A Historical Census and Study of Its Epic Journey

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Vin Fiz v in f i z f z lye r r Flyer A historical census and study of its epic journey

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31083 August Cover.indd 1 7/30/19 3:02 PM spotlight on philately By ken lawrence

a p o s ta l t r i b u t e : Cal Rodgers’ 1911 coast-to-coast flight in Vin Fiz Flyer biplane

THE 25¢ VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP IS ICONIC, BUT PICTURE POSTCARDS — SOME IN THE FORM OF ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS, OTHERS PRINTED — ALSO ARE SPLENDID COLLECTIBLE SOUVENIRS OF CALBRAITH PERRY RODGERS’ EPIC 1911 CROSS-COUNTRY ADVENTURE IN HIS VIN FIZ FLYER BIPLANE.

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31083p044-63.indd 44 8/1/19 3:45 PM albraith Perry Rodgers performed one of the greatest feats in early aviation history when he completed the first transcontinental trip by air from Sept. 17 to Nov. 5, 1911. DespiteC the importance of his achievement as a mile- stone on the path to practical applications of aero- nautics for travel, transport of goods, commerce and postal communication, it has been largely neglected by historians. Rodgers and his Wright Model EX biplane (named by Orville Wright as short for “exhibition racer”) are missing not only from school textbooks, but even from The History of Air Cargo and Airmail from the 18th Century by Camille Allaz, a seminal 400-page volume published in 2004, “the most comprehensive reference available on this subject [which] will become an indispensable aid to anyone involved or interested in aviation or postal history,” according to the publisher. Figure 2. Nine months after the air meet, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst offered a $50,000 prize to the first aviator who could complete a coast-to-coast flight in 30 Here Linn’s will recount the heroic and ultimately days or less by Oct. 10, 1911. His announcement headlined his papers, including the San tragic story that historians ought to tell about Rodg- Francisco Examiner front page shown here. ers’ flight, illustrated by collectible keepsakes that are prized by both airmail and picture postcard hobbyists and letters to and from post offices. That was how the who compete to possess them. Rodgers Aerial Post functioned. Vin Fiz Flyer stamps seldom change hands, but POSTAL AND PHILATELIC MEMENTOS when they do, they are expensive, at the five-figure OF THE VIN FIZ FLIGHT level. Vin Fiz picture postcards that were flown but do Among philatelists the semiofficial black 25¢ Vin Fiz not have the special stamps affixed are valued in four Flyer airmail stamp, Scott CL2, is legendary. It was the figures. But no one needs to pay four- and five-figure first stamp in the world that featured an airplane as prices to collect precious postal mementos of the first its pictorial element. A historical census that accom- transcontinental airplane flight. A collection of less panies this article (page 64) explores every recorded pricey Vin Fiz souvenir cards that were not flown can example of the Vin Fiz stamp comprehensively. provide a comprehensive visual narrative of Rodgers’ The Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States adventure. Stamps and Covers calls the stamp “semi-official,” The American Air Mail Catalogue 7th edition (2017) but the CL numbering prefix classifies it as an airmail values Vin Fiz souvenir postcards “mint or used (not equivalent of stamps and postal stationery franks is- flown)” at $200 each. Internet auction sales have sued by private local and express carriers that oper- brought consistently more than that, in the $250 to ated out of the mails, though often conveying cards $500 range. Part of the disparity is caused by the AAMC’s failure to take account of features that enhance postcard values. In a 1969 article, Henry M. Goodkind offered these guidelines: The Vin Fiz picture post cards without the stamp can be classified and valued as follows: 1. Post cards written and canceled from September 20th to November 16, 1911 from places where Rodgers is known to have flown. These are the most desirable. 2. Post cards mailed and canceled after the Vin Fiz flight, mostly in April and May 1912. These are far less valuable than a No. 1 post card. 3. Picture post cards never used. These are not too scarce and, thus, the least valuable. Figure 1. This unused postcard advertised the first international air meet in the United States, held Jan. 10-20, 1910, at Dominguez Field, Los Angeles, where newspaper publisher Vin Fiz picture postcards are William Randolph Hearst got his first taste of aviation. Continued on page 46

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participants in the events and speed and combinations of with witnesses who watched those categories, both as solo and assisted them conflict with flights and with passengers. one another and with original Paulhan was the biggest win- references. ner, carrying a passenger al- The Vin Fiz story challenges most 110 miles and setting a historian’s duty to sift sources a world record for altitude. in search of the best evidence, Curtiss set a record for speed some of which were not avail- in the air, and he won another able to earlier authors. I have prize for the best quick start. appended a sidebar (begins On the next to last day of the on page 46) that summarizes meet, Paulhan carried seven and offers my evaluations of passengers on demonstration the principal published refer- flights. Among his passengers ences. It includes Scott Trepel’s was newspaper tycoon William contrary opinion to mine about Randolph Hearst. The experi- Figure 3. Robert G. Continued from page 45 one controversial set of Rodg- ence so impressed Hearst that Fowler, a West Coast more difficult to acquire today than they ers Aerial Post cachets. nine months later he published automobile racer who were in 1969. In addition to Goodkind’s an offer of a $50,000 prize to had been trained to fly points, deltiology (the postcard collecting at the Wright brothers’ WILLIAM R. HEARST’S the first aviator who could com- aviation school in Ohio, hobby) often adds a valuation premium $50,000 PRIZE CHALLENGE plete a coast-to-coast flight in was the first entrant to a photographic postcard (printed from The Los Angeles Interna- 30 days or less by Oct. 10, 1911. to take off in hopes a film or glass plate negative onto pho- tional Air Meet, held Jan. 10-20, Figure 2 shows his front-page of winning the Hearst tographic paper), designated “Real Photo 1910, at Dominguez Field, was headline announcement in the prize. Pictured with Post Card” or “RPPC.” the first major air show in the San Francisco Examiner. his mother beside his Model B Wright Flyer The significance and difficulty of the United States. The Figure 1 post- By early September 1911, on this photo postcard, flight that begat the stamp and other card promoted it. In addition eight applicants had quali- he departed Sept. 11, postal and philatelic keepsakes related to American aviators such as fied to compete for the Hearst 1911, from Golden Gate to Rodgers’ achievement are not as well Glenn Curtiss and about three prize. Only four of them got Park in San Francisco known as the collectible relics. This ar- dozen others, four French pilots off the ground: Robert George on an eastbound route. ticle’s mission is to narrate that story, and competed for prizes: Louis Paul- Fowler, James J. Ward, Earle to illustrate most of it with postcards from han, Didier Masson, Charles Mis- Lewis Ovington and Calbraith my collection, occasionally adding images carol and Baroness de la Roche. Perry Rodgers. Fowler had at- from auction catalogs of expensive items An average of more than 20,000 tended the Wright brothers’ that exceed my airmail collection budget. spectators attended every day; aviation school at Dayton, Ohio. Writing this history can be tricky, be- a total of about 254,000 tickets Ovington had learned to fly cause contemporaneous news reports were sold. in January 1911 at Louis Ble- often contradicted one another, and be- Cash prizes were awarded for riot’s school in France. Ward, a cause interviews conducted later with endurance, altitude, distance, member of Curtiss’ exhibition

