Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

10 into the ofiQce at the same moment. Tommy said: "He sure likes to keep his hand in, doesn't he?" " He sure does," said Tex. " I told him that crate needed repairs, and that I was going to report it as unsafe, but he doesn't seem to take any notice of me. Boy, look at him now!" The monoplane was stunting. She did everything but crash. Spins, spiral dives, loops—every second Tex expected the old ship to fall apart. He and Tommy went outside to get a better view. They found the mechanic who had turned over Martin's prop standing there watching. "Earl Martin is sure doiiig his stuff." the man said. "He seems to be trying to break his neck," Tommy commented. The man chuckled. "I'll bet Miss Betty Lou is having the time of her life," he said. Tommy spun round on him in amaze- ment. "What's that?" he shouted. "She's up there with him," the man explained "Gosh!" muttered Tex under his breath. "And they call the ship the Flying Coffin!" The monoplane went through every known form of aerobatics, and the group of men below could hear the steady roar of the engine and the scream of the wind in the wires. Suddenly Earl Martin decided that he had given Betty Lou all the thrill she was entitled to, and finished up with a power dive. . With engine opened out full, he hurtled towards the earth. The speed was sicken- ing, and Tommy hardly dared look. He knew that when Martin tried to pull out of that dive, the terrific pressure of air on the wings could easily fold the plane up and crash it. But somehow the machine stood the strain. It landed at a terrific speed, and for once Martin misjudged his distances. He shot through a hedge and buried his nose in a haystack. Tommy and the others raced across the field. When they reached the machine, Martin was just helping Betty Lou out of it. "You crazy fool!" Tommy snapped. "Betty Lou, are you all right?" "Well, I'm kind of dizzy," Betty Lou answered. "But otherwise I seem to be intact." Earl Martin laughed. He was looking pleased with himself. "Nothing ever happens to anyone who flies with the great Martin," he said. "Why, what's the matter? Windy?" Tommy clenched his fists. "You punch-drunk clown!" he said dangerously. "You missed death by seconds." Betty Lou saw that bad trouble was brewing, and sought to stop it while there was yet time. "Tommy—please!" she said. Martin sneered. " Tommy, eh? Tailspin Tommy, I sup- pose? I heard that the going got too rough for you and you had to quit. Maybe you were wise. You should leave real flying to the men." His tone was so offensive that Tommy lost his temper. He lashed out suddenly, and hit Martin clean under the jaw. Martin gave a yelp of surprise, tottered backwards a few paces, clawing at the air, and then lost his balance and fell. He was up again the next second, and went at Tommy like a mad bull. But Tex stepped in his path and caught him by the arm. "Stow it!" Tex said sharply. "You asked for it. mister, and you got it. Let it go at that." Martin struggled to get loose. Tex held on grimly. At that moment Sheenan came up. "What's all the trouble about?" he demanded. "Just an unrehearsed action scene," Tex October Htli, 19.39. BOY'S CINEMA said, blowing a little. "This fellow Martin's crazy. I ain't saying anything against the way you make your pictures, Mr. Sheenan, but Mi-. Smith says there isn't to be any unnecessary stunting over this field." "Who are you?" Sheenan snapped angrily. "Tex is the name. I told Martin he was grounded for repairs, but he took no notice. What's more, he flew with a passenger." Martin wrenched himself free. His eyes were flaming. "I'm not taking any orders from a greasemonkey," he said. Sheenan turned on him fiercely. "You'll take orders from anybody I say," he said. "Not that I care if you break your neck, but the airfield manager had the right in law to make any regula- tion he thinks fit. Stay on the ground till your ship's been serviced. Under- stand?" Martin opened his mouth to say some- thing blistering, then remembered in time that Sheenan was ihe boss. He was the one who paid the wages. "I understand," Martin replied sulkily, and for the time being that ended the matter. DOG FIQHT ! THE following morning. Tommy drifted into Paul Smith's office for a chat. He did not have to make a trip in the transport plane that day, so thought he would watch the film unit. "What's Sheenan doing to-day, Paul?" he asked. "I'm not quite sure," Paul replied. "He says all he has to do now is take shots of a dog fight between two planes and then he'll be out of here. I shan't be sorry to see the back of him." "Nor me," Tommy said. " He's looking for a pilot for the second plane. You wouldn't like to go up, I suppose?" "I would not." "That's what I told him." Tommy turned towards the door. When he reached it he stopped and turned. "By the way, seen anything of Skeeter?" he