In her lifetime, Pancho Barnes was affilated with a number of actors and actresses. She was good friends with director and actor Erich von Stroheim, flew with gleaming bright star Ramon Novarro, and once rescued Duncan Reynaldo ('The Cisco Kid') from the clutches of the U.S. Immigration Service. One actor she had a lifelong friendship with was William Boyd, better known to most as Hopalong Cassidy. Before he was Hopalong, however, Boyd tried hard to be a real leading man. One of his major roles was in "The Flying Fool", a cute cherry tomato of a picture. Boyd plays a brother who tries to protect his sibling from falling in love with a girl who he believes may be trying to take advantage of him. Of course, he ends up falling in love with her himself! The movie featured quite a bit of flying, and Pancho got a job working on it as a technical director.

The flying stunt crew on the movie included Frank Clarke, one of Pancho's good friends and quite simply one of the best stunt fliers of his generation. (In the photo at right, Clarke is the second from right, and Boyd appears to his right wearing the black sweater.) Pancho was apparently thrilled with the picture and her role in making it. When a banquet was held for the participants in the 1929 Powder Puff Derby all-women's air race in San Bernardino, "The Flying Fool" was shown as part of the evening's entertainment.

When you're creating a project like this one, that chronicles the life of a dynamic woman, it's hard to miss the fact that March is Women's History Month. One thing we've learned in the course of making this film, is that Pancho inspired a whole generation of women to go forth and achieve, both in the air and on the ground. Whether it was Babe Story, who became a Women's Air Service Pilot, or Shirley Hufstedler who became our nation's first Secretary of Education, or authors Gene Nora Jessen or Lauren Kessler, we've sure met some truly dynamic and wonderful women while making this project. Next week we'll be up in the Antelope Valley for two days, shooting additional interviews for the film. More on this later on! One little tease, however, is that among our interviewees is a former mayor of the City of Lancaster...and actually...as it happens on this film...she turns out to be the very first female mayor of that fair city.

If you're interested in the story of women in aviation, then you need to visit the International Women's Air & Space Museum website. IWASM link. This Museum, located in Cleveland Ohio, is a terrific resource. Although I've never visited, I understand they have wonderful exhibits and a strong and growing collection of memorabilia. The 99's Museum in Oklahoma City also has a website, 99's link. We're hoping to visit the Museum sometime later this year to look through their collections, meet their staff, and do some filming.

While we're on the subject of Women's History Month, people often ask me, "Is there a book that recounts the history of women in flight?" The answer is, yes! A good book to seek out, either on eBay or through a site like Bookfinder, is "Women Aloft" by Valerie Moolman. This book was published in 1981 as part of a Time-Life series of books entitled "The Epic of Flight". Fortunately you don't have to buy all twenty-odd volumes of the series nowadays as you did when these books first came out!

"Women Aloft" presents a great overview of the history of the aviatrixes, beginning in 1784 when Elisabeth Thible of Lyons, France first soared into the air in a hot air balloon. It's filled with a lot of incredible photos, memorabilia, and riveting commentary. Sadly, the book ends in WWII, so it does not discuss the achievements of folks like Jackie Cochrane, Sally Ride, Jeanna Yeager, Eileen Collins and the list goes on. Perhaps one of the younger readers of this journal will take it as challenge and write a sequel?

Friday the 3rd of March finds us up at Edwards Air Force Base. We're not shooting today, but doing a "location scout" and meeting with Dr. Raymond Puffer. Puffer and Dr. Jim Young, both from the History Office at EAFB, are experts on Pancho and the "Happy Bottom Riding Club". More on this later, after we interview Ray in a couple weeks' time! Dr. Puffer was kind enough to take us on a short tour of the Flight Test Historical Foundation's beautiful museum, located in the middle of the South Base.

Here's a link. The Museum celebrates all things related to Edwards, from the early days when it was called Muroc (after the Corum family who lived in the vicinity), to the era when the first jets were tested on the lakebed, to the X-1 era and the rocket planes, to the Space Shuttle era and beyond. It's a fascinating place to visit.

One of the highlights of the Museum is a gorgeous mural painted by famed aviation artist Mike Machat. . That's Ray Puffer posing in front of it in the photo, by the way! The mural depicts all of the X-planes and experimental platforms which flew at Edwards over the decades and, as Dr. Puffer showed us, it contains a few surprises.

