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Q. Is the Teachers College at Columbia University a good school?Yelp: an unorthodox rating of Teachers College - Columbia University from the students’ perspective, near unanimous voicing of disappointment and major problems. Unexpected for such a storied and renown institution, with distinguished alumni.Followed by two more conventional rankings/general info.Ranking: TCCU #7.Teachers College, Columbia UniversityColleges & Universities525 W 120th StNew York, NY 10027Phone number: (212) 678-3000Business website: tc.columbia.eduRecommended Reviews Teachers College - Columbia University.Dan T. New York, NY 1/2/2010 Listed in Awwww yeah: The Heights, Schools “Excellent educationally but much to improve--facilities/etc. should align with tuition to alleviate the faculty and student disillusionment for the cost of the education and services rendered.”Mike O. Brooklyn, NY 3/29/2014 One of the oldest and best ed schools in the country. Faculty are great. Students are bright and hardworking. Spent a year and a half here getting my M.A. as a Literacy Specialist and had a great, unforgettable experience.L L. New York, NY 8/7/2014 I know Yelp is not the greatest place to rate a school, but I have to say that I was totally disappointed by TC. First of all, if you just want Columbia on your degree paper, go for it, because TC is probably one of the easiest (and maybe the cheapest) ways to achieve this.Now I will talk about why I was disappointed. One of the common things people complain about is the faculty-student ratio. It's true. It matters because your advisor won't have that much time to try to guide you and even listen to you! It depends on people of course, but at least mine literally told me she didn't have time (during her office hours!!) to help me choose classes. Faculty-student ratio also matters because it is very hard to have in-depth discussions in a classroom with more than 50 people who are just trying to say something to show they are "participating".Their career services are also inadequate, and especially poor when it comes to international students who are already a large community at the school. No one even keeps a record of which employers would hire international students, because "it is not required by the US government". Since when an Ivy League school does not offer anything more than what is required by the US government?The quality of the peers is questionable. I am not sure how much the admissions threshold has been lowered within the last few years. All I know is that I got to see fewer and fewer people that are really competent. What bothered me the most is that some of its programs (including mine) are not academically rigorous at all. I've known people who pretty much didn't do anything in a term-long group project and could easily get an A. I've known people who copied other people's homework and could easily pass. Sometimes the professors might not have known what was going on, but sometimes they knew and they didn't care.Again, different people come out of TC with totally different experiences. I had those bad ones because I happened to meet certain people, happened to work with certain people, and happened to take certain classes. However, I am definitely not the only person who felt much disappointed. Talk to as many current students or recent grads as you can before deciding to attend TC, get an insight of where TC is heading towards, think thoroughly what you want and see what and how TC can provide, otherwise you will regret spending your time and money there.Craig B. Philadelphia PA 10/1/2011 Just spend a week at Teacher's College and you'll have a decent handle on what's wrong with education in this country. Here you are smack in the center of the Hogwarts for teachers, but it's really just an opportunity to hand over A LOT of money to get Columbia University listed on your resume. It should be criminal because these are teachers that we are talking about. At least if Teachers College actually imparted something useful that can be used to improve the quality of education in this country, but this is just a pure money grab.- Most of your classes have a minimum of 30+ students. Some have more than 50. Go look on the TC web site to see the number of students enrolled in classes under "Class Schedule". This is hardly graduate education. You're just being given articles to read and papers to write. Little to no class discussion. In graduate school, you should expect classes that have a max of 15.- Most of what you get from these articles is pretty basic and things that you will learn after you have taught for about two years. In two years no one is going to care that you went to Columbia; they are going to care what type of teacher you are, and you won't get that at TC.A good number of classes are taught by graduate students and adjuncts, in some programs more than half. It's something of a bait and switch because you think that your classes, especially required classes, will be taught by faculty, but really they aren't. Do the math. At about $4,000 per class, TC takes in about $150,000 for some classes and pays the adjunct maybe $4,000 to teach it. For example, here is Professor Joanna Williams trying to claim that she teaches a class in Educational Psychology when, in fact, she never teaches a class in Educational Psychology: tc.columbia.edu/academic…In fact here she even says "I teach a master's-level course in educational psychology" (1:52) when, again, a grad student or adjunct teaches the class. It's just deceptive. The administration knows about this. They are too busy counting your money to care. tc.columbia.edu/hud/inde…Faculty+Interviews- If you do get a class with an actual professor, it's pretty much read to you from the same yellowed paper that the professor has used for decades. Not a lot of adaptation or creativity goes into the programs.- Also do the math: you are charged for three credit hours, but most classes only meet for for about two hours.- TC accepts a massive number of students for the MA programs and herds them through. You will not have a problem being accepted because pretty much every application is accepted. This is to help pay for the PhD students. But many of the PhD students can't get work.One of the few respected programs, and one actually with any real rigor, is Organizational Leadership. Yet TC is one of the most dysfunctional bureaucratic environments that you'll find yourself in. Try dealing with the registrar, paying a bill, or getting your e-mail set up. People refer you to someone else and that person will refer you back to the first person. I was in one class that had a janitorial closet in the back and janitors would walk in and through the classroom during class time with ladders and other pieces of heavy equipment. In one case I applied for and was granted an extension by the registrar. Then later the registrar came back and said that I had an issue because I had no extension. I showed the registrar her own letter, signed by her, that clearly stated the extension and the terms of the extension, and that still wasn't enough. She said that she needed to meet with a special committee. This is very common. Most students can tell you a story like this.In the end TC graduates teachers who are burdened under a massive amount of debt. Try to pay that off on a teachers salary. I'm sure some of the students believe that they got a decent education, but they don't really have something impressive to compare their TC experience to. They think that TC is normal. Hope that they don't emulate it in their own classrooms.I've written all