WAY BACK WHEN – The First Airmail Pilot

Dateline: April 1925

There’s nothing like a local tie-in to help promote a movie, and this one was an “only in Santa Barbara” type of promotional stunt. A Hollywood movie titled “The Air Mail” was coming to a Santa Barbara theater this month. To promote the film, local pilot Earle Ovington, the first U.S. airmail pilot, would be doing a flyover here and dropping 100 free tickets to the movie.

“Ovington piloted the first official airmail flight in the United States … on September 23, 1911. He carried a sack of mail from Nassau Boulevard aerodrome, Garden City, New York, to Mineola, New York. He circled at 500 feet and tossed the bag over the side of the cockpit and the sack burst on impact, scattering letters and postcards.” – Wikipedia

Fortunately, airmail service has improved since then.