Paul Mantz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Mantz
Paul Mantz c.1928
Born	2 August 1903 Alameda, California
Died	8 July 1965 (age 61) Arizona (filming location)
Cause of death	Aircraft crash
Occupation	Aviator Consultant
Spouse	Terry Mac Minor Mantz Myrtle Harvey (divorced)
Children	Two sons, one daughter

Albert Paul Mantz (2 August 1903 – 8 July 1965) was a noted air racing pilot, movie stunt pilot and consultant from the late 1930s until his death in the mid-1960s. He gained fame on two stages: Hollywood and in air races.

Contents 1 Early years 2 US Army air cadet 3 Hollywood stunt pilot 4 World War II 5 Racing pilot 6 Postwar film career 7 Family life 8 Death 9 Awards 10 See also 11 References 11.1 Notes 11.2 Bibliography 12 External links

[edit] Early years

Paul Mantz (the name he used throughout his life) was the son of a school principal, and was raised in Redwood City, California. He developed his interest in flying at an early age; as a young boy, his first flight on fabricated canvas wings was aborted when his mother stopped him as he tried to fly out of a tree in his yard. In 1915, at age 12, he attended the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and witnessed the world famous Lincoln Beachey make his first ever flight in his new monoplane, the Lincoln Beachey Special. It was also Beachey's last flight; the aircraft disintegrated as he performed his finale, the Dive of Death.^[1]

Mantz took his first flying lesson at age 16 using money that he made from driving a hearse during the influenza epidemic of 1919. Although he had accumulated hours towards his private pilot's licence, Mantz quit flying altogether when he witnessed the death of his instructor.^[2]

On 24 September 1924, Mantz became a part of a famous aviation event when he lent his car battery to the Douglas World Cruiser that had "dead-sticked" into a field on its way to San Francisco for a celebration of the world flight. He was invited to join the festivities at Crissy Field where many noted military aviators tried to persuade him to pursue a career in military flying.

[edit] US Army air cadet

Mantz applied for admission to the United States Army flight school at March Field, California but was told he needed at least two years of college to be eligible. Apparently resorting to a ruse involving Stanford University stationery, he managed to gain admission with false documents and became a successful cadet. (He also conveniently did not tell officials about his prior flying experience.^[3])

In 1927, shortly before his graduation at March Field, Mantz was flying solo over the Coachella Valley when he spotted a train heading west over the empty desert floor up the long grade from Indio. He rolled over into a dive, leveled off a few feet above the track and flew head-on towards the train as the engineer repeatedly sounded the whistle. At the last moment Mantz pulled up, did a "victory roll"and flew away.^[3] This sort of dangerous stunt was fairly common during the early era of loosely regulated flying in the 1920s but the train's passengers included ranking officers coming to March Field to participate in the graduation ceremonies and Mantz was subsequently dismissed from the Army. His instructor reportedly made it clear to Paul that he had the makings of an exceptional pilot and encouraged him to continue a career in aviation.

[edit] Hollywood stunt pilot

After working briefly in commercial aviation, Mantz went to Hollywood, attracted by the large sums of money movie stunt pilots were making at the time. A main requirement was Associated Motion Picture Pilots (AMPP) membership but that was only gained after employment in the industry. In an effort to gain notoriety, on 6 July 1936 Mantz set a record in flying 46 consecutive outside loops as a part of the dedication ceremonies of the San Mateo airport.^[4] Although he gained recognition as an accomplished pilot, without the AMPP card, he still could not work in Hollywood. However in 1931, Mantz flew the climactic stunt in The Galloping Ghost which required him to fly down a canyon and just miss a prominent sycamore. Misjudging his approach, Mantz crashed into the tree but the film crew got their shot and he got his AMPP card.^[5]

Howard Hughes was among his first clients. After much difficulty finding steady stunt work he accepted a particularly risky assignment, flying a Stearman biplane through a hangar with less than five feet of clearance off each wingtip for the 1932 film Air Mail. Mantz reportedly treated the challenge as an issue of thorough planning, which set him apart from most of the pilots then flying stunts for the movies.

Air Mail was a hit and as word spread about his success in getting through the hangar unscathed, Mantz found more work and his professional ideas about stunt flying were gradually accepted by the studios. United Air Services, Paul's fledgling company at United Airport in Burbank, offered readily-available planes and pilots, standard rates and insurance to protect producers from the financial risks of accidents and downtime. Mantz's company grew steadily along with the public's fascination for flying as the studios made increasing numbers of aviation related films. His Paul Mantz Air Services air charter company (jokingly christened the Honeymoon Express^[6]) also flourished and became a favorite among Hollywood stars, many of whom, such as Clark Gable and James Cagney became friends.

During this period, Mantz carried out a number of "mercy" flights including transporting a deep sea diver to the Mare Island Navy Yard where a decompression chamber was able to save his life, flying 15 Mexican fishermen to safety after their boat began to break up and assisting 53 trapped firefighters in the Santa Barbara mountain area by dropping supplies. Mantz had to fly low through an inferno in order to make the drop.^[7] After Tom Mix's accident and death, Mantz was also chosen to fly the body of Mix home.^[8]

In 1937, a few months before she vanished over the western Pacific ocean, acting as a technical advisor, Mantz tutored Amelia Earhart in long-distance flying and navigation (and had accompanied her as a co-pilot on the aborted first attempt of her world flight).

