ephemera
by: Pamela Apkarian-Russell

Aviation

Leonardo Di Vinci was smarter than Icarus, because he didn’t go flying off into the clouds. Di Vinci left blueprints so that others could try his inventions. Icarus made himself some wings with feathers and wax and had a grand old time floating above the clouds and dive-bombing the falcons and other birds, until the wax melted and his feathers came off, dashing him back to earth. He should have tried a hand glider! Man’s attempts to fly did not begin at Kitty Hawk. Di Vinci was truly the "Renaissance Man". His drawings of planes were centuries before they became a reality. Of course, before the plane, there were Zeppelins, and Hot Air Balloons taking to the skies.

Then, there was Lindbergh who could have been the hero of all heroes except for little things like his allegedly being involved with Hitler and the Nazis, and the possibility he could have been the kidnapper of his own child. There were so many barnstormers, and names like Corrigan – "Wrong-way Corrigan", who knew exactly what he was doing, if you ask most people. Then, there was Amelia Earhart. Was she a spy? If so, isn’t it about time our government confers a Congressional Medal on Honor on the woman who gave her life to help her country?

From the names of famous aviators we jump to modern days when the airlines and their owners are all one ever knows or hears about. You might remember Freddy Laker or Robert Morley (We'll Take Good Care of You, eh?) but the name of the pilot of the plane you last flew on, is gone from you head seconds after he announced who he was. After all, why would we remember the name of the man who holds our very lives in his hands?

From pioneer to modern times, aviation has fascinated people. America’s love affair with rocket ships manned by Flash Gordon or Alan Shepherd is just an extension of our desire to fly. Perhaps now with cloning and all these new fangled ideas we can get our angel wings back; we can all take to the skies with genetically altered, evolutionized wings from DNA from a bird. Sound foolish? In a hundred years, the way technology is running away with us, people will look at us in the year 2000 and say "Oh, how funny and primitive they are."

Will we seem like the cave man, barbaric, or will we have gone the way of Atlantis, with no one surviving to look back at us with nostalgia or amusement?

With all this you must have figured out that there is a tremendous amount of ephemera that has been produced on air-related craft. Space alone has produced so much that we shall segregate ourselves from it except to say there are some wonderful 3D three-dimensional pictures and cards made that make you feel like you are part of the picture. A "You are there" type of feeling.

We will even skip over the hot air balloons, which have made such a wonderful revival for recreational reasons (STOP. DIGRESSION. SHORT STORY I CAN’T RESIST.) One of the Iran hostages, during a Brimfield show a few years after he had been released, was floating above what was then the Reid Girl’s North Field. He was so low down we were able to converse with him, when along came a dealer and shouted up, "How much do you want for the basket?")

We will only flirt with the pioneer era of flight to say that there were some exceptional photographs and photo cards of many of the major as well as minor players in this genre. There is a tremendous amount of printed matter as well as some sheet music that is well worth framing for the images. So if you are interested in Curtis or the Wright brothers, fear not, you will find plenty to keep your interest alive. As for Lindbergh, what you read about him that he wrote and what others wrote about him is often at odds. I try to segregate the Lindbergh of the first transatlantic flight from the anti-Semite, and stay with the man who arrived in Paris and was the hero of the world for awhile. There are programs from that day which came with little flags and they are extremely rare. There are plenty of postcards and sheet music, but if you get him in an action shot like getting out of a plane, they are highly desirable. Photos from the kidnapping trial and his active endorsement of the Germans pull low prices. No one likes to see an idol fall off the pedestal and break.

The arrival of commercial aviation allowed many people to travel that could never afford to fly before. Aviation baggage labels were a mark of prestige on one’s luggage and passengers avidly picked up and kept all those souvenirs that were given away. Decks of playing cards are a category all by themselves. The prize ones are from Airforce One, with the presidential seal on them. The baggage labels range from being incredibly graphic to the ultimate in blasé. Interiors of the planes are so much more interesting than the outside; for social history purposes they show the most change. It seems inconceivable to today’s passengers who are given the sardine treatment that once there was a time when people could actually move about luxuriously, without owning the plane! So from single engine to twin engine to jets, the progression and technology advanced, and continues to advance.

Then, there is Concorde, the queen of the skies. I have taken a moment to revise this article slightly due to the recent crash of the Air France Concorde. One accident in twenty years -- how many drivers can say they have only had one accident in twenty years, let alone that the one accident was by their entire family? There is no question in my mind that I would fly Concorde tomorrow just for the thrill of it if I could afford it. My mother-in-law in UK’s penthouse apartment is on the flight path and at 80-some-odd years, her one dream is to fly on Concorde. I don’t think it can get any better than Concorde: just think of the speed and power of that take off  I’ll lay my bets that just as people won’t stop eating caviar just because someone ate some once and became ill, this one unfortunate and tragic accident will not affect the booking on any Concorde flights. Listening to the news, one would think a 20-year-old plane is like a 50-year-old running the Boston Marathon. If the plane is old, scrap it -- and if the 50-year-old can’t finish the race, use the old horse trick and shoot him! Somehow I don’t think it works quite that way, or at least it shouldn’t. Cards and ephemera from Concorde are collected and the small amount of them extant is one of the reasons they sell quicker, and for more money than other planes.

Rumor has it, Russians stole plans for Concorde at one time and it was referred to as Concordeski . It was almost as bad as Aeroflop. Oops! I mean Aeroflot. There are planes and there are planes, there are cats and there are panthers. I wonder how much a twenty-year-old Concorde would sell for on Ebay? The fleet is aging and no new ones will be made, and Concorde may be going the route of the dinosaur but there are a lot of people out there who would like to see the return of the dinosaur. It is said the food on Concorde is excellent. How about marinated T Rex kabobs, rice pilaf, and salad with feta cheese and olives in vinaigrette?