‘Suicide Slim’ thrilled the crowds

yamada George Natsume, who grew up near San Fernando Road and Grandview Avenue in the 1920s, recalled that historic San Fernando Road was lined with huge eucalyptus trees. Across the railroad tracks, which paralleled the thoroughfare, was an airport.

“It was just an airstrip for the ‘barnstormers,’ the World War I flyers,” said Natsume. Every Sunday, a young man and a young girl did parachute jumps, giving the assembled crowd a thrill. Once he saw a wing walker high up in the sky, another time hanging upside down on the axle.

“I never knew the names of the parachute jumpers, but they were known as ‘Suicide Slim’ and ‘Reckless Rosie.’ ”

“I remember the ‘Ryan’ that was the pride and joy of its owner, Roy Wilson. He became a stunt flyer for the movies and can be seen in ‘Hell’s Angels.’ ”

A trip to the Special Collections Room at the Central Library yielded three Glendale News-Press articles from 1928 confirming Natsume’s memories.

Walter Cahill, described as an air specialist, performed at Sunday air shows, riding in a Ryan Monoplane piloted by his boss, Roy Wilson, of Wilson Aero Service. Cahill, who walked on the wing of the Ryan and performed other stunts before jumping, was dubbed “Suicide Slim” because of his many hazardous leaps.

By mid-1928, Cahill had already jumped from 10,000 feet, landing 7 miles from the airport. A June 30, 1928, article reported that he was to perform the following Sunday, jumping from 14,000 feet, “the highest jump in the United States this year.”

Wilson was one of the pilots featured in the first “Hell’s Angels,” a silent film made in the mid-1920s. In 1930, Howard Hughes directed a remake of “Hell’s Angels” as a talking picture starring Jean Harlow. The remake was featured in the 2004 Hughes epic, “The Aviator.”

There’s no mention in the News-Press clippings of “Reckless Rosie,” but part of the show was to take “rookies” up for a jump. A Feb. 17, 1928, article announced that Ada Lavinia Smith, known as “Miss Glendale,” would jump the following Sunday from 2,000 feet above the Glendale airport. Smith, who had never even ridden in an airplane at that point, was to have a practice ride on Saturday under the tutelage of Cahill.

“I have the utmost confidence in the girl’s ability to escape death or injury in her descent from the plane,” Cahill told a reporter.

Smith was to jump wearing two parachutes, one, an exhibition parachute, which was to open when she was 100 feet below the plane.

But, just in case, she was to wear a second one, made of silk, a type “never known to fail,” according to other flyers at the airport.

Cahill, who in 1928 claimed to have made more parachute jumps than any other living man, often performed while injured. He once jumped with his arm in splints from a previous injury. With one foot on the wing and one on the fuselage step, he began his jump and thought he was clear, but “my right foot caught and I was hanging head downward. Finally, I kicked my foot free and turned several flops. The plane was half a block away when I looked next time and I grabbed the cord.”

Cahill walked away with a sprained ankle, but admitted that the incident could have cost him his life.

* KATHERINE YAMADA’S column runs every other Friday. To contact her, call features editor Joyce Rudolph at (818) 637-3241. For more information on Glendale’s history, visit the Glendale Historical Society’s web page www.glendalehistorical.org; call the reference desk at the Central Library at (818) 548-2027; or call (818) 548-2037 to make an appointment to visit the Special Collections Room at Central. It is open by appointment only.

Special Collections Room, Glendale Public Library(LA)The Wilson Aero fleet at Glendale Airport in 1928. Signs on the buildings advertised passenger flights for $1.50.20060203iko8luncSpecial Collections Room, Glendale Public Library(LA)The Wilson Aero fleet at Glendale Airport in 1928. Signs on the buildings advertised passenger flights for $1.50.20060203gy2x31ke(LA)