"LEGEND NEVER DIES"™ Blog
Interview with BLACKIE GOLD
The following interview was conducted in 2006 by the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive with early hot rod Dry Lake racer Hyman “Blackie” Gold. Blackie became a friend of Pancho Barnes about 2 years after she relocated from Pasadena to Muroc on her Rancho Oro Verde. This interview features an excerpt from the coming book, VOICES FROM THE HAPPY BOTTOM… [Read More]
NEW FLIGHT TEST MUSEUM IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA
The current US Air Force Flight Test Museum is located behind the gates at Edwards Air Force Base. Because the Museum is currently located behind the gates on a top security air base, access is often not possible for non-military personnel. To make the museum fully accessible to the public, it is currently being rebuilt and relocated to just… [Read More]
101 Chuck YEAGER-isms: Wit & Wisdom from America’s Hero
Pancho Says: “Please buy the new book just published by General Chuck Yeager’s favorite wingman, Victoria Yeager: “101 Chuck Yeager-isms: Wit & Wisdom from America’s Hero.” Click the link here to review and purchase:
American hero, Brig. Gen. Charles “Chuck” Yeager has died. He was 97.
We are saddened to learn that Pancho’s pal, Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager passed away on Monday December 7, 2020. His wife, Victoria Yeager, announced on her husband’s Twitter account: “It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a… [Read More]
George Hurrell at the Walt Disney Family Museum, 2015
Pancho Barnes met George Hurrell shortly after his 1925 arrival in the California beachside community of Laguna Beach. Pancho and George became fast friends, a friendship that lasted Pancho’s entire lifetime. Pancho was responsible for getting George his first Hollywood celebrity client when she introduced him to her best friend at the time, actor Ramon Novarro. An exhibition of the… [Read More]
Pancho & George Hurrell – Part I
During the Roaring ’20s and into the early depression years of the 1930’s, Florence (Pancho) Barnes typically spent weekends at her beach home, Dos Rocas, in Laguna Beach. Perched atop a 200-foot jagged bluff jutting out over Emerald Bay and the Pacific Ocean was her 10 bedroom home, designed by architect Frederick Roehrig (designer of the famous Castle Green). Sited… [Read More]
Pancho's Animals, Part I – Chito
Pancho Barnes had a big heart, and when it came to animals, they were treated like a member of the family. She grew up with horses and dogs and hogs and, well, if she could find it, she’d befriend it. She LOVED animals. Pancho was quite an accomplished horse rider in her childhood days, as well as raising thoroughbreds at… [Read More]
Buzz Aldrin – Friend of Pancho Barnes
Here’s a photo of the great astronaut and aviator Buzz Aldrin, with the guys from Pancho Barnes Enterprises at the 2010 International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas last night at the Buzz Aldrin – Rocket Man booth. There are also images of the Rocket Man to the far right in an endorsement portrait and perhaps in his most famous achievement… [Read More]
Pancho Barnes – Barnstormer, Stunt Pilot, Test Pilot
It was the Roaring 20’s, the early days of aviation, and most folks in America didn’t know that women were up in the air flying. Pancho Barnes took the aviation industry by storm, or shall we say, by ‘barnstorm,’ becoming one of the first women ‘barnstormers’ in Pancho Barnes Mystery Circus of the Air. Barnstorming troops performed death-defying feats and… [Read More]
Happy Bottom Riding Club had 9000 members!
Pancho Barnes was not only a world-class aviatrix, she was a darned-good business woman. After creating the Rancho Oro Verde out of a run-down alfalfa farm in Muroc (now Edwards Air Force Base in Cailfornia) in 1935, Pancho added a drive-in, fly-in hotel, an FAA-regulation airfield, a dance hall, and a very popular pool to create the world-famous Happy Bottom… [Read More]