Walking on Air (33 page)

22
. Fulbright,
Aviation in Tennessee
, 38.

23
. Ibid.

24
. “Air-Rail Line Spans America in 48 Hours,”
Modern Mechanics
, November 1929, 167.

25
. T.A.T. lost $2.75 million during its eighteen months of operation; it was rescued by a merger with Western Air Express to become TWA. Christy,
American Aviation
, 119. For details on this merger, see Gore Vidal, “Love of Flying,”
New York Review of Books
, 17 January 1985.

26
. Article and ad in
Commercial Appeal
, 19 October 1930; annotated outline,
The Omlie Story
.

27
. A 1931 press release, folder 45, Henderson collection;
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 30 August 1931.

28
. A 1931 press release, Henderson collection.

29
. Quoted by H. Glenn Buffington, “Phoebe Fairgrove [
sic
] Omlie: USA's First Woman Transport Pilot,”
Journal of the American Aviation Historical Society
(Fall 1968): 187.

30
.
Moline Dispatch
, 31 August 1931.

31
.
New York Times
, 23 August 1931.

32
. Phoebe's log book from 28 November 1930 through 16 July 1932, in Omlie Collection.

33
.
New York Times
, 23 August 1931.

34
. Phoebe quoted by Edwin M. Williams, “How Phoebe Omlie Won the 1931 Air Derby,”
Southern Aviation
, April 1932, 15–16, 31.

35
.
Dallas Morning News
, 25 August 1931.

36
. Phoebe's race journal quoted by Scharlau in
Phoebe
, 79–80; Williams,
Southern Aviation
, 16.

37
.
Dallas Morning News
, 26 August 1931.

38
. Ibid.

39
. Ibid., 27 August 1931.

40
. Ibid., 28 August 1931.

41
. Phoebe's race journal, Omlie Collection;
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 31 August 1931.

42
. R. H., “Just Between You and Me,” 1 September 1931, clippings in Annetta Sands scrapbook, National Air Races collection, Western Reserve Historical Society.

43
. Ibid.

44
.
Dallas Morning News
, 28 August 1931.

45
. Ibid., 29 August 1931.

46
. Quoted in Williams,
Southern Aviation
, 31.

47
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 31 August 1931.

48
. Ibid., 30 August 1931 and 31 August 1931.

49
. Ibid., 31 August 1931.

50
. Ibid.

51
. Ibid.

52
. Ibid., 30 August 1931.

53
.
New York Times
, 1 September 1931.

54
. The framed fabric is now on display at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Bill Meixner, “1931 National Air Races,” posted at
http://www.airrace.com/1931Nat.htm
.

55
.
Dallas Morning News
, 1 September 1931.

56
.
New York Times
, 1 September 1931;
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 1 September 1931.

57
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 1 September 1931.

58
.
New York Times
, 1 September 1931.

59
. Ibid.

60
. Official race results in Henderson Collection.

61
. Phoebe protested the changes, but to no avail. Press release, 1931 Air Races, Henderson Collection;
Moline Dispatch
, 29 July 1930.

62
. Claudia M. Oakes,
United States Women in Aviation 1930–1939
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1985), 42, 58.

63
. The Cord L-29 Cabriolet convertible with rumble seat was the first production automobile with front-wheel drive. It had a mile-long hood capped with a V-shaped radiator grill. Weighing 4,500 pounds with a 137.5-inch wheelbase, the Cord was introduced in 1929, only two months before the stock market crashed. Built from 1929 to 1932, about 5,000 were produced. The Cabriolet convertible sold new in 1931 for $3,295. Only eight are known to still exist; a restored Cord was advertised at $105,000 on
www.signigicantcars.com
, where most of this information was found.

64
. “Grandstand Observations,”
Aero Digest
, October 1931, 36.

65
. Official race results, National Air Races, Western Reserve Historical Society. This was an astonishing amount of money in 1931; $7,000 in 1931 had the equivalent purchasing power of $98,600 in 2010.

66
. The Monocoupe company was reorganized several times during the 1930s and 1940s. The last Monocoupe rolled out of a Melbourne, Florida, plant in 1950. In all, 870 Monocoupes were built, about 155 remain, and fewer than 30 are active and flying. Underwood,
Of Monocoupes and Men
, 20–21.

67
.
Commercial Appeal
, 18 September 1931.

68
. Ibid., 14 June 1931.

69
. Fulbright,
Aviation in Tennessee
, 38.

70
. This sounds like an early version of Federal Express forty years before the company was established at Memphis in 1973.
Commercial Appeal
Sunday magazine, 11 June 1933.

71
.
Commercial Appeal
Sunday magazine, 11 June 1933.

72
. Phoebe listed her titles as Secretary, Director of Public Relations, Airline Traffic Representative, Test Pilot, Airplane Sales and Assistant to the President, Mid-South Airways, Inc. Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

73
.
Memphis Press-Scimitar
, 3 December 1931.

74
. Copy of the telegram, 12 September [1932], Omlie Collection.

75
. W. B. Courtney, “Wings of the New Deal,
Collier's
, 17 February 1934, 12.

76
. Komons,
Bonfires to Beacons
, 225. After she became first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt and three friends aboard a large transport plane circling over New York City played a rubber of bridge in the company of a host of reporters, who of course duly reported on the safety and novelty of air travel. Corn,
Winged Gospel
, 57.

77
.
New York Times
, 19 October 1932.

78
.
Commercial Appeal
, 24 October 1932;
New York Times
, 19 October 1932. The best source for information about this network of women is Susan Ware,
Beyond Suffrage: Women in the New Deal
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).

79
.
New York Times
, 1 January 1933.

80
.
Commercial Appeal
, 24 October 1932.

81
. Fain took her seat as a delegate from Norfolk in 1924, along with Helen Timmons Henderson of Buchanan County. She served three terms and did not seek reelection in 1929. After running unsuccessfully for Congress, Fain moved to Washington, D.C., and worked in the New Deal. She helped found the U.S. Information Service and served as its first director. Encyclopedia of Virginia,
www.encyclopediavirginia.org
.

82
. Estimates of tour mileage varied widely, from the 4,500 miles reported by the
Commercial Appeal
on the eve of the tour to 25,000 miles noted in the
Memphis Press-Scimitar
, 24 October 1932 and 21 February 1935, respectively. Many secondary sources mention the larger number. One example: Claudia M. Oakes,
Women in Aviation 1930–1939
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985), 40. Phoebe wrote that she “flew over 20,000 miles often landing in cow pastures,” but she may have been including her second campaign tour in 1936,
The Omlie Story
. Some later press clippings have her serving as Roosevelt's “personal pilot.”

83
.
Memphis Press-Scimitar
, 7 November 1932.

84
. Scharlau,
Phoebe
, 84.

85
.
New York Times
, 1 January 1933; Dewson wrote a similar sentiment in a letter to Phoebe, noting that “both Republican women aviatrixes came to grief.” I could find no information about women fliers for Hoover. Letter, Molly Dewson to Phoebe Omlie, 22 November 1932, Molly Dewson Papers, Correspondence, Box 16, Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York (hereinafter FDRL).

86
. Letter, Sue Shelton White to Molly Dewson, 24 June 1933, Dewson Papers, FRDL.
Phoebe later wrote, “1932 campaigning for Roosevelt by air and we go broke.” Annotated outline,
The Omlie Story
.

87
. Ware,
Beyond Suffrage
, 45–48.

88
. Letter, Molly Dewson to Phoebe Omlie, 22 November 1932, Dewson Papers FDRL.

89
. Clipping from
Memphis Press-Scimitar
, n.d., Dewson Papers, FDRL.

90
. Phoebe noted, “Trip to Warm Springs to ask President R. for a job. I go to Washington and have a long wait for the job, living in a hall bedroom.” Annotated outline,
The Omlie Story
.

91
. The Women's Air Reserve was a group of female fliers organized along military lines, whose purpose was to fly rescue missions in times of disasters. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Pancho Barnes, 23 November 1932, copy supplied to author by Harry Friedman. WAR described in a letter from Phoebe to Eleanor Roosevelt, 5 February 1934, in which she asked the first lady to accept a position on WAR's advisory committee. ER declined. Letter and enclosure in Eleanor Roosevelt, White House Correspondence, 1933–1945, Box 599, FDRL. See also Lauren Kessler,
The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes
(New York: Random House, 2000), 100.

