Title: Powder puff derby :
Authors: Walker, Mike.
Date: 2003
Publisher: Wiley,
Physical description: xvi, 287 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm
Language: English
LC class: T
Abstract: "Cowboy journalist Will Rogers called it the Powder Puff Derby. After all, who had ever heard of such an outrageous idea as dames in planes? Worse, dames racing planes 2,700 miles from California to Cleveland. One reporter reckoned that far from finding the finishing line, the 'girls' would have trouble finding somewhere to powder their noses. He was wrong and one sunny day in 1929 nineteen young women set out to prove it. The planes were primitive and the navigational equipment non-existent. Half the time, the pilots followed railway lines across the prairies, or arrows painted on barn roofs - and yet, despite crashes, sabotage and storms, they made it and encouraged women everywhere to demand the same freedom and independence that flying had given them. Careless of their own safety and the prejudice of male pilots, they strove to break new records. They became stars and in the spirit of the age, flew for the sheer joy of it, blazing a vapour trail that future generations of women would follow into the wide blue yonder."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: Clover Field : the Powder Puff Derby of 1929 -- Print the legend : Florence 'Pancho' Barnes -- Bicycle dreams : Aerial nymphs and parachute artistes: Elisabeth Thible and Dolly Shepherd ; Early birds : Elise de Laroche, Katherine Stinson, Hilda Hewlett, Harriet Quimby, Melli Beese and Eugenie Shakhovskaya -- Death of an unknown woman : Lady Mary Heath -- Evelyn bobs her hair : Bobbi Trout -- 'They say I shot a man and killed him' : Jessie 'Chubbie' Miller -- Degrees of difficulty : Bessie Coleman and Hanna Reitsch -- Always stand on the right : Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson. The Dames in Planes -- Clover Field: The Powder Puff Derby of 1929 -- Print the legend: Florence 'Pancho' Barnes -- Bicycle dreams: Aerial nymphs and parachute artistes: Elisabeth Thible and Dolly Shepherd Early birds: Elise de Laroche, Katherine Stinson, Hilda Hewlett, Harriet Quimby, Melli Beese and Eugenie Shakhovskaya -- Death of an unknown woman: Lady Mary Heath -- Evelyn bobs her hair: Bobbi Trout -- 'They say I shot a man and killed him': Jessie 'Chubbie' Miller -- Degrees of difficulty: Bessie Coleman and Hanna Reitsch -- Always stand on the right: Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson.