OTHER RESOURCES

A very readable volume about the Grand Central Air Terminal is this book:

Underwood, John. 1984. Madcaps, Millionaires and 'Mose'. Heritage Press, Glendale, CA. 144pp.

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THANK YOU!

YOUR PURCHASE OF THESE BOOKS SUPPORTS THE WEB SITES THAT BRING TO YOU THE HISTORY BEHIND OLD AIRFIELD REGISTERS

Your copy of the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register (available in paperback) with all the pilots' signatures and helpful cross-references to pilots and their aircraft is available at the link. 375 pages with black & white photographs and extensive tables

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The Congress of Ghosts (available as Kindle Edition eBook) is an anniversary celebration for 2010.  It is an historical biography, that celebrates the 5th year online of www.dmairfield.org and the 10th year of effort on the project dedicated to analyze and exhibit the history embodied in the Register of the Davis-Monthan Airfield, Tucson, AZ. This book includes over thirty people, aircraft and events that swirled through Tucson between 1925 and 1936. It includes across 277 pages previously unpublished photographs and texts, and facsimiles of personal letters, diaries and military orders. Order your copy at the link.

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Military Aircraft of the Davis Monthan Register, 1925-1936 (available in paperback) at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Art Goebel's Own Story (available as free PDF download) by Art Goebel (edited by G.W. Hyatt) is written in language that expands for us his life as a Golden Age aviation entrepreneur, who used his aviation exploits to build a business around his passion.  Available as a free download at the link.

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Winners' Viewpoints: The Great 1927 Trans-Pacific Dole Race (available as Kindle Edition eBook) is available at the link. This book describes and illustrates with black & white photographs the majority of military aircraft that landed at the Davis-Monthan Airfield between 1925 and 1936. The book includes biographies of some of the pilots who flew the aircraft to Tucson as well as extensive listings of all the pilots and airplanes. Use this FORM to order a copy signed by the author, while supplies last.

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Clover Field: The first Century of Aviation in the Golden State (available in paperback & Kindle Edition) With the 100th anniversary in 2017 of the use of Clover Field as a place to land aircraft in Santa Monica, this book celebrates that use by exploring some of the people and aircraft that made the airport great. 281 pages, black & white photographs.

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I'm looking for information and photographs of this airplane to include on this page. If you have some you'd like to share, please click this FORM to contact me.

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GEORGE LATIMER "Jack" SLAYBAUGH

G.L. "Jack" Slaybaugh, Date Unknown (Source: ancestry.com)

 

Jack Slaybaugh appears in two of our Registers. He is written up in the Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) Register 22 times during May-December 1931. For 10 of those landings he flew the Gilpin Airlines Fairchild NC9114, Ryan B-5 Brougham, NC313K, S/N 212 (five times) or two Bach 3-CT-6, NC388 or NC850E (five times total). He flew the T.W.A. Ford NC7117 once. He also appeared in the Clover Field Register twice during 1929.

At GCAT, Slaybaugh was a pilot over a couple of years for Gilpin Airlines, owned and operated out of GCAT by C.W. Gilpin. Please direct you browser to Gilpin's link for more information.

By example, on March 24, 1932, Slaybaugh, at age 39, flew a plane load of seven passengers from Agua Caliente, Mexico to San Diego. WIth him was Register pilot and fellow Gilpin Airlines employee, George Farnham. Below, the U.S. immigration form documents that flight. Their airplane was NC850E.

This form is one of over 80 similar documents filed at ancestry.com, which recorded Slaybaugh's border crossings on behalf of Gilpin Airlines between GCAT, Agua Caliente, Mexico and return. The dates of these documents run from June 17, 1931 to September 27, 1933. Most of these flights carried passengers to and from Mexico for a good time. Prohibition was the law in the U.S. until December, 1933, so a lot of travel by Americans to border towns in Mexico was to enjoy legal alcohol. Agua Caliente, Juarez and Nogales were among those towns. The photograph, left above, is from Slaybaugh's genealogical information at ancestry.com.

