"It's not that I'm afraid of heights," says Violinist Nathan Milstein. "Not even that I am terrified of accidents. It's harder to define. I've flown three times in my life, and I was absolutely miserable every minute. I can't breathe, feel time is suspended, and there I am—alone with my anguish."
Soviet Pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels know just how Milstein feels. They too refuse to fly, unless it is absolutely necessary. Even then, says Gilels, "my extreme nervous sensibility is affected; I sense any sound or nuance during the flight." As for Richter, he requires at least five days' rest after a flight to calm down and restore his sense of hearing. Nor are musicians the only ones affected. Former Boston Red Sox Star Jackie Jensen says: "I quit baseball for several reasons, but the main one was fear of flying. It just wasn't worth it." And Science Fiction Writer Ray Bradbury has refused to fly at all, even when John H. Glenn Jr. offered him a lift in his private jet.
Better Wrecked than Crashed. By all indications, there are only small numbers of people whose fear of flying is so phobic that they find it all but impossible to get into a plane. But they have little trouble recognizing one another, if only because they are all inveterate train and boat travelers. When Composer Andre Previn and his wife spotted Folksinger Joan Baez on a train, they greeted her warmly: "Hello, welcome to Cowards Anonymous." Baez has since conquered her fear, but not Actress Joanne Woodward, who, like many another nervous flyer, takes a couple of tranquilizers before getting on a plane. "It's an absurd way to travel," she explains. "One is bound to feel claustrophobic—no one was meant to be 35,000 feet up in the air." Says Comedian Bob Newhart: "I take white-knuckle flights. I have a couple of drinks before, a couple during the flight—and then I sit there and suffer."
Neil Coles, a top-ranking British golf pro, took a slow boat to Houston last year for the Ryder Cup matches rather than fly, thereby eliminating himself from several tournaments that took place while he was at sea, including the one with the richest first prize of all, the $55,000 Alcan. Singer Jack Landron passed up a free junket to Finland, which he won on TV's Dating Game, because he refused to fly. While designing the capital city of Brasilia, Architect Oscar Niemeyer regularly drove the 575 miles overland from Rio de Janeiro rather than take a1½-hour flight.