from pneumonia, his remains were cremated and given to his family.
Family
Talbot's granddaughter, Caitlin Talbot, is an actress based in Los Angeles.
Lyle Talbot and Peggy Walters at the first Screen Actor's Guild Ball in 1934.
Thelma Todd and Pat Dicicco at the first Screen Actors Guild ball, reblogged from The Nutty Nut News Network.
"Thelma Todd, well known film star, and her husband Peter ( sic ) De Cicco, are shown above at the Actor's Guild Ball in Los Angeles, Calif. recently. It was the guild's first annual affair and was attended by hundreds of the foremost figures of the film colony, all of whom voted it a big success."
Lyle Talbot gets married, with original caption.
In the 1950 serial ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN Lyle Talbot played Lex Luthor, alias the Atom Man.
As The Atom Man, Luthor uses teleportation to commit crimes and even to send people's atoms into space, which he terms "the empty doom".
The Atom Man even succeeds in sending Superman's atoms into space. I believe that this was the inspiration for the "Phantom Zone" which was later used in Superman comics, a siimilar ghostly state into which people were depicted as being sent.
Luthor finally attempts to escape by teleporting himself and Lois Lane to a spaceship in outer space, some years before "Star Trek". Superman still catches up to him and rescues Lois Lane, played by Noel Neill. Noel Neill would later reprise the role on television.
Frank Hawks, who played the pilot in KLONDIKE, was in real life a famous flyer and would have been familiar to audiences of the day.
Frank Monroe Hawks (March 28, 1897 - August 23, 1938) served in the U.S. Army in World War I and was known during the 1920s and 1930s as a record breaking aviator, using a series of Texaco-sponsored aircraft, setting 214 point-to-point records in the United States and Europe. Prolific in the media and continually in the "public eye", in the 1937 The Mysterious Pilot movie serial, Hawks was billed as the "fastest airman in the world."[1] A popular saying from the time, was "Don't send it by mail... send it by Hawks." [2] After retiring from a career as an air racer, he died in 1938, flying an experimental aircraft.
Early years
Born in Marshalltown, Iowa on March 28, 1897, Hawks attended grammar school before his parents who were actors, joined a stock company and toured Minnesota. Hawks took on juvenile parts during his parent's engagements but when the family settled in California, Hawks resumed his formal schooling and graduated in 1916 from a high school in Long Beach. An early exposure to the thrill of flying came when Hawks convinced local Long Beach air field owners, the Christofferson brothers to give him a free flight in exchange for a newspaper article. He had convinced the owners that a high school student's impressions would result in increased interest in flying and more business for the air field. It worked and Hawks was able to parlay a series of pleasure flights. After enrolling at the University of California where he played halfback on the freshman football team, Hawks enlisted in 1917 when war was declared.[3]
World War I
Hawks joined the U.S. Army with the aspiration to become a pilot in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. After he received his pilot's wings and a second lieutenant's commission, Hawks became a flying instructor at Dallas Love Field, Texas, receiving a promotion to lieutenant and a short time later was made the assistant officer in charge of flying at U.S. Army Air Service’s Brooks Field at San Antonio, Texas.[4] One incident that nearly proved fatal occurred when Hawks and Lieutenant Wendell Brookley collided in midair over the San Antonio football stadium. Both pilots were carrying out an exuberant aerial exhibition to support the United War Work campaign when the aircraft tangled but they managed to land their damaged aircraft, only to receive a reprimand for dangerous flying. Both flyers served a week in confinement.[5]
Leaving the service in 1919, Hawks was promoted to a Captain in the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) Reserve. During the immediate postwar years, he did a stint of aerial barnstorming in the United States and Mexico. Besides his barnstorming feats, Hawks became known for his appearances at aerial exhibitions and on December 28, 1920 he took a 23-year-old Amelia Earhart on her first flight at a state fair in Los Angeles, California. Earhart's father arranged for the flight and paid the fee of $10 for a 10-minute "hop".
Achieving fame as a pilot
Hawks began to be in public eye when he joined the Gates Flying Circus and was involved in a demonstration of the first in-flight refueling in 1921.[6] Earl Daugherty in his JN4D Jenny had been touted as being able to stay in the air for 24 hours. Hawks flew his Standard J-1 World War I trainer carrying wing-walker Wesley May aloft to join up with Daugherty, circling over Long Beach, California. May, carrying a five-gallon can of gasoline, stepped over to Earl’s ship and poured the gas in the Jenny’s tank.[7]
On May 7, 1922, after landing his biplane at the Xalapa Stadium, Frank Hawks greeted the assemblage.
By 1927, Hawks continued to eke out a living as a pilot but with money from his wife, Hawks purchased a Mahoney Ryan B-1 Brougham (NC3009) he named the "Spirit of San Diego." [7] In the aftermath of Charles Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, he flew to Washington with his wife on board, to greet the triumphant Lindbergh, and in the ensuing glare of publicity, Hawks was hired by the Ryan Aircraft company to be its official representative. In the Ford National Reliability Air Tour, Hawks placed sixth and earned $1,000.00 in prize money. With the public idolizing Lindbergh, Hawks toured the country, selling rides in the aircraft "like Lindy flew."[9]
Record breaking flights
The notoriety that Hawks gained by his self-promotion led to a contract with Maxwell House Coffee and with their sponsorship, he entered the 1927 National Air Races in Spokane, Washington where the now renamed "Miss Maxwell House" came in first for speed in the Detroit news Air Transport Speed and Efficiency Trophy Race. Also on December 5, 1927, the Texas Company (Texaco) hired Hawks to head up its own Aviation Division as a Superintendent to market aviation products. The "Texaco One", a custom built Ford Trimotor * (NC3443) was delivered in January 1928 and Hawks was dispatched to advertise the company across the United States and abroad beginning with flying a Texas delegation from Houston to Mexico City and back. It was the first goodwill trade extension air tour from the U.S. to Mexico and received wide coverage in American and Mexican newspapers.[10]
Later in the same year, Hawks embarked on a nationwide goodwill tour, visiting more than 150 cities and covering approximately 51,000 miles (82,000 km). It was estimated that 500,000 people saw the "Texaco One". He described the tour in his autobiography Speed: "In the course [of the tour]. I visited 175 cities, carried 7,200 passengers, and did 56,000 miles of cross-country flying. All of this without a mishap to plane and passengers."[9]
"Texaco Five"
In December 1928, the Trimotor was destroyed in a crash at Floresville, Florida. In early 1929, Hawks was approached by Lockheed to ferry their new Air Express (NR7955) to New York in time for an air show. On February 4, 1929, flying with Oscar Grubb, superintendent of final assembly at the Lockheed factory, who had volunteered to serve as flight engineer to pump fuel from auxiliary fuselage tanks, Hawks set a transcontinental speed record.[11] He flew from the Lockheed factory in Burbank, California to New York in 18 hours and 21 minutes.[12] Hawks shortly after convinced Texaco to purchase the record-breaking Lockheed Air Express, named "Texaco Five" as a replacement for "Texaco One". Four months later, Hawks shattered the record again by 43 minutes in "Texaco Five".[12] The aircraft accumulated some 90,000 miles (140,000 km) before being lost in a January 1930 accident when Hawks attempted a takeoff from a soggy field in West Palm Beach, Florida, destroying the "Texaco Five" in a spectacular crash that catapulted it into a row of three parked aircraft. Hawks walked away from the carnage with no injuries.[13]
* The trimotor configuration was popular between the wars and used on many airliners. The later decline of this type was said to be related to millitary requirements. - Benny Drinnon
In 1930, Hawks convinced Texaco to back a proving flight that would demonstrate the effectiveness of gliders. As a reserve officer in the USAAC, Hawks foresaw the military usefulness of gliders, and despite a lack of government support and critical reaction from seasoned glider pilots, Hawks mapped out a transcontinental flight. The appropriately named Texaco Eaglet was a custom-made 50-foot (15 m) wingspan glider built by R.E. and Wallace Franklin. Designed to achieve a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour, it was fitted with a two-way radio and telephone connection with the tow plane, the "Texaco 7", a Waco ASO biplane, flown by J.D. "Duke" Jernigan Jr., a member of Texaco’s domestic sales division.