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H Figure 1. This map from E.P. Stein’s book, Flight of the Vin Fiz, published in 1985, makes it easy for his readers How to study to follow the twists and turns of Cal Rodgers’ 1911 aerial and research the odyssey from New York to California. aviators. Un- pointing doses of mistaken epic Vin Fiz Flyer til then, stu- information, misleading in- journey dents of early terpretation and misguided airplane his- speculation. Part of the expla- by KEN LAWRENCE tory must rely nation for those lapses is that on published before the 1980s there were Unfortunately, the 20th- books and ar- few widely available accounts century struggle to conquer ticles. that interested students could the air has not yet met its Accounts of easily consult. Homer. Someday Cal Rodg- to the Wright brothers’ origi- the Vin Fiz journey published To mark the 50th anniver- ers’ aerial odyssey might be- nal drama if Hollywood fash- in philatelic journals, even by sary in 1961, Rodgers’ me- come the self-evident sequel ion shifts to biopics of pioneer experts, have included disap- chanic Charles Wiggin pub-

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31083p044-63.indd 46 8/1/19 3:47 PM But he was tall, strong and athletically inclined. As an established member of the idle rich, he occupied his days sailing yachts and driving fast cars and motorcy- cles. His biographer Eileen F. Lebow wrote that “he was in love with speed.” In 1906 Cal married Mabel Avis Graves of Bennington, Vt., four months after he had met her in Bermuda. He was there to par- ticipate in the Lipton Cup ocean yacht race. She was accompanying her mother on an Figure 4. Another auto race driver, James J. Ward — born Jens P. Wilson in ocean cruise that called there en route to Denmark in 1886 — an experienced stunt pilot on Glenn Curtiss’ exhibition Nassau. team, was the second entrant to take off. He departed Sept. 13 from Governors Island, N.Y., on a westbound route in his Hearst Pathfinder Curtiss Cal’s cousin Lt. John Rodgers had grad- Model D biplane, as shown on this printed postcard. uated from the U.S. Naval Academy. In Continued on page 48 team, was the most experi- ated the treaty that opened Ja- enced of the group. pan to American trade in 1853, But Rodgers had advantag- and the great-grandnephew of es that the others could not Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the match — an unusual combi- Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. nation of assets, skills, deter- Those parts of her promo- mination, reckless courage, tional buildup were accurate, and a significant disability that but she further claimed that adapted him to the contest. His Cal had played football at Co- most important asset was his lumbia University and at the wealthy, well-connected, pa- University of Virginia, which he trician family. had not. He was not an alumnus of either. Flaunting his mar- PERRY-RODGERS FAMILY tial forebears while fabricating PRIDE: FACTS, FICTIONS a tale of sports prowess might AND INFLUENTIAL FRIENDS have been protective ploys to Cal’s twice-widowed mother, distract reporters from taking Figure 5. On the morning of Sept. 17, 1911, political leaders and commercial Maria Rodgers Sweitzer, urged note of his hearing disorder. sponsors flanked pilot Calbraith Perry Rodgers (wearing boots) in front members of the news media At age 6, Cal had contracted of his Vin Fiz Flyer biplane at Sheepshead Bay racetrack in New York, in a ceremonial send-off for his transcontinental flight. In this postcard to inform readers that her son scarlet fever, which left him photograph, Charles Davidson, president of Armour’s Vin Fiz soft drink was the great-grandson of nearly deaf for the rest of his division (the man to Rodgers’ right), tucked letters from New York politicians Matthew Calbraith Perry, the life and thus unsuited for a ca- and military leaders into a mail pouch for Rodgers to deliver to their U.S. Navy man who had negoti- reer in the U.S. Army or Navy. counterparts in Chicago and on the West Coast.

Figure 2. Alexander Berezowski’s 1925 German airmail handbook was the first to read. Neither is adequate publication to illustrate a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp. In translation supplied by the by itself. American Philatelic Society Translation Service it reads: 1911 (8 November) Pasadena, Cal. Airmail flight from the Atlantic Coast to the ONE POPULAR ADVENTURE Pacific Coast. Private airmail stamp, imperforate: II. 25 cents black —.— [i.e., not valued] STORY AND ONE SCHOLARLY No. II appears to be very scarce and is shown here for the first time. BOOK Flight of the Vin Fiz by E.P. Stein, published by Arbor available elsewhere. The first to begin their studies by con- House in 1985, is a suspense- popular treatment by a histo- sulting and comparing two ful adventure story told rian was “Coast to Coast in 12 full-length books about the with gusto. The author’s real Crashes” by Sherwood Harris flight. Each has strengths and name is Richard A. Epstein, in the November 1964 issue of weaknesses; each contrib- a physicist, mathematician lished First Transcontinental American Heritage magazine. utes details and context not and aerospace engineer who Flight, essentially a picture I advise serious collectors provided by the other; each is also wrote popular books and book that includes details not of Vin Fiz flight memorabilia well written and pleasurable Continued on page 48

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Figure 6. This printed postcard, which pictures Rodgers’ departure in the Vin Fiz Flyer from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, was one of several Vin Fiz souvenirs distributed to spectators who gathered to witness and welcome Rodgers when he landed in their communities. The sender mailed it Oct. 14, 1911, from Unadilla to Hagaman, N.Y., with the message, “Do you think you would like to ride in this?”

