Lindbergh Air Mail

This is a First Day Cover for the 10 Cent Air Mail stamp released to the public four weeks after Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic. It is believed that although he was offered $1,000 to carry a small package of mail, he declined because of his concern for weight. It is also believed that he did carry a total of five covers, and only two of those have ever come to market.

There was a huge surge in promotions of Lindbergh's name on everything from a dance to cookies, but the National Biscuit Company didn't create a Lindy Snap. This piece is what is called a Corner Card, carrying the name of the business in the upper left hand corner of the envelope serving as a return address. The image is taken from a cigar box label under the company name of Mazer-Cressman of Detroit, Michigan.

Now that this piece is finished, it's flying off to the patron who commissioned it.

Lee E. Nordahl - Memorial Day 2012

To honor them all - through him - Lest we forget.

You have seen this First Day Cover before. I posted it HERE in 2009. That Veteran's Day was an anniversary of sorts, but Veteran's Day to all of us none the less. Memorial Day is different. It isn't a day to go to the lake, or enjoy a picnic out of doors. Perhaps it never should be.

Several months ago, I received an email from a gentleman by the name of Nicholas Thrasher. He is the Editor and Art Director for the premier publication of the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation, called aptly Foundation.  The last link will allow you to preview a recent copy of the magazine, but it doesn't happen to be the most recent issue.

Mr. Thrasher had found my envelope doing a Google Search. He was extremely interested in getting in touch with Lee's family for a photograph and and also interested in using my art work within an upcoming article in the Foundation magazine entitled "The loss of Flint River 604". It is the story of the flight and subsequent downing of the RVAH-13 Vigilante aircraft with Lieutenant Commander Guy D. Johnson and Lieutenant JG Lee E. Nordahl aboard. Included in the article are aerial photos of the mission's intended flight path, including the home leg to the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, photographs of the aircraft itself, as well as photographs of LtC Johnson, and LtJG Nordahl.

Also included in the article (I just recently received complimentary copies of the magazine) is the narrative of how I came to complete my tribute to Lee.

The short story is that Lee's mother was still alive in 1995, and living in Wolf Point, Montana, with Lee's sister. They at the time made an almost 500 mile trip from Wolf Point to Choteau, Montana, for Memorial Day services at the Choteau cemetary. I not only had the envelopes cancelled in Choteau (Lee's hometown), but I was also able to give one of them to Lee's mother.

Until I got in touch with her in 1995, she had not opened Lee's seabag, which had been returned to her after both he and Johnson were declared MIA. She kindly allowed her daughter to photocopy his dogtags so that I could portray them as part of my art work for the POW-MIA stamp issue.

Not a Memorial Day passes without my remembering what Memorial Day really means to me, and what it means to those who hold memories of their fallen heroes. God Rest them all.

Memorial Day 2011 PFF #44

Lt. William "Muf" Mufich

Lt. Mufich was stationed with VF-18 (the Fighting 18^th) F6F-3 Hellcat Squadron aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid in 1944. Lt. Mufich often flew as wingman for the third highest Ace in terms of confirmed shootdowns, Lt. Cecil E. Harris. Lt. Harris scored a total of 23 Japanese planes destroyed in air-to-air combat during the war in the Pacific.

I examined the charred and water-damaged flight log of Lt. Mufich in early May of 2005, and I noted four ‘Rising Sun’ stamps in his log, and a ‘possible’. Hellcat pilots were scrupulous about claiming shootdowns – unless the plane was observed as destroyed in the air or splashing into the sea, the plane was not claimed.

I was able to find a photograph of one of the Hellcats from VF-18, and I’ve placed the Squadron emblem (a + symbol) in its proper place on the tail of the plane in my artwork.

Number 14 was a Squadron plane that Lt. Mufich often flew, though it must be noted that Hellcat pilots were not assigned individual aircraft because of the way that the planes were maintained and readied for missions on the hangar deck.

Lt. Mufich autographed the covers in May 2005 during my visit to his home. He died peacefully in Kalispell, Montana, at the age of ninety years of age in 2010. I don't read the newspapers very often, so I missed his obituary last year.  I'm trying to make up for that fact.  I found it to be an honor to meet and talk with an American war hero intimate with this particular aircraft whose valiant service to our country proves him to be an Ace extraordinaire.

The U.S.S. Intrepid was struck by two Kamikaze planes on November 28^th, 1944, the second of which penetrated the flight deck and went into the hangar deck below. The bomb the second Kamikaze was carrying did not go off until after it entered the Intrepid. When it did detonate, it set off a chain reaction of devastating explosions involving countless torpedo and bomb laden American aircraft waiting for launch within the hanger deck. These explosions disabled the fighting effectiveness of the ship until repairs could be made. Sixty-nine sailors and pilots lost their lives in the attack. Lt. Mufich was on the flight deck when the Kamikaze hit occurred, and escaped injury.

