1934-35

WEEKLY CORINTHIAN AND OTHER NEWS ACCOUNTS- LONDON-MELBOURNE RACE

The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXLX #43, Thurs., October 25, 1934:
p. 8, c. 4-

TURNER THIRD
        IN MELBOURNE
                RACE REPORT
        --------------
From Tuesday's Daily.
        Reports that Roscoe Turner and Clyde Pangborn, only American
aviators left in the running for the prize awards in the London to
Melbourne air race, finished third in the race were given out over the
radio this morning.
        Colonel Turner, native Corinthian, and his world famous
companion, according to latest press reports were fighting desperately to
close in on the two planes ahead of them by flying without a stop from
Singapore to Darwin, Australia.
        The leaders in the race, W.A.Scott and Campbell Black were
reported at Charleville Monday morning with a long lead that amazed even
their ardent supporters in Great Britain.  A Dutch plane, piloted by K.D.
Parmentier and J.J.Moll, streaked after them persistently, and prevented
the Britisher's from increasing their lead.

See ALSO:

The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXLX #44, Thurs., November 1, 1934:
p. 5, c. 2-

TURNER MOST FAMOUS
        AMERICAN PILOT AFTER
                FINISHING SPEED RACE
        ------------------
        Roscoe Turner once told his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R.L.Turner, "If
I ever get my name spread over the front pages I'll be on my way."
        This week Roscoe Turner's name and his photograph were spread
over the front pages of hundreds of newspapers in the United States and
Europe.
        An this week's issue of Times, a national news magazine, had a
picture of Turner, his rugged countenance wreathed in a genial smile, as
its frontispiece, signifying that in "Time's" opinion Roscoe Turner's
dash to Melbourne was the most important news of the week to Americans.
        That opinion was bourne out by the press of the country which
devoted more space to the London-to-Melbourne flight than to any other
single story.
        Turner had more than made good his early, boyish idea of gaining
the necessary publicity for success.
        Advertising has been a part of his business.  He secured a
picturesque uniform and a lion cub because he was advertising the Gilmore
oil company.  He walked erect and with a certain swagger, naturally.
        The statement that he is "a bit of a hero to the boys in the
country" attributed to him, may also be credited to his natural aptitude
for advertising.
        The advertising value of his name was accomplished at a certain
sacrifice, as pointed out by Cy Caldwell in an issue of the Aero Digest,
when he said "A pilot with nerve enough to wear that uniform and kick a
half-grown lion in the pants is bound to come in first eventually."
        But "Time" magazine pays tribute to Turner for his
accomplishments, whom of superficial publicicty, in the following
statement:
        "Last year Roscoe Turner began "coming in first" until today he
is the outstanding speed pilot of the U.S.  His rivals sneer at his
clothes, at his public swagger, but there could be no sneering at the
flying records that he has won in the stiffest competetion.  His speed
racing began in earnest when he first broke the East-West
transcontinental record with another in the opposite direction in 18
hours and 43 minutes.
        "Last year he won the Bendix trophy-- New York to Los Angeles in
11 hours and 30 minutes, topped that transcontinental record with another
in the opposite direction in 10 hours, 4 minutes.  Last month he beat
that record by two minues, flew back to Cleveland to win the Thompson
Trophy, World's No. 1 closed-course race."

        --------------------
TURNS DOWN INVITATION

        A telegram from Senator Pat Harrison at Washington stated this
morning that he and Congressman Rankin both have urged the President
[FDR] to include Corinth in his visit to Warm Springs, but that it will
be impossible for him to stop-over at this city.... [FDR did in fact stop in
Corinth later this month]


The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXLX #45, Thurs., November 8, 1934:
p. 4, c. 2-

ROSCOE TURNER
        TO COME HOME
                FOR CHRISTMAS
        --------------

        Roscoe Turner will be home at Christmas time.