Continued from page 47 elite flyer’s fraternity. (Nos. 1 his plane’s engine behind his March 1911 the Navy assigned him to be- through 5 belonged to Glenn back and of the wind in his face come an aviator. After he enrolled at the Curtiss, Frank Lahm, Louis caused him less bother and Wright brothers flying school, Cal came Paulhan, Orville Wright and distraction than the effects of to visit him at Dayton in June. Also being Wilbur Wright.) those ever-present ear-split- trained was Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, who On Aug. 10 Cal flew the bi- ting noises on his competitors. went on to fame and glory as commander plane to Illinois, where orga- Cal’s performances at Chi- of the Army Air Corps in World War II. nizers of the Aug. 12-20 Chi- cago stirred his interest in John told Cal, “For speed, you can’t beat cago Invitational Air Meet had competing for the Hearst prize. flying.” Cal joined his cousin as a pupil. lured top-flight pilots by offer- Meanwhile, he and Mabel took When they had completed their training, ing $80,000 in prizes. His wife, a spin to Neenah, Wis., to visit they bought a Wright Model B biplane, Mabel, and his helper Wiggin Mabel’s sister and brother-in- sharing the cost. Cal immediately began met him there. By the end of law Bess and Frank Whiting. stunt flying. He hired a teenage aviation the show, Cal had won $11,000, There they met the Whitings’ enthusiast from Georgia, Charles Liv- including the award for dura- friend and business associate, ingston Wiggin, to be his helper, after the tion in the air, the meet’s most Wisconsin power broker Fred Wright brothers had rejected Wiggin’s ap- coveted honor. Felix Wettengel. On the spur plication for employment. Part of the reason Cal could of the moment, Cal persuaded Cal passed his aviator’s test Aug. 7; keep flying longer than oth- Wettengel to serve as man- the Aero Club of America issued him li- ers was a consequence of his ager and publicist for his aerial cense No. 49, which initiated him into the hearing disability. The roar of odyssey.

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H Rodgers’ flight. gerated interpersonal drama Stein’s Appendix A, “Official for which there is little or no Continued from page 47 Log of the Vin Fiz,” is a day- evidence, and he spiced his scripts for motion pictures by-day record of departures, story with salacious gossip. and television. stops en route, destination As evidence of Stein’s care- Stein did not include a arrivals, and mishaps along lessness, Kathy Klump, author bibliography or list of refer- the way. Appendix B provides of a local history book titled ences in his Vin Fiz book, but Figure 3. This picture and caption detailed maps for each leg The Vin Fiz Lands in Willcox, his publisher’s dust-jacket appeared in the December 1929 issue of Rodgers’ flight. Those are found four mistakes in Stein’s promotion provides these of Airpost Journal, which was the first a boon to researchers. But in brief description of Rodg- American publication to describe and details: “To reconstruct this illustrate a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp. his quest to tell a story wor- ers’ stop in her Arizona town. remarkable enterprise, E.P. thy of silver screen treatment, Readers should take care not Stein has retraced the path newspaper files and primary Stein inserted far-fetched to rely on Stein’s stories that of the Vin Fiz, interviewed source documents of the tales that can’t be reconciled can’t be independently veri- hundreds of surviving eye- time.” with contemporaneous re- fied. witnesses, and unearthed Figure 1 is Stein’s map of cords. He injected or exag- Cal Rogers and the Vin Fiz

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31083p044-63.indd 48 8/1/19 3:48 PM By happy coincidence, near- path, carrying his and Armour’s Figure 7. Another by Appleton, Wis., was hosting entourage and members of printed souvenir a Sept. 3-4 Labor Day weekend the press. These included Ar- postcard, which advertised the air meet in Wettengel’s honor. mour’s publicist, Stewart I. De- Vin Fiz soft drink, While Cal thrilled show-goers Grafft, and business manager, pictured Rodgers with aerial stunts, Wettengel Edward B. Merritt; Cal’s wife, with his wrecked arranged to meet with J. Og- Mabel; his mother, Maria Rod- aircraft after he den Armour, president of the gers Sweitzer; his cousin, John had crashed Sept. 18 on his takeoff Armour & Co. meatpacking Rodgers; his publicist and trea- attempt from firm in Chicago, as a prospec- surer, Wettengel; and his help- Middletown, N.Y. tive sponsor for Cal’s transcon- ers and mechanics. tinental flight. Armour agreed to buy a new airplane for Rodgers to fly, and THE VIN FIZ SPECIAL TRAIN, also to pay him $5 for every A FAMILY AFFAIR mile flown east of the Missis- Armour announced that his sippi River and $4 for every firm would support Cal Rodg- mile west of it (on grounds that ers’ attempt to fly from coast to the West had fewer prospec- coast as a precedent-setting tive buyers of the beverage). advertising venture. The com- Cal agreed to cover all costs pany had recently launched a of maintenance, repairs, spare new product, a grape-flavored parts, fuel, and his mechanics’ soft drink called Vin Fiz, to salaries and expenses. compete with Coca-Cola. Armour arranged with the The name Vin Fiz would ap- Erie Railroad Co. to give the Vin pear on the rudders and wings Fiz Special precedence over of the biplane, in effect mak- normal passenger and freight ing it into a traveling billboard. traffic between New York and From the air, Rodgers would Chicago. The train — embla- ment, so that Cal’s helpers and mechan- drop cards that advertised the zoned with Vin Fiz advertis- ics could drive from the train to and from beverage over crowds that ing — included two cars with his landing sites, and his Wright Model B gathered to witness the flight. accommodations for traveling biplane for aerial performances at stops At each stop, he would make a personnel and a third that was along his route. pitch for Vin Fiz soda. a traveling hangar, workshop At Dayton, DeGrafft arranged to pur- In exchange, Armour would and garage. chase the newest biplane then being de- pay the expenses of the flight. Equipment included a signed, dubbed “experimental racer” by Most important, Armour would Palmer-Singer automobile for Orville Wright, labeled Model EX, which cover the costs of a special ground transport, also decked was smaller, lighter, and faster than the train to follow along Cal’s flight out with a Vin Fiz advertise- Continued on page 50

