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Using WWI surplus aircraft, America’s barnstormers of the “Golden Age” charged five dollars for a fifteen-minute ride aloft. Vying for customers, Roscoe Turner wore a dashing quasi-military flying costume, hoping to stand out among his competitors. A former military officer and pilot for a short-lived airline based at Glendale Airport in California, Turner was also a movie stunt pilot, appearing in the 1927 film, “Hells Angels.” By 1930, Turner had set his compass to conquer long-distance flying records in a Lockheed Air Express.

Without funds, Turner needed a backer and found Earl Bell Gilmore, President of Gilmore Oil Products in California. Gilmore, known for his off-beat and sensational marketing schemes, didn’t hesitate to buy an Air Express for Turner, decorating the tail with his company logo, the head of an African lion.

Ever the showman, Turner bought a lion cub from a California wild animal farm which he named “Gilmore” to be his constant companion. During May 1930, Turner broke three national long-distance speed records with Gilmore snoozing in the cockpit wearing a miniature parachute and occasionally crawling into the pilot’s lap for a reassuring pat. Together they logged over 20,000 miles of flying until the King of Beasts outgrew their plane. Turner eventually returned Gilmore to the animal farm, funding his perpetual upkeep. The famous aviator and air race champion later trained pilots during WWII, ran an FBO in Indianapolis IN and started his own commercial airline, apparently without another mascot. Turner died in 1970.

This was not the first time man and lion were associated through aviation. Before the U.S. had entered WWI, thirty-eight eager Yankee fly-boys formed the Lafayette Escadrille, a fighter squadron based in France. In 1916, during a leave in Paris, commanding officers purchased two lion cubs as mascots. Living with the pilots as they grew, “Whisky” and “Soda” roamed freely among the tents for several months.

Perhaps more famous than Gilmore, Whiskey, or Soda, was the lion which first roared for Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios in 1927 and used in a wild stunt nearly costing the life of pilot, Martin “Marty” Jensen, as well as MGM’s mascot, “Leo the Lion.”

Following Charles Lindbergh’s cross-Atlantic flight during May 1927, every American could identify the Ryan Airlines Spirit of St. Louis and its look-alike successor, the B-1 Brougham, built by B.F. Mahoney. The studio’s plan was to use a Brougham to fly cross-country carrying “Leo the MGM Lion” which then roared silently next to their logo at the beginning of each film. Jensen was hired to ferry the 350-pound cat between California and New York in the specially modified B-1 with a glass-enclosed, iron-barred cage directly behind the cockpit.

With much fanfare, Jensen took off on Sept. 16, 1927 from Camp Kearny airfield, near San Diego. Leo’s flying career was short-lived however. Jensen’s heavy plane crashed in the mountains of northern Arizona. Although the Brougham lay in pieces, neither pilot nor lion were badly hurt. Leaving Leo with sandwiches, milk, and water, Jensen walked for days until he found ranch cowhands to transfer Leo, now thin and weak, into the care of MGM’s anxious handlers. Leo was well cared for the rest of his natural life, on display as “The MGM Lion” at a small theme park in California. The studio used several other logo-lions through the years but none had the distinction of surviving a fall from the sky.

Sadly, both Whiskey and Soda died soon after being donated to a zoo in Paris but not before one last visit from their “commanding officer” who astounded spectators as Whiskey licked his hand through the bars of his cage.

His royal highness, Gilmore, lived twenty-seven noble years and in 1957 a taxidermist preserved him for Turner who displayed the lion among his memorabilia in Indiana. Gilmore was later donated to the National Air & Space Museum where for years he was admired until his regal-ness deteriorated. Curators caged him in the restoration facility where he will remain out of view until his whiskers and hide are refurbished. A new display with a collection of Roscoe Turner’s unique flying costume and other personal possessions awaits a reunion with Gilmore and a happy ending to this lion’s tale.

Insight to the Past
with Giacinta Bradley Koontz

July, 2008

A Lion's Tale

Aviator Roscoe Turner displays the customized Irvin parachute worn by his mascot lion cub, Gilmore, in the cockpit of the Lockheed Air Express during 1930.
Photo: Cradle of Aviation Museum, Long Island, NY