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Hollywood Studios Used to Own Their Actors and Actresses

Khalid Elhassan January 3, 2022 37 min

Clark Gable in 'Gone With the Wind'. Cultura Estadao

7. A Hollywood Set Screwup That Got a Famous Pilot Killed

A final stunt on the set of The Skywayman called for a tailspin, known as a “suicide dive”, to be performed for a nighttime scene. As originally planned, the stunt was supposed to be performed in the daytime, and special camera filters were to be used in order to simulate nighttime. However, Locklear insisted that he be allowed to perform the stunt at night. The studio agreed, and as news leaked out of what Locklear planned, a crowd gathered on the night of August 2^nd, 1920, to watch the suicide dive. Unfortunately, it lived up to its name.

Searchlights were to be focused on Locklear’s airplane to render it visible for the cameras in the dark as it entered its tailspin. The searchlights’ glare meant that Locklear would fly blind, without a clue about his altitude. So after the airplane descended to a specific height, the searchlights were supposed to get turned off to enable Locklear to see, and to let him know that it was time to pull out of the tailspin. Somebody screwed up somewhere, however, and the searchlights were not turned off. As horrified onlookers watched, Locklear’s floodlit airplane began its “suicide dive” – and remained brightly let within the searchlights’ glare, as it continued its dive straight into the ground. Locklear and a fellow pilot were instantly killed in the crash.

Read too: Tragic But Slightly Comedic Deaths.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.