Surf City has its first air meet

A LOOK BACK

There has been, of late, a lot of negative comments about aircraft

flying about our town, including harsh words about our crime-fighting

helicopters. But there was a time when airplanes were welcomed, and

when they landed, the whole town came out to celebrate.

One time that this happened, was in November 1927, just in time

for the holiday season.

As always, the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce took a lead in

planning such an event, which would please our citizens and would put

Huntington Beach on the map. The chamber chose Dr. George Shank,

James Farquhar, Charles Patton and Charles Farr to be a committee to

work with Huntington Beach Mayor C.G. Boster and M.G. Jones, the

principal of our high school, to help pull off this important event.

This air exposition featured two very famous round-the-world

fliers of the time, Lt. Leslie Arnold and Lt. Eric Nelson. The

committee also planned to have Major Art Goebel, who made the record

flight to Hawaii, there. It’s hard to imagine that it took days to

reach Hawaii and now it can be reached in less than half a day.

The city prepared a landing field on the east side of town for the

men to land their planes. What would Huntington Beach be like if it

didn’t have a parade -- this event would have a parade of cars. It

was planned to have Major Goebel’s plane towed to the high school for

all to see.

Margaret Shank, the daughter of Dr. Shank, was chosen Queen of the

Air Meet. It was a picture-perfect Tuesday, Nov. 29. As our air event

began, our residents and friends turned out en masse to the air field

at Talbert Avenue and Beach Boulevard to await the arrival of these

two men. Lt. Arnold arrived here, but Lt. Nelson couldn’t come and

was replaced by Lt. D.W. Tomlinson.

These two men were from the Fighting Squadron in San Diego.

Several Southern California airports sent planes here and these

daredevils of the air would enthrall the crowd below with their

flying abilities.

There were 22 planes that showed up for our event that day.

Airports that sent planes included the International Aircraft

Corporation from Long Beach, Clover Field in Santa Monica, Burdette

Field in Los Angeles, Western Air Express out of Montebello, Ray

Crawford of Long Beach and there were planes from Costa Mesa.

A crowd of thousands watched these planes flying in formation.

They were thrilled by a 3,000-foot parachute jump by John Tranun, who

fell 1,000 feet before opening his chute. Who said the sport of

free-falling was new?

Ernie Davis from Long Beach demonstrated his skills at

wing-walking and then ended his act by diving off the wings in a free

fall. I guess he fell in love with Huntington Beach.

Several local citizens took rides in those planes, including Mayor

Boster, Lucille Gisler, Charles Patton, R.M. “Bullets” Marshall and

John Newland and his wife.

The crowd then headed for their vehicles to form a parade of

several hundred cars that headed for the high school to listen to the

two great airmen. Included in this parade were cars filled with

members of the Fullerton High School Band.

The two airmen were greeted by 1,000 students at the school’s

auditorium and listened to the dangerous adventures of these two men

in far-off lands. The students were joined by several thousand more

people who came from the air field.

One of the speakers of that event was Capt. F.W. Young, who told

our Citizens that “Huntington Beach has an airport now and all she

needs to do is to keep it.”

We didn’t.

Major Goebel arrived in Los Angeles by plane at 4 p.m., too late

to attend our aerial event. This first air meet cost only $1,500 to

put on and it was enjoyed by all who attended that wonderful Tuesday

in 1927. Mayor Boster felt that this event gave the children an

opportunity to meet two famous airman.

To leave no doubt that Huntington Beach was ready for the air age,

on Dec. 17, 1927, that over-weight elf in his red suit landed in a

modern airplane instead of his antique sleigh.

The merchants of Main Street, not liking this more modern means of

transportation, waited until the old guy had departed in that modern

airplane to hand out presents to the local children who went from one

store to the next.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington

Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at

P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.