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FLOYD GIBBONS has looked upon more war, death, and bloodshed than any other man alive today. Into the space of twenty-five years he has packed just about every kind of hazardous adventure it is possible for one man to have. There hasn't been a news-making spot on the earth's surface during the last quarter-century he hasn't visited while it was making news — that is, provided always it was exciting news, and it was humanly possible for him to get there before all the shooting was over.
Yet until he went to Spain last summer, he had never stepped into absolute chaos. Not even in that other revolution-ridden country, Russia, during and fust after the World War, had he seen such complete disorganization. In Russia there had been famine and misery, but not heedless, rapacious waste. In Manchuria he had seen cruelty; in France, during the World War. he had been so frightened he had been unable to control the trembling of his body. But even in Russia. Manchuria and France there had been order and purpose back of the carnage.
The "Headline Hunter" has spent his life following adventure. Much of that adventure he has passed along to you, in the form of books, newspaper stories, broadcasts, and magazine articles. You can get a taste of what he saw in Spain from his current Saturdaynight series of broadcasts for Nash motors. But there is one class of adventure he has left untold. He has told you the adventures of others; he has told you of adventures he participated in; but he has never told you the personal history of Floyd Gibbons, adventurer. It is a story so colorful, so packed with action, that it is difficult to compress into the limits of a few articles in a magazine. Nevertheless, I'm going to try.
Floyd sailed for Spain shortly after the mutiny of the Madrid garrison which
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STORY OF A MAN WHO ASKS
JUST ONE THING OF LIFE
DANGER AND MORE DANGER!
started the revolution. Naturally. Wherever there was excitement he had to be.
He landed at Gibraltar on August 13, ten days before he was scheduled to broadcast from Madrid on the RCA Magic Key of the Air program. Ten days, he thought, would allow him plenty of time to get from Gibraltar to Madrid.
North and west of Gibraltar was Rebel territory. North and east were" those loyal to the Government. Madrid was in the hands of the Government; so in the few days at his disposal he went first into Rebel territory, through Algeciras, Cadiz, Jerez (the birthplace of sherry wine), to Seville, then back to Gibraltar. At Cadiz he saw his first pirate ship — a destroyer which had mutinied against the Government, and so was technically a pirate — and in Seville he met General Queipo de Llano, the man who captured that city for the Rebels with only a handful of soldiers, and who now is Spain's most widely listened-to radio personality because of his news bulletins.
Added to the Rebel forces in these southern towns were troops of savage Moors from Africa, mercenary soldiers born into the tradition of (Continued on page 58)
Right, Floyd Gibbons of Washington, D. C, at the age of three; right below, his father, Edward Gibbons, who didn't want his son to be a reporter.
By NORTON RUSSELL
Below, a hitherto unpublished family group. Top row, left to right, Mrs. Emma Gibbons, Floyd, Zelda, and Donald; in front are Edward and Margaret.
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