September 27, 2022 Gotta Love That Pilot Bob

The Liberty Gazette

September 27, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: Many celebrities have learned to fly while preparing for roles or in support of their careers in entertainment. For some, aviation was their first love. Such was the case of actor Blade Stanhope Conway, who later went by Bryce Hutchens and then used his real name, Bob Cummings. He made 68 movies, starring in many of them, four stage productions, and 21 television appearances, including his own show from 1955–1959 named, appropriately, “The Bob Cummings Show.” It was later syndicated as “Love That Bob.”

Born Clarence Robert Orville Cummings in Joplin, Missouri, on June 9, 1910, Bob’s flight instructor was also his godfather, Orville Wright. Bob learned to fly in high school, making his first solo flight on March 3, 1927. He often gave airplane rides for $5 to his classmates and residents of Joplin. He also taught others to fly. At that time, there was not a separate certificate for flight instructors, so any commercial pilot could give flying lessons. Imagine being taught to fly by someone who learned from Orville Wright and had his signature on their pilot certificate! When the FAA finally got around to issuing separate flight instructor certificates, Bob Cummings received instructor certificate #1. 

Bob studied aeronautical engineering but had to drop out of college when Wall Street crashed in 1929. While in college, he acted in some stage productions and was bitten by the acting bug. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, which paid male actors $14 a week (yes, they paid them to study acting – supply and demand).

After completing his training, he looked for work as an actor. He learned that three-quarters of the Broadway plays were English productions, so he cashed in a life insurance policy, bought a round-trip ticket to Britain, and explored the country by motorcycle. He worked on his English accent and invented the name Blade Stanhope Conway. Then he bribed a janitor at an English theater to post that name on the marquee and had his picture taken standing next to it. After sending out eighty of these pictures to agents in New York, he found he was in demand when he returned. He did something similar later, inventing the name Bryce Hutchens, who hailed from Texas. He became so good with different accents, it was almost a trademark. 

Flying, however, was always part of his life. When WWII broke out, Cummings started the first Civil Air Patrol squadron in California, at Glendale’s Grand Central Air Terminal. When that airport closed, the squadron moved to Whiteman Airpark just north of Burbank and still exists. For his CAP duties, he used his own airplane. In 1942, he joined the US Army Air Corps and became a military pilot instructor. 

Cummings owned several airplanes, all named Spinach – Spinach I, Spinach II, etc. That’s because he was also a health-food nut. He even wrote a book about it, called, “Stay Young and Vital.” You gotta love that Bob! 

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September 20, 2022 Going Dutch

The Liberty Gazette

September 20, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: So there was one more thing about our short trip to Holland, Michigan. The quaint little downtown. Typically when traveling, besides airports, we look for good restaurants and coffee shops, art galleries, bookstores, and anything unique to the area. If we’re in town long enough, we’ll look for theater (stage) or musical performances to our taste. This was a quicker trip though, so there was only time to spend a day browsing the historic downtown streets and visit some of the shops. Despite the fact that we did not come during tulip blooming season, Holland did not disappoint.

All along 8th and 9th streets are over a hundred clean and neatly-kept businesses. At Readers’ World bookstore, the multi-tiered shelves were packed with fiction and nonfiction and children’s books. We could spend hours there. 

Lovely oil paintings by local artists hung at Lake Effect art gallery. I saw one that would be perfect on one of our living room walls. 

At Fustini’s Oils & Vinegars we cruised around the store and sampled from the plethora of flavored products. They have so many different choices, you could make 800 different pairings of oil and vinegar. We took home bottles of Michigan Apple, Blueberry, Fig, and Maple balsamic vinegars and olive oils infused with walnut and basil (not together, that’s two separate bottles). We packed up extras for our family visits the following week. By the way, “fustino” is Italian for “drums,” and refers to the steel containers used to store olive oils and balsamic vinegars. After traveling through Europe, the founder, Jim Milligan, decided that would be the perfect name for the shop he envisioned, just like the ones he visited across the pond. Fustini’s offers pairing suggestions and even has four cookbooks and all manner of fantastic, must-have accessories, such as tapas plates, grater dipping plates, and charcuterie boards. And yes, you can even buy fustini from them for your own stash.

And then there was the Holland Clock Company. They sell Black Forest cuckoo clocks imported from Germany. They also sell beer steins and nutcrackers, but the cuckoo clocks got all my attention. They looked just like the ones we saw in Austria and Germany–beautiful, intricately carved works of art and storytelling. 

And what would Holland be without a windmill? Back in 1964, the city acquired De Zwaan, the only authentic Dutch windmill operating in the U.S. It’s 251 years old and still turns and grinds wheat. You can see it at the municipal park, Windmill Island Gardens. Here’s a little trivia for you: before opening De Zwaan to the public, they sent for an expert from the Netherlands to refurbish it, and that fellow made a quick trip to New York City to be a guest on “What’s My Line,” the game show where a celebrity panel had to guess the unusual jobs that guests performed.

