LOCKLEAR: The Man Who Walked on Wings by Art Ronnie

        Ormer Leslie Locklear was a Texas farm boy who suddenly found
himself part of the dazzle and glamour of Hollywood in 1919 because of
a desire for daring and a rollicking Douglas Fairbanks attitude toward
life.  He lived every day as if it were his last.  And why not?  Every
day might well have been his last.

        Locklear was known as the "man who walked on wings." He had
become internationally famous because of his unusual ability to walk
the wings of planes in flight. But "Lock" was more than just a man who
walked on wings. He was the undisputed king of daredevils and the
darling of Hollywood where a short professional career of only 16
months as a stunt pilot and silent movie star skyrocketed him to
unprecedented success. He became the most touted aviator of his day,
and there wasn't a county fair from Hartford, Connecticut, to the
Calgary Stampede in Canada that didn't declare a "Locklear Day" and
post him as the leading attraction. At the height of his career he was
making $1,000 a day - sometimes $3,000 - for a half-hour's work!  His
name was a household word. To Locklear, more than anyone, can be
credited the tremendous boom in barnstorming that captured America in
the Twenties. He made wing-walking an art. When he was the first man
to change from one plane to another in mid-air, he amazed the world,
even though most credited him with "more guts than brains."

        LOCKLEAR tells for the first time stories about some of
Hollywood's most famous citizens during the days when the film capital
was hardly a decade old. There is the story of how Buster Keaton's
first plane flight with Locklear almost ended his career and life. How
Jack Pickford was "grounded" by his mother for buzzing sister Mary's
studio bungalow with Lock. How Charlie Chaplin was kidnapped in a
plane by Locklear and Jack Pickford. How Harry Houdini perpetrated a
"high-flying hoax," fooling the public and his biographers into
believing he was involved in the most thrilling escape from death ever
filmed. There is the story of Cecil B. DeMille's airline, the first
scheduled one in the world; and opera diva Luisa Tetrazzini's first
plane ride with Lock.

        Thriving on publicity and living only for aviation, Locklear
became a legend in his time.  But his was a short and tragic affair.
LOCKLEAR: The Man Who Walked on Wings recounts the story of the man
who claimed "Safety second is my motto."


    Art Ronnie.  LOCKLEAR:  The Man Who Walked on Wings. South
        Brunswick and New York:  A.S.Barnes and Company, 1973. ISBN
        0-498-01073-2  $12.00  œ4.50


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

          Art Ronnie was born on August 12, 1931, in Los Angeles,
  California.  He attended Los Angeles City College and has been a
  reporter, feature writer, television writer, records editor, radio
  editor (column), and book reviewer for the Los Angeles Herald-Express
  and Herald Examiner, and a publicist for MGM Television and Paramount
  Television.  At present, he is a publicist for Twentieth Century-Fox
  Television.  He has had extensive articles and photo layouts on travel,
  history, aviation, biography, humor, television, radio, motion
  pictures and music appear in many magazines, including Air Classics,
  American Heritage, Cross & Cockade Journal, Ford Times, Long Beach
  Independent Press-Telegram, Los Angeles Magazine, Los Angeles Times
  West, Metropolitan Opera News, National Airlines Aloft, TV Gnide, TWA
  Ambassador and Westways.  His library of more than 15,000 volumes,
  including a complete collection of the National Geographic, provides
  much of his needed research.


    Also by Art Ronnie:

    Art Ronnie.  COUNTERFEIT HERO: Fritz Duquesne, Adventurer and Spy.
        Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1995. ISBN
        1-55750-733-3


BOOK REVIEWS===================

WINGS, August 1974:
Volume 4 No. 4 -

LOCKLEAR: The Man Who Walked On Wings

Art Ronnie

A. S. Barnes $12.00

     Obviously a labor of love, Art Ronnie's hardcover volume on Ormer
Locklear stunt flyer, aviation pioneer, air force officer, bon vivant,
and a sort of flying Evel Knevel of his day, is more than just the
biography of a Hollywood stuntman. It is the story of aviation's
infancy, of a brawling show business world that none of us will ever
see again. For aviation buffs, it is a treasure trove of information
on what it was like to fly in the first two decades of this century.
For film fans, it is an invaluable record of what picture making used
to be. For the average reader, it is one of the most fascinating
stories this reviewer has ever read. What is more, this is original
research-material, assembled from interviews never before given,
records and letters seldom read by others, except the participants,
liberally illustrated with hundreds of fascinating photographs. In
short, this book is a one of a kind. And while the subject matter may
seem a "can't miss proposition," it is Ronnie's style that makes this
book the gem that it is.  Interesting, informative, literate,  it
handles the almost incredible career of Locklear with verve and
finesse. We recommend it without reservation.



rt221