Flight by Eileen F. Lebow, Figure 4. This log of the Vin Fiz flight issue of Aero News, but it published by the Smithsonian also appeared in the December 1929 made no mention of the Vin Institution in 1989, includes issue of Airpost Journal. Fiz Flyer stamps. That honor the scholarly apparatus that goes to Handbuch der Luft- is missing from Epstein’s book from Stein’s with respect to postkunde: Katalog samtlicher — a complete bibliography, issues that are important to und Abstempelungen der Luft- locations of archived papers, collectors. Most of her ar- posten (Airmail Handbook: and page-by-page reference guments are persuasive. Complete Catalog of Air Post notes. Lebow’s book has an index; Postmarks), 1925 edition, by Lebow’s academic style Stein’s does not. Alexander Berezowski. Figure compared the recollections 2 is a copy of the Berezowski of participants and witnesses PHILATELIC REFERENCES handbook listing. she interviewed with con- The earliest article about The first American publica- temporaneous documentary the flight that I found in any tion that reported the stamp evidence, sometimes draw- philatelic publication ap- was an article by Holcomb ing conclusions that differed peared in the October 1924 Continued on page 50

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Continued from page 49 standard Model B. When Cal arrived later, he was smitten by the new plane, which he called “Betsy.” Cal persuaded the Wright brothers to al- low Charles Edward “Zach” Taylor a leave of absence to serve as his chief mechanic for the flight. Taylor had designed and built the Wrights’ engines ever since their first 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk. No one was bet- ter suited than he to keeping the Model EX Vin Fiz Flyer in the air. Figure 9. After his mechanics had repaired and rebuilt the Vin Fiz Flyer at Salamanca, N.Y., the scene of this photo postcard, Rodgers was ready to ROBERT FOWLER AND JIMMIE WARD depart on Sept. 28 for stops in Meadville, Pa., and Warren, Ohio, before WERE THE FIRST TO TAKE OFF making a rough landing at Kent that broke a skid. While Cal Rodgers and his associ- ates were making those arrangements, two of his rivals briefly held different route, no longer in the head starts in the race for the lead. Hearst prize. Robert G. Fowler, On Sept. 13, James J. Ward, pictured on the Figure 3 post- shown in Figure 4 at the con- card, a fellow alumnus of the trols of his Curtiss Model D Wright brothers’ flying school, biplane, started out in the op- mapped an eastbound route posite direction. A veteran of from San Francisco to New the Curtiss exhibition team, York. Ward took off from Governors Fowler took to the air in his Island, N.Y., and headed west. Model B Wright Flyer from As a famous stunt pilot — Jim- Golden Gate Park on Sept. 11 mie Ward to his fans — he was and flew to Sacramento, where probably the popular favorite Gov. Hiram Johnson joined the in the race. crowd that greeted him. The Ward lost his way on his next day, intending to climb first day in the air and landed over the Sierra Nevada moun- at Paterson, N.J., just 20 miles tains, Fowler crashed near Col- from where he began. By the Figure 8. On Sept. 24, Rodgers again crashed as he tried to take off from Red fax. That grounded his plane next night he had reached House, N.Y. His mechanics can be seen disassembling the biplane before for repairs until Sept. 23. After Callicoon, N.Y., and by the fol- they carted it to Salamanca, N.Y., for repairs. The photo card was addressed to West Randolph, N.Y., but was not mailed. The message reads: “This is the his second and third attempts lowing night, Owego, where first aeroplane I ever saw. It flew over Randolph Thursday, Sept. 28, 1911 at to gain enough altitude failed, his engine failed. After Curtiss 10:45. It was flying from coast to coast.” he returned home to plan a shipped him a replacement,

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H

Continued from page 49 York titled “Rodgers’ Trans- continental Flight – 1911” in the December 1929 Airpost Journal. Here I have reproduced York’s picture of “The Famous ‘Vin Fiz’ Stamp Itself” in Figure 3, and his log of the flight in Figure 4. A chapter titled “Pioneer Figure 5. A souvenir cover from the June 1959 convention of the American Air Mail Society in Chicago, autographed Flights of the U.S.” by Erik by Rodgers’ widow, Mabel Rodgers Wiggin, and her husband, Rodgers’ mechanic Charles L. Wiggin, features a Hildesheim, in the 1930 edi- reproduction of the Vin Fiz Flyer stamp. tion of The Historical Air Mail Lissiuk, included a picture of franked with a Vin Fiz Flyer torical census. Catalogue edited by Kalenik “the second known cover” stamp, reproduced in my his- Hildesheim’s article “A Sto-

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31083p044-63.indd 50 8/1/19 3:48 PM Figure 10. After minor repairs at Kent and a day’s delay caused by a storm, Rodgers flew to Mansfield, Ohio, on Sept. 30. This photo postcard shows his departure from Mansfield.

FOUR KINDS OF VIN FIZ FLOWN AIRMAIL Philatelic accounts of the Vin Fiz pioneer flight published in the last 50 years have been fraught with erroneous and incomplete information concerning stamps and mail associated with Cal Rodgers’ feat. To provide a proper narrative, as comprehensive and as accu- Ward flew to Corning, and next Sept 17 launch, it will be useful rate as current evidence supports, I shall to Addison, where he crashed to provide perspective on mail present the postal aspects in sequence on Sept. 22. There he withdrew associated with his flight, some as they occurred over the course of Rod- from the race. collectible, some not, because gers’ adventure. Rodgers was the third en- those are the features that To avoid confusion, here is an outline of trant who took to the air, and have kept hobbyists aware of the sequence: Ovington was the fourth. Be- his legacy while it faded from Step one consisted of ceremonial letters fore we proceed to Rodgers’ historians’ attention. Continued on page 52

Figure 11. After Mansfield, Ohio, Rodgers landed at Marion later that same day (Sept. 30, 1911) for a welcome by a crowd of 5,000 residents and music by the local high school band. In these two close-up postcard views, members of Rodgers’ entourage kept watch on the Vin Fiz Flyer while police kept the crowd of onlookers from pressing too close to the airplane. Marion business leaders had offered Rodgers a cash award to land there.

