Jerry Farquhar is a happily retired airline pilot now living in Florida. During the mid-1950s he was high school buddies with Paul Mantz, Jr. They both attended Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, both swam competitively for the school, and their birthdays were but three days apart. Being a good friend of Paul Mantz Jr. meant spending time with the Paul Mantz Sr. family aboard their residence…Mantz’s yacht “Pez Espada” docked at the Balboa Yacht Club. It also meant spending time at the Mantz hangar at Orange County Airport and witnessing some of Mantz’s exploits during that time. He was fortunate to meet a number of aviation luminaries that came calling on Paul Mantz. Farquhar has many stories about those years with his buddy Paul Mantz Jr., a few of which (edited by the webmaster, just a bit, for context) are related here.
Farquhar graduated high school in 1956 and went right to the infant Air Force Academy, then in temporary quarters at Lowry AFB in Denver. By the time he graduated in 1960, the Academy had moved to its well-known campus near Colorado Springs. Paul Mantz wrote him a letter of recommendation to assist him get accepted by the Academy, and even met up with him at the campus on at least one occasion. Jerry went on to fly for the USAF, then Capitol Airlines, then had a full career flying with Delta Airlines. He was gracious to provide these stories about a few of his experiences.
Paul Mantz and cadet Jerry Farquhar at the temporary location for the Air Force Academy in 1957.
Early Tests with Paul Mantz’s TBM-1C air tanker:
(September 1954)
“Mantz had contract from Cal Forestry to test idea of water bombing fires. His TBM was fitted with plywood panels in torpedo bay to give a smooth surface for inserting weather balloons. Everybody expected water to rapidly turn into a mist, so it was assumed a low-level drop was needed. It took hours to load water from a garden hose. High-speed cameras were set up on grass between runway and parallel taxiway (at Orange County Airport) and a limed circle was laid as aiming point. Mantz made multiple passes as cameras were adjusted for the live drop. This attracted the attention of an airport deputy, who decided to go investigate. The deputy made a turn onto cross taxiway near the camera crew as Mantz made the drop from an altitude of 40 ft. Water from burst balloon did NOT turn into a mist. It came down as a solid blob, which hit the side of deputy’s pickup. Water entered an open door window and washed the deputy out, blasted the driver’s door, bent the truck bed, bent all 4 wheels, and basically destroyed the truck!! Mantz had that film converted to 16mm to add to his collection of great ‘outtakes.’ He used the lower saloon on (his yacht) the Pez Espada that had a bar on the starboard side with a projector to show small reels of ‘outtakes.’ The deputy who was soaking wet was a young and rather ‘officious’ type, and Mantz swore he did not see his truck drive in front of his plane when he dropped the water bomb!! And he never admitted otherwise!”
(Use this link to see video of the TBM drop tests (beginning at 00:56) mentioned in this story that took place at the Orange County Airport in September 1954.)
A Flight Instructor Gets A Ride
(Summer 1955)
“Another hilarious event happened when they were re rigging his Stearman camera plane for work on The Court Martial of Bill Mitchell (released in December 1955). Mantz was making brief aerobatic tests just off Orange County Airport, then would return for more adjustments to the rigging. His repeated ups and downs attracted watchers around his hangar which became a crowd of about 40 people. Among them was a young man wearing a bright red nylon jacket which had wings embroidered with “Instructor” and his name on the left breast, and “Johny Martin School of Aviation” on back. This fellow was making derogatory comments to a couple of his students to the effect that Mantz ‘was losing his touch, and doing sloppy air work.’ Cort Johnson overheard the snide remarks, and signaled Mantz when he taxied in to ‘keep it running,’ He jumped up on the wing, yelled in Mantz ear, and pointed at the loudmouth. Mantz pointed a finger at him. He turned away, but others elbowed him to look. When he looked, Mantz turned his hand and gave him the ‘come here’ signal. Now trapped, he walked over as Mantz pointed to the forward cockpit. He zipped his cap into his jacket, climbed in. His ride was brief, hammerhead stall into a spin, then a pass downwind over the runway, a half outside loop, rolling out to landing. He taxied in, shut down. Loudmouth climbed out, got his ballcap on, fished out cigarette and lighter, got it lit, took two puffs, and splattered his lunch all over the ramp. Mantz just smiled!!!
“The number 46 on his Mustang came from his world record 46 consecutive outside loops in a Fleet biplane in 1937, but can you imagine doing one to a landing, rolling out in time to touch down? No wonder the loudmouth lost his lunch!!!”
During the filming The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell
“Mantz had a pilot, Stan Reaver, who did a lot of work for him. Stan was a certified character, with a wicked sense of humor. During the filming of The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, he flew the DH-4 alongside two Jennys and an Orenco (which had dummy radiators to look like the DH-4 at a distance). Eight dummy bombs were made of sheet metal with sandbags in them, so the drop scene had to be “one take.”
