''The Sky Parade'' is a 1936 American

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Otho Lovering Otho Lovering (December 1, 1892 – October 25, 1968) was an American filmmaker with about eighty editing credits on feature films and television programs. Biography Born in 1892, he was the son of Frank Lovering, a stenographer, and Georgie Lov ...

and written by Arthur J. Beckhard, Robert M. Burtt,

Brian Marlow Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word mean ...

, Wilfred G. Moore and Byron Morgan. Starring Jimmie Allen,

William Gargan William Dennis Gargan (July 17, 1905February 17, 1979) was an American film, television and radio actor. He was the 5th recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1967, and in 1941, was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

Katherine DeMille Katherine Lester DeMille (born Katherine Paula Lester; June 29, 1911 – April 27, 1995) was a Canadian-born American actress who played 25 credited film roles from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s. The adopted daughter of director Cecil B. De ...

Kent Taylor Kent Taylor (born Louis William Weiss; May 11, 1907 – April 11, 1987) was an American actor of film and television. Taylor appeared in more than 110 films, the bulk of them B-movies in the 1930s and 1940s, although he also had roles in more p ...

Grant Withers Granville Gustavus Withers (January 17, 1905 – March 27, 1959) was an American film actor who acted under the screen name Grant Withers. With early beginnings in the silent era, Withers moved into sound films, establishing himself with a lis ...

and

Syd Saylor Syd or SYD may refer to: * Syd (name), including a list of people with the name * ''Syd.'', taxonomic author abbreviation of Hans Sydow (1879–1946), German mycologist * Sydney, New South Wales, Australia ** IATA code for Sydney Airport, New Sout ...

, it was released on April 17, 1936, by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. ''The Sky Parade'' was based on the radio series " The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen", created by Robert M. Burtt and Wilfred G. Moore (first broadcast in 1933). After years of Jimmie Allen

radio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

episodes, "Jimmie makes his (screen) début in "The Sky Parade," The film was also notable as "the first film to use a number of incidents which would later become common within the sub-genre: the attempted hijack."

Plot

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

fighter pilot Scotty Allen ( Robert Fiske) returns home to learn his wife died giving birth to their first son Jimmie. After the Armistice, Scotty refuses to see his son until his fellow airmen, "Speed Robertson" (

) and Tommy Wade (

), convince him it is his duty to raise Jimmie. Speed and Scotty join an old buddy Casey Cameron (

) who has a flying circus. Tommy, however, joins his father's bank. For years, the flying circus makes record-breaking flights and in 1924, Casey adds parachutist Geraldine "Geri" Croft (

) to the troupe. Casey then leaves the circus to smuggle goods for "Gat" Billings (

Edgar Dearing Edgar Dearing (May 4, 1893 – August 17, 1974) was an American actor who became heavily type cast as a motorcycle cop in Hollywood films. Biography Born in 1893, Dearing started in silent comedy shorts for Hal Roach, including several with La ...

). Tommy's father offers to back Scotty and Speed in their work, while Geri agrees to put Jimmie through school. In 1927, Speed and Scotty attempt to cross the Atlantic in 36 hours but they crash on take-off, and Scotty is killed. Other transatlantic flights take place by

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. On May 20–21, 1927, Lindbergh made the first nonstop flight from New York City to Paris, a distance o ...

and

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

. Speed proposes to Geri, she refuses, believing he only wants to protect young Jimmie. By 1933, their airline, Continental, has become incorporated. Casey returns, following Billings' run-in with the authorities, and asks for a job, but Speed refuses. Continental, meanwhile, is perfecting an automatic pilot device, which Billings hopes to sell to Russian Baron Ankrevitch (Georges Renavent). Casey spies on the project. After a five-year absence, Geri returns with high school graduate Jimmie, who wants to learn to fly. Although Speed and Geri still carry a silent flame for each other, she dates Casey until Speed finally asks her to dinner. Casey then offers to let Jimmie take his first flight to test the automatic pilot. Continental loses its mail contract to the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

. The airline plans to fly to Washington, D.C. and secure a patent for the auto-pilot. When the aircraft takes off from Las Vegas, Billings and Casey appear and hold Geri and Speed hostage. Jimmie hides in the aircraft, and after Casey and the pilot are shot, he lands the aircraft with directions radioed by Speed. Finally, Geri and Speed make plans to marry, and Continental gets its mail contract. Jimmie now is a genuine pilot working for Continental.

Cast

* Jimmie Allen as himself *

as "Speed" Robertson *

as Geraldine "Geri" Croft *

as Tommy Wade *

as Casey Cameron *

as "Flash" Lewis * Robert Fiske as Scotty Allen *

as "Gat" Billings (uncredited) * Georges Renavent as Baron Ankrovith (uncredited)

Production

Production on ''The Sky Parade'' began in early December 1935. The film introduced a number of unique or unusual aviation technology, including the

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

and Air-to-ground communication. "It was the first film where an unqualified pilot is 'talked down' by radio from the airport control tower." ''The Sky Parade'' featured a number of aircraft, including a

Stearman C3 Stearman is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Lloyd Stearman (1898–1975), American aviation pioneer * Richard Stearman (born 1987), English footballer * William Stearman (1813–1846) English cricketer * William L. Stearman (b ...

, Thomas Morse S-4C,

Travel Air 4000 The Travel Air 2000/3000/4000 (originally, the Model A, Model B and Model BH were open-cockpit biplane aircraft produced in the United States in the late 1920s by the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. During the period from 1924–1929, Tra ...

and

Waco 10 The Waco 10/GXE/Waco O series was a range of three-seat open-cockpit biplanes built by the Advance Aircraft Company, later the Waco Aircraft Company. Design and development The Waco 10 was a larger span development of the Waco 9, both single-engi ...

Reception

Benjamin R. Crisler in his review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', gave an overall positive review, acknowledging that the audience for ''The Sky Parade'' was a youthful one, "...everybody plays the picture as it should be played; that is, as much like a Saturday afternoon episode of ' The Perils of Pauline' as possible."Crisler, B.R. (B.R.C.
"Movie Review: 'The Sky Parade'; at the Rialto."
''

'' (NYTimes.com, April 20, 1936. Retrieved: June 2, 2019. Aviation film historian Stephen Pendo in ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema'' (1995), considered ''The Sky Parade'', a continuation of the earlier radio dramas starring Jimmie Allen.Pendo 1985, p. 15. Aviation film historian Michael Paris in ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation'' (1984), had a similar reaction, saying that ''The Sky Parade'' was "... An inconsequential production in many respects. 'Sky Parade' was pure aviation adventure in which hijackers take over an airliner and kill the pilot. Young Jimmie, travelling as a passenger, defeats the hijackers and manages to land the plane safely."Paris 1995, p. 72.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Farmer, James H. ''Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation''. Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books Inc., 1984. . * Paris, Michael. ''From the Wright Brothers to Top Gun: Aviation, Nationalism, and Popular Cinema.'' Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1995. . * Pendo, Stephen. ''Aviation in the Cinema''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. .

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sky Parade 1936 films American black-and-white films Films directed by Otho Lovering Paramount Pictures films American drama films 1936 drama films American aviation films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films