Figure 6. Two controversial 1911 Vin Fiz postcards, consigned to H.R. Harmer in 1960 by Charles Wiggin, as they appeared in the March 8, 2018, sale of the James P. Myerson collection of pioneer flight mail 1910-1916, courtesy of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries. Pioneer airmail experts believe the straightline RODGERS AERIAL ROUTE and circular 1911 RODGERS AERIAL POST 1911 cachets were added to the cards much later.

ry About the Vin Fiz Air Mail” siuk’s catalog and described by the mainstream of Ameri- Standard Catalogue of Air Post in the June 17, 1933, issue of his failed attempt to acquire can aerophilately when it ac- Stamps. But aside from plac- Stamps magazine told how he an elusive third example. quired a listing as a semi-offi- ing the stamp on the wantlist had obtained the photograph Finally, the Vin Fiz Flyer cial issue in the 1937 seventh of every hobbyist who hoped of the card he pictured in Lis- stamp achieved recognition edition of Nicolas Sanabria’s Continued on page 52

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Continued from page 51 to carry on one leg of his flight presented Sept. 17 to Rodgers between Chicago and Kansas at the beginning of his flight, to City, and mailed them at the be transported aboard the Vin next post office after he had Fiz Flyer and to be delivered en flown them. route and at its final destination. Step three began Oct. 14 at Those letters represented the Kansas City, when Rodgers only flown mail between New Aerial Post 25¢ Vin Fiz Flyer York and Chicago. If any have stamps superseded hand- survived, their whereabouts stamped purple cachets as have not been disclosed. proof that cards and covers Step two began Oct. 8 at had been flown. These re- Chicago with the inauguration mained in use for the rest of of Rodgers Aerial Post and with Cal’s journey to California. Mabel Rodgers as its self-de- Step four consisted of post- Figure 12. In another photo postcard taken at Marion, the town’s leading clared “postmistress.” For a fee cards flown Nov. 12, after Cal’s citizen and future United States president, Warren G. Harding, publisher of of 25¢, she sold souvenir post- transcontinental flight had the Marion Star newspaper, hosted the gathering and welcomed Rodgers. This was not mailed as a card but possibly in an envelope. The observer cards to members of the pub- reached California and af- wrote on the back, “This is Rogers who is sailing from N.Y. to San Fris he lic, marked them with a dated ter the arrangement with Ar- sailed around Marion and lit south of semetry he sailed a mile in one minute purple Rodgers Aerial Post mour & Co. had concluded. the same day the machine looked real plane over us but I could read the adv cachet, presented them to Cal On his flight from Pasadena, on it 1000 ft high come out when you can.”

Figure 13. This photo postcard, mailed Oct. 6 from Huntington, Ind., to St. Louis, pictured the Vin Fiz crash. The sender wrote: “This will give you an idea of Rodgers aeroplane how it was wrecked when he landed, and that what’s prolonged his visit here. This is just one of the pictures will send more later.”

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H Figure 7. Henry M. Goodkind pictured this card as his Figure 25 Continued from page 51 in the November 1969 Collectors Club Philatelist with this caption: to complete a collection of “Post card canceled Appleton, United States or worldwide Wisc. September 27, 1911. Above airmail stamps, no new infor- the address on the right is a mation about the labels ap- ‘Rodgers Aerial Route’ straight-line peared during the next three handstamp. The Vin Fiz flight never came to Wisconsin.” decades. Frank Muller’s Catalogue official stamp), following des Aerogrammes du Monde Sanabria’s example. Entier (Catalog of Worldwide The principal philatelic Airmail Covers), published reference is a two-part ar- in Paris in 1950, designated ticle, “The 1911 Vin Fiz Air Mail the “Rodgers Aerial Post (‘Vin Stamp” by Henry M. Good- November 1969 issues of the Unfortunately, the author Fiz’)” listing as TSO (semi- kind, in the September and Collectors Club Philatelist. mistakenly had assumed that

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31083p044-63.indd 52 8/1/19 3:49 PM he crashed at Compton. Pur- delivery at Chicago and Los ple handstamped cachets on Angeles. those cards memorialize the Airmail historian Robert crash. Schoendorf called those let- Besides flown items, Vin Fiz ters “the first transcontinental souvenir postcards were sold airmail.” I agree. If any of those to spectators who came to see letters or the envelopes that the celebrity aviator and his enclosed them still exist, they biplane at every stop, many of are jewels of aviation history. which are inscribed with writ- The next day’s New York Times ten eyewitness reports of what reported, “[Rodgers] takes with the senders had seen. Those him several letters, among are wonderful to collect and them a letter from Mayor display, but they must not be Gaynor to Mayor Alexander of equated with scarce flown Los Angeles.” mail. In 1959 Cal’s widow, Mabel, recalled: “He hated it. Once or CEREMONIAL AIRMAIL twice they almost caused an LETTERS PRESENTED accident, with this [mail pouch] AT NEW YORK fastened on his shoulder. But In November 1910, less than at New York he did take let- a year earlier, efforts to dem- ters from famous people, very onstrate the potential for air- well-known people. [One was] planes to transport mail had to the Presidio from the man headlined news reports. Keen in charge at the Brooklyn Navy to exploit similar publicity, Yard.” Wettengel used his political As he passed over Coney Island, he Figure 14. Rodgers’ influence to secure Post Office Up and Away in dropped Vin Fiz advertisements to onlook- wife, Mabel, and her Department (POD) permission the Vin Fiz Flyer ers below. Crossing the East River above helpers distributed copies of this printed for Rodgers to carry letters on After Amelia Swift, a beauty the Brooklyn Bridge, he flew over Manhat- souvenir postcard the Vin Fiz flight. queen from Memphis, Tenn., tan, following Broadway up to Madison at nearly every stop The Figure 5 postcard pho- had christened the Vin Fiz Fly- Square before heading west toward New along the Vin Fiz tograph, taken shortly before er by pouring the purple soft Jersey and a rendezvous with his special flight route. This one Cal’s initial takeoff, shows drink over its skids, Cal Rodg- train. He stopped for the night at Middle- was posted Oct. 6 at Huntington, Ind. Charles Davidson, president ers climbed aboard and took town after an 84-mile flight. of Armour’s Vin Fiz soft drink off from Sheepshead Bay race- The next morning he struck a tree as division (the man to Rodgers’ track in Brooklyn at 4:25 p.m., he attempted to take off. Cal climbed out right), preparing to present Cal Sunday, Sept. 17. The Figure 6 of the wreck with his head bleeding, but with letters in a mail pouch for postcard shows his launch. Continued on page 54

Figure 8. Goodkind’s caption for this card read, “Another Appleton, Wisc. post card cancelled October 6, 1911. Also has the straight-line cachet as Figure 25. On October 6, 1911, Rodgers was reaching Mansfield, Ohio in his Vin Fiz plane.” Goodkind was mistaken about that. On Oct. 6 Rodgers was at Hammond, Ind., 300 miles west of Mansfield. High winds and squalls had grounded him there while his entourage rode by train to Chicago.

Sept. 17, to the California ar- rian and scholar Robert Scho- rival in November. He skewed endorf in the January 1980 his census by counting one Airpost Journal. Schoendorf’s stamp twice. article was based on Epstein’s An article that revised and original research five years corrected some but not all before he published his book of Goodkind’s mistakes and as E.P. Stein. omissions is “Some Notes on A broadly popular phila- the stamps had been avail- of the flight, from the launch Rodgers’ 1911 ‘Vin Fiz’ Flight telic chronicle appeared in able for the entire duration at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y., on Across U.S.” by airmail histo- Continued on page 54

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crowd gathered at Salaman- ca, N.Y., to see him off, as the Figure 9 photo postcard illus- trates, Cal resumed his west- ward trip. After rest and refueling stops at Meadville, Pa., and Warren, Ohio, he landed at Kent, having advanced 204 miles that day, his best progress to date. A Red-Carpet Welcome in Ohio, then Onward to Indiana Inclement weather kept the Vin Fiz Flyer grounded at Kent Figure 15. Stranded while his mechanics repaired on Sept. 29, but the next morn- his airplane at Huntington, Rodgers, his wife, Mabel, and his manager Fred Felix Wettengel wrote ing Cal flew to Mansfield. Af- the booklet that introduced the Rodgers Aerial Post ter refueling there, he took off when the Vin Fiz retinue reached Chicago. Pictured again for points farther west. here are the front cover and Mabel Rodgers’ The Figure 10 photo postcard excerpt from a 1945 facsimile reprint published by shows his departure. the Jack Knight Air Mail Society. Rodgers next called at Mar- ion. Business leaders had offered him a cash award to land Continued from page 53 west of New York State. there. A crowd had gathered he was not seriously injured. The Figure As the Vin Fiz Flyer rose from to welcome him, led by the 7 card shows the mangled aircraft, which a farmer’s field at Red House, town’s leading citizen, Warren took his crew 40 hours working round-the- the undercarriage caught on G. Harding, publisher of the clock to repair and rebuild. Meanwhile, two barbed-wire fences, tear- Marion Star newspaper. Figure residents gave Cal a tour of the area. ing and shredding the wings, 11 photo postcards show mem- On Sept. 21 he flew from Middletown to shattering both propellers, and bers of Rodgers’ escort crew Hancock; Sept. 22, from Hancock to Elmi- ruining struts, skids and con- protecting the biplane from ra; Sept. 23, Elmira to Canisteo; and Sept. trol wires. The Figure 8 photo enthusiastic souvenir hunters. 24, Canisteo to Red House. Cal’s progress postcard shows the conse- Harding posed with Rodgers in had been uneven; he had taken a wrong quences of that crash, which the Figure 12 postcard picture. turn once and experienced several mis- took his mechanics three days After accepting his money, haps along the way, but by the end of his to fix. signing autographs, and mak- first week he was finally poised to press on Finally on Sept. 28, with a ing his pitch for Vin Fiz grape

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H Figure 9. Bernard Harmer gave Goodkind this photo of another item in Wiggin’s 1960 consignment. Continued from page 53 Goodkind wrote: “Among the Donna O’Keefe’s Dec. 5, 1983, material were some unused and Linn’s article, “Vin Fiz Labels unaddressed post cards bearing the Reminder of Ill-Fated Flight,” circular cachet on the address side. and in a chapter of her book, Such material cannot be explained. Linn’s Philatelic Gems, titled No one knows when the cachet had been applied.” “Stamp for a Soft Drink.” (To- day she is Linn’s editor-at- ARCHIVED INTERVIEWS large Donna Houseman.) The American Philatelic Re- The stamp finally achieved search Library possesses the ety. Among the recordings are tive, they disappoint. Wellman a catalog number and listing Jack Knight audio tape ar- recollections of three partici- tried to get each of his guests in the 1993 Scott Specialized chive, recorded in the 1950s pants in Cal Rodgers’ Vin Fiz to discuss and account for the Catalogue of United States by Earl Wellman, a leader of adventure. Vin Fiz Flyer stamps and flown Stamps and Covers. the Jack Knight Airmail Soci- From a philatelic perspec- mail, but they evaded his ques-