Jack Slaybaugh, U.S. Immigration Form, March 24, 1932 (Source: ancestry.com)

Some of Slaybaugh's flights, however, carried VIPs or soon-to-be VIPs. One example is his flight on November 30, 1931. He carried John Huston, his then ex-wife Dorothy and William Wyler. Huston (age 25) was new to Hollywood at the time and was a screenwriter and actor. He would soon become a director of Hollywood films. Wyler (29) was already a director. Wyler and Huston would become close friends and collaborators on a number of movies. On another occasion, April 18, 1932, Slaybaugh carried Jack Pickford (1896-1933) actor and brother of older sister Mary.

Jack Slaybaugh (Seated), Mother, Sisters & Aunt, Ca. 1910, Oklahoma (Source: ancestry.com)
Jack Slaybaugh (Seated), Mother, Sisters & Aunt, Ca. 1910, Oklahoma (Source: ancestry.com)

 

According to these 80-odd documents, Slaybough flew at least seven airplanes to and from Mexico. They were, in decreasing order of flight frequency, Fairchild NC9114 (29 flights), Bach NC850E (19 flights), Bach NC388 (15 flights), Bach NC8069 (8 flights) Arrow Sport NC388E (2 flights) and Stinson NC11118 (one flight). For the mathematicians among you, some of the documents did not include an aircraft registration number, that's why your total is less than 80.

Slaybaugh was born September 20, 1904 in Yale, Payne County, OK. The 1910 U.S. Census, his first, records him living at age 6 with his parents and two younger sisters in Payne County. A 17-year old servant also lived with them. His father was a "Druggist" at a "Drug Store." The photograph, right, shows Slaybaugh and his family near the time of the 1910 Census. The woman in the background is identified as his aunt (father's sister), Catherine. One can hear that screen door slamming as the kids run in and out. And that lattice surrounding the bottom of the porch has a hole in it somewhere just big enough for a boy to crawl in and out.

In the 1920 Census, the family still lived in Payne County. Slaybaugh's mother, Mary (age 37; 1882-1951) was not employed. His father, Joseph (39; 1880-1956) was still a druggist, and they had added two additonal children to the family, ages 7 and 6-months.

The 1930 Census places him, at age 26, in a boarding house in San Francisco with 26 other boarders. The address today is a large multi-storey building which looks like it could be 1930s vintage. His occupation was identified as "Aviator" in the "Aviation" business. He was too young to have learned to fly during WWI, so he must have learned privately sometime during the 1920s. If you have information about his life during the 1920s, please let me KNOW.

Next, I include the photograph below not so much because it is directly related to Slaybaugh, but because it represents his father's drug store business at the time when soda fountains were a part of pharmacies.

Slaybaugh's Drugstore Owned by His Father, Ca. 1910-20 (Source: ancestry.com)

The brand of ice cream was Steffen's. Note the twisted steel counter stools and the marble fountain pedestal. The refreshments being enjoyed by the woman, and the one being served by Slaybaugh's father, center, are contained in glasses that are inserted in metal holders with a handle. Stacks of those holder-handles are visible at each end of the bar behind the men. Most of those refreshments were a nickel (Coke) or a dime (egg flip) according to the menus written on the mirror. Malted milk was three nickels. The two jars on the counter are labeled "Cherries." Note the bamboo fishing poles for sale in the corner, left. Near them is a baseball bat standing in the corner. You can bet money that the growing Slaybaugh family occupied those stools on more than one occasion. And they didn't pay nickels for their refreshments either.

To continue, at some point Slaybaugh married Lucille Davis. I don't know when she was born, and her death record is indistinct, saying she passed away sometime between 1970 and 1980. I could find no record that they had children.

One source says Slaybaugh was a barnstormer, and that he, in addition to his career with Gilpin Airlines, later became a pilot for Pan American Airlines. I can find no evidence for these activities, except for Gilpin Airlines. I have no information about Slaybaugh's social, aviation or leisure life, especially from 1940-60. If you can help fill in the blanks, please let me KNOW.

Slaybaugh flew West June 1, 1963 in Santa Barbara, CA. He was only 58 years old. He is buried in the Santa Barbara Cemetery. He flew carrying Tranport pilot certificate T4152.

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