He not only made a trip to visit the U.S.S. Intrepid (it's now a floating museum) in New York Harbor in 2006, but he also had his photograph taken in the Ready Room aboard his ship, holding my cover and standing next to a photograph of himself and his squadron taken in 1944. He was wearing a smile.

This may be long winded, but I wanted to take the opportunity to urge everyone who has a father, mother, uncle, aunt or even a neighbor who's a WWII vet to take a few minutes to watch THIS VIDEO if you haven't already.  I've also included a link to a  group called the Honor Flight Network. If you've never heard of it and YOUR WWII veteran has not visited his or her memorial in DC, you should take five minutes to watch the video. We are losing OUR WWII veterans at the rate of a thousand a day. Remember them and remember the reason they gave of themselves.

Be sure you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy where the hostess Beth Niquette presents another session of Postcard Friendly Friday!

Baby Ruth Flies Again

Back in August of last year, I put up a post of a billhead which referred to a sale of Baby Ruth Candy Bars which I obtained from a Michael Popek of Forgotten Bookmarks via SusanE at This Old Paper. It was great fun to put together that post (and the image), primarily because I was to learn a great deal about the way that the candy was merchandised across the country.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States. The second image I've posted above is from a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, newspaper advertisement announcing a Candy Drop over that city.

Even more interesting than the Baby Ruth Flying Circus is the story of Paul Tibbits, who garnered a ride in Davis' Waco to serve as the bombadier for one of the Candy Drops in Florida in 1927.

Paul Tibbets was born in 1915 to Enola Gay and Paul Warfield Tibbets in Quincy, Illinois. In 1924, the Tibbets family moved to Florida. Paul was nine. On a warm summer day in 1927, barnstorming pilot Doug Davis, let twelve-year old Paul ride in his Waco 9 airplane and toss Baby Ruth candy bars to the crowds at Hialeah racetrack and Miami Beach. Tibbets always traced his interest in aviation to that day.

Do you recognize the name of Paul's mother?  Sixty-five years ago last August, Paul Tibbits flew the B-29 Enola Gay over Hiroshima, Japan, and will be forever remembered in history books, as will his mother.

I acquired the Curtiss Candy Company billhead several months ago, and I decided to do something about putting another Baby Ruth airplane on it. My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!

Baby Ruth From Above

Way back in December, I got a very nice email from Susan E at This Old Paper. Actually, the email was a note telling me that I ought to look at her current post, which I quickly did. It was a HUGE Welcome to Me, combining our mutual fascination with old paper with a fresh idea for some art work on a 'bookmark' of sorts. She provided a link to the Forgotten Bookmarks site, which I had already been following on an almost daily basis. Her suggestion was that it would be really neat if I combined an old ad for Baby Ruth with the old billhead that Michael Popek at Forgotten Bookmarks had found in "The Quarterly Illustrator, Vol. 1 No.4" published in 1893. The line items listed were for one box (120) of Baby Ruth and one box (120) of Butterfinger candy bars. The title for his post on this special find was Someone's Got the Munchies.

To come to the point, I contacted Michael at Forgotten Bookmarks and although I offered to pay for it, he told me he would GIVE me the billhead - and he did.

That was over six months ago. I pulled the piece out of my ever-bulging binder several weeks ago, and although I tried every conceivable layout for the ad that Susan E had suggested, there was just no way I was going to fit that ad on this piece of old paper. So...

I started doing more than just a little research.

The Baby Ruth candy bar was THE Gravy Train for a fellow by the name of Otto Y. Schnering, who not only knew how to make a good candy bar, he also knew how to promote it.

In 1926, Otto hired a barnstorming air racer by the name of Doug Davis to spread Baby Ruth candy bars far and wide - from the air. Davis had three Waco airplanes and two former military pilots with which he was barnstorming the Southern states and he called it the Davis Flying Circus. It was quickly turned into the Baby Ruth Flying Circus. Check the link above for more information about what became a sensation from the skies when Davis started dropping Baby Ruth candy bars tied to rice paper parachutes - in over forty states across the United States.

But I digress. I started looking for images that could be of use to me for a piece of paper about half the size of a regular piece of letterhead. I've include the image of an advertisement for a store in Milwaukee promoting a Rain of Baby Ruth candy bars. I knew I was close, but the image was just not clean enough to do the paper up right, so I continued looking for Baby Ruth airplanes until I found one I could use. What you see is what you get! My art probably doesn't make you want to go buy a Baby Ruth, but you'll perhaps think of my art the next time you pay 75 cents for a nickel candy bar!