92
.
Memphis Evening Appeal
, 2 February 1933.

93
. Letter, Lavinia Engle to Molly Dewson, 9 June 1933, Dewson Papers, FDRL.

94
. Lavinia Engle went on to say, “Recalling that she [Amelia] refused to sign a statement that she was a Democrat and expected to vote for Roosevelt or make a speech during the campaign I think that is rather hard to swallow.” Letter, Lavinia Engle to Molly Dewson, 22 May 1933, Dewson Papers, FDRL.

95
. Letter, Lavinia Engle to Molly Dewson, 9 June 1933, Dewson Papers, FDRL. Phoebe apparently felt that Crump had aided her bid for an aviation post, or at least she had the courtesy to thank him for his efforts on her behalf. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to “Honorable Ed. Crump,” 14 March 1935, Crump Papers, Memphis Public Library.

96
. Letter, Sue Shelton White to Molly Dewson, 27 September 1933, Dewson Papers, FDRL.

97
. Molly Dewson, “Fifteen Women Democratic Leaders Submitted at the President's Request as the Most Valuable to Reward with Important Positions Listed According to Desirability of Appointment,” with cover letter to “Dear Franklin,” 21 October 1933, Dewson Papers, FDRL.

98
. Komons,
Bonfires to Beacons
, 228–230. Phoebe had apparently predicted this result in a letter quoted by Scharlau: “I guess the senator's son-in-law will get the position I wanted.” Scharlau,
Phoebe
, 88.

99
. Note to “Eleanor” from Molly, “One ray of light. Mr Vidal saw Phoebe Omlie today—thanks to you. He was not definite but that is not significant.” Molly Dewson to Eleanor Roosevelt, 30 October 1933, Official File, 300, Dewson Folder, Box 44, FDRL.

100
. Job description in Department of Commerce press release, 2 September 1936, Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

1
.
Washington Post
, 23 November 1933. Her appointment was temporary until 16 January 1934 when it was made permanent; her pay was $5,600 per year. Certificate
of oath of office and letters reflecting temporary and permanent appointments in Personnel File, Omlie Collection.

2
. D.S.O. is Distinguished Service Order, a British military decoration. Stern, “Aviation's Nursemaid,” 19.

3
. NACA was created by PL 271, 63rd Congress, signed 3 March 1915 by President Wilson. Deborah G. Douglas, “Three-Miles-a-Minute,” in
Innovation and the Development of Flight
, ed. Roger D. Launius (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1999), 154–156.

4
. Douglas, “Three-Miles-a-Minute,” 157–158.

5
. “Appointments Under Section 10, Rule II,” Fifty-first annual report of the United States Civil Service Commission for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1934, Serial Set Vo. No. 9980, Session Vol. No. 68.

6
. Stern, “Aviation's Nursemaid,” 5.

7
. Following a restructuring in 1934, the branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce and the director of aeronautics became the director of air commerce. See
FAA Historical Chronology, 1926–1996
, available online at
htttp://www.faa.gov/about/media/b-chron.pdf
.

8
. The Federal Airways System was created under the Air Commerce Act of 1926; Letter, Rex Martin, Assistant Director of Aeronautics, Department of Commerce, to G. W. Lewis, Director of Aeronautical Research for NACA, 14 December 1933, requesting Phoebe's services, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) file, 50–8, National Archives.

9
. Letters between Phoebe Omlie and Washington-based personnel in NACA file.

10
. This work was continued and extended under the Public Works Administration. See Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie, “Aviation Under the New Deal,”
Democratic Digest
, April 1935, 9–10; Komons,
Bonfires to Beacons
, 236–244.

11
. Letter, Phoebe to John F. Victory, Secretary to the NACA, 19 December 1933; she delivered a similar message in letter, Phoebe Omlie to Dr. George Lewis, Director of Aeronautical Research, NACA, 31 December 1933, NACA file.