of this because supporting teachers is very important, and two months after you start classes at TC this is what you are going to wish that someone had told you when you were looking at graduate programs.If gold will rust, what will iron do?Erin M. Manhattan, NY 3/14/2011 Wow. I realize it has a good reputation, but honestly, it shouldn't. This is by far the worst school I've ever attended. Overpriced. Zero support from faculty or the administration. In fact, not only will they not help you, but they will build roadblocks to prevent you from accomplishing what you need to do. Poor classes, most of which are taught by graduate students. Some of the graduate students are fine, but why am I paying so much for my fellow students to teach me? Getting my doctorate there managed to make me less marketable, and to make it even harder to find a job. Well, all in all, it was a horrible experience and I will never recommend it to anyone.Zuleika R. Clifton, NJ 12/14/2016 Way overpriced for the quality of education it provides. Will take forever to process things (fasfa, petsa video,etc). You never get a reply back from emails. Also, majority of PhD grad students teach MA students rather than real professors. You get all of this for a huge amount of debt. In my opinion, it will take your whole life to pay the debt of teachers college if u become a teacher. Nowadays jobs are very scarce and tough to get. So make a wise decision. My friend got in here with a 3.1 GPA so it's not competitive.Lindsay S. New York, NY 11/23/201425 check-ins Not amused by my program.Teachers College Columbia University leverages the RingCentral cloud communications platformMarina S. Staten Island, NY 10/6/2014 Expensive, but it's a private school in the US, just like any other. The PhD students got a lot of attention from a few professors, which was very noticeable to us, the MA students. Sometimes we felt a bit ignored. I give as much as 3/5, because I got a Master's degree and that helped me get a job which I couldn't get without it.The professors are very knowledgeable, on the most part. We had a problem only with one instructor who hadn't even had a Master's Degree and was teaching a lab course strictly from slides with no additional information. (We know how to use basic Word and Excel. but we spent a few weeks worth of classes reading slides about it).In general, I learned a lot and I really enjoyed the course work. My concentration was in Motor Learning and Control (Bio Behavioral Sciences). I also met many wonderful people who were in the same or in related MA and PhD programs.I just would have liked it more if we (MA students) got a bit more attention from the few important professors in the program.Katya R. New York, NY 6/30/2013 I did an orientation as was considering a Master's there.The teacher to student ratios are quite large and from all my research this is far from a rigorous program.It seems like a veritable diploma mill where the basis for the transaction is very expensive classes in return for a Columbia branded resume (with not what one would expect at a master's level in between). If you fail out of this program, it is because you never showed up for class or the tests, ever.The very high acceptance rate supports this. Columbia has turned a very needed program into a cash cow. This model has been playing out in many of the MS level classes at TC and at the university at large.This is the Harvard Extension School (being very, very kind here to Columbia by even offering that associative reference) equivalent in a teaching program.Buyer beware, and do your own due diligence before you apply (since the above is more or less common knowledge).Tiffany C. Manhattan, NY 12/1/2011 Updated review The school is great! With all the money they have they should be able to remodel the place a little. I love the vintage look, but some of the classrooms need to be re-done. the programs here are great and so are the professors. I wish it cost less money to go there, but i guess you have to pay for a good education. The area around is nice, definitely one of the quieter places in the city.Sam W. Hoboken, NJ 4/21/2012 Want an Ivy League degree barely worth the paper it's printed on? Then TC is for you.This place is an utter racket of criminally high tuition, mediocre to laughable instruction, flimsy joke degrees that will ensure our national education system is staffed by dim layabouts for a long time to come.I can't wait for the National Council on Teacher Quality to drill TC into the ground this fall.Tanya L. Boston, MA 4/10/2011 I really want to rate my graduate school higher. I am grateful the education graduate school of Columbia University admitted me with just a 3.3 undergraduate GPA and gave me the opportunity to get a Master's degree here.I am really appreciative I got a small minority scholarship for working on the academic journal, CICE (Current Issues in Comparative Education) at Teachers College. I would try and get my doctorate here, but the school does not fully fund doctoral students sadly.However, I thought the academic advising system was particularly bad in the department of International and Transcultural studies, as it is TC's policy to pair you up with a professor as your advisor. My former professor could care less about advising me. When she agreed to advise my thesis over the summer, she later flaked out on me when I got an impersonal, mass email from the department head mentioning that she was leaving to take another job in DC. My advisor couldn't even take 10 minutes to write a personal adieu to her advisees, or to say goodbye? Absolutely pathetic.Fortunately, this negative advisory experience was counteracted by a Teachers College faculty member who took me on last minute to help me graduate in 1 year time. In addition, I had several professors that were very good at teaching: Terosky and Hatch come to mind as great.However, I am disheartened by the school itself, because it doesn't seem to value hiring it's own alumni. I would love to work for TC, but I have not been one of the chosen ones. There are non-alumni working in its alumni affairs office and career services offices, and although I'm sure they do an decent jobs, there are alumni out there like me that would give our left arm to work for our alma mater and are not given interviews.Teachers College library itself is absolutely gorgeous: 3 floors of plush chairs and pretty wood desks. I found Teachers College to have enjoyable areas of study. The bookstore employees were always helpful, too.Another qualm I have is the career services center attitude that because I have a Columbia University degree that I will find full-time work soon. Au contraire: being Ivy League in this economy doesn't necessarily mean anything. You cannot advise Teachers College alumni to have hope through reliance on being affiliated with a well respected school. Furthermore, the alumni database the career center touts needs to be built up A LOT more because it is barely searchable as is.Diandra D. Pelham, NY 5/31/2011 I had the BEST time in graduate school ... to the point where I wish elementary, middle, high school and college could have been similar. I love the professors here. The buildings are clean, the classrooms well lit and ventilated. The surrounding neighborhood is perfect for students to let off steam or grab a drink after a grueling day of studying or attending lectures.I was fortunate to receive two strategically located student teacher placements, as well as an on-campus job, which made my intensive year program at TC manageable and enjoyable.My classmates and I typically didn't finish our last class until 10 pm (classes didn't start until 5 because all of us student taught during the day). Nonetheless, professors were always available to talk or answer questions whenever (and I do mean WHENEVER) we had them.We would frequently go to West End (before it became Havana Central- RIP) for drinks and food and stumble home discussing how we could use Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences to determine what alcohol said about our respective personalities. The good 'ol days ...I've gone back to the UWS sporadically to visit with some professors (one was even a guest at my wedding) and see the neighborhood, but truthfully, I'm due for another visit very soon.Elizabeth N. Irvine, CA 2/23/2013 The professors are great and so are the students! The Library and Thorndike are the newer or remodel places in comparison to Thompson, Grace Dodge, HM, and more that need some remodeling. I also love the dinning hall that seems so classic and fancy for a University cafeteria.A B. Boston, MA 6/26/2010 I LOVE TC. I know I am spending WAY too much money here and my loans are adding up, but I am getting a degree that will get me any job in the future (well not 'any' but, within reason). I think if you want to be just a regular education teacher you should not go here because of the expense. But if you are looking for a more specialized degree (special ed, ABA, speech pathology, etc) then this is a GREAT place to go.Paul W. Stamford, CT 3/20/2007 Since no teacher's college can teach a prospective teacher how to teach, either don't teach or find a less expensive way to get the same PC drivel elsewhere. Otherwise, great place to live, and lots of perks in the neighborhood. We lived for four years and I did two masters.Ashley D. Paris, France 4/22/2009 TC is expensive. The education programs are excellent from what I've heard. The psychology departments are good, but the large enrollment of the M.A. programs lend a "degree mill" sense I don't care for. Organizational psychology gets the best bang for the buck - I'm not sure the M.A. in clinical psych would be worth the price. I attend at a discount, but I would consider the cost (as well as living in NYC) very carefully before coming. That being said, I really enjoy my particular program (M.A. Organizational Psychology) and am very happy I have come.About TCABOUT TCACADEMICSADMISSION & AIDSTUDENTSFACULTY & RESEARCHAbout TC At a GlanceAbout TCTimelineA Legacy of InnovatorsDiversity & CommunityOffices and AdministrationOur Students, at a GlanceThere are 5023 students enrolled at Teachers College. Approximately 77 percent are women, and among US Citizens, 13.3 percent are African American, 14.6 percent are Asian American, 13.5 percent are Hispanic / Latino/a, and 3.5 percent have identified with two or more ethnicities. The student body is composed of 20.2 percent international students from eighty-four different countries and nearly 80 percent domestic students from all fifty states and the District of Columbia.College Profile 2016-2017Total enrollment: 5023New Degree Students: 17621398 Fall Enrollment364 Summer EnrollmentDegree LevelMasters: 3624 / 72.2%Doctoral: 1302 / 25.9%Non-degree: 97 / 1.9%StudentsFull-time: 1484 / 29.5%Part time: 3539 / 70.5%Gender Diversity of Matriculated StudentsFemale: 3868 / 77%Male: 1105 / 22%No Answer: 50 / 1%Among Domestic Students Only (Excludes International, Other and Unknown)African-American: 516 / 13.3%Asian-American: 564 / 14.6%Latino/a: 522 / 13.5%Native American: 7 / 0.2%Two or More: 134 / 3.5%Caucasian: 2121 / 54.9%Other & Unknonwn: 143 / 2.9%Among International Students Only (Excludes Other and Unknown)International students: 1016 / 20.2%Africa: 15 / 1.5%Asia: 780 / 76.8%Canada: 46 / 4.5%Europe: 57 / 5.6%Latin America & Caribbean: 82 / 8.1%Middle East & North Africa: 36 / 3.5%Median Student Age30 yearsTeachers College, Columbia UniversityGrad SchoolAll Graduate School RankingsOverviewEducation Admissions Academics Ranking Student Body Cost Teacher PreparationScienceSocial Sciences & HumanitiesHealthU.S. News Education School CompassExpanded School ProfilesAverage GRE ScoresCertification Statistics#7 Best Education Schools2017 Quick StatsAddress525 W. 120th StreetNew York, NY 10027Students1,713 enrolled (full-time)3,207 enrolled (part-time)Tuition$1,454 per credit (full-time)$1,454 per credit (part-time)Education School OverviewThe education school at Teachers College, Columbia University has a rolling application deadline. The application fee for the education program at Teachers College, Columbia University is $65. Its tuition is full-time: $1,454 per credit and part-time: $1,454 per credit. The Teachers College, Columbia University graduate education program has 150 full-time faculty on staff with a 4.6:1 ratio of full-time equivalent doctoral students to full-time faculty.Programs and Specialties#2 Tie Curriculum and Instruction#5 Education Policy#6 Educational Administration and Supervision, in Educational Psychology#2 Elementary Teacher Education, in Higher Education Administration#6 Secondary Teacher Education, in Special EducationAdmissionsApplication deadline rollingApplication fee $65Director of Admissions David EstrellaTOEFL and/or IELTS required for international studentsAcademicsFull-time faculty (tenured or tenure-track) 150Student-faculty ratio 4.6:1Degree programs offeredPrograms/courses offered inStudent BodyTotal enrollment (full-time) 1,713Gender distribution (full-time) Male (23.1%) Female (76.9%)CostTuition full-time: $1,454 per credit part-time: $1,454 per creditRequired fees $856 per yearTeacher PreparationStudents who took an assessment to become a certified or licensed teacher during 2014-2015 216Education School Overview details based on 2015 dataAlumniMuhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, Prime Minister of Iraq (17 September 1953 – 29 April 1954)Charles Alston (1931), artistHafizullah Amin, President of AfghanistanNahas Gideon Angula (MA, EdM), Prime Minister of NamibiaMary Antin (1902), author of the immigrant experienceMichael Apple, professor of Educational Policy Studies, University of WisconsinWilliam Ayers, elementary education theorist, founder of Weather Underground, and professor at University of Illinois, ChicagoSarah Bavly, nutrition education pioneer in IsraelAbby Barry Bergman, science educator, author, school administratorJohn Seiler Brubacher, educational philosopher; professor at YaleDonald Byrd, jazz and fusion trumpet player; music educatorBetty Castor, politician and President of the University of South FloridaChiang Menglin President, Peking University, Minister of Education, Republic of ChinaShirley Chisholm, first African American woman elected to Congress, and former US Presidential candidateNorman Cousins, editor, peace activistElla Cara Deloria (1915), Yankton Sioux ethnologistEdward C. Elliott, educational researcher and president of Purdue UniversityAlbert Ellis, cognitive behavioral therapistEdward Fitzpatrick, president of Mount Mary College and noted expert on conscription during World War I and World War IIClarence Gaines (M.A. 1950), Hall of Fame basketball coach, Winston-Salem State UniversityGordon Gee (Ed.D. 1972), President of Ohio State UniversityTsuruko Haraguchi (Ph.D. 1912), psychologistAndy Holt (Ph.D. 1937), president of University of TennesseeSeymour Itzkoff, Professor Emeritus of Education and Child Study, Smith CollegeGeorge Ivany (M.A. 1962), President of the University of SaskatchewanThomas Kean (M.A. 1963), former Governor of New JerseyMaude Kerns (M.A. 1906), pioneering abstract artist and teacher[32]H. S. S. Lawrence (M.A. 1950, Ed.D. 1950), Indian educationistLee Huan, former Minister of Education and Premier of the Republic of ChinaMosei Lin (Ph.D. 1929), Taiwanese academic and educator; first Taiwanese to receive a Ph.D. degreeJohn C. McAdams, associate professor of political science at Marquette UniversityAgnes Martin (B.A. 1942), artistRollo May, existential psychologistChester Earl Merrow, educator, U.S. Representative from New HampshireRichard P. Mills, former Commissioner of Education for both Vermont and New York StatesJerome T. Murphy, Dean Emeritus at the Harvard Graduate School of EducationGeorgia O'Keeffe, American artistThomas S. Popkewitz (M.A. 1964), professor of Curriculum Theory at the University of Wisconsin-MadisonNeil Postman (M.A. 1955, Ed.D. 1958), cultural criticCaroline Pratt (educator), progressive educator, founder of City and Country School (Bachelor of Pedagogy, 1894)Thomas Granville Pullen Jr. President University of Baltimore, Maryland State Superintendent of EducationRobert Bruce Raup (Ph.D. 1926), Professor Emeritus, Philosophy of Education, and critic of the American Education systemHenrietta Rodman (1904), teacher, feminist activistCarl Rogers (M.A. 1928, Ph.D. 1931), psychologistMartha E. Rogers (M.A. in public health nursing 1945), nursing theorist, creator of Science of unitary human beingsMiriam Roth, Israeli writer and scholar of children's books, kindergarten teacher, and educatorAdolph Rupp, Hall of Fame basketball coach, University of KentuckyWilliam Schuman (B.S. 1935, M.A. 1937), composer, former president of the Juilliard School of Music and of Lincoln Center for the Performing ArtsJames Monroe Smith, president of Louisiana State University, 1930–1939Karl Struss (B.A. 1912), photographer and cinematographer; pioneer in 3D filmsBobby Susser (M.A. 1987), children's songwriter, record producer, performerTao Xingzhi, Chinese educator and political activistEdward Thorndike, psychologistRobert L. Thorndike (M.A. 1932, Ph.D. 1935), psychologistMerryl Tisch, educator, Chancellor, New York State Board of RegentsMinnie Vautrin, (M.A. 1919), educator and missionary.Ruth Westheimer (Ed.D. 1970), sex therapistFloyd Wilcox (M.A. 1920), third president of Shimer CollegeJohn Davis Williams, Chancellor of the University of Mississippi (1946 to 1968)Zhang Boling (1917), Founder and president, National Nankai University, Tianjin, ChinaBest Education SchoolsRanked in 2016 | Best Education Schools Rankings MethodologyA teacher must first be a student, and graduate education program rankings can help you find the right classroom. With the U.S. News rankings of the top education schools, narrow your search by location, tuition, school size and test scores.Rank School name Tuition Total enrollment#1 Stanford University Stanford, CA $45,729 per year (FT) 373#2 Tie Harvard University Cambridge, MA $43,280 per year (FT) 891#2 Tie Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD $1,000 per credit (FT) 2,161#4 University of Wisconsin—​Madison Madison, WI$11,870 per year (in-state, FT); $25,197 per year (out-of-state, FT) 1,030#5 Vanderbilt University (Peabody) Nashville, TN $1,818 per credit (FT) 908#6 University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA $47,364 per year (FT) 1,140#7 Teachers College, Columbia University New York, NY $1,454 per credit (FT) 4,920#8 Tie Northwestern University Evanston, IL $48,624 per year (FT) 318#8 Tie University of Washington Seattle, WA$16,536 per year (in-state, FT); $29,742 per year (out-of-state, FT) 938#10 University of Texas—​Austin Austin, TX $8,402 per year (in-state, FT); $16,338 per year (out-of-state, FT) 1,025#11 University of California—​Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA$11,220 per year (in-state, FT); $26,322 per year (out-of-state, FT) 686#12 Tie University of Michigan—​Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI$21,040 per year (in-state, FT); $42,530 per year (out-of-state,FT) 524#12 Tie University of Oregon Eugene, OR$16,032 per year (in-state, FT); $22,752 per year (out-of-state,FT) 592#14 Arizona State University Phoenix, AZ$10,610 per year (in-state,FT); $27,086 per year (out-of-state,FT) 2,627#15 Tie Michigan State University East Lansing, MI$705 per credit (in-state, FT); $1,353 per credit (out-of-state, FT) 1,862#15 Tie New York University (Steinhardt) New York, NY $36,912 per year (FT) 3,117#15 Tie University of Kansas Lawrence, KS$378 per credit (in-state, FT); $881 per credit (out-of-state, FT) 1,209#18 Tie Ohio State University Columbus, OH$11,560 per year (in-state, FT); $31,032 per year (out-of-state, FT) 989#18 Tie University of California—​Berkeley Berkeley, CA$11,220 per year (in-state, FT); $26,322 per credit (out-of-state, FT) 343#20 University of Minnesota—​Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN$15,844 per year (in-state, full-time); $24,508 per year (out-of-state, full-time) 1,861#21 Tie University of Southern California (Rossier) Los Angeles, CA$1,666 per credit (full-time) 1,866#21 Tie University of Virginia (Curry) Charlottesville, VA$14,856 per year (in-state, FT); $24,288 per year (out-of-state, FT) 937#23 Tie Boston College (Lynch) Chestnut Hill, MA $1,310 per credit (FT) 793#23 Tie University of Illinois—​Urbana-​Champaign Champaign, IL$12,060 per year (in-state, FT); $26,058 per year (out-of-state, FT) 792#25 University of California—​Irvine Irvine, CA$11,220 per year (in-state, FT); $26,322 per year (out-of-state, FT) 274

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I've got the page numbers done.If at first, you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.If at first, you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?If ignorance is bliss, you must be orgasmic.If you can read this, I can slam on my brakes and sue you!If you can't convince them, confuse them.If you choke a smurf, what colour does it turn?If you get to it and you can't do it, well there you jolly well are, aren't you.If you haven't much education you must use your brain.If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again; it was probably worth it.If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.IRS: We've got what it takes to take what you've got.It IS as bad as you think, and they ARE out to get you.It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal the neighbour's newspaper, that's the time to do it.It's lonely at the top, but you eat better.Jack Kevorkian for White House Physician.Jesus loves you, but everyone else thinks you're an asshole.Join the Army, meet interesting people, and kill them.Keep honking. I'm reloading.Laughing stock: cattle with a sense of humour.Learn from your parents' mistakes: use birth control.Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.Love may be blind but marriage is a real eye-opener.Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.Montana: At least our cows are sane!More hay, Trigger? No thanks, Roy, I'm stuffed!Multitasking means screwing up several things at once.My hockey mum can beat up your soccer mum.My mind is like a steel trap, rusty and illegal in 37 states.Never ask a barber if he thinks you need a haircut.Never do card tricks for the group you play poker with.Never mess up an apology with an excuse.Never miss a good chance to shut up.Never test the depth of the water with both feet.Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.No one is listening until you make a mistake.Oh Lord, give me patience, and GIVE IT TO ME NOW!Okay, who put a stop payment on my reality check?On the other hand, you have different fingers.Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.Pentiums melt in your PC, not in your hand.Plan to be spontaneous, tomorrow.Pride is what we have. Vanity is what others have.Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy.Quantum mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.Quickly, I must hurry, for there go my people and I am their leader.Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.Remember half the people you know are below average.Save the whales. Collect the whole setSave your breath. You'll need it to blow up your date!Sex is like air; it's not important unless you aren't getting any.Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.Smile, it's the second best thing you can do with your lips.Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface.Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield.Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.Some people are only alive because it is illegal to shoot them.Success always occurs in private and failure in full view.Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!Support bacteria, they're the only culture some people have.The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to Finland. Now Santa Claus is missing.The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required on it.The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.The hardness of butter is directly proportional to the softness of the bread.The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a flat tire.The more you complain, the longer God makes you live.The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.The secret of the universe is @*&^^^ NO CARRIERThe severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the ability to reach it.The sex was so good that even the neighbours had a cigarette.The shortest distance between two points is under construction.The sooner you fall behind the more time you'll have to catch up.The universe is a figment of its own imagination. There's no future in time travel.There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count & those who can't.There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.There's too much blood in my caffeine system.Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.Time is the best teacher; unfortunately, it kills all of its students.Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.Timing has an awful lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.To succeed in politics, it is often necessary to rise above your principles.Very funny Scotty, now beam down my clothes.Wanted: Meaningful overnight relationship.Warning: Dates in calendar are closer than they appear.We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart?We were born naked, wet and hungry. Then things got worse.Wear short sleeves! Support your right to bare arms!What happens if you get scared half to death twice?What is a free gift? Aren't all gifts free?What's the speed of dark?When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane and going the wrong way.When there's a will, I want to be in it.When you don't know what you are doing, do it neatly.Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?Who stopped payment on my reality check?Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?Why is abbreviation such a long word?Why isn't phonetic spelt the way it sounds?Women who seek to be equal to men lack ambition.You are depriving some poor village of its idiot.You can do more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word.You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted then used against you.You're just jealous because the voices are talking to me and not you!Your gene pool could use a little chlorine.Your kid may be an honours student, but you're still an idiot.

That is what barnstorming was all about!Never seen in India though, in fact this art and entertainment was mostly confined to the US.But before we get to barnstormers, here is a picture from 1929:▲A Perilous Perch. This sky photo pictures a thrilling moment in the recent unsuccessful attempt of Martin Jensen and two comrades to break the world's refueling endurance record in monoplane “Three Musketeers” above Roosevelt Field, N. Y. It shows Jensen on the catwalk, in full blast of the propeller's backwash, repairing a gas leak.A Texan started it all. Of course.Before World War I some aerial troupes had traveled about the country, giving their little air shows. The brothers Wright sponsored a group, and Glenn Curtiss, and the flying Stinson family, and Art Smith.But it wasn’t until the boys came back from Over There, with their great flying bird cages, their Jennys and Standards principally, that the golden era of barnstorming began.▲The nose of an old Curtiss Jenny, originally designed as a primary trainer but later used for every purpose under the sun and the particular pet of the early barnstormers.When they got back, they found that a Texan who never went had already perfected the tricks that would become the barnstormer’s special trademark.No one living knows precisely why Ormer Locklear, a Fort Worth boy, began strolling about on the wings and tail of a Jenny.Two stories, both with heroic overtones, are prevalent.In the fall of 1917, according to one, Locklear was in San Antonio near the end of his training as a Signal Corps flying officer. The final test was to go aloft with another pilot and wireless a Morse code message back to base.This was a crucial skill in those days, because military tacticians were certain the airplane’s sole usefulness in war would be as an observation platform. Locklear and his pilot spiraled up over the field and threw out a trailing antenna for the radio.Bad news. It became snarled in the tail group wires. Locklear weighed the hazards of unsnarling it against the wrath of his operations officer and hesitated not a moment. He hopped out of the cockpit and squirreled along the Jenny’s turtleback, untangled the antenna and skittered back in time to copy an urgent message from base.“Locklear, U R grounded.”Since Locklear wasn’t grounded, a second story is more plausible.This time he was an instructor going across east Texas country with a student when they noticed the cap on the OX-5 radiator was loose.If it came off, water would spew back on the spark plugs and down they’d go.It was a common occurrence in those days. Only this time Locklear looked around and saw nothing but east Texas pine trees for miles on miles. He casually strolled up over the center section, therefore, tightened the cap and thus averted another disaster in the air.Perhaps both stories are true, for in a very short time Locklear became most nimble and adept at crawling hither and yon on a Jenny in flight.He became so nimble, the stories go, he used to climb out of the pit while on a trip with a student and crawl down on the spreader bar between the Jenny’s wheels to stretch his knees and enjoy the view—which must have been a real confidence-builder for his students.▲Locklear, unencumbered by parachute, balances upside down, defying wind and gravity, on the wing of a Jenny over Los Angeles in 1919.One day, when Locklear was thus perched, another Jenny chanced to be in the neighborhood and flew over real close to investigate.Locklear recognized the pilot of the second plane who just happened to be his good buddy, Lt. Milton “Sheet” Elliot.He did the natural thing for a Texan. He stepped down off the spreader bar onto the wing of Elliot’s ship and ambled over to visit a spell.In the official Barron Field, Texas Review of 1918 there are several pictures of Lt. Locklear, a squadron commander, wing-walking. And evidently he wasn’t the only one.In one fantastic shot, a man believed to be Locklear is shown leaping from the wing tip of one Jenny to another on which there is already someone seated back on the tail.Through 1918 Locklear and his pilots, Lt. Elliot and Lt. Shirley Short (who won a Harmon award in 1923 for his mail flying exploits), performed at fairs and barnstormed. He made his first public plane-to-plane change at Dallas in January of 1919 and shortly afterwards he went to Hollywood.In a few months Locklear, who looked remarkably like Clark Gable, rose from aerial daredevil to leading man. But he continued to take his own risks in the movies he made.From this period there are pictures of Locklear doing incredible things over the wings and rigging of the old Jennys.▲Lts. Shirley Short, Ormer Locklear and Milton Elliot helped start the whole legend in baggy pants, goggles, and Jennys.It’s said he refused to do stunts the easy way.He spurned the use of aids.No hidden cables holding him on, nor toeholds built into the structure.When he changed planes, he didn’t go out to the cabane struts where he could hook his feet in the wires, as others did.He walked out onto the center of an upper wing bay and stood free while the pickup pilot flew in and placed a wing skid in his hand.And like all the wing-walkers who followed him, Locklear never used a parachute.The end came just 19 months after that first public plane-to-plane change in Dallas.He didn’t fall off a wing, though. Hardly any of the wing-walkers ever did.Locklear and Elliot spun-in at DeMille Field, Los Angeles, on August 2, 1920, during a night filming for the movie The Flywayman.It is believed they were blinded by searchlights used to light up the action.And that’s how it all began.From its inception the story of barnstorming was part fiction, part fact, which is by definition a legend.Who were the barnstormers?For a quarter of a century after their passing they were remembered as those loony, irresponsible, shiftless birds who stunted the growth of our business.They were the root of all aviation evil.They flew out of any old cow pasture, so development of proper and profitable airports was impeded.They bought old surplus crates and kept them flying year after year literally with bailing wire and shirttail patches, so development of newer, more efficient designs was impossible for lack of a market.They made aviation a laughingstock by visiting every little county fair and hauling the hicks for 55 or 51 or a penny a pound, so that businessmen were slow in recognizing the real potential of airplanes.They splattered themselves across the countryside with their show-off wing-walking, parachuting and acrobatics so that the danger myth hung on long after the fact.You name it and it was their fault.But now, as the years 1920 through 1930 slip into the good old days, it’s possible to see vaguely through the descending veil of nostalgia just who and what the barnstormers were.They were never who they seemed to be.Fort Worth gave Locklear such a grand funeral you’d have thought he was a national hero.And even before Locklear’s passing, others had adopted his formula for fame and fortune and enlarged on it.Their first gimmick was the military title.In the early 20s they were lieutenants; by the end of the era they were majors and colonels.And a staggering number of them were aces just returned from shooting down the Boche in France.They weren’t liars.The titles, the riding breeches and boots, the silk scarves, the glowing stories about their brave deeds were all a part of the showmanship and ballyhoo they used to get out the crowds.Getting out the crowds was supposedly the main object.The purpose in barnstorming was to make money by hauling passengers.That’s part of the legend.Most often the end became the means.Barnstormers who were interested only in making money worked alone as a rule.They were the gypsy barnstormers. They would fly in over a little town, do a few aerobatics ("acrobatics" back then), land in a convenient pasture and begin taking up the townsfolk on five-minute, usually $5 rides.They paid for the use of the pasture by giving the owner a free turn around his farm and sometimes spent the night in his or some other nearby home.If no bed was offered, they unrolled a blanket and tarp and slept under a wing or in a hammock strung between the struts.In legend and nostalgic memory the gypsy is pictured as living the idyllic life, free of all care and responsibility.That’s doubtful.In the first place there were few who were pure gypsy barnstormers.Men who had other jobs and cares, including many of the early fixed base operators, would free-lance for a few days or weeks, then return to the grind.Those who tried to live the free-lance life full time led a precarious existence.Billy Brooks, a latter-day great in the barnstorming business, once free-lanced. That came to an end one bitter cold day in west Texas when he and his mechanic stuffed newspapers in their worn-through shoes and set out to find regular employment.Professional barnstormers were usually a part of an air circus, and their object was personal glory.Hopping passengers was a means to that end.It was an ideal arrangement, for the success of an air circus, like any other show, was dependent on the fame and reputation of the performers, either real or trumped up.Towards this end the circuses employed advance men, "special representatives" they were, who went into cities beforehand to begin the big build-up.These men were, in many ways, more colorful than the airmen themselves. They had to be, for their job was to so charm and dazzle the local editor he’d turn his newspaper over to them.Then they’d sit down at a typewriter and become editor, reporter and proofreader on all stories relative to the circus.They were tremendous.They weren’t polished writers, but they were real artists—masters at taking a few dabs of truth and molding them into stories that held the readers of that day in awe.▲ An actual sheet of copy written for a Texas paper in about 1924 by an advance man serving the famous Gates Flying Circus. It’s a buildup for "Diavalo," a name worn by some 32 Gates’ stuntmen."The present Diavalo exceeds Kiehl and has gradually developed into the world’s greatest aerial acrobat, changing planes in midair, walking wings, hanging by his hands or hand, knees or knee, toes or toe, to anything he even suspicions will hold his weight, as unconcernedly as his spectators who lay back on their heels to watch his antics far above their heads."Several times he has narrowly escaped following in the wake of the ill-fated trio preceding him."Beautiful. And how much of it was true?All of it.Well, not exactly true. In reading the story you’d conclude that it was practically an everyday occurrence for a wing-walker to lose his grip and fall to his death.That was the idea.People will always turn out to see a killing.