        This message from half way around the world was received this
morning by Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Turner, father and mother of the famous
speed pilot, who, with Clyde Pangborn finished third in the air race
recently held, the London-Melbourne race.
        The cablegram, from Melbourne stated that Turner plans to be back
in the United States and at his home in Corinth to celebrate Christmas.
he regretted that he had been unable to send more direct messages to the
folks back home.
        Press dispatches from Melbourne published recently have reviewed
the trip of the American pilots in the race, and the subsequent honors
they received at Melbourne, where high officials of the Australian
govenrment did them honor, but as yet have not revealed what means of
transportation Turner and Pangborn will employ in getting themselves and
their Boeing plane back to the United States.
        Some of the pilots entered in the race made leisurely air
journeys back to their homes afterward, some took long oversea hops, and
others loaded their planes on steamers for the return journey.
        To be back in the United States by Christmas the American flyers
must leave Australia within a short time, provided, as is hardly
probably, they don't make the trip or part of it by air.
        The cable this morning was the first direct message, Mrs. Turner
had received from her son, but she had followed the course of his flight
closely by radio, her heart beating pridefully at the take-off in London
and sinking when the message came that Roscoe was lost in the darkness
over India wastelands.
        All of the United States will honor Turner when he returns, but
the deepest feeling will be in the greeting given him at the little farm
house west of Corinth, where Christmas candles will be burning, and his
mother and father will give him their blessing with mingled feelings of
love and relief at his safety after a great adventure.


Chicago Daily Tribune, Thursday, November 15, 1934:
p.  , c.  -

PICTURE   FLYER'S WIFE VISITS MILWAUKEE
CAPTION:        Mrs. Roscoe Turner, wife of the famous London-Melbourne
          flyer, a Milwaukee visitor.  Mrs. Turner, on the left, and Miss
          Gladys Lyon, secretary to Col. Roscoe Turner, who visited
          quietly in Milwaukee while on their way to California to meet
          Col. Turner, en route from Melbourne.

MRS. R. TURNER,
        WIFE OF FLYER,
                IN MILWAUKEE
        -------------
Departs for Chicago To-
        day, Hollywood Bound.
        -------------
[Chicago Tribune Press Service.]  Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 14.- [Special.]--
Mrs. Roscoe Turner, wife of the American pilot who landed third in the
London-Melbourne air races in October, has spent the last two days in
Shawano, Wis., and Milwaukee, resting on her trip from London to
Hollywood, where she will meet Col. Turner just three weeks from today.
        Mrs. Turner's flying husband sailed from Melbourne today, and it
will take him just 21 days to reach the California coast.  Mrs. Turner
will leave Milwaukee tomorrow morning, spend the day in Chicago, and
leave at 4 o'clock by the United Air Lines plane for Los Angeles.  The
Turner home is in Hollywood.
        Mrs. Turner today told of her impatience in London during the
four days of the Melbourne flight, listening to radio announcements of
the progress of the flyers.  Her chief impression of the flight was that
the reception was poor.  English radios do not equal the American, she
said.
        The reason for the Wisconsin visit is that Miss Gladys Lyons, who
is secretary to Col. Turner, lived in Shawano, and the trip from London
to California was broken midway so that Mrs. Turner and she could visit
the Lyons family there.   Returning from Shawano they came to Milwaukee
to visit Miss Lyon's sister, Miss Alice Lyons, 1504 North Prospect
Avenue.
        Col. Turner and Clyde Pangbourne, flying a Boeing 247-D transport
plane, were third to finish the flight of more than 11,000 miles from
London.


The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXLX #46, Thurs., November 15, 1934:
p. 6, c. 2-

ABE TURNER BACK
        FROM OKLAHOMA FOR
                VISIT IN CORINTH
        -----------------
From Firday's Daily.
        Abe Turner arrived last night from Cushing, Okla., where he
recently assumed duties as assistant manager of the Hotel Ambassador, of
which his brother, Robert Turner, is lessee-manager.  Mr. Turner will be
here until Tuesday with his family and will return to Cushing.  He
expects to be back here for the Christmas holidays, after which he will
return with his family to Cushing.
        Mr. Turner has taken a fancy to the Oklahoma country, and is
finding the hotel business good in Cushing.