One of these hidden gems is located on the right side of the painting, where you can make out Pancho's ranch and runway. Just above it streak two jet aircraft... The story goes that one day a couple pilots buzzed Pancho's early in the morning. When they returned to the base the commander, Colonel Boyd, called them into his office and dressed them down, asking "What were you doing buzzing Pancho's?!" One of the two pilots sheepishly came up with a lame excuse and then asked, "How did you know we did that?" A brief and embarrassed pause followed, and it became apparent that Col. Boyd knew they'd buzzed Pancho's because he'd been there that morning, either shacked up with a gal or sleeping off the night's liquor. Needless to say, neither pilot was disciplined!

On the wall of the Museum is a very large photo of Edwards taken from high altitude. Ray took a moment to give us a history lesson in front of it. We all know that the chief reason Pancho had to close her Happy Bottom Riding Club was that the government wanted to expand Edwards, and sought the land it sat on. The Air Force had plans on the books to make the main runway at the base a whopping seven miles long! If you look at the photo, you can see how this would have worked and why it would have affected Pancho's place. You can clearly see the main runway at the base. If you draw a straight line from there, you'll see a second runway. This is an emergency runway used by pilots whose engines stall or cut off or have another problem during take-off. Directly beyond that, where the red arrow is, is Pancho's place. As you can see, it's a straight line.

Now, why would the Air Force have wanted to expand the Edwards runway to seven miles? As Puffer explained, plans were on the books in the 50's to build nuclear-powered airplanes. These giant bombers would have the ability to stay in flight for months at a time, and would have provided the kind of nuclear deterrent that the Polaris submarines offered — one that would not be vulnerable to a first-strike nuclear attack. The Air Force did a whole test program related to this, using a modified B-36 equipped with an air-cooled nuclear reactor (which incidentally did not power the airplane) and a lead shielded crew compartment.

The concept called for a very, very long runway for the planned bombers, such as those depicted in the Lockheed concept art shown here. They would have been incredibly heavy owing to the lead shielding. Thus the planned seven mile runway. Of course, the idea proved to be impractical for a number of other reasons, not the least of which was the fear that if a nuclear-powered plane crashed there could be some serious "fallout". Nevertheless, even though the proposal was abandoned and the runway was never expanded that much, the Air Force did buy up the land near Edwards including Pancho's. Probably they would have done that sooner or later, anyway, owing to security concerns. The fact that it happened the way that it did, for the sake of this fantastical nuclear-powered wonder plane, must have seemed like something out of a B-movie to Pancho and her neighbors...that is...if they even knew about it. Most likely, the exact reason for the expansion was kept secret, which must have made it all that much tougher on all the parties involved.

Well folks, April 15th is right around the corner. Tax time can be a pain, but it can also present an opportunity to make a difference. Please consider donating to the Pancho Barnes documentary. Your gift, made through the KOCE-TV Foundation, is tax deductible, and it will help make the Pancho film a reality. We appreciate your support.

In 2002 Gene Nora's love of flying and history led her to write a book about and entitled "The Powder Puff Derby of 1929". During our interview, Gene Nora recounted that the project was actually over ten years in the making. Her unique position as an advocate and activist in the world of women's flight gave her entree to speak to all sorts of people who knew about the Derby, and to collect the kind of details about the event that truly make it come alive. Jessen was privileged to work with and interview aviatrix Bobbi Trout, the last survivor of the group of twenty women who competed in the race, before her death in 2003. The book is available in many bookstores and through Amazon.com.

During the interview, Jessen spoke at length about the strides women made in aviation in the 20's and 30's, and provided some fascinating insights. She also talked about Pancho's unique contributions to the event. The first stage of the race ran from Clover Field in Santa Monica to San Bernardino, a short hop that was really just a warm up for more dangerous, over-the-desert flying. Everyone landed by the late afternoon, and that night a special dinner was put on for the participants. As a special bonus, the movie "The Flying Fool", which featured stunts flown by Pancho, was shown at the dinner. It must have been an extremely exciting banquet, and Pancho must have been terribly proud to be featured...in a feature...in front of all her new aviatrix friends!

Incidentally, let me take a moment and thank a few people who made our interview with Gene Nora Jessen possible. That includes Si Robin of Sensor Systems, who allowed us to use his beautiful Staggerwing as a backdrop. We also owe a debt to Paula Sandling and Michael Sandling, who patiently helped us get situated, and Bob Jessen.