The flight left San Diego on March 30, 1930 with Hawks being attached by a 500 ft (150 m) towline, taking eight days elapsed time and 44 hours, 10 minutes of actual flying time. Hawks also spent 10 hours in soaring exhibitions at scores of towns and cities along the route. Surmounting all the predicted obstacles, even the Rocky Mountains which German glider pilots had feared would jeopardize the flight, only occasional turbulence was encountered. Hawks arrived in New York on April 6, 1930, effectively proving the feasibility of long-distance glider-towing.[14]
Frank Hawks studio photograph, 1932, bequest of Edward Steichen by direction of Joanna T. Steichen and George Eastman
"Texaco 13"
In 1930, Hawks proposed that Texaco replace the lost "Texaco Five" with a revolutionary new racing aircraft, the Travel Air Type R Mystery Ship that had been debuted at the 1929 National Air Races where its turn-of-speed saw it best the latest U.S. Army and U.S. Navy fighters.[15] While overseeing the construction of "Texaco 13" (NR1313), Hawks was involved in an accident on a test flight when the engine failed. Hawks tried to coax "Texaco 13" back but impacted telephone lines at the edge of the factory field; the aircraft crashed nose-first and flipped onto its back. Repairs were carried out by the summer of 1930, when Hawks embarked on a series of exhibition flights and record-breaking flights across the United States including a new transcontinental west-to-east record on August 13, 1930 of 12 hours, 25 minutes, three seconds, the fastest crossing made up to that time.[16] His Travel Air Type R was the fourth of a series of five racers and was configured for long-distance racing with longer wings and a full set of instrumentation, features that differentiated the aircraft from the rest of the series. Hawks raced "Texaco 13" as "race No. 28" in the 1930 Thompson Trophy Race at the National Air Races on September 1, 1930, using a set of "racing wings", a pair of shorter wingspan wings fitted out at the factory.[17] Hawks pulled out of the race on the third lap when the engine began to falter at full throttle. It was revealed later that a piece of masking tape placed over the gas cap (for streamlining) caused a loss of pressure.
Hawks used the media attention that was garnered by his record flights to promote aviation, especially demonstrating that fast courier air service was feasible. On October 7, 1930, with the completion of the final World Series game at Philadelphia, Hawks flew to North Beach, Queens, delivering the game photographs exactly 20 minutes later, faster than wire service at the time. Each of his highly-publicized flights served to illustrate the speed and safety of modern air travel. His autobiography Speed was also published in 1930 documenting his life and aviation career. The book was well written and became a highly popular title (still sought-after to this day). During his 20,000-mile (32,000 km) goodwill tour of Europe in 1931, Hawks established 55 intercity records in 12 countries and after returning from Europe in late 1931, continuing to set over 130 U.S. point-to-point records in the "Texaco 13" until April 16, 1932, when the aircraft was heavily damaged in a crash.[18]
Crash
Time magazine on April 18, 1932 wrote:
Stocky, grinning Capt. Frank Monroe Hawks, famed publicity flyer, holder of nearly all informal city-to-city speed records in the U. S. and Europe, was not grinning one day last week when attendants at the Worcester, Massachusetts, airport pulled him from beneath his crashed Travel Air "Mystery Plane" Texaco 13. Day before he had hopped from Detroit (in 3 hr. 5 min.). lectured the Worcester Boy Scouts on the necessity of developing foolproof planes, but had delayed his departure until the next morning because of a soggy field. An escort plane had nosed up when it landed just ahead of Capt. Hawks. After attempting to take off from a short dirt road which cut diagonally across the airport, he headed his low-wing monoplane down the field, less than 700 ft. in length. Oozy ground sucked at the wheels, kept him from attaining the 70 m.p.h. required to zoom off. Toward the end of the runway, going about 50 m.p.h., the ship bounced off a low mound, cut through heavy undergrowth, somersaulted over a stone wall. Hawks cut the motor in time, and saved himself from cremation. Capt. Hawks's nose and jaw were fractured, his face badly battered, several of his big, white teeth knocked out. He lay unconscious in the hospital for hours. Said Harvard Medical School's famed plastic surgeon, Dr. Varaztad Hovhannes Kazanjian: "I do not think his speech will be affected. The operation for restoring his face should leave scarcely a scar." Capt. Hawks's good friend Will Rogers wired: "Sure glad nothing broke but your jaw. That will keep you still for a while. If I broke my jaw, I could still wire gags. What's the matter with you anyhow; are you getting... brittle?"
In June 1932, Hawks left the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve, exchanging his commission for that of a U.S. Navy Reserve Lieutenant Commander. Texaco purchased the first Northrop Gamma 2A as the replacement for the "Texaco 13". The new aircraft was the first of the Gamma series and was specially designed for Hawks, fitted with then-new Sperry automatic pilot. This sleek, all metal high-speed mail and cargo aircraft was powered by a 785 hp (585 kW), 14-cylinder Wright Whirlwind twin-row, air-cooled radial engine and was first called "Texaco 11".[20] The name was later changed to "Sky Chief" when Hawks had been honored by the Sioux Indian nation as a chief. "Texaco Sky Chief" became linked to all Northrop Gammas and was adopted as the name for Texaco's premium gasoline.
