Gladys Roy

Gladys Roy ( probably born in Minneapolis in 1896 ; died on August 15, 1927 in Ohio ) was an American wingwalker , barnstormer , stunt woman and film actress . She was best known for dancing the Charleston on the wings of a flying airplane and for photographing a stunt in which she played tennis with a fellow stunt on the wings of an airplane flying 3,000  feet (914 meters).

Life

Gladys Roy was born Gladys Smith in 1896 and believed to be in Minneapolis. Some sources give 1902 or 1904 as the year of her birth, but her gravestone indicates 1896.

Gladys Roy had two sisters and four brothers. Three of her brothers, Robert "Lee", Charles "Les", and Chadwick "Chad" Smith were pilots and flew for Northwest Airlines . Shortly after Gladys graduated from high school in 1921, her brother Chadwick took her on her first flight. At her second flight she made her first parachute jump , which laid the foundation for their next stunt career. She herself claimed to hold the world record for a parachute jump from the lowest altitude (allegedly from 100 feet) and completed jumps from 17,000 feet (about 5.2 km).

After a few parachute jumps, she began mainly with wing walking , where she climbed out of flying airplanes onto their wings to perform stunts there, as well as barnstorming (stunt flights such as formation flights).

In 1926 she had a major accident during a state fair when she fell not far above the ground with her parachute through an " air hole ", hit the ground hard and dislocated her hip. She told the Los Angeles Times in May 1926: “Lately the masses are getting tired of even my toughest stunts, so I have to invent new ones if I want to keep my reputation as a dare devil. At some point an accident will happen and then- "

Gladys Roy died on August 15, 1927 in Ohio during a photo and filming of The Queen of Ohio Meets the Queen of the Air with the "Miss Ohio 1926", Evelyn Wilgus. Roy had insisted on rotating the airplane propellers so they wouldn't be visible in the photos. After the photos were taken, she got out, forgot about the running rotors, and ran inside. She was taken to the hospital, but died there as a result of the accident.

After the performance in Ohio, Roy had actually planned to take part in an air race between New York and Rome with Lieutenant Delmar Snyder .

She was married to Arthur J. Roy; they had no children.

Stunts

Roy's most famous stunt was playing tennis on the upper wings of a flying double-decker at 3000 feet (914 m) above Los Angeles in 1925. Her stunt partner was Ivan Unger, also Barnstormer and Wingwalker and a member of the stunt group 13 Black Cats . The aircraft was a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny", flown by pilot Jack Tomac. The aircraft reached a top speed of 121 km / h (75  mph ). Although this is quite slow for airplanes, an actual rally would hardly have been possible at this speed - the spectators on the ground would not have been able to see it anyway. So they didn't actually play tennis, just simulated the game without a ball. Accordingly, there is no tennis ball to be seen in the original photos, but some newspapers published a picture with a ball inserted afterwards.

Shows and movie

Her agent was the Western Vaudeville Managers' Association , who registered her at trade shows in the western United States. She did stunts for the Lord Motor Car Company , among others , as well as for various real estate exhibitions and auctions, including John P. Mills Real Estate . She had a role in the 1925 western series The Fighting Ranger . During filming, she was seriously injured when she fell from her horse. Further films were planned, but because of her fatal accident they never came back.

Web links

Gladys Roy in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Gladys Roy Collection 1911-1927, Accession number 2005-0011. In: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved July 24, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Photo of Dave Vangsness' headstone . In: Find a Grave , accessed July 24, 2020.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Gladys Smith Roy. In: Find A Grave. Retrieved July 24, 2020 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Rebecca Maksel: Tennis, Anyone? In: Air & Space Magazine. January 29, 2013, accessed July 24, 2020 . 
5. ^ The Women Who Walked on Wings. In: Messy Nessy Chic. February 26, 2019, accessed July 24, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Fred Jopp: Thrill, Applause, Profit, All Incitement of 'Daredevil' to Perform Hazardous Stunts . In: The Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles, California May 23, 1926, pp. 31 ( newspapers.com ): "Of late the crowds are beginning to tire of even my most difficult stunts and so I must necessarily invent new ones, that is, I want to hold my reputation as a dare-devil. Eventually an accident will occur and then— "
7. ^ Gladys Roy, Stunt Flier, Killed by Whirling Propellor . In: The News-Herald . Franklin, Pennsylvania August 16, 1927, p. 1 ( findagrave.com ).
8. ↑ Gladys Roy, Stunt Flier, Killed in Ohio . In: Star Tribune . Minneapolis, Minnesota August 16, 1927, p. 1 .
9. ↑ Noted Aviatrix Dies of Injuries, Gladys Roy Killed When Struck by Propeller . In: Knoxville Journal . Knoxville, Tennessee August 16, 1927.
10. ↑ Dan Evon: Are These Daredevils Playing Tennis on an Airplane? In: Snopes. April 9, 2018, accessed July 27, 2020 . 
11. ↑ Couple Play Tennis 3,000 Feet in the Air . In: The Tampa Tribune . Tampa, Florida November 4, 1925, pp. 17 ( newspapers.com ).