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31083p044-63.indd 54 8/1/19 3:49 PM soda, Rodgers left Ohio for ning, drenched by blowing rain Once again, Cal was banged up and Indiana, ending the day just that cut his face, he found an bleeding from cuts but not badly hurt. The across the state line at Rivare opening, touched down, and Figure 13 photo postcard, mailed at Hun- as his fuel ran out. He had took shelter underneath his tington four days later, shows his wrecked flown 205 miles after depart- airplane wing. aircraft, which “prolonged his visit here,” ing from Kent. As soon as the sky cleared, the sender wrote. For the next three days, His second 200-mile day he flew on to Huntington, Ind., Cal was grounded while his mechanics raised Cal’s hopes that he and called it a day, hoping to labored without rest to repair and rebuild might reach California by Oct. recover lost ground after rest- the Vin Fiz Flyer at a cost of $3,000. 10 and win the Hearst prize. ing overnight. But the next morning he flew Against Taylor’s advice that CRAFTING RODGERS AERIAL POST into a thunderstorm. After a the wind was too strong for ON THE WAY TO CHICAGO harrowing flight through dark safety, Cal launched the Vin Fiz The delay at Huntington compelled Cal clouds lit up by flashes of light- Flyer from Huntington at 11:30 and his advisors to admit that he could a.m. on Oct. 2. Fierce gusts not possibly reach California by Oct. 10. kept him from gain- He would not win the Hearst prize. He had ing altitude, blew the spent half of the 30-day allotment, but he biplane’s left lower had not yet reached Chicago. Wettengel wing into the ground, would not continue as manager and pub- and flipped the ma- licist beyond Chicago because he had chine over, smash- pressing business responsibilities in Wis- ing the nose into the consin. ground. Continued on page 56

Figure 16. Although this printed souvenir card was mailed Oct. 10 at Chicago, the sender had purchased it the previous day at Rodgers’ aerial show performed during the National Implement and Vehicle Fair at Peoria.

Figure 10. This unsent card from the Sept. 3-4, 1911, Appleton aviation meet has the straightline cachet at the top. Wiggin identified the handwriting as his own. tions and changed the subject. In 1959 the American Air In a 1954 interview, Fred Mail Society invited Charles Felix Wettengel, who had Wiggin and Mabel Rodgers served as manager, publicist Wiggin to attend the soci- and treasurer of Cal Rodgers’ ety’s June convention in Chi- flight of the Vin Fiz Flyer from cago. Mabel was Cal Rodgers’ New York to Chicago, did his widow; Charles, at age 17, had best to answer Wellman’s been one of his mechanics questions, but Wellman during the 1911 cross-country spoiled much of the discus- flight. The two had married in sion by prodding Wettengel 1914, two years after Cal Rod- to claim credit for proposing gers had died when his bi- the stamp issue in which he plane crashed near the Cali- had played no part. Continued on page 56

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port them by air had been by Fred Felix Wettengel and John’s suggestion. For a fee of a notice about Rodgers Aerial 25¢, Cal would carry the souve- Post by Mrs. C.P. Rodgers, post- nir card from one flight stop to mistress. the next, where Mabel would Original copies of the book- mail it at the nearest post of- let are rare, most of them held fice. by institutional archives. But in They named the service 1954 the Jack Knight Air Mail Rodgers Aerial Post, to be Society published a facsimile launched at Chicago. While reprint edition. Figure 15 shows mechanics toiled to make the front cover of my copy and the Vin Fiz Flyer flight worthy the excerpt that promoted Ma- again, the Rodgers inner circle bel’s offer to provide air trans- compiled a booklet titled Story port for postcards priced at of My Flying With Complete 25¢. Technical Description of My Wettengel’s hometown Figure 17. This card, Continued from page 55 Aeroplane by Calbraith Perry newspaper, the Appleton flown Oct. 10 from Cal needed a new manager and a new Rodgers, with an introduction Post-Crescent, published the Marshall to Kansas City, Mo., and mailed financial plan. Already the costs of fuel, there on Oct. 12, maintenance, repairs and mechanics’ sal- has Mabel Rodgers’ aries had exceeded $5 per-mile payments “Carried by RODGERS’ from Armour and honoraria from towns AEROPLANE VIN FIZ that had paid him to stop at their loca- Oct., 10 ‘11” cachet struck in purple ink. It tions. Soon he would cross the Mississippi, is the earliest recorded which would reduce the mileage fee from flown Vin Fiz mailpiece Armour to $4. known to have Besides those sources of income, Ma- survived. Courtesy bel and members of Rodgers’ crew had of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries. been selling souvenir postcards whenever crowds gathered to view and welcome the Vin Fiz Flyer. Figure 14 shows the most popular design, with a picture of Cal in flight and a cameo portrait of him. Cal’s cousin John Rodgers agreed to Figure 18. Cal Rodgers’ uncle Robert Slidell Rodgers mailed this card to take over Wettengel’s role as manager at another uncle, Robert’s brother Rear Adm. John Augustus Rodgers, at Chicago. In a 1959 interview, Charles Wig- Havre de Grace, Md. At the top is Mabel Rodgers’ “Carried by RODGERS’ AEROPLANE VIN FIZ Oct., 11 ‘11” cachet. After Mabel gave him cards she gin recalled that the proposal to raise ad- had sold on the trip, Cal flew over Kansas City from Swope Park in Missouri to ditional revenue from postcard sales by Overland Park in Kansas. The Kansas City cancellation date is Oct. 12. Copied charging an additional amount to trans- from First Transcontinental Flight by Charles Wiggin.

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H account for the Vin Fiz Flyer about the stamps in these stories when they were trying stamps and flown mail. words: “Mr. Goodkind, please to sell souvenirs to collec- Continued from page 55 Both Wiggins later expressed do not think me conceited, tors for high prices. They had fornia coast. During the show, their displeasure to Goodkind. but I must tell you that in 1911 learned by annoyance that they sold souvenir covers as In a letter to him Charles wrote: I was an attractive young lady. airmail collectors were eager shown in Figure 5. “When I sat in that stamp con- You know we had a number of to acquire cards and covers Wellman presided and vention, I was lost, yes, com- young men working for us on that Cal Rodgers had carried recorded a talk by the Wig- pletely lost. Just a lot of fat old the flight. I must honestly tell on his flights. A few months gins at the exhibition and an- men, who gather together a lot you that I was much more in- later Charles Wiggin exploit- other during a lawn party at of air mail cards, drink liquor terested in these men than in ed their vulnerability. the home of Airpost Journal and don’t know much about the any printed paper souvenirs.” editor Joseph S. Eisendrath early years of flying. Not one Those attitudes provide CACHETS ‘WITHOUT VALIDITY’ in Highland Park, a Chicago real aviator was there, except context not only for the Wig- ADDED TO 1911 SOUVENIR suburb. Wellman tried un- me and my dear wife.” gins’ failure to remember the POSTCARDS ‘AT A MUCH successfully to get each of Mabel explained her in- Vin Fiz stamps, but also for LATER DATE’ his guests to discuss and ability to remember details altered later versions of their On May 18, 1960, less than a

