Ormer Locklear

Ormer Locklear (October 28 1891 – August 2 1920), nicknamed 'Lock', was a daredevil stunt flyer during and immediately after World War I.

Born in Greenville, Texas, Locklear was brought up in Fort Worth, and trained as a carpenter. While still at school he was a daredevil performer of tricks in and on moving vehicles. He worked as a house-builder, and married Ruby Graves in 1915.

Locklear became fascinated by flying, trying to build his own glider, so when World War I involved the US in 1917, he joined the U.S. Army Air Service. He trained in Austin, at Camp Dick and Barron Field, becoming a flying instructor. Locklear was an exponent of wing walking to make aircraft repairs in flight.

A 2nd Lieutenant at the end of the war, he had been assigned to military recruitment when he saw a barnstorming show, and realised his own usual flying exploits were far more impressive. Locklear left the army to join the show with two military colleagues, Milton 'Skeets' Elliott and Shirley Short. They soon obtained aircraft and formed their own show, performing far and wide. This opened the way to a movie career in California, where they performed aerial stunts for the camera.

Two of the trio died in 1920 after an aerial manoeuvre while filming Locklear's second movie, "The Skywayman". (Ronnie 1973: 278) It happened at the De Mille Airfield near Los Angeles. While filming the finale by night, Elliott had to dive the plane, carrying himself and Locklear, towards some oil derricks and appear to crash it. He forewarned the lighting crew to douse their lights when he got near the derricks, so that he could see to pull out of the dive; the lights remained full on, blinding him, and he crashed. The movie showed the crash and its aftermath in gruesome detail.

Viola Dana was in a relationship with Locklear and witnessed the crash. Dana describes Locklear's aerial accident in a profoundly personal way in the documentary called HOLLYWOOD: Hazard of the Game (1980).

Locklear and Elliott were buried in Fort Worth after huge funeral ceremonies, both there and in Los Angeles.

Trivia

A photograph of Locklear appears on the wall of early aviators and aircraft which is panned across behind the opening credits of the 1975 George Roy Hill film "The Great Waldo Pepper".

Locklear performed with the major motion picture aviators, such as Al Wilson, Frank Clarke, Dick Grace, and B.H. DeLay.

Buster Keaton had his first plane flight with Locklear at DeMille Airfield. Cecil B. DeMille operated three airfields. The site of this flight was the airfield at Wilshire Blvd. and Cresent Ave. in Los Angeles. Locklear's aerial loop-the-loop had Keaton hanging upside down at 5000 ft. (Ronnie 1973: 11)

References

• Ronnie, Art. (1973) Locklear: The Man Who Walked on Wings. Cranbury, New Jersey: A.S. Barnes and Company. ISBN 0-498-01073-2
• Wynne, Hugh. (1987) The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots & Hollywoods Classic Aviation Movies, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing. ISBN 0-933126-85-9
• D. D. Hatfield. (1973) Los Angeles Aeronautics 1920-29, California: Northrup University Press. ASIN B0006CB8ZI
• The Skywayman
• Barron Field

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ormer Locklear".