▲Major “Upside-Down” Clyde E. Pangborn won his moniker from his skill at inverted shenanigans.The advance men planted the danger myth, the public turned out and saw it with their own eyes, and pretty soon the performers were stuck with the stories, like it or not.Many who were at the Teterboro Airshow on September 6, 1927, will tell you how Clyde E. Pangborn came within an ace of dying that day.Here’s the story to prove it: "Major Clyde E. Pangborn, one of the few aviators to perfect the art of flying an airplane upside down, caused a sensation at the Teterboro Airport this afternoon when the engine of his G.D. Standard plane went dead while he was flying head downwards at a height of 3,000 feet."Thousands at the air meet feared that the stunt flyer would be killed as his machine commenced to drop, but Pangborn shoved the nose of the plane down in order to give his plane increased speed, and then after a drop of about 1,000 feet he righted his ship and vol-planed to the ground, making a perfect three-point landing."It’s amazing who were taken in by those awesome stories. The above account wasn’t palmed off on some hick editor. It appeared in The New York Times.The Gates Circus was the biggest and best remembered of all the old barnstorming troupes.It began in Los Angeles when a group of wartime leftovers from the United States, Canada, England and France formed the International Air Aces.They did a few movie bits, then opened as an air circus at Santa Barbara, California, in September or October of 1921.The Gates Circus was the biggest and best remembered of all the old barnstorming troupes. It began in Los Angeles when a group of wartime leftovers from the United States, Canada, England and France formed the International Air Aces. They did a few movie bits, then opened as an air circus at Santa Barbara, California, in September or October of 1921.The next spring, at San Francisco, Ivan R. Gates became promoter and general manager of the organization.Gates is supposed to have been a prewar aviator of considerable repute on the West Coast.But if he was, he certainly kept his name out of the news.A more likely story is that he was a promoter first and an aviator only when it served to further his promoting.He needs no greater claim to fame than that.Gates gave the International Air Aces Circus his own name, whipped them into a professional performing outfit, secured a sponsorship from the Texaco Company for all gas and oil and commenced to sell aviation all across the land.The planes used were surplus Jennys and Standards, powered variously with water-cooled Curtiss OX-5s or Hissos of 150, 180 or 220 horsepower.In the earliest days Gates was always invited to a city, and the show was sponsored by the local newspaper.That took care of advance publicity.Sometimes an admission fee of 25 cents was collected; usually not, though, because the principal income was from inducing folks to go up for a ride.For this reason, the show started with a demonstration of dead-stick landings, to prove airplanes don’t fall out of the sky when the engine “stalls.”Early 20s prices were $15 for short rides and $25 for longer acrobatic hops.These normally consisted of a two-turn spin, a loop, several chandelles and fish tails to a landing.Everything was mass production. When the customers were plentiful, pilots would chandelle on takeoff—if you can truly say what an OX-5 was capable of on takeoff was a chandelle—bank steeply into a slip and land.Each landing was made in the tracks of the one before, and the plane rolled to a stop in the same spot each time.As riders were hustled out over the left side of the cockpit, a ticket salesman would be helping the next batch in over the right.Then throttle forward and take off straight ahead.Since two were carried in a Jenny, four in a Standard, the money piled up fast.Averages of $1,500 per day per ship weren’t unusual until about the middle of the decade when ride prices fell to $5.Passenger-hopping was interspersed with the performance.When ticket sales began to slacken, Gates would signal for all ships to come in while the headliners revitalized the enthusiasm.Major Clyde E. Pangborn’s specialty was upside-down flying; Major William C. “Whispering Bill” Brooks was billed as the Loop King.If they weren’t enough to thrill the folks, Gates would signal for one of his Diavalos.They crawled all over those old biplanes, literally. No chutes.Simple plane changes were jazzed up by having Diavalo strap a can of fuel to his back for an in-flight refueling demonstration.Or Diavalo would change from top wing to tip skid of the pickup plane, clamber up an interplane strut, walk across to the other tip, don a parachute and jump off.A favorite was the breakaway.It was done in various ways, but the most thrilling for the crowds went like this: The stuntman would plane change to a skid and begin to hang from it with his knees, and then with a hand and a knee, then one knee, then...he’d fall. In an arc. While acrobating, he would have snapped onto a rope strung from the landing gear out along the wing.Knots on the rope enabled him to climb up to the spreader bar and on into the cockpit.Aaron “Duke” Krantz has been called the greatest of the Diavalos.Did all this emphasis on danger frighten away potential riders?To the contrary.There is a poignant little story about a drinking jumper who jumped while drunk without properly packing his chute. He dug his own grave a few yards from the grandstands, and it so stimulated the crowd that the planes were kept busy well into dusk. We’ll leave it to the psychologists to answer why.From this distance in time it may appear those stunt men had the death wish, that they thought of the crowds as fans come to see their glorious moment. Some did.Others were revolted.Wiley Post, who began as a parachutist, said in an autobiography he was sick for two weeks after it finally sunk in that the mobs came out in hopes of seeing him die.Sooner or later all the stuntmen come to this realization.Then it became a game played on two levels.For some it was a personal duel; man against himself, and no cheating allowed. Like Locklear, they shunned aids.They measured their own strength and fearlessness and then put themselves to the test.For others it was a contest between themselves and the mob. The people came out to see if they were going to be fools enough to kill themselves, and the barnstormers devised ways of making the fools who came out think they might.Hooks strapped to the wrist so it lay out of sight in the palm were used for grabbing ladders and wing skids. Harnesses worn under shirts made hanging from a rope by the teeth a circus standby. And two slip knots in a length of rope enabled one to hang beneath a spreader bar for a fantastic length of time—by one hand.But even using these tricks, the wing-walkers were incredible performers.They were almost invariably light, around 120 pounds, and quick, with steel traps for hands.And they were sure.Of course, there were accidents.On February 5, 1920, Earl Burgees fell off a wing at Los Angeles. But his death should not be charged to barnstorming. He was wrestling with a dummy on a wing for movie cameras when, somehow, the dummy got the upper hand and threw Burgees overboard. The movie footage was spectacular.On October 4, 1921, Madeline Davis was killed at Long Branch, New Jersey, attempting a transfer from auto to plane. Miss Davis, however, was apparently an amateur. She had applied for a job with the Ruth Law Flying Circus. She told Miss Law that she had wing-walking experience, but “Now I want to do something different; something that nobody else does, at least that no other woman does. If I can learn to take a leap from an automobile to an airplane, I ought to be a big attraction for your company.”She didn’t learn. Law drove the car as Brenon Treat flew over trailing a rope ladder. Davis grabbed a rung, was lifted about 15 feet and slipped off.Just five days later, on October 9, 1921, Lloyd Reese slipped from a rope ladder while attempting a plane-to-plane change at Regina, Saskatchewan.Not all such incidents were tragedies. Those old daredevils, in a left-handed sort of way, demonstrated over and over that one has to work extra hard at becoming a victim of the airplane.Rosalie Gordon was working hard at it on February 17, 1924, at Houston, Texas, when she got herself all fouled up in a parachute hung on the bottom side of a Gates Flying Circus Standard. Freddy Lund hopped down on the spreader bar and hauled her in with hardly a ripple in the day’s events.Autobiographies by early birdmen are full of stories about daring rescues.One wonders how many were authentic, and how many were for the show.It’s for sure “Tex” McLaughlin wasn’t putting on a show on September 18, 1920, over Syracuse, New York.