AIR & SPACE Magazine, June/July 1995:
p. 84 -

BARNSTORMING WITH ROSCOE AND GILMORE

ROSCOE TURNER: Aviation's Master Showman
by Carroll V. Glines
(foreword by James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle).
Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.
368 pp., b&w photos, $29.95 (hardcover).

        Among the dozens of photographs that illustrate this
well-crafted biography, perhaps it's the very first image that is most
telling: A very young Roscoe Turner and his brother stand behind a team
of mules hitched to a plow in a Mississippi field. The old
black-and-white photograph prompts one to wonder how many other pilots
of the Golden Age of Aviation (the 1920s and 1930s) owed their wings
to a view of the world from behind a team of mules straining under a
hot sun.  In this ably written biography, Carroll Glines treats us to
many such details, which bring to life a truly fascinating aviation
career.

        Turner recognized early on that the creation of a "legend"
would help him further not only his own ends but, from a practical
standpoint, those of aviation as well. Even during his early days as a
barnstormer, Turner was promoting the benefits of aviation (and
aviation safety) to the public while at the same time struggling to
make a living. Turner's pet lion, Gilmore, was probably his best known
promotional gimmick, but Glines notes that the lion was much more than
a gimmick to the pilot, and indeed the two enjoyed many adventures
together.

        In addition to his pet lion, Turner was famous for wearing a
uniform. This custom was based on the commonsense observations that a
uniform commanded respect, that it was suitable for both day-to-day
flying operations and formal occasions, and that grease-spattered
coveralls did nothing to promote aviation. In fact, in 1918 Turner had
been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Aviation Section of
the Signal Corps Reserve- not as a fixed-wing pilot but rather as a
balloon observer. He served briefly in France in World War I. The
"Colonel," a title he almost invariably assumed in public and the
media, came later as an honorific from the governors of Nevada and
California, both of whom he served as a highly regarded personal
pilot.

        Roscoe Turner could only have happened in America. His career
was a classic rags-to-riches epic, and one can only wonder how many
youngsters were influenced by his example during the dark days of the
Depression. With this book, Carroll Glines makes that sort of
influence possible all over again. I hope copies find their way onto
library shelves across the country.

-------------------------------------

        -Dan Hagedorn works in the archives division at the National
        Air and Space Museum. He is co-author (with Leif Hellstrom) of
        FOREIGN INVADERS: THE DOUGLAS INVADER IN FOREIGN MILITARY AND
        U.S. CLANDESTINE SERVICE (Midland, 1994).



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