“The big 12-cylinder Liberty engine on a DH-4 is too big to hand prop. It had a crank spot on left side aft of engine to wind up a flywheel, which was then clutched in to the turn engine. Paul Jr. and I were taking turns winding up this crank, and Stan would then engage the clutch, and the engine would turn. But the engine was not firing. After a few rounds, as I was cranking, Jr. jumped up on wing, reached into cockpit, turned on the MAG. BAM! Blast of smoke, loud exhaust and a big prop spinning! Stan was laughing at his gag getting us to sweat cranking with no mag on.
“The four planes took off, followed by Mantz in the camera plane, to film the bomb drop on the Ostfreisland right off Newport Beach. Since they only had the eight ‘bombs,’ they were flying around a few hundred feet off the water getting lined up for sun angle, proper formation, no buildings on Balboa Peninsula in background etc. The DH -4 was faster than the other three, so Stan was slow flying so they could form up on his lead. He was apparently the only one aware that their gaggle of old planes ginning around at low altitude had attracted the attention of a large speedboat, full of people, now chasing them! Mantz gave the signal, and the ‘bombs’ were dropped two by two. The camera man followed them to splashdown, and caught the speedboat doing wild evasive maneuvers to avoid falling bombs! Scenes of hits on battleship were later spliced in with a miniature in a tank. On landing Stan and other three pilots were rolling on the grass in stitches over his great gag – bombing the speedboat. Mantz was NOT amused, because a hit by one of those sandbag-loaded cans would have sunk the boat. I’m sure that film would have been converted to 16mm for Paul’s collection of ‘outtakes.'”
This is most likely a scene filmed during the sequence related in the story. The first aircraft, the Mantz DH-4, is then being flown by Stan Reaver, with the second aircraft (partially out of view) the Mantz Orenco, with two Jennies following. Mantz was flying the Stearman cameraship. (Photo via Bruce Orriss)
During the filming of The Spirit of St. Louis
“Some shots for The Spirit of St Louis were filmed off Newport Beach. Mantz had purchased a 1929 Ryan mail plane, to be dummied up to look like NYP. Lindbergh nixed it, too long, wrong rudder shape, etc. So, two duplicates were built in the Mantz hangar at Orange County. (Webmaster note: actually two 1928 Ryan B-1 Broughams were found by Mantz and modified into replica Spirits.) Movie scenes show some of that construction. A major problem, because so many takeoffs and landings would be required, was forward visibility. So, a second cockpit replaced the huge under wing fuel tank. Those engine-turned cowlings were made removable so a plexiglass panel could be mounted on the side away from camera. The panel with instruments in front of Jimmy Stewart was functional and on hinges to allow Stan Reaver to enter the forward cockpit. Jimmy actually did the formation flying for alongside shots, and Mantz said he was a terrific pilot. Stan flew the NYP to LAX for some publicity work, followed by Mantz in camera plane. LAX tower asked a TWA Connie to ‘slow down, you’re following the Spirit of St Louis.’ TWA answered ‘yeah, sure, and I’m the Flying Dutchman.’ “
Three replica Spirit of St. Louis airframes were constructed from 1928 Ryan B-1 Broughams for the 1957 film The Spirit of St. Louis. Two were done by Mantz beginning in April 1955 and one of them is seen here, probably with Stan Reaver at the controls. Mantz pilot Jim Thompson also flew the replica Spirits for the 1955 filming that was done in California, New York, Newfoundland, and Paris.
During the Filming of Cinerama’s Seven Wonders of the World
“A scene in Cinerama’s Seven Wonders of the World was lost on the now available restoration on DVD. Mantz, with Lowell Thomas in right seat, flies alongside a TWA Connie over South Atlantic. You can see people at windows waving. Suddenly the camera lifts up and follows a barrel roll around the Connie and back into formation off right wing!!! In the B-25 The Smasher! The restoration did show the run down East River in NYC, under all four bridges from Manhattan.”
(Webmaster note: Jerry remembers seeing the film of this incident in the original version of “Seven Wonders of the World” in the theater. In many years of Mantz research I have never heard of this incident. However, I’ll add that it may have been the Pan Am DC-4, the “Clipper Cinerama,” and not a TWA Constellation, that was seen in that episode. The Pan Am “Clipper Cinerama” was chartered by the filmmakers for six months to carry a film crew to many exotic locations for the ground shots that were used in the film, and the B-25 and DC-4 flew together several times for the filming. However, Jerry’s memory is that it was indeed a TWA Constellation, that this footage did appear in the 1956 theater release, but notes that it was not on the ‘restored’ 2014 DVD version as some of the original footage was not restorable. As the webmaster, I ask that if anyone recalls seeing this scene in the theaters 68 years ago, please add a comment below to help provide additional details.)
