Moving Picture World (Jul 1919)

232 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD July 12, 1919 FILM SENSATIONAL AIRPLANE CRASH Aerial Collision Between Two Machines Caught bv Camera in Third Machine— No Fatalities ONE of the most amazing air accidents in the history of aviation, in which two machines collided at a height of 2,200 feet and with their three airmen, one dangling at the end of a rope fastened to one of the planes, crashed to earth, wrecking the machine but only slightly bruising one of the aviators, was all photographed from a third airplane and recorded in motion picture film. Were Staging Picture Stunt. The accident happened during the filming of a stunt for the Houdini picture, “The Grim Game,” which is being produced at the Famous Players-Lasky studio at Hollywood, Cal. The airplanes, of the Curtiss type, were chartered from Cecil B. DeMille’s Mercury Aviation Company. According to schedule, the machine piloted by A1 Wilson and carrying Director Irvin Willat and his camera, was the first to leave DeMille Field, the plan being to maneuver at sufficient height to get good pictures of the stunt to be executed by the other two planes. Three ’Planes in Air. Next to take the air was C. Vernon Pickup, former lieutenant in U. S. Aviation, carrying Robert Kennedy, also a former aviation lieutenant, in the forward cockpit with a rope firmly secured to the intermediate strut of the right wing. Immediately afterward the third plane went aloft carrying Lieut. David G. Thompson, of Rockwell Field, Los Angeles, alone. According to the plan for the stunt, Thompson was to dive under Pickup’s machine and Kennedy, swinging at the end of the rope, was to drop to the upper plane of the Thompson machine. The two machines maneuvered perfectly at a height of 2,200 feet over Santa Monica Canyon and Kennedy swung out on the rope, ready for the leap. What happened then is described in the Los Angeles Examiner as follows : Machines Collide. “Just as the leap was to be made a sudden up-current of wind drove Thompson’s upper wing full into the landing gear on Pickup’s plane above, and the airplanes were instantly locked and began to drop like stones. “Down like shooting stars they hurtled for a thousand feet. No effort to disentangle them proved of avail. Thompson’s plane had swung out like a pendulum, describing a semi-circle and falling upside down. “The craft were then in a nose-onnose position, Pickup right side up and Thompson upside down. The whirring propellors were chewing away great bites of wing and fuselage from the interlocked machines. “Kennedy still dangled from Pickup’s car. He was speeding through space like a rocket, too swiftly to think of but one possibility — death. Aviators’ Luck Changes. “Suddenly — for no reason that any of the three aviators can describe — the planes parted. Both propellors were gone. Wings were torn and chewed into dangerous shape. Thompson’s ship went crashing down through space, still upside down, with only a thousand feet more to fall before a fatal end. “Working instinctively and franticly at the control, the young flier finally righted the plane to its normal position, succeeded in driving it into a swift glide and landed upright in the canyon bed. He was traveling too fast to land without a spill, and the big, broken bird nosed over and struck with a thud, upside down on its back. Thompson ripped loose his belt and crawled out from the wreck no worse for the fall except for shock. Kennedy Has Narrow Escape. Immediately the planes parted 1,200 feet in the air. Pickup, his propellor gone and the ship almost beyond control, threw the machine into a long glide and made a rough landing on the steep wall of the canyon, dragging Kennedy after him as he came to earth. Pickup hadn’t sustained a scratch. Kennedy was bruised and cut by stones and underbrush. He was entangled in his rope swing when the plane came to a stop. “The point of Thompson’s landing and somersault was at Twenty-sixth street and Santa Monica Canyon. Pickup and Kennedy hit the earth at a point near San Vicente boulevard and Eighteenth street, Santa Monica. The grim incident was not without its element of humor, however, which Thompson himself relates. Thompson’s machine landed in a bean patch, and the two pilots rushed over to Kennedy, expecting to find him badly mangled, if not dead. Following closely was the bean farmer. “Look!” yelled the farmer. “Do you realize what you’ve done to my beans?” FRANK G. HALL, who controls the . world rights to the pictures of the Willard-Dempsey boxing contest, had six cameramen at the scenes of the big sporting event under the direction of Harry P. Diggs, Charles Miller and Leon Britton. Six days before the bout, Mr. Hall had scenes of the two boxers in training showing on the screen of the Park Theatre, Columbus Circle, New York, where Jess Willard’s special production, “The Challenge of Chance” is playing as the main attraction. New film was sent daily from Toledo and these scenes were shown the night of the same day at the Park Theatre as an added attraction. Mr. Hall has the exclusive rights to Hall Has World's Picture Rights to Willard Dempsey Contest— Big Houses Booking the Special the motion pictures of this contest and all stills, plates and everything taken in connection with this event has been copyrighted. Every important detail from the time the contestants began serious training in Toledo until the big crowds left the arena after the bout is included in the picture controlled by Mr. Hall. Secured Many Intimate Views. Intimate shots of the Governor of Ohio, the Mayor of Toledo, Tex Rickard, the promoter of the event, both contestants in training and in the ring, the crowds in the arena and hundreds of human interest scenes that are always characteristic of a big sporting event are seen in the reelage that represents Willard and Dempsey in training and contesting the championship heavyweight title of the world. Reports from Harry P. Diggs, special representative for Mr. Hall in Toledo, who supervised this work and who will have charge of the bookings and special showings in Ohio, indicate that every large city and many of the smaller places in this rtate have signed for bookings on the pictures of the contest. Bookings Heavy from Big Theatres. With the pictures of the contest, Mr. Hall says that Willard’s big feature, “The Challenge of Chance,” which has been running to capacity business wherever shown, has been in great demand. More than 114 bookings in the leading theatres throughout the United States are reported on “The Challenge of Chance.” In all these instances the bookings were for one week or more. Many one, two and three-day bookings have been noted in the smaller towns. Three Pictures Which, from Left to Right, Tell a Remarkable Story. At the left, everything ready for the daredevil to leap to the plane below; centre view showing the lower machine driven up by an air current; at the right, both planes, tangled, begin their plunge for earth, the daredevil still hanging on. No one injured even though it was “The Grim Game.”