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31083p044-63.indd 56 8/1/19 3:50 PM Figure 19. Although the flight formally ended Nov. 5 at Pasadena, Calif. Rodgers was determined to take the Vin Fiz Flyer the rest of the way to the Pacific Ocean. Long Beach offered $5,000 to be the location. On Nov. 12, Rodgers departed Pasadena, but his engine failed over Compton. His plane crashed into a plowed field, seriously injuring him. Souvenir postcards carried on that flight were struck with two purple cachets, as seen here. Courtesy of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries. Postmaster General Hitchcock formally Figure 20. After convalescing for approved arrangements for the carrying a month from the booklet and reprinted an ex- Ovington had ingratiated him- of a pouch of mail from the trans-Atlantic Compton crash cerpt from it in its Oct. 7 edi- self with Hitchcock by making steamer Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, out- injuries, Rodgers tion. short demonstration airmail bound to Europe, back to New York while continued to Long flights Sept. 23 to Oct. 1 from the vessel was off the Long Island Coast. Beach on Dec. 10. Not fully healed, he needed EARLE OVINGTON ENTERS Aeroplane Station No. 1 at Gar- Aviator J.A. McCurdy was to have attempt- crutches to stand or AND QUICKLY EXITS den City Estates to Mineola ed the first aerial transmission of mails, but walk, as shown on this THE HEARST PRIZE RACE during an international aviation because of stormy weather the attempt postcard photo taken While the Vin Fiz Flyer was tournament on Long Island, was not made.” upon his arrival. delayed at Huntington, news- N.Y. The Oct. 3 Washington Post article con- papers reported that the U.S. The Sept. 23 certificate for Ov- cluded, “No date for the beginning of POD had instituted a special ington’s swearing-in ceremony the [transcontinental] flight has been an- aerial mail route from New York declared him to be the “First nounced, but Ovington has assured the via Chicago to Los Angeles on Aeroplane Mail Carrier in the Post Office Department that he will start Oct. 2 — “route 607,001 … the post office of the United States.” from New York within a day or two.” He longest messenger route ever But the New York Times had not- barely got started a week later, on Oct. 11, established,” according to the ed in a Sept. 16 report, “This will after the Hearst prize offer had expired, Oct. 3 Washington Post. not be the first instance in which but he went nowhere. Postmaster General Frank United States mails have been The Oct. 12 Morning Call of Paterson, N.J., H. Hitchcock had appointed officially authorized to be car- reported, “the aerial postman fell seventy- Ovington as special messen- ried by aeroplanes. five feet with his monoplane at the Nas- ger to carry mail on that route. “In November of last year Continued on page 58

year after the AAMS Chicago field, Ill. Wiggin had been the marked Sept. 27 and Oct. 6. any with similar cachets. These convention, H.R. Harmer of- sender of both. According to “Mr. Wiggin writes (Jan. 8, ’60) cachets may not necessarily be fered for sale at auction four Harmer’s descriptions, the that these two cards were contemporary. lots of postcards associated former “very probably flew flown at the ‘Ask Wettengel’ Schoendorf was less cir- with the 1911 Vin Fiz flight and the stage to Salamanca,” and Meet and were mailed at cumspect. “These two rubber three lots from earlier avia- the latter “would apparently later dates.” All seven lots ap- stamps, also found on other tion meets at Chicago and at have been carried on the peared in the Harmer catalog mail, possess all earmarks Appleton where Rodgers had Peoria-Springfield stage of below this cautionary head- of having been applied at a flown, consigned by Charles the flight.” note: much later date and hence Wiggin — a total of 12 post- One lot comprised two un- Each card bears a cachet ei- may be dismissed as being cards. used cards from the August ther: without validity.” I agree with The four Vin Fiz lots com- 1911 air meet at Chicago; an- (a) straight-line “RODGERS that opinion. The two cachets AERIAL ROUTE” or (b) a framed prised five unused cards, one other, one unused card from circular “1911/AERIAL/RODG- were added long afterward to card postmarked Sept. 25 at the Appleton meet; another, ERS/POST/1911.” genuine souvenir cards dis- Salamanca, N.Y., and another two used cards from the Sept. A check with the owners of Vin tributed at the events they postmarked Oct. 9 at Spring- 3-4 Appleton meet but post- Fiz cards has failed to discover Continued on page 58

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Figure 21. To prove Continued from page 57 they were stranded at Hunting- cords in Washington, D.C., have that he truly had flown sau Boulevard aerodrome and narrowly ton. Perhaps that humiliation never substantiated Rodgers’ from coast to coast, escaped serious injury. The aeroplane was later led Cal or Mabel Rodg- claim of official sanction.” Rodgers flew over the water at Long Beach. smashed and the aviator has now given up ers, or both, to exaggerate the The message on this his intention of flying to Los Angeles with status of their private airmail CHICAGO CELEBRATES THE photo card, mailed the mail for Postmaster-General Hitch- transport service. BIRDMAN’S RETURN Dec. 14 from Los cock. … ‘If I ever get to Los Angeles it will E.P. Stein wrote, in Flight of After his biplane had been Angeles to Dixon, Ill., be on that special train.’ ” the Vin Fiz, that on Oct. 9 Mabel rebuilt for the third time, Cal reads: “Dear Sis:- this card was taken while “was handed a telegram from Rodgers took off from Hun- Rogers was flying over RESENTMENT AND MYTHMAKING Postmaster General Hickock tington at 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 5, the ocean. Finished AMONG THE RODGERS ENSEMBLE stating that he had relented hoping to put Indiana behind and bo’t before we