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XXXLX #51, Thurs., December 20, 1934:
p. 5, c. 6-

ROSCOE TURNER
        TELLS OF RACE
                IN BROADCASTS
        -------------

        Corinthians  are listening with interest to a series of radio
broadcasts from station KFI, Los Angeles, Cal., and over the Columbia
network, by Col. Roscoe Turner.
        The broadcasts by America's premier speed pilot, are concerning
his recent race from London to Melbourne with his co-pilot, Clyde
Pangborn.
        The broadcasts are to be at 6:50 tonight; 7 p.m. Thursday, and
7:30 p.m. Saturday (Pacific Coast Time, or two hours later here).
        Information about the broadcasts was contained in a telegram to
his mother, Mrs. Bob Turner in which Turner said bad weather and his
plane not being in condition had upset his plans to return to Corinth to
visit his parents Christmas.
        "May not get to see you until January," he telegraphed his
mother, "Must be in New York Jan. &, and will either come by Corinth or
return by Corinth en route back to California.



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XL #4, Thurs., January 24, 1935:
p. 7, c. 1 -

WORLD FLIGHT
        WILL BE TRIED
                BY COL.TURNER
        -------------
        The next major air adventure to be attempted by Col. Roscoe
Turner, famed American participant in the London to Melbourne air race,
and his companion pilot, Clyde Pangborn, will be a non-stop flight around
the world.
        In a radio address from Radio City in New York last night Colonel
Turner and Pangborn outlined plans for the trip, for which a big plane is
now being constructed in Florida.
        The pilots first told of their trip to Melbourne, Australia, in
which they competed with the world's outstanding speed pilots and won
third place for this country.
        "We are known as the first pilots ever to cross Asia without
seeing it," Colonel Turner stated, referring to the night flight into
Alahabad, during which they became lost over the jungles.
        Pangborn told of the plans for another flight of world
importance, which probably will be started soon after the plane has been
constructed.
        We plan to start out from California in a westward direction
around the world, he stated.  We plan to refuel in the air and never
touch the earth until we arrive back in the States.
        Pangborn and Turner would alternate at the controls just as they
did during the London-Melbourne flight.  They would attempt no speed
record for the flight around the world, but, if the flight is completed
successfully, would make a new speed record because of the arrangements
for re-fueling in the air, thus eliminating loss of time.
        Their new ship is designed for a 150 mile an hour cruising speed.


The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XL #8, Thurs., February 21, 1935:

ROSCOE TURNER
        UNABLE TO LAND
                AT CITY AIRPORT
        ------------
        Unable to land his high speed, dual motored monoplane at the
Corinth airport, Colonel Roscoe Turner, this afternoon hurried back to
Memphis where Corinthians plan to meet him and bring him here, along with
the movie equipment with which he is to illustrate a lecture at the
school building at 8 p.m. Thursday.
        Colonel Turner made five attempts to land, rolling the length of
the field and rising again before reaching the ditch on the west side of
the field.  He was unable to cut down his speed sufficiently to stop
inside the airport.
        On the last attempt he shouted to spectators that he was going
back to Memphis to land.  The plane was the largest ever to come to the
airport here.



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XL #8, Thurs., February 21, 1935:
p. 7, c. 4 -

TURNER PLANS
        TO SHOW MOVIE
                OF AIR CLASSIC
        -------------
        Moving pictures of the London to Melbourne air speed classic, in
which Roscoe Turner and Clyde Pangborn placed third, will be shown in
Corinth and Colonel Turner will use the picture as an illustration for an
accompanying lecture.
        Colonel Turner, who postponed his trip to Corinth which he was
scheduled to make Saturday or Sunday until arrangements for the picture
could be completed, telegraphed the Chamber of Commerce of his plans and
the chamber decided to sponsor the presentation of the picture.
        Colonel Turner will bring his own moving picture equipment, his
telegram stated, and a nominal admission charge will be made to defray
expenses of transporting the machinery.  He indicated that he plans to
fly to Corinth since he sought information concerning the condition of
the Corinth airport.
        The picture showing the takeoff of the famous race from London to
Australia and many scenes along the route will be of exceptional interest
to residents of Colonel Turner's home town.
        But his lecture, in which the pilot will tell intimate details of
his exciting adventure will picture phases of the journey which the
camera could not catch.  The air race has been the subject of several
addresses broadcast throughout the nation by Colonel Turner.


