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Many children gazed hopefully at the skies of the Inland Empire in early 1929, seeking the ultimate sweet reward.
The makers of the Baby Ruth candy bar announced that their specially decorated biplane would toss hundreds of candy bars and chewing gum to groups of children in towns ranging from Riverside to Pasadena and beyond.
One writer called it the Baby Ruth Flying Circus, a massive six-year publicity stunt promoting Curtiss Candy Co. products. Traveling to cities across the country, Curtiss announced the time and day of his downfall. planned candy and encouraged children to gather in open spaces, each hoping to collect their own “manna from heaven”.
In late February and much of March 1929, the Curtiss candy plane dropped its products to Inland Empire children in Whittier, Pasadena, San Pedro, Ventura, and Escondido.
“Pomona will witness the biggest candy and gum party ever in the state!” were the words of a Curtiss ad in the February 25 Pomona Progress-Bulletin. Of course, this exaggerated wording was also uttered in newspaper ads from other cities.
Hyperbole meant nothing to a child as long as it was where it could be covered in free candy.
“There were kids all over a big open field…we had big fields everywhere then,” Eugene Piester recalled in a 2010 oral history of how he and his brother walked from Norco to Corona for the fall of February 28 sweets.
The children eagerly searched for the first signs of the biplane piloted by First World War aviator Dallas M. Speer which left Norconian airfield for the ‘bombing’ of Corona.
“Eventually we heard it first, then it circled, then went low and the parachutes started to drop. I don’t think they worked very well, but it was a lot of fun to get together. scramble to get the candy.
Piester said the candy drop was augmented by the arrival of a Curtiss truck which provided even more candy. “We just lined our pockets because they were free. I don’t think any of them have gone home: I mean it’s been a long walk and the kids are hungry. »
At Riverside, three days later, the children were promised candy would be dropped off along with free tickets to a matinee at the Riverside Theatre. But sometimes it took a little patience.
A Grand Avenue girl called the Riverside Daily Press to complain that the plane never came to her neighborhood on March 2. After the receiver slammed to the ground, it was followed by the sound of little feet rushing away, according to the news report that day.
The California candy drops were apparently the last of the Baby Ruth Flying Circus, the program likely doomed that year by the onset of the Great Depression.
A historic twist in publicity stunts involved Paul Tibbets, who as a 9-year-old in Florida fought over a free ride on the Baby Ruth plane. He was so captivated by this experience that he decided aviation was something he would pursue as he got older. Tibbets later became a historical figure as the commander of the American bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
Thanks to Norco Historian and Councilman Kevin Bash for sharing photos and local stories of the Baby Ruth Flying Circus.
Steal lucky
In another airplane story, Army Air Corps pilot Lt. Joe Dawson was on a routine flight to March Field in Riverside from the Bay Area in 1933 when he noticed pilot Ross Peacock flying him frantically gestured from another plane.
Peacock showed the underside of Dawson’s plane just before the Army pilot landed for refueling in Bakersfield on February 1.
And that’s when he discovered 500 feet of cable had been snagged on the bottom of the plane during takeoff at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Peacock, a private pilot, was sent to alert him upon his arrival, the Bakersfield Californian reported in the afternoon.
Dawson’s P-12 Army pursuit plane had no radio. The belief on the ground was that the plane would crash if it tried to land with all that cable trailing behind.
Faced with limited options, Dawson boldly decided to dive his plane close to the ground, sliding the cable over the telephone wires between the poles. This rather desperate and risky strategy worked perfectly when the cable was removed from the plane. Just after Dawson landed in Bakersfield, another Army plane arrived from San Francisco with a sign: “500 feet of towline on your back skid, danger, Joe”, a warning which fortunately did not was not necessary.
Dawson then proceeded to Riverside without incident. Interestingly, there was no mention of any loss of telephone service in Bakersfield that day.
When Teddy arrived
On December 4, the Riverside Historical Society will host a presentation by Glenn Wenzel of his book, “When Teddy Came to Town,” the story of President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 visit to Riverside.
The 1 p.m. lecture will detail Roosevelt’s time at the Mission Inn and the planting of two trees. He will also discuss several relics of the Spanish-American War at the historic hotel.
This will be the annual meeting of the company and the election of directors. It will be held in the main floor conference room at Riverside Medical Center, 7117 Brockton Ave., Riverside.
Joe Blackstock writes about the history of the Inland Empire. He can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @JoeBlackstock. Check out some of our columns from the past at Inland Empire Stories on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IEHistory