“Five hundred feet in the air in view of 80,000 visitors at the State Fair, ‘Tex’ McLaughlin was badly injured this afternoon when struck by the propeller of the higher airplane to which he had transferred himself in midair.“McLaughlin’s escape from death was miraculous. He clung to the rope ladder of the machine until it reached the ground, partially out of control. McLaughlin was still conscious when reached, though he had been dragged more than 100 feet on the ground before the machine was brought to a stop. He will recover.”Tex was a tough cookie.That seems to have been a characteristic of the barnstormers.The 13 Black Cats of Hollywood used their indestructibility for a calling card.Strictly speaking the 13 Black Cats weren’t barnstormers; their business was movie mania at a flat rate.Prices ranged from $50 for a simulated flaming spin-in to $1,200 for an actual flaming spin-in. For $500 they’d do a plane change—upside down. For $1,500 they’d blow a ship up in midair.As a sideline they also barnstormed, so no story such as this can possibly be complete without mention of them.Were they really indestructible?It would seem so.On November 8, 1929, Art Goebel, one of the founders, and winner of the famous San Francisco-to-Hawaii Dole Race in 1927, was putting on an acrobatic exhibition at Long Beach when a battery broke loose. It whopped him on the side of the head and careened out of the open cockpit. Goebel wobbled around a bit, landed, had the wound dressed and went back up to finish the show.The organization lost some pilots and stuntmen, but the original 13 made it through the era.Gates and the Black Cats were but two of hundreds. No one really knows how many Air Circuses and gypsy barnstormers there were.Prior to mid-1926 and creation of the Airways Division of the Department of Commerce, federal licenses weren’t required on pilots or planes and no records were kept.Some names have survived in literature on that age.The Doug Davis Flying Circus was almost as well known as the Gates.Erold Bohl’s group is remembered from the writings of Charles Lindbergh, who was a stuntman for him.Parachutist Bud Gurney was also mentioned by Lindbergh.Folks along the East Coast recall Lt. Belvin Maynard, the “Flying Parson.” Maynard became famous in 1919 by winning a transcontinental and return speed race. He kept up the fame by flying in circuses and occasionally performing a marriage ceremony—in flight, of course.In August, 1922, he officiated at the aerial wedding of Lt. Wilson Bertaud and Miss Helen Lent.Two weeks later Maynard went to that great Parsonage in the sky while flying a circus at Rutland, Virginia.In 1959 Russ Brinkley enshrined the name of Charles “Smiles” O’Timmons with a great little story in FLYING.Smiles was a one-legged, one-armed parachutist. One day Brinkley prevailed on him to fill in at an air show for a missing wing-walker.Smiles did fine out on the leading edge until the heel of his artificial leg broke a mess of nose ribs and got hung.Since the old OX-5 Jenny wouldn’t maintain altitude with a man on the wing, Smiles did the only thing possible.He broke the straps holding the leg on and hopped back into the cockpit.When the Jenny landed, the leg was still standing out on the wing. But what really caused a sensation was Smiles’ lack of attire. In getting loose from the leg, he had also lost his pants.But for every name remembered by the chroniclers, hundreds have been lost.And some of the most colorful seemed to have been overlooked.Ben Gregory’s most colorful days came after the golden years of barnstorming, but they’re a vital part of the story, for they marked the end of the end.Gregory’s golden era was from 1935 to the beginning of World War II. His gimmick was the “Ship From Mars.” He used great Tri-motored Fords fitted with 15,000 candlepower searchlights and 180 neon tubes. As he stunted the big beasts, smoke poured back off each of the three engines. Then, at appropriate moments, he would turn valves, kerosene would trickle into the exhaust tracks of the outboard engines and great, long plumes of flame would trail him across the skies.Gregory wrecked three Fords during those six years. But, he induced 600,000 people to go aloft.The Ship From Mars act was the last mixing of the flamboyance of the 20s with the inevitable.It has been said federal regulation killed barnstorming.Not entirely so.Of course, the Feds did their bit. And, as usual, they went about it hind end to.▲Miss Gladys Engle hanging by her heels from the top wing. By 1929, the US government had forbidden aerial stunts all over licensed airports within the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce.The first thing they did was make the chief attraction, wing-walking, next to impossible. Gates never lost a wing man. Regulations allowed parachute exhibitions to continue. Gates lost 11 chutists.By 1930 the big money spenders of the gay prohibition 20s were not only poorer, but they had grown blasé. The novelty was gone. Ride prices dropped to a dollar and there were few takers. For the couple of bucks a ride would cost, a guy and his girl could have more fun in a darkened moving picture house featuring Dawn Patrol or Hell’s Angels.The end was both pathetic and comical.To replace wing-walking, barnstormers tried everything from burlesque to monkeys. In ‘31, after the Flying Fleets broke up, Jack Echols and his Eaglerock biplane toured Texas with the “Aviation Beauties Review.”Sad. But at least it was first-class vaudeville.According to one Texas theater manager it was, “The classiest so far as beauty and talent are concerned, that has appeared in this city in a long time.”The show featured dancing girls, a cartoonist, a blackface burlesque act and “world-famous stunt flyer Jack Echols with timely views on aviation, and witty stories derived therefrom, who will give free tickets for airplane rides.”In 1935 the romantic old era of open cockpit biplanes barnstorming out of cow pastures was hit with the final blow.Ben Gregory started working through the Midwest and Southwest with his Fords.On the East Coast Clarence Chamberlain, of transatlantic and endurance flying fame, began a tour down to Florida and into Texas with big, twin-engined Curtiss Condors.With a dozen or more seats to fill, at a buck a ride they could give longer hops and still send money home to the wife and kids.Some cut the price to 50 cents.Pretty soon everybody who could be induced had been.Had they finally succeeded in terrorizing the entire populace with the danger myth, and “flip flop” rides and harebrained stunts?The law of diminishing returns had kicked in. Ben Gregory had hopped 600,000 people; the Gates Circus close to a million.Doug Davis and Chamberlain carried at least that many more.Multiply that by the hundreds of smaller circuses and freelancers and the total is staggering.There were only 100 million people in the US in those days, and it appears not unlikely that 20 percent or more of them had been aloft at one time or another.This is somewhat better than the airlines have been able to do in the mid-60s with inducements of glamorous stewardesses, champagne flights and Astrovision.The barnstormers, it would appear in the overall view, were not the kooks and villains they once seemed to be.They were aviation in short pants.Such was the unbelievable, but true story of the barnstormers……a world we did not know at all.