The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XL #9, Thurs., February 28, 1935:
p. 6, c. 5 -

PLANES BUILT
        FOR AIR TRIP
                AT EQUATOR
        --------------
Saturday's Daily.
        Two planes are now under construction for Colonel Roscoe Turner's
trip around the earth-- at the equator.
        Colonel Turner is searching for a motor which he believes equal
to the strain of the trip-- the longest possible route around the world
and hopes that one of the new planes under construction will be suitable
for the trip.  A certain secrecy surrounds the operations and Colonel
Turner could not afford to reveal more about the type of plane to be
used.  However, he said, he planned to use a large plane and to take a
number of persons with him on the trip.
        Following the second showing of his historical picture of the
London to Melbourne flight in which he and Clyde Pangborn participated,
Colonel Turner will leave for Memphis Sunday and take off for Los
Angeles.
        The show tonight will give Corinthians a second opportunity to
view the picture which Colonel Turner went to much trouble to obtain
because of its historic value.  The London to Melbourne race made
important contributions to the science of aircraft construction.
        Colonel Turner showed it first at a banquet of the Society of
Automotive Engineers in New York, which was attended by Henry Ford,
Harvey Firestone, and scores of other leaders of the automotive industry.
Over 1000 people saw the picture in New York, and at Hartford, Conn., the
show had an audience of 2000 people.
        The movie, and Colonel Turner's accompanying lectures, are
important both from an historical and scientific viewpoint.
        The world famous flyer has brought his picture here for his home
town people to see while he and Mrs. Turner are here visiting his father
and mother, Mr. and Mrs. R.L.Turner.
        The aviator has given up the idea of bringing his big battleship
gray Boeing plane, in which he and Pangborn flew to Australia, to the
Corinth airport this afternoon.  He made five attempts to land the plane
Thursday but could not bring the ship to a stop in the length of the
field.
        With Mr. and Mrs. R.L.Turner, and his wife, the aviator will
return to Memphis, where the Boeing was left Sunday.  He has invited
Corinthians to see the plane at the Memphis airport Sunday afternoon.
The airport may be reached by traveling down Parkway on reaching the
Memphis city limits south to Trezevant Ave., then on Trezavant to Lamar;
then left on Lamar for several miles until airport signs shwoing the
directions are seen.
        While in Corinth Colonel Turner has again been the center of
interest for many admiring friends.  Yesterday at the school building he
gave autographs to scores of school children who heard his talk about
aviation.


The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XL #9, Thurs., February 28, 1935:
p. 7, c. 3-4 -

