In the third and final book on aviation, the book club turned to a book of historical fiction, Above the Fray, a Novel of the Union Balloon Corps by Kris Jackson. The Fray in question, of course was the Civil War and the story was told through the eyes of a young man who joined the Union Army and ended up in the Balloon Corps. The story followed this young man through major battles in Virginia and ultimately to Gettysburg. I have to admit historical fiction is not my favorite type of literature.

The Balloon Corps was headed by Thaddeus Lowe, who eventually moved to southern California. Mt. Lowe in the San Gabriel Mountains is named for him. He built a small gas company that was absorbed by Southern California Gas Company. He constructed the Mt. Lowe Railway, remnants that can be seen today.As noted in my previous email, Thaddeus Lowe was the grandfather of Pancho Barnes who carried on his aviation tradition.

During World War I, the Balloon Corps had a training facility in Arcadia near the golf course, at Ross Field. The Elk’s Lodge building on Huntington Drive is the last vestige of the former air field. Trainees would hike into the mountains and practice reconnaissance as if they were aloft in a balloon.
Besides Thaddeus Lowe, there are other southern California connections to the Civil War:
Rosecrans Boulevard is named for Union General William Rosecrans who purchased Rancho San Pedro. 
Johnston Street in Lincoln Heights is named for Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, the highest ranking soldier to be killed in action during the Civil War.
Alabama Hills were named in honor of the Confederate war ship, CSS Alabama. Theodore Roosevelt’s uncle served on the ship.
Kearsarge Pass was named for the USS Kearsarge, the Union ship that sank the CSS Alabama.

 The second book in our theme of Aviation was Pancho: The Biography of Florence Lowe Barnes by Barbara Hunter Schultz.

Pancho Barnes was one of the most colorful characters in Southern California history. Her grandfather was Thaddeus Lowe (much more about him in our next email). She was one of the first female pilots and, although married to a Protestant preacher, she lived a life that flouted the conservative society of early 20th Century Pasadena.

She was portrayed by actress Kim Stanley in the movie, The Right Stuff. Pancho ran the Happy Bottom Riding Club, a bar and restaurant catering to the test pilots of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. In the movie, the actor playing the bartender was Chuck Yeager, the real test pilot played by Sam Shepard in the movie.

As a pilot Pancho broke a speed record held by Amelia Earhart. She also used her flying talents in motion pictures and had many Hollywood friends.

Accompanied by her grandfather, she attended the 1910 Air Show in Los Angeles and lived long enough to see her good friend Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon.

 The next theme for the book club in 2015 was Aviation. We started with Birdmen by Lawrence Goldstone. 

Like all new technologies there was a battle royale concerning these new-fangled flying machines. The Wright Brothers were pitted against Glenn Curtiss. Each had their own ideas about how to control aircraft in flight, including banking and turning. 

This inevitably led to a war over patents. As we will see, patent contests become the central point of many new technologies, such as the automobile and moving pictures. Hollywood in a large part was created by businessmen who sought to avoid Edison’s control over film. The authority to grant patents is provided in the Constitution, leading to the creation of the Patent Office. (In a future email, we will see that Clara Barton worked at the Patent Office.)

The Wright Brothers manufactured bicycles in Dayton, Ohio. The principle of balance while cycling applies to aviation as well, as Wilber Wright discovered.

Initial competition in aviation came from the Europeans, such as Roland Garros, a hero of the First World War, for whom the French Open Tennis Championship is named.

Southern California, with its excellent weather, became a hotbed of aviation with small airports scattered throughout the basin, such as Sky Ranch airport located in La Puente and Shepherd Field in the City of Industry. Of course, Edwards Air Force Base was the site of many aviation firsts and one of the landing sites of the Space Shuttle.

In the city of Brea I have often passed by a nondescript office building on Birch Street with a sign the reads "Curtiss Wright." This is the headquarters of Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Division. Over the years these two business foes merged to form a large corporation.

The third book in our series was Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Doheny by Margaret Leslie Davis.

The book club’s initial theme was the decade of the 1920’s. The second book on our list was Last Call by Daniel Okrent. 

During the life of the book club, we commemorated the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed alcohol (sort of). The Homestead Museum even decorated its Gallery with a story board about Prohibition that is still there today.

The passage of Prohibition was influenced by other societal and political pressures and movements, including Progressivism, women’s rights, and immigration. All this contributed to the opposition to “Demon Rum” and its attendant consequences. In the years before the Roaring 20’s, Amendments related to the income tax, direct election of Senators, women’s right to vote, and Prohibition were ratified.

The issue of the right to ingest anything into our bodies remains with us today. Strict libertarians want no restriction on what an individual chooses to consume, whether it’s alcohol, pot, or hard drugs. Somewhere there is a happy medium, but no family is immune from the perils of alcohol or drug abuse.

Daniel Okrent has an interesting history, His book was featured in Ken Burn’s documentary Prohibition. Okrent was also credited with inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, a form of fantasy baseball, popular even today among statistics-driven baseball fans. Ken Burns used Okrent’s baseball knowledge in his documentary Baseball. In addition Okrent produced a series available on You Tube titled Old Jews Telling Jokes.