Girl Aces Hold Own Air Show: Universal Newsreel and the 1935 Women’s Championship Air Show

“Thirty women pilots have groomed their ships for a wholesale assault today and tomorrow on man’s supremacy in the air.” This quote is taken from a newspaper clipping from the production file for Universal Newsreel volume 7, release 406.

Since the early years of aviation, airshows and air derbies have allowed pilots to test their prowess against each other and exhibit their talents to the public. These events were very popular with the public and were often featured in newsreels. Universal Newsreel covered one airshow in November 1935 in volume 7, release 406. The Women’s Championship Air Race and Pacific Air Pageant, a two-day event in Long Beach, California, attracted 25 to 30 female pilots who participated in several events, including closed-course races, aerobatics, and an aviation review. It seems the competition occurred at a time of controversy in aviation circles over women’s equality in the air. A newspaper article in the newsreel’s production files states: “Women who are competing, however, are out to demonstrate their ability in convincing fashion as a last word to the controversy that flared last week in national aviation circles over woman’s equality in the air. It began when Amelia Earhart championed Helen Richey, first woman airline pilot, who quit because she disliked being just a ‘fair weather flyer.”

The show’s first day featured a 30-mile closed course race featuring Ethel Sheehy, Kay Van Doozer, Yolando Spirito, Evelyn Hudson, Nancy Chaffee, Elizabeth Hayward, Adoree Neville, Onita Thorely, and Katherine Cheung. Two closed-course races occurred on day two of the event. The first was 40 miles for planes having a top speed of 150 mpg with Yolanda Spirito, Elizabeth Hayward, Ethel Sheehy, Martie Bowman, Nancy Chaffee, and Elliotte Roberts flying, and the second race was 50 miles for planes with a top speed of not more than 175 mph. 

“Miss Faye Lucille Cox, Miss Bernadine King, Miss Katherine Cheung, and Miss Yolando Spirito will drop for thousands of feet in an attempt to outdo the cream of aviation’s “trixters.”  This quote is taken from a newspaper clipping in the production file for Universal Newsreel volume 7, release 406.

An aviation review included several planes owned by women. Mrs. Earl Daughterty exhibited a Bleriot, listed in the program as the only one of its kind. A Fleet aircraft owned and flown by Bernadine King was specially equipped for aerobatics and upside-down flying and, at the time, held the official women’s upside-down endurance record of 25 minutes 26 seconds. And Gladys O’Donnell, the event’s managing director and a charter member of the Ninety-Nines Organization, exhibited a Waco taper wing.

Universal featured the Women’s Championship Air Race in their November 13, 1935 release. While information about the pilots captured in the footage is not readily available, we know their names thanks to the production file. Paper records for this release include a story synopsis sheet, original script, newspaper article, and an official souvenir program. Pilots featured include Anita Thorley, Androe Neville, Mary Aleponce, Dorothy Ruther, Josephine Buckendorf, Beverly Dodge, and Nancy Draker Chaffer. Additional pilots featured in the footage with available online biographical information include Gladys O’Donnell, Bernadine King, Faye Cox Rogers, Henrietta Sumner, Katherine Cheung, and Yolanda Spirito. 

The Women’s Championship Air Race and Pacific Air Pageant happened only thirty years after the famed Wright brothers sustained power flight and during a formative decade in modern aviation. During the 1930s, the aviation industry experienced rapid technological advancement, increased military and civilian activity, and the rise of public interest. Pilots’ daredevil attempts at setting new records, high-speed races, and captivating stunts were captured in headlines worldwide. 

Pilots from this period became celebrities whose names endure in popular culture and are synonymous with the sport of aviation. Even today, names like Charles Lindbergh evoke images of round-the-world flights and daredevil stunts. Women have also played a large role in the development of aviation. Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, and Jackie Cochran are some of the most well-known female pilots, but many more contributed to the sport, with the actual number of women aviators in the 1930s s between 700 and 800 licensed women pilots, including the participants of the Women’s Championship Air Race and Pacific Air Pageant. 

Gladys O’Donnell, the pageant’s organizer, summed up her opinions on female aviators in a brochure from the event. “As the scope of aviation has broadened, we find women taking their place in the dramatic panorama of achievement. Inspiring, fascinating, and glorious, the drama of aeronautical progress has intrigued feminine imagination. From the perspective of the third dimension, we find a new world. The spirit of flying is the spirit of freedom. Grace, beauty, and rhythm unite to express in terms of exhilaration the sheer joy of being alive that is so essentially a part of flying. Its appeal is universal, and women have responded to it.”   

This newsreel and its outtakes can be viewed in their entirety in NARA’s catalog, Universal Newsreel volume 7, release 406, and UN-UN-1529×3. The following links will take you to past blog posts, where you can learn more about NARA’s special media holdings related to female pilots, early aviation, and Universal Newsreel.