Gladys Roy (1896 – August 15, 1927) was an American wing walker, barnstormer and film actress.

Early life

Gladys Smith was born in 1896, most likely in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

to Myra (née Voorhees) and Charles Byron Smith. Some sources put her date of birth at 1902 or 1904, although her grave stone states 1896. She had two sisters, Viola and Grace and three brothers, Robert "Lee", Charles "Les," and Chadwick "Chad" Smith, who were also well known pilots, flying with

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

and all inducted into the

Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation, recognized by the State of Minnesota as a means of honoring aviation pioneers (both living and deceased) within the state. The Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame collects and maintains ...

. She married Arthur J Roy and performed under the name Gladys Roy.

Aviation career

She was a barnstormer or aerial aviation performer in the 1920s in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

and California areas. She started in 1921 as a

parachute jumper ''Parachute Jumper'' is a 1933 American pre-Code black-and-white comedy drama film directed by Alfred E. Green. Based on a story by Rian James titled "Some Call It Love", it stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis and Frank McHugh. Plot Mar ...

, later becoming a wing walker. She was more famous for conducting a variety of stunts on the upper wings of a flying airplane, including playing tennis with Ivan Unger in 1925, walking blindfolded across the wings, and dancing the Charleston. She claimed to hold the world record for a low parachute jump, and completed a parachute jump from 17,000 feet. She was earning $200 to $500 per performance around 1924, with her earnings dropping in 1926 to $100 a performance. In May 1926, she told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', "Of late the crowds are beginning to tire of even my most difficult stunts and so I must necessarily invent new ones, that is, I want to hold my reputation as a dare-devil. Eventually an accident will occur..." Her agent was the Western Vaudeville Managers' Association, booking her in fairs across the west of the United States. Roy did stunt work for the Lord Motor Car Company, along with exhibition work for various real estate exhibitions and auctions including John P. Mills Real estate. Roy appeared in the 1925 film, '' The Fighting Ranger'', but was seriously injured when she was thrown from a horse during production. Roy died in Ohio on August 15, 1927 when she accidentally walked into a spinning propeller of a parked aircraft. She had been posing for pictures in an airplane with a local "bathing beauty" contestant. At the time of her death she had been planning a flight from New York to Rome with Lt. Delmar Snyder.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Gladys 1896 births 1927 deaths Accidental deaths in Ohio American film actresses American stunt performers Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Wing walkers People from Minneapolis 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American people