WHY ACTORS GET THE "FLYING BUG."

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 21

WHY ACTORS GET THE "FLYING BUG."

. Nine out■:of: ten actors- and .actresses are -flying enthusiasts. " And -take- it fr6m Spencer Tracy—it isn't any idle lad. He is appearing with Clark Gable and Myrna Loy in "Test Pilot." "Flying is an absolute relaxation from the strain of picture making," Tracy, maintains. "In the; .picture business' an actor" is 'the' leasV important- person on a set--when--directions start -flying around. The make-up man regards him as detachedly as a man mounting butterflies. Arid the director orders him around, too. And the actor who would object to that would be out of his mind., The producer has his say, too," and the cameraman has a few orders of his own and even the man that does nothing but make chalk marks 911 the floor to give- the actor his! position—even this guy tells the actor what to do. In 'Test Pilot,' Clark Gable and Myrna Loy and myself took orders from technical experts all day long. And although -we did a great deal of flying, it wasn't for re-laxation.-It-was - work.-And- the orders were- flying thick and,> heavy. But after the day's work was through—." Then the trio hired three aeroplanes -with pilots. They took off. And 1 for the next hour the skies and unfettered freedom were theirs. "We gave the orders," Tracy explained. "The pilots obeyed our slightest whim as readily as if we were at the controls. And there is no sense of 'freedom 50 absolute and relaxing as flight "through an evening sky with your will the only law- I' guess you'll have to include the law of-gravity-in there some place, though," 'heS amended,- -"But anyway. you cart" sei-i''why" so'inany of us like to £y. . We- fly every- chance we get. And ■why Clark and" Myrna .and'l were so contented with the chance to play in a flying picture!"