Roscoe Turner was probably the greatest showman in the world of the daredevil pilots of the 1920s and 1930s.
He was first and foremost a great pilot. During his career, he won six major racing trophies, including both the prestigious Bendix Trophy and Thompson Trophy.
ROSCOE DESIGNED HIS OWN COSTUME
Many of the barnstoming pilots wore a variation of a World War I uniform. Roscoe designed his own costume, and was the epitome of the dashing pilot from his high shiny black leather boots to his blue tunic complete with diamond studded wings and a wide belt, to the tip of his meticulously waxed moustache.
ROSCOE AND HIS MACOTT - GILMORE THE LION
Most pilots of that time relied on a sponsor or a benefactor to help pay the great expenses that came from flying. Turner created a mascot from his sponsor, Gilmore Oil and this was no ordinary mascot. The symbol of the Gilmore Oil Company was a lion. So, Turner went out and bought himself a baby lion cub who he named Gilmore. Turner took Gilmore everywhere he went as a passenger in the airplane.
Perhaps because Roscoe Turner came from humble beginnings it prompted him to create such a larger than life character. Roscoe was born in Corinth Mississippi in 1895 on September 29th as the oldest of six children. He attended a one-room school house and never got more than a tenth-grade education. His father was a farmer and wanted Roscoe to take over the family business, but Roscoe’s talents took him away from the farms.
ROSCOE'S AMAZING CAREER
Turner became obsessed with engines and soon was driving trucks. He drove an ambulance during World War I and eventually became smitten with the planes he saw flying overhead and he learned to fly.
After the war, he and a friend started their own flying air circus where Roscoe not only flew, but was a wing walker and parachutist. Eventually, he settled down to more practical flying and opened up his own aviation school and bought a plane and started a sight-seeing business. In 1927, he became the field manager of an air strip in Richmond, Virginia, taking time out to fly in Howard Hughes’ movie “Hell’s Angles”.
While in California he founded Nevada Airlines, flying couples to and from Los Angeles to Reno. In 1929, the Governors of California and Nevada hired him as their personal pilot. It was in sevice to them that he earned the honorary title "Colonel". He began to fly Lockheed Vega planes exclusively but did not own one of his own.
He persuaded Earl Gilmore to buy him his own Lockheed Vega and in return Turner advertised The Gilmore Oil Company and Red Lion Petroleum Products on the side of his plane. It was then, he bought his lion cub Gilmore who became his constant companion.
Gilmore and Roscoe flew together until Gilmore reached 150 pounds in weight and then for safety, Roscoe had to leave Gilmore on the ground. Gilmore did live to the age of twenty-two.
In the early 1930’s Turner began participating in air races. Eventually, he traded in his Lockheed Vega for a Wedell-Williams race plane and continued to set records and win races until 1939. At that time, he settled down for good, making his home in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he started an air-service agency.
Toward the end of his life, he decided to create a museum about his life but died of bone cancer in 1970, before the museum was finished. His wife made sure that the museum did open. Included in the museum was Gilmore who, after his death, Roscoe had had stuffed. Eventually Turner’s museum closed and much of Turner’s memorabilia was donated to the Smithsonian Museum.
Sources:
U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
The Society of Air Racing Historians, Inc
Roscoe Turner: Aviation's Master Showman - by Carroll V Glines (Smithsonian 1995)