If you’ve never been to Holland, Michigan, put it on your list. It’s well worth the trip.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 13, 2022 One More Thing

The Liberty Gazette

September 13, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: One more thing about Holland, Michigan. After the sunrise beach stroll, we figured we’d check out Big Red, the most photographed lighthouse in the state, then visit an airport that is shown on the FAA charts as closed, then do some gift shopping in the quaint town. The lighthouse, it turns out, is surrounded by private property and not accessible to the public. No problem. We’ve seen lots of lighthouses, like President Trump’s Turnberry Lighthouse in Ayr, Scotland (birthplace of Robert the Bruce, Scotland’s greatest king), which is open to the public. So seeing Big Red from afar was fine. That gave us more time for other things, like the former military training airfield along Ottawa Beach Road, Park Township Airport. It’s one of the oldest airports and the first to employ a woman-owned and managed Fixed Base Operator (FBO) in the Great Lakes state.

Park Township Airport began in 1937 as a private airfield managed by aviatrix Peg Malone. It was an airmail stop, and Peg had plans to offer regular passenger airline service between Milwaukee and New York, with stops at Holland, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Syracuse. However, effects of the Great Depression prevented that. 

Then, in 1939, the airfield was used to train more than 100 military pilots through a program with Hope College, and as a helicopter training ground as well. The runway is gone, but we traipsed all over the ramp taking pictures and poked around in the historic hangar, where Civil Air Patrol cadet squadron MI-135 still meets. The last chapter of the airport’s long and distinguished history was written two years ago, after a newer, bigger airport, Western Michigan Regional, had been serving the customers with more and better amenities. 

We had survived the entire sunrise beach walk and paid our respects to a piece of aviation history, all without coffee. It was time to bean-up. I pulled out my phone to start searching when suddenly, there we were, in front of KIN Coffee and Craft House, just down the street from the airport. It’s owned by a family with a small farm. Their story goes that they had seven sheep, and cousins Lynn and Jamie were visiting over a very large ball of wool from the farm (which wasn’t yet yarn, but they were working on that). After brainstorming about their shared interests and dreams, they made plans to convert an old Dutch barn into a gorgeous coffee shop. It’s a cozy place with books, crafts, and tasteful décor. I had an oat milk cappuccino and Mike had black coffee. We picked a table, one of the ones that snuggles up to a long, old wooden church pew bench on the wall-side. We gave our thanks and shared a perfect blueberry muffin, bursting with juicy berries. 

I know I said at the start of this, “One more thing about Holland,” but I didn’t realize I’d get to the end so quickly. So next week, we’ll have one more thing. Promise.

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

September 6, 2022 Zipping to the Mitten

The Liberty Gazette

September 6, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: A quick trip to the Great Lakes State gave us an opportunity to see the cemetery where Mike’s paternal grandparents are buried. He hadn’t been there in over 30 years, and fortunately, it’s a relatively small place. Although the section and lot numbers aren’t marked, we had no trouble locating the general area. Once in the vicinity, we saw the “Ely” monument standing proud, an American flag at the grave of Grandfather, Lewis Ely. Those interested in family history will appreciate the convenience of landing at a nearby airport and using the courtesy car to see these special patches of land. Within them are remains, but from them are memories, stories, life. 

Mike: My grandfather was a US Marine and fought in France during the Great War, a period he rarely spoke of until near the end of his life. He told us of the time he and another Marine were crossing a field while scouting when a German machine-gun opened fire. Their only cover was a pile of manure, into which they dove. The Germans kept them pinned, clipping the top of the pile until after dark, when they were able to sneak away. The story was ripe for jokes later.

Linda: We value the ability to zip around the continent in our Cheetah, land at small town airports, and visit more people and places in a day than we could do by car in a week. Thanks to a decent tailwind, we landed in Charlotte, Michigan just six hours after departing Baytown. After visiting the cemetery, we took to the skies again to visit my Scottish side of the family on their 10-acre slice of heaven they’ve dubbed “Rosebriar,” in Howell. We shared a night out on the town, and in the morning, fed the chickens and took a walk in the woods, where we spotted interesting plant life, including herbs, flowers, and mushrooms. Cousin Kevin explained that the state is the shape of a mitten and showed us how one’s palm can serve as a map. He and his wife live around that muscly part below the base of the thumb. We hopped all around the hand.

Mike: One of my old co-pilots retired to an airpark in Lake City, a short jaunt further north, so we met for lunch after a restful night at Rosebriar. Catching up is more fun to do in person than by email or phone. It also allows us to recreate old photos, like the one where we stood side-by-side, tilting our heads toward each other, representative of Learjet pilots (who fly in a small cockpit).

