The 1968 Tallmantz Auction

The Famous May 1968 Tallmantz Auction

by Scott A. Thompson

A landmark event in the history of Tallmantz Aviation was the auction held at the Movieland of the Air Museum on Wednesday, May 29th, 1968. The unique event saw the sale of thirty three vintage airplanes displayed at the museum. Offered for sale at the auction was a wide gamut of vintage aircraft, ranging from World War I Spads and Fokkers to World War II Wildcats and Kittyhawks, and many of the rare aircraft changed hands that day for less than $10,000 each. Perhaps not as well known, none of the aircraft offered at the auction were actually owned by Tallmantz at the time of Sthe sale; they had been sold two years earlier to a group of investors, and those investors were trying to recoup their investment through the auction.

1966 Sale of Collection to Rosen-Novak

After the death of Paul Mantz in July 1965 and the incapacitation of Frank Tallman due to a leg injury at around the same time, Tallmantz Aviation went through some hard times. Frank Tallman was forced by the circumstances to raise a substantial amount of cash to settle the Mantz estate, fend off related lawsuits, and keep the company solvent while it was reorganized. Thus, on February 18, 1966, Tallman sold the heart of the Movieland of the Air museum to a group of mid-west investors. The purchasers were the principal owners of two Nebraska companies, the Rosen Novak Auto Co. of Omaha and the Morrison, Quirk Grain Co. of Hastings. The sale included approximately 45 aircraft and a large assortment of aircraft engines, armament, photographs, diorama displays, and display cases. Among the aircraft sold were a genuine Nieuport 28, the sole surviving Lockheed Orion, and the Ryan B-1 rebuilt by Mantz as the Spirit of St. Louis for the 1957 movie of the same name. The media at the time reported a sales price in the $2 million range, though insiders noted the actual price was closer to $775,000. The new owners and Tallman worked out an agreement for the aircraft and exhibits to remain on display at the museum until they were resold.

Rosen-Novak Plans Auction

However, as an investment, purchasing the aircraft collection ultimately proved to a financial disaster. Rosen Novak immediately tried to market and sell the collection, with the announced intent to keep the collection together to allow a significant new air museum to be established. Despite some interest, the asking prices for the rare aircraft were apparently too high and sales were few and far between. A few individual aircraft did sell in 1966 and 1967, including a Lockheed P-38 (N9957F, now with the USAF as a base display at McGuire AFB, New Jersey) and a pair of FG-1D Corsairs (one now flies with the Fighter Collection at Duxford and the other is owned by Kermit Weeks). By 1968, however, Rosen Novak realized that the aircraft collection was not going to sell at their estimated value, so the company decided to cut their losses and hired the prestigious New York auction firm of Parke-Bernet to dispose of the collection at the aircraft auction.

May 29, 1968 Auction

The auction date was set for May 29 and press announcements went out. The auction was by invitation only, and several days were set aside prior to the event for potential buyers to inspect the offerings. The collection was divided up into over 100 lots, and these included twenty-three complete aircraft, six disassembled or incomplete aircraft, one non-flying replica, four subassemblies from aircraft (including a B-24 turret), nineteen sets of photographs, one set of models, seventeen lots of aircraft machine guns, one propeller collection, one vehicle, one engine collection, and six sets of museum display furnishings.

Jump here for a listing of auction lots.

On the afternoon of May 29, 500 potential buyers and interested bystanders, including a good cross-section of aviation historians, luminaries, celebrities, and pilots crowded into the main Movieland of the Air display hangar. Among them was Pancho Barnes, the 1930s era aviatrix trying to buy back her Mystery Ship Travelair that Mantz had bought from her years earlier, and also Otto Timm, noted aviation designer and early pioneer. Auctioneer John Marion ran the auction for nearly three hours, going through each lot and trying hard to coax sales from a largely unenthusiastic pool of buyers. The B-24 turret brought $110, and a Norden bombsight could find no takers at the minimum price of $50. The offered aircraft brought more action, though the sales prices by 2023 standards were a bit eye-opening. The sole-surviving Lockheed Orion brought $7,200, while the Nieuport 28 came in at $14,500. Pancho got her Mystery Ship back for $4,300. A flying replica of a 1909 Bleriot monoplane earned the sellers $6,750, but an intact and nearly airworthy DeHavilland Vampire jet brought just $1,100. And a flyable Curtiss P-40E? How about $7,000. Even in adjusted 2008 dollars ($60,700), that wasn’t a bad deal. Airline pilot Dick Woodson of San Mateo was the purchaser of the Tallman P-40E (N1207V), and it appeared two years later in the film Tora Tora Tora. The high-end sale was an original Sopwith Camel that sold for $40,000 ($347,000 in 2023 dollars). All told, the auction earned Rosen Novak and the Morrison, Quirk Grain Co. a total of $286,620, less whatever commission was paid to Parke-Bernet. Even with the earlier aircraft sales, it is clear that the original investment of $775,000 in early 1966 did not pay off in May 1968.

Tallmantz Auction Aftermath

The terms of the auction sales required that the airplanes and other material be cleared out of the hangar within three days, and very quickly what could be made flyable was flown out. Otherwise, trucks arrived to cart away disassembled airplanes, parts, and engines. The Movieland of the Air Museum was closed for a year as Tallman and his company dealt with their effort to amass eighteen B-25s and flight crews for the filming of Catch-22 in Mexico. Also, that time was taken for aircraft to be drawn out of company storage for restoration for the revamped museum and to also prepare new replacement museum exhibits.

By July 1969 the museum was again open, but much of its spirit had gone with the death of Mantz and the dispersal of so much of the original collection. The museum and the company soldiered on for another 15 years, suffering the death of Frank Tallman in an April 1978 airplane accident and the gradual collapse of the aviation film industry. In 1985, Tallmantz Aviation was sold to new investors and the remaining aircraft collection, still substantial, was sold to Kermit Weeks, where much of it remains to this day.