MOVIES WAY BACK WHEN: Flying A Movie Star & Animal Lover

By Betsy J. Green

Handsome hunk Bill Russell was one of the most popular leading men at the “Flying A.” He starred in dozens of movies from 1913 to 1921.

A movie magazine ran this photo with the description: "A One-Ring Ringling. The Ringlings have very little on Russell when it comes to circuses. Of course, Bill's is a sort of family affair; he raises all these performers in his own garden at Montecito, California – Santa Barbara's millionaire suburb – (what's a millionaire colony without a picture star?)." – Photoplay, September 1919

You can learn more about Russell on UCSB’s “Flying A” website: https://flyinga.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/people