The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-01-03
BURNED ALIVE 1900
FEET ABOVE PACIFIC
ASTWOSH|PSCR Aa,
Hollywood Directors, Camera
men and Pilots Perish In
Flame. Spewing Hulks
STUNT MAN CHEATS FATE
Quartet In Third Craft Watch
Companions Cremation And
Crushing In Tragedy
STUNT MAN CHEATS FATE

Santa Monica, Cal, Jan. .3.-Nr
The placid Pacific rolled gently today
W the watery sepulchre Of seven. Of
the 10 men who yesterday met .
flaming death 5000 feet above the sea
In catering to q public within.
The charred and shattered bodies
of the other three were In q morgue,
where relatives will claim them be-
fore the world forgets.
They were making q motion picture
thriller. Had they succeeded, the
world would never have seer or
known them.
For they were behind the -scenes-
men. directors, cameramen. property
men and airplane pilots.
Yesterday they scared out shove
the sea-two plane loads Of men and
cameras and equipment. They how
cred w q third plane, waiting for
a stunt man. to drop toward the
water with his parachute. They were
to make q thrilling sequence In q
story based on disappearance Of Cap
tain Alfred Lowenstein, Belgian fl
nancier, from q plane crossing the
English channel on July 5, 1924.
Planes Whip Together
The cameras were grinding and
nerves were tensed. for the final
swoop when either q pilot erred, q
flashing sun ray blinded or q vagrant
air current played role q q me6sen-
Y ger Of death. No one lived to tell
what 1t was.
Suddenly the planes whipped to-
gether almost head-on. Wings
splintered. crumpled and folded back.
Cabins ground together. ~telescoped.
Gasoline tanks burst and flarcd. In
the twinkling of m eye thescomntmH
wreckage shot seward.
Three bodies were catapultcd from
the ame-spewing hulks during the
kissing plunge. and fell into the water
away from the volcanic spout Ct
spray, fire end smoke which marked
the crash Of the planes on the sur
face.
4 Oil Wrea4hes Graves
Within q few minutes only a thin
film Of oil. flattening out the white
topped waves, bore evidence Of the
tragedy. No more bodies appeared,
and no wreckage came to the surface.
The dead:
Kenneth Hawks, 80, Hollywood, mo.
ton picture director. Husband Of
Mary Astor. film actress Body not
recovered.
Max Gold, %, Hollywood, assistant
director, married. Body recovered.
). Conrad Wells, 81, Hollywood, cam.
eraman, married. Body recovered.
George Eastman. %, Santa Monica,
l ~ Nonpo~0N ,eAaaoppiAA naAw ~AS
recovered.
Ben Frankel, Is. Hollywood, assist
ant cameraman. unmarried. Body
recovered.
Otto Jordan, Is, Hollywood, assistant
cAmeraman, unmarried. Body not
recovered.
, Tom Harris. Is. Hollywood, property
man, married. Body not recovered.
Hank Johannes. ~. property man,
unmarried. Body not recovered.
Ross Cook, %. Santa Monica, pilot
unmarried. Body not recovered.
8 Hallock Rouse. 20, Santa Monica,
) pilot, unmarried. Body not recovered.
Four Escape Tragedy
> Jacob T~riebwasser, parachute Jump
: er, who had expected to risk his life
y in q hazardous leap into the sea, had
s not entered the scene when death
STEPPED In as director.
He and his pilot, Lieut.. Col. Roscoe
s Turner. and two companions, Fred
: Osborne and Bert White, motion pic
ture technicianS, SCARED away un-
: scathed. their plane not having boeu
Unanswered into line with the camera
ships.
Triebwasser was posing for hii
Jump, waiting for the word IRON
White. who, responsible for the tim
I ing Of the leap, was watching thu
camera planes, when . thin ery
waited through the roa Of the mo-
tors:
, They're crashing!"
" Wheels Ship Clear
Turner. 500 feet below the doomed
n camera planes. wheeled his ship vel
into the clear before the shriekinl
y wreckage plunged by.
Is II saw the planes" White said
e 'one Of which was settling, om to.
- gether. Their wing tips touched
Then the wings telescoped and tn.
cabins crushed together. There wa:
IN explosive flash, and bodies We
hurled out. IT flaming ships be4al
to fall like plummets into the . :
mo one could have lvsd In thos,
:, planes before they struck the suf
face Of the ocean,"
= l. W. O'Oonneil. head cazneramal
q OF the Fox Film corporation. 20
which tho picture wos betng mo6e
was stationed IN Q speed boat a ~