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Proud were four pretty Eastern girls last week. At Hicksville. L. I., they performed the central rites at the opening of the Long Island Aviation Country Club, first of its kind in the U. S. Before several hundred socialites beneath variegated lawn umbrellas, each girl christened a club plane—Bunny, Squirrel, School Marm, Malolo. The girls were Eleanor Hoyt, daughter of Richard Farnsworth Hoyt (see above);* Emily Lawrance, daughter of Charles Lanier Lawrance (see below); Ann McDonnell, daughter of Vice President Edward O. McDonnell of G. M.P. Murphy & Co. (securities); Frances Reaves, daughter of John S. Reaves, chairman of a committee organizing 114 Aviation Country Clubs throughout the country. Each daughter received a gold medal with her name on it.
A speech by Assistant Secretary of War for Aeronautics Frederick Trubee Davison, a prayer by Navy Chaplain J. J. Brady, military music and air-gambolings by Army pilots and club members, completed the first air country club's opening program. Fifty-five planes were in the air at one time. In activity and gayety the scene was like a hunt meet or steeplechase.
A companion aviation country club, the Westchester near Greenwich. Conn., will begin operations within a few weeks. Others already in process of organization will be at Philadelphia, Newport, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ruth Nichols, pilot-saleslady, is now on the Pacific Coast explaining the Aviation Country Club idea.
That idea is to have a club near the well-to-do suburbs of every large city. The clubs will have their own club houses. hangars, planes, landing fields. Members belong to the national organization and have the full privileges of every local club—hiring planes for sport, business, travel or training, or parking their own planes.
Frederick Trubee Davison was asked a few days after the Long Island Club's opening, to be chairman of the National Governing Board of Aviation Country Clubs. A very busy public official he could not answer at once.
President of the Long Island Club is Charles Lanier Lawrance. On the board of managers with him there are famed names:
Chance Vought William B. Leeds
Henry P. Davison C. Oliver O'Donnell
E. O. McDonnell Roland Palmedo
Reginald L. Brooks James B. Taylor Jr.
William Hale Harkness Cornelius V. Whitney
Robert Law, George M. Pynchon Jr. and Elliot S. Phillips have worked up the Westchester Club. Charles Townsend Ludington is busy at Philadelphia; Major Lorillard Spencer, Count Alfonso Villa and William H. Vanderbilt at Newport; George Hann at Pittsburgh; David S. Ingalls at Cleveland; Robert R. McCormick, Joseph Medill Patterson, Philip Wrigley, John J. Mitchell at Chicago; William G. McAdoo Jr., Tod Ford Jr., Aldrich M. Peck at Los Angeles; William G. Parrott, Peter B. Kyne, Julliard McDonald, Thomas B. Eastland, Alexander Young, Edward H. Clark at San Francisco.
Insignia of Aviation Country Clubs is a purple plane surrounded by purple initials ACC, superposed on a pair of gold wings. The pin worn on lapel or dress will indicate membership in what present members intend to be the most exclusive social club in the U. S.
Iron Horse & Tin Goose
By next week three transcontinental air-&-mail routes will be in operation, viz: