The Races

Two U. S. air meets were held on the same four days last week. One, in Los Angeles, was called National Air Races: the other, in Chicago, American Air Races. But the confusion of names was the least of the disorder. A resounding row had been kicked up in the ranks of racing pilots; and the National Aeronautic Association (headed by Connecticut's one-time Senator Hiram Bingham), whose job it is to supervise races, racing pilots. records, etc., found itself in an acutely unpleasant situation.

The whole fuss was made particularly acrimonious because it involved those traditional enemies the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily News, thus: Last year Clifford Henderson, longtime air-race promoter, went on the road to place the 1933 meet. Cleveland, which had a five-year option on the races and which took a loss last year, was anxious to sublet this year's meet to another city. Privately the Cleveland committee wanted Promoter Henderson to take the show to the Pacific Coast for two reasons: 1) California wanted it. 2) The farther from Cleveland in 1933, the stronger the comeback in 1934.

However, Henderson saw a chance to stage a second meet this year at the Chicago World's Fair. He approached the Tribune for backing and was turned down because, according to the Tribune, he wanted too much money. Next he buttonholed Col. William Franklin Knox of the News. Unlike the Tribune's air-minded Col. Robert McCormick, Col. Knox has never flown; but he will listen to anything that might mean scoring against the Tribune. He snapped at the idea. The Tribune caught wind of the deal, decided to stage a meet of its own without Henderson who, meanwhile, hurried west to sell the regular National Air Races to Los Angeles.

Exactly who infringed on whose prior date is a subject of bitter words. But when the Tribune applied to the N. A. A. for sanction for its own meet on July 1-4, the N. A. A. refused, revealed that those dates were reserved for Los Angeles. Worse, the N. A. A. had also sanctioned the Daily News' "International Air Races" for Sept. 1-4. Outraged, the Tribune declared it would run its own meet without sanction. That brought forth an N. A. A. ultimatum that any pilot taking part in an unsanctioned meet would be barred from sanctioned meets for from one to three years, depending on the amount of prize money involved. A few rebels defied the N. A. A. order, taxied to the starting line at the Chicago Tribune's outlaw meet last week. But most of the famed speed pilots turned to Los Angeles if only for two reasons: the National meet had $50,000 prize money, compared to Chicago's $20,000; and it left them qualified to compete for more prize money at Chicago in September. Los Angeles. Traditionally the National Air Races begin and end with a bang. The biggest event is always the last--the Thompson Trophy Race (in which a 300 m.p.h. landplane record was this year's objective). Next in importance, although spectators see only the finish, is the Transcontinental Bendix Trophy Race which raises the curtain. This year's Bendix race, starting from Floyd Bennett Field, N. Y., was a battle between the builders who divided highest honors last year--Z. D. Granville and Wedell-Williams. Granville of Springfield, Mass, is famed for his fat Gee Bee in which Jimmy Doolittle made a world record of 294 m.p.h. Wedell-Williams is a unique combination consisting of one-eyed, tousle-mopped "Jimmy" Wedell, 33, Texas bartender's son, onetime barnstormer; and rich, suave, happy-go-lucky Harry Palmerton Williams, son of the late Louisiana cypress tycoon Frank Williams. To the devoted Cajun and Negro swampers of Patterson, La., the one-street milltown over which he and his wife (onetime Film Actress Marguerite Clark) reign in baronial style, "Mister Harry" is known as "the Speed Kid." He had already made himself a local god with fast horses, fast automobiles, speed boats, when in 1926 Barnstormer Jimmy Wedell dropped down into Patterson to look around. Among the gawpers who flocked about Wedell's rickety crate was ''Speed Kid" Williams, then 40. Results: Wedell taught nim to fly, sold him a plane, became his good friend, confided his own ambitions. Wedell could not read a blue print (he cannot do it yet) but he knew what kind of plane he wanted. Speed Kid Williams built a hangar on an old sugar canefield on his estate and Jimmy Wedell went to work. Before he was through Mr. Williams dropped a half million dollars, but he had his money's worth last year when Wedell-Williams speedsters hung up a string of records, including a transcontinental record of 10 hr. 19 min. in the Bendix Trophy (Los Angeles-New-York). Last week three sleek Wedell-Williams ships were pitted against two chunky Gee Bee's at the start of the Bendix. (Also there were two women in Lockheeds, Amelia Earhart and Ruth Nichols, who straggled into Los Angeles a day or so late.) Jimmy Wedell himself was on hand to pilot one of his own ships, but the object of greatest interest at the starting line was another Wedell-Williams pilot, swashbuckling Col. Roscoe Turner. Col. Turner (California National Guard) was being hunted all over the field by a process server. Several times they passed within a few feet of each other but Pilot Turner, clad in unaccustomed overalls, went unrecognized despite his famed spiked mustache. At the last moment he stripped away the overalls, revealed his habitual fancy costume of sky-blue tunic (with his initials embroidered in silver), fawn-colored breeches, Sam Browne belt, riding boots, visored cap with silver "T"--and was off. Beating the rising sun across the Alleghenies, Pilot Turner came down at Columbus for fuel and nearly lost his mind when it took him 20 minutes to rouse a field attendant. On & on he streaked, touching earth thrice again for fuel, whipping over Los Angeles' Municipal Airport just as the opening parade was getting under way. Practiced showman that he is, Turner, the hometown boy, could not have timed his triumphant entry more dramatically. The crowds in the stands (48,000) went wild with delight as he kicked his ship up in a gleeful chandelle, a winner. His time: 11 hr. 30 min. Less than a half-hour later Jimmy Wedell himself tore across the finish line, adding second honors to first for his ships. No other planes finished the race. Where were the Gee-Bee's? They had come to grief, and in the same place-- Indianapolis. One, piloted by Russell Thaw, 22, modest, handsome son of Evelyn Nesbit & Harry Kendall Thaw, cracked up in landing for fuel. The other cracked up in taking off, mortally injuring its Pilot Russell Boardman. At Los Angeles, Jimmy Wedell won the main events of the next two days at 207 and 209 m.p.h. First mishap at the airport occurred when Cinemactor Hoot Gibson's plane cracked up as he rounded a pylon. He was not badly hurt. Chicago had hard luck. It had counted on Balbo's armada and the Spanish Flyers Barberan & Collar (TIME. June 29, July 3) to lend tone to the opening. But Balbo was in Amsterdam and the Spaniards were dead in Mexico. Then a rainstorm cancelled the Sunday program. Before a capacity crowd next day Johnny Livingston, credited with winning more races than any other living pilot, added $2.250 to his two-year total of $56.000 by nosing out Art Davis, another crack racer, for the Baby Ruth Trophy. He whipped his flaming yellow Cessna around the 35-mile course at 183.7 m.p.h.

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