PICTURE TELLS
        STORY OF RACE
                TO MELBOURNE

        -------------
From Friday's Daily.
        Excellent airplane pictures, taken during the London to Melbourne
air race, scenes depicting the living conditions of the people along that
varied route, and an accompanying talk by Colonel Roscoe Turner, who with
Clyde Pangborn piloted the American entry in the race, was the program at
the high school auditorium last night for Colonel Turner's home town
audience.  Almost 400 people attended.
        It was Colonel Turner's own show, staged for the benefit of
Corinth residents who had followed with breathless excitement his
adventures on the memorable flight.
        Colonel Turner was resplendent in the uniform of his own design--
blue coat and kaiki trousers and boots.  "This is what I fool 'em with,"
he said laughingly as he prepared to open his program," but I won't try
to fool you folks.  It wouldn't be any use anyway, because you know me."
        The flyer spoke for about thirty minutes explaining the
background of the race and the troublous time he had in financing the
venture without backing-- save for the loan of the beautiful battleship
gray Boeing,-- a low-winged monoplane of American make.
        Winning air speed races was his method of raising funds for the
race.
        What it amounted to was-- taking chances for the purpose of
taking other chances, Colonel Turner explained.  That is, it wasn't for
the prize money that he and Pangborn were making the London to Melbourne
race.  The total award was $40,000 and expenses of the race were known to
exceed that amount by several thousand.
        While getting ready for the great race he won the Thompson trophy
and annexed $9,000 in prize money in the Cleveland air races.  Then he
tried various ventures to raise the expense money he needed.
        So many troubles beset him that Colonel Turner began to believe,
before he got his plane to London, that there was a scheme afoot to keep
him out of the race.  Because of a misunderstanding in listing the type
of his plane it appeared at one time he was to be ruled out of the race.
        But once in London times were better.  The King and Queen came to
the airport and he was photographed with them.  The Prince of Wales
looked over the ships entered in the race, and spent more time in the
Boeing than any other plane on the field.
        Turner's moving pictures, which followed his talk, showed
closeups of the Boeing at the takeoff and on the field, along with
Comets, Fokkers, and other planes entered in the race.
        At this point in the discourse American airplanes are the best
manufactured in the world and Colonel Turner remarked that America has
nothing to be ashamed of in any branch of aircraft.  The race proved the
superiority of American airships.
        The movie film also showed pictures of Colonel Turner's modified
Weddell-Williams speed plane in which he set his trancontinental records
and other speed marks.  The plane was pictured as it zoomed along at the
rate of 300 miles per hour.
        The prescribed route of the race from London to Melbourne and the
route which Turner and Pangborn actually followed from London to Athens,
then crossing the Atlantic not far from Corinth, Greece, and picking up
the Euphrates River as a landmark, was traced in a heavy line on the maps
Colonel Turner showed preceding the showing of the picture.
        The picture showed scenes near Allahabad where Turner and
Pangborn became lost.
        "It was no disgrace to become lost in that race," Turner said,
recalling that Scott and Black, who had travelled the course regularly
became lost one time during the race.  Strong winds threw Turner and
Pangborn off their course.  The two were flying by "dead reconing," and
when they looked at their watches and found they were supposed to be at
Allahabad no town was in sight.  Night was coming on and their gas supply
was running low.  Tigers inhabited the desert beneath them, but they had
a choice of leaving their landing gear folded up and sliding down into a
river.  The trouble was they would have been hard to find in that
desolate region and might have starved to death even if they had escaped
the crocodiles in the river.
        About the time they were about to get frantic their radio
operator was successful in getting a radio "bearing" that with the help
of a land bearing, got them back to Allahabad.
        A typhoon followed their trail coming into Singapore.  At this
airport the flyers made a landing with the use of only their own high
powered landing lights.  The largest crowd to greet them on the entire
trip was at Singapore airport.
        Landing at Port Darwin with the first signs of motor trouble the
flyers flew the distance across Australia with two "sick" engines, and
completed the race in third place.
        Colonel Turner believes the greatest race ever staged because of
the variety of country and he believes a more difficult route could not
be selected for an air race.



The Weekly Corinthian, Vol. XL #9, Thurs., February 28, 1935:
p. 7, c. 4 -

TURNER FELT
        NEED OF SPEED
                AT EARLY AGE
        ---------------

        Roscoe Turner, who wasn't a very good little boy because he
balked at going to school, was introduced to an audience in his home town
last night as "Corinth's most illustrious son."
        Referring to the holder of most of the air speed records in the
United States, who, with his co-pilot, Clyde Pangborn, placed third in
the great London to Melbourne speed classic, Benjamin R. Warriner
introduced Colonel Turner last night as a man who never had disappointed
his hometown people when he started out to accomplish a notable task.
        He referred to a man who seemed to be destined for speed from an
early age.  The school room was too prosaic, and he played "hookey" from
his grammar grade class so often his uncle asked a friend, Sheriff
J.B.Coleman, to give him some work in a lumber yard-- hard work requiring
all of the surplus energy that kept Roscoe irreconcilable to school work.
        But Roscoe couldn't stay in a single place very long.  Passenger
trains ran by the lumber yard and Roscoe cultivated a hobby of trying to
catch them going at a high rate of speed.
        His next step toward attaining higher velocity was a motorcycle
and later he tried "stunting" in an automobile by trying to climb the
court house steps as an advertising scheme.  Only an airplane would
satisfy his yearning for speed, however, so he taught himself to fly.
        Now, with some of the most important speed records in the bag,
and a name that will be long remembered in the annals of aviation in
America, Colonel Turner, in his own words, "keeps on taking chances in
order to take more chances" with his life in the hazardous business of
attaining speed records.
        Talk about quiting?
        "Well, you know you can't quit," his wife, Carline, tells him.
So Colonel Turner goes on setting new records.




Abstracts (c) Copyright 1993 Stephanie L. Sandy

  Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - April 20, 1993