"LEGEND NEVER DIES"™ Blog

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]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

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]

Check you local station listing across America. The new documentary, “The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club” is being shown all over the country. We have heard from folks in Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois and Massachusetts! Can’t say went it may be on your local station but keep looking if you haven seen it, or better… [Read More]

For the second time, “The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club,” the outstanding, award-winning* documentary makes an ENCORE on KOCE-TV PBS station in the greater Los Angeles/Orange County area tongiht, Sunday, April 25th at 11:00PM. The ‘buzz’ the film has generated is substantial, as over 100 PBS/American Public Television stations around the country are preparing to… [Read More]

After a mysterious blaze in November 1953 ravaged Pancho Barnes’ Happy Bottom Riding Club, word quickly spread that Pancho had lost ‘everything.’ Or so folks were told… It was true that she lost several buildings, two Dalmatians, aviation trophies and awards, priceless papers, photographs and many personal possessions and furnishings too numerous to list in the destructive fire. But like… [Read More]