asked. "I've given him the day off," Paul Smith answered. "He's down at the hospital. His sister's ill, or something." Tommy nodded and went out. He walked over to the film unit, but they hadn't started work yet. He stood around for a little while, then drifted along to the workshops and began to work on his cam.era gun. After a while young Bobby entered. The kid looked excited. "Hallo, youngster!" said Tommy. "You look all steamed up over something. What have you been up to?" Bobby went over to him. "I've just come from the hospital," he said. "Mummy's in bed asleep." He paused for a moment, then added: "She's been asleep an awful long time." "Perhaps she's very tired," said Tommy. "I guess that must be it," said Bobby, nodding. Then, after another pause: "Tommy, what does crit—crit—critical mean?" "Why?" Tommy asked. "Well, I heard the doctor talking to Uncle Skeeter. He said mummy's con- dition was critical. He said he'd have to get another doctor from somewhere else—an awfully important one. And he said he would want a lot of money." Tommy frowned. It was obvious that Bobby's mother was in a bad way. It was equally obvious that Bobby didn't understand what it was all about—not as yet, anyway. "Let's go along and see what Mr. Sheenan's doing," Tommy said. It was best to keep the kid's mind occupied with something else at a time like this. They walked across the airfield. Half- way across they met Glenn, Sheenan's assistant director. Glenn did his best to be casual about the meetitng. He had just had a stormy scene with Sheenan, Every Tuesday and had been given instructions to find someone to fly in the dog-fight. "Hallo, Tommy!" he said cheerily, "You're just the man I'm looking for. I've come to give you my congi-atulations." "Congratulations?" said Tommy, frown- ing. "What for?" "You're going to be a film actor." "How come?" "One of our spare pilots broke his arm late yesterday." "And you want me to take his place?" "That's right. It's for an aerial combat. There's five hundred dollars in it. We'll centre on you in an Allied plane. Earl . Martin will be flying a ship with German markings. You'll both have machine-guns, and fire at each other with blanks. Martin is supposed to get you, and we'll put a bomb in your plane so that you can touch it off and go into a spin. We'll follow vou down with a camera focused on your fall- ing plane." " And when do I pull out of this spin?" Tommy asked. "When I wave to you." Glenn rubbed his hands together with excitement. He was almost as bad as Sheenan himself. "Oh, boy, it'll make a great shot!" "It will, eh?" Tommy's voice sounded grim. "Well, I hope you have luck find- ing someone to do it." "You mean you won't touch the job?" "That's the general idea.' "But, say, you fellows don't often have a chance of picking up five hundred smackers for a couple of hours' work, do you?" "We don't. But if I ever go into a spin in a burning ship, it won't be to please the customers. It'll be because I can't help it." He took Bobby by the hand. "Come on, Bobby." He and Bobby continued towards the film set. Glenn stared after them, then shrugged and walked on. He was hoping to find a spare pilot hanging around the airfield offices. He ran into Skeeter after a time. Skeeter had just returned from the hos- pital, and was looking worried. "Hallo, Skeeter!" Glenn said. "What's eating you?" "Sister ill," Skeeter said briefly. "She's got to have an operation." " Gee, I'm sorry to hear that!" Glenn's eyes narrowed. He knew that Skeeter was a good pilot. "Say, let's take a walk round the hangars and talk. I think I might have something that would interest you." Ten minutes later Tommy, finding that there would be nothing doing until the afternoon, returned to the airfield. And he saw Skeeter and Glenn in earnest con- versation together. Glenn was looking pleased with himself. Tommy did some quick thinking, ^d decided to hang around. Immediately after lunch, he strolled towards the hangars. Skeeter was inside one of them. He was dressed in flying kit, and was adjusting a parachute. Tommy went in. "Hallo, Skeeter!" he said casually. "Coming along to see the fun this after- noon?" "You bet!" Skeeter replied. "Iwouldn't miss it for the world." " They were just lining up the ships as I passed," Tommy went on. He indicated the parachute that Skeeter was wearing. "Is that harness okay now?" "Quite okay." Skeeter was ill at ease. He dared not tell Tommy what he was going to do, or Tommy would have Paul Smith order him to remain grounded. "I was just trying it out." Tommy looked at it critically. "Seems to want a bit more adjustment yet," he said. "I have a feeling that we haven't figured on enough strain for the weight. Come on down to the workshop, and I'll show you what I mean." Skeeter began to shuffle his feet im- patiently. "Won't it keep?" he asked. "I want to see what they're going to do out there."