Hawks continued to set records in his new aircraft, and on June 2, 1933, he set the west-to-east transcontinental airspeed record in "Texaco Sky Chief", flying from Los Angeles to Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York in 13 hours, 26 minutes, and 15 seconds at an average speed of 181 mph (291 km/h).[21][22] After setting a bevy of new intercity marks, Hawks resigned from Texaco in 1935, but remained active as an aviation consultant and a test and demonstration pilot. Northrop hired him to fly the Gamma 2E attack bomber, a conversion of the original Gamma 2A. He demonstrated the aircraft to the Argentine Navy and effectively demonstrating the long-distance capabilities of the new type by flying 8,090 miles (13,020 km) from Buenos Aires to Los Angeles in three days. Taking off on May 3, 1935, with Gage H. Irving, Northrop’s chief test pilot in the gunner’s seat, Hawks broke 10 intercity speed records on the way to Los Angeles, with the resultant publicity ultimately responsible for orders of 51 Gamma 2E attack aircraft.
Designing his own aircraft
In 1936, Hawks approached Howell W. "Pete" Miller, chief engineer for the Granville Brothers and their famous Gee Bee racers, to create a racing aircraft to his own design. Hawks obtained sponsorship from the Gruen Watch Company and named the aircraft "Time Flies". The Hawks Miller HM-1 design featured streamlined lines including the unusual feature of "burying" the cockpit with a curved windshield contoured to fit the fuselage top extended in takeoff and landing but retracted in flight, with the pilot's seat lowered and the windshield flush with the fuselage. After its first flight on October 18, 1936, Hawks flew "Time Flies" on April 13, 1937, from Hartford, Connecticut to Miami, Florida, 4 hours and 55 minutes later.[23] He then flew to Newark Airport, New Jersey, in 4 hours and 21 minutes but bounced on landing at Newark, and on the third bounce, a wooden spar had broken in the right wng, and others were also damaged. Short of funds, Hawks decided not to rebuild the aircraft which was returned to Miller who rebuilt the aircraft as a two-seater, the Miller HM-1.[23]
Franks Hawks featured in The Mysterious Pilot serial (1937)
Popular culture
Throughout his aviation career, Hawks was continually in the news, and was often linked with other famous aviators, including Jimmy Doolittle, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh and Eddie Rickenbacker, all of whom were personal friends. More than any other contemporary aviation figure, with the possible exception of Alexander P. de Seversky, Hawks exploited his image as an "ace" pilot with countless promotional ventures. Besides numerous advertisements that spotlighted the Hawks image (commonly billed above the title as "Captain Frank Hawks" but sometimes oddly called "Meteor Man"), he was a prominent spokesman for Post Cereals, featured in newspaper comic strips and children's adventure books. Through his "Air Hawks" and "Sky Patrol" fan clubs, Hawks was a favorite with young children.
Hawks was also active in many causes; he flew noted humorist Will Rogers in a fund-raising campaign for the Red Cross to assist Oklahoma drought victims in 1931.[24] During his odyssey with Rogers, they became friends and when the humorist realized that Hawks had natural acting ability, enlisted the pilot into his folksy act.[25] Hawks gradually became more active in entertainment ventures with his long-running radio serial ("Hawk's Trail"), a starring role in Klondike (1932), and becoming the leading actor in a film serial, The Mysterious Pilot (1937). A prolific writer, he wrote a second book, Once to Every Pilot in 1936, along with numerous articles for publication, always promoting aviation.
Death
Hawks announced his retirement from air racing in 1937 and joined the Gwinn Aircar Company, taking on the title of vice president in charge of sales. He toured the US, giving flying demonstrations in the new "safety" aircraft, the Gwinn Aircar. By 1938, Hawks was listed as Gwinn Aircar Company Vice-President and Production Manager.