Air racing also became a passion for Mantz in the late-1930s. He entered his Lockheed Orion in the Bendix Trophy transcontinental dash from Los Angeles to Cleveland, placing third in 1938 and 1939.

[edit] World War II

During World War II Mantz enlisted and was commissioned a major (later promoted to colonel). He served in the US Army Air Corps' (later United States Army Air Force) 18th Air Force Base Unit housed in the Hal Roach studios at Culver City, California, acting for a time as commanding officer. The so-called First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) produced over 400 training and promotional films including work by William Wyler (The Memphis Belle) and Frank Capra (Why We Fight series).^[9]

In August 1944, Mantz left the USAAF with an honorable discharge as he began to plan out his postwar career. Concentrating on revitalizing his 17-odd movie aircraft fleet, Mantz was one of the first to recognize the value of purchasing the USAAF's surplus aircraft which were being sold for as little as $350 for a B-17 bomber (at Kingman Army Airfield). At the end of the war, Mantz purchased a fleet of 475 war-surplus bombers and fighters, including the front line P-51 Mustang fighters, for $55,000. His intention was to use some of this massive armada in film work – at the time, Mantz joked that he had the sixth-largest air force in the world. Despite the critics that lampooned his investment, Mantz immediately drained the fuel onboard and sold it off to make a profit on his initial investment.^[10] Retaining only 12 aircraft, the remainder of his "air force" was sold off as "scrap" at a handsome profit.^[11]

[edit] Racing pilot

With his film fleet in place, Mantz chose one of the P-51 fighters to convert it into a Bendix Trophy racer. With his long-time mechanic, Cort Johnson, he totally rebuilt the P-51C, stripping out all military issue equipment and modifying the wings with "wet" fuel cells. In the 1946 Bendix Trophy race, all the competitors flew similar converted warbirds but Mantz prevailed with an average speed of 435 mph. He went on to win the Bendix for an unprecedented three consecutive years (1946-1948) with over $125,000.00 in winnings.^[12]

[edit] Postwar film career

His longest single flying assignment was in the late 1950s, for the TV series Sky King. In 1961, aged 58, he formed Tallmantz Aviation with pilot Frank Tallman, supplying airplanes along with their personal stunt flying services to movie and television productions. Mantz piloted a Boeing B-17 for the belly-landing scenes in Twelve O'Clock High and the footage was reused in several other movies.

Mantz piloted a converted B-25 bomber to film footage for Cinerama travelogues. According to an interview in the documentary Cinerama Adventure with Mantz's cameraman, in one instance, Mantz flew through an active volcano and narrowly escaped crashing into the mouth of the volcano when the engines died due to oxygen starvation.

[edit] Family life

In 1932, Mantz married Myrtle Harvey, one of his former flying students, but divorced in 1935.^[13] He remarried two years later to Terry Mac Minor, and had a son Paul with his second wife, while her two children, Roy and Terita were subsequently adopted. The Mantz family lived on Balboa Island, off Newport Beach, California, where Mantz had a yacht. After years of successful ventures in both air racing and movie work, he had accumulated more than $10 million in profits, and by 1965, was planning his retirement.^[14] When his partner, Frank Tallman, broke his leg in a freak accident, Mantz stepped in to finish the aerial scenes for one last movie project.^[15]

[edit] Death

Mantz died on 8 July 1965 while working on the movie The Flight of the Phoenix, produced and directed by Robert Aldrich. Flying a very unusual aircraft, the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1 built especially for the film, Mantz struck a small hillock while skimming over a desert site in Arizona for a second take. As Mantz attempted to recover by opening the throttle to its maximum the over-stressed aircraft broke in two and nosed over into the ground, killing Mantz instantly. (Bobby Rose, a stuntman standing behind Mantz in the cockpit and representing a character played by Hardy Kruger, was seriously injured.)

The FAA investigation noted Mantz's alcohol consumption before the flight and said the resulting impairment to his "efficiency and judgment" contributed to the accident. Thirteen years later his business partner Frank Tallman also died in an aviation mishap.

The final credits of The Flight of the Phoenix bear a tribute to Paul Mantz: "It should be remembered... that Paul Mantz, a fine man and a brilliant flyer, gave his life in the making of this film..."^[16]

“	I'm not a stunt pilot. I'm a precision pilot.	”
	— Paul Mantz, 1934, [13]

[edit] Awards

• Bendix Trophy, 1946, 1947, 1948
• Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, 1992
• International Council of Air Shows Foundation Hall of Fame,^[17] 2006.

[edit] See also

• Amelia Earhart
• Art Scholl
• Frank Tallman

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

• History of Hollywood Stunt Pilots
• Paul Mantz: King of the Hollywood Pilots
• Check-Six.com - The Final Flight of the "Phoenix"
• Independent Movie Data Base (IMDB) page

Persondata
NAME	Mantz, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Aviator, air racing pilot, movie stunt pilot
DATE OF BIRTH	2 August 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH	Arizona (filming location)
DATE OF DEATH	8 July 1965
PLACE OF DEATH	Arizona (filming location)