We looked forward to a couple of days in Holland, on the western shore of the Mitten State, at about the base of my pinkie finger. Linda woke me early for a sunrise beach stroll barefoot along Lake Michigan, shared only with birds, waves splashing, and the occasional blip from the beacon of a lighthouse or a boat disappearing over the distant horizon. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 30, 2022 The Pilot House

The Liberty Gazette

August 30, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

A few weeks ago, we discovered the Pilot House, a small hotel within walking distance of the airport on the island of Grosse Ile, Michigan. We were so enthralled by what we had read that we decided to fly upfor a visit. Our expectations were high, based on what we had learned, and we can now report that Grosse Ile is all we had hoped for and more. 

Ownership of the Pilot House is now in its second generation. Jim Cortis grew up on the island where his father, Artie, owned a print shop. He had relocated his shop to what is now the Pilot House, which had originally been barracks for employees of aircraft manufacturer Curtiss-Wright. During World War II, the Navy took over the airport, built up the runways, made it a Naval Air Station, and turned the barracks into an officers’ club. When the war was over, an entrepreneur leased the building and rented space to small businesses. One of his tenants was Artie Cortis.

According to Jim, that landlord disappeared one day in 1981, owing something like $10,000 in taxes. All the tenants were locked out with no access to their businesses. Besides Artie’s print shop, there was a trucking company, an embroidery shop, and a sporting goods mail order business. There may have been a lawyer too, but Jim doesn’t recall for sure, which is understandable. I’d want to forget that too. In order to access his business, Artie paid the debt and took over management of the building. After renting the space for weddings and other special events, he realized he needed to offer a better option than the bathroom for the brides to get dressed. That’s when he converted his first room, which turned out to be the start of his hotel business. 

Jim helped his father for many years, and after he passed, Jim took over the family business. His dedication to the hotel is evident in its fourteen impeccable rooms. The cleanliness is, honestly, at a higher standard than the major chain we stayed in the night before. While the layout of the hotel is basically unchanged, he brought the interior up to date, yet without abandoning the charm of days past. 

Walking from the airplane, across the ramp, past the old Naval Air Station hangar, it wasn’t a long trek to the Pilot House. A spacious covered porch, painted white, welcomed us cozily, adorning the front of the two-story brick building. Chairs grouped around a table make a friendly statement. Through the wooden double doors, we entered the lobby with its glass cases of memorabilia. Jim met us, signed us in, and showed us to our accommodations, which included a bedroom, living room, and kitchen.

Fortunately, Jim’s son, whose degree is in business finance, wants to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and has big plans for the hotel. We found the Pilot House at Grosse Ile a comfortable and friendly place to stay for our Michigan adventures. 

ElyAirLines.blogspot.com

August 23, 2022 Pioneers of the Landscape

The Liberty Gazette

August 23, 2022

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

A native of Kansas, a state which produced many of our earliest aviators, Royal Vearl Thomas was the second child born to Frank and Lillie Thomas. We don’t know much about his childhood, but we can imagine, as we reflect on stories of other children of the same era who witnessed the birth of aviation, that he might have similarly been that boy who looked up to the sky as a barnstormer flew low over a wheat field and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him to see an airplane up close and the lucky person who had just landed it. He probably got one of those penny-a-pound rides in a biplane, and if he did, surely he was hooked right away. 

We do know that R.V., as he was called, was a Lieutenant in the armed forces during World War I. We also know that he and Giuseppe Bellanca built a monoplane they named “Reliance,” and in it, he set an endurance record in 1927 for flying solo for 35 hours, 25 minutes, and 8 seconds, at Mitchel Field in New York. 

Meanwhile, two brothers from Pittsburgh moved to Arizona seeking adventure in tourism, photography, and film, which were also new industries. Ellsworth and Emery Kolb set up a studio at the Bright Angel Trailhead on the south rim of the Grand Canyon and sold their nature photographs in albums and tickets to view their 1911 movie of floating down the Colorado River from Colorado to Mexico, through the Grand Canyon. It was the first motion picture of its kind.

And how these to stories come together is that one day, Ellsworth Kolb offered R.V. Thomas one hundred dollars if he could land in the Grand Canyon and allow Ellsworth to ride along and film it. As soon as the stunt was approved by the park manager, R.V. took a burro ride down to find a landing spot.

This month marks the 100th anniversary since R.V. made a studied and calculated, but daring, landing on a five-hundred-foot strip of level grass he found inside the Grand Canyon. To this day, he is the only person to do that in an airplane. 

It's an amazing story that caught a lot of attention. In his own “Thomas Special” biplane, R.V. battled the unique and unpredictable swirling air currents and put on a show the park guests would never forget. He climbed up above the canyon, then put his airplane in a stall and spun down fast, pulling out of the stall-spin in time to land it. He stopped within fifty feet of an 1,800-foot drop. Getting it out of there would be another feat of great skill and luck. 

There’s a digital copy of the news story on the National Park Service website, which is well worth your time. The author’s description of the event, the pioneering characters, and the scene are superb, still breathtaking even one hundred years later. Highly recommended reading.

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