Hawks, who told friends years before, "I expect to die in an airplane," died in 1938 flying a Gwinn Aircar which crashed in East Aurora, New York.[26]Time magazine reported on September 5, 1938:
Last week, Frank Hawks shuttled to East Aurora, N. Y. to show off his polliwog to a prospect, Sportsman J. Hazard Campbell. He landed neatly on the polo field in a nearby estate at about 5 p.m., climbed out, chatted awhile with Prospect Campbell and a cluster of friends. Presently he and Campbell took off smartly, cleared a fence, went atilt between two tall trees, and passed from sight. Then there was a rending crash, a smear of flame, silence. Half a mile the fearful group raced from the polo field. From the crackling wreck they pulled Frank Hawks; from beneath a burning wing, Prospect Campbell — both fatally hurt. The ship that could not stub its toe aground had tripped on overhead telephone wires.
An article and plans for modeling the Gwinn Aircar in which Hawks died was published in the Nov 1938 issue of Flying Aces magazine as a tribute to Hawks.
Legacy
The Frank M. Hawks Memorial Award bestowed from the American Legion Air Service Post 501 of New York City recognized significant achievement in aviation. Juan Trippe and William (Bill) Powell Lear have been past recipients.
Allen, Richard Sanders. Revolution in the Sky: Those Fabulous Lockheeds, The Pilots Who Flew Them. Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1964.
Cowin, Hugh W. The Risk Takers, A Unique Pictorial Record 1908-1972: Racing & Record-setting Aircraft (Aviation Pioneer 2). London: Osprey Aviation, 1999. ISBN 1-85532-904-2.
Daniels, C.M. "Speed: The Story of Frank Hawks." Air Classics, Vol. 6, No. 2, December 1969.
Dwiggins, Don. The Air Devils: The Story of Ballonists, Barnstormers, and Stunt Pilots. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott COmpany, 1966.
"Flights and Flyers."Time. August 18, 1930.
Forden, Lesley. The Ford Air Tours: 1925-1931. Alameda, California: Nottingham Press, 1973. ISBN 978-0-9725249-1-9.
"Frank Hawks dies as plane falls." New York Times, August 24, 1938.
"Frank Hawks, Takes the Continent in His Stride." New York Times, July 19, 1931.
Fraser, Chelsea Curtis. Famous American Flyers (Flight, Its First Seventy-five Years). Manchester, NH: Ayer Company Publishers Inc., 1979. ISBN 978-0-405-12165-4.
Harmon, Jim and Donald F. Glut. "Real Life Heroes: Just Strangle the Lion in Your Usual Way". The Great Movie Serials: Their Sound and Fury. New York: Routledge Publishing, 1973. ISBN 978-0-7130-0097-9.
"Hawks and Grubb." Time, February 18, 1929.
"Hawks End." Time, September 5, 1938.
Hawks, Captain Frank. Once to Every Pilot. New York: Stackpole Sons, 1936.
Hawks, Frank. Speed. New York: Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1931.
Hull, Robert. September Champions: The Story of America's Air Racing Pioneers. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1979. ISBN 0-8117-1519-1.
"International Races." Time, September 11, 1933.
Kinert, Reed. American Racing Planes and Historic Air Races. New York: Wilcox and Follett Company, 1952.
Kinert, Reed. Racing Planes and Air Races: A Complete History, Vol. 1 1909-1923. Fallbrook, California: Aero Publishers, Inc., 1969.
Lewis, Peter. "Hawks HM-1 'Time Flies'." Air Pictorial, Volume 3, No. 11, November 1973.
Matthews, Birch. Race With The Wind: How Air Racing Advanced Aviation. St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks, 2001. ISBN 978-0-7603-0729-8.
Musciano, Walter A. "Frank Hawks: The Story of the Legendary Speed Flying King." Aviation History, November 2005.
Newark Advocate; Newark, Ohio, August 15, 1930; Valley Stream, New York; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press) Behind the name of Captain Frank M. Hawks, in aviation's record book today is set down the time of 12 hours, 25 minutes, 3 seconds for an eastward transcontinental flight, the fastest ever flown by man over the distance of 2,500 miles (4,000 km). It is farther by more than two hours the time made Easter Sunday by Colonel and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh. Their record was 14 hours and 45 minutes.
O'Hare, Bob. "Gamma." Air Classics, Volume 7, No. 2, December 1970.
"Over Goes Hawks." Time, April 18, 1932.
Pahl, Gerard. "Mystery Ship." Air Classics, Volume 41, No. 9, September 2005.
Phillips, Edward H. Travel Air: Wings Over the Prairie. Egan, Minnesota: Flying Books International, 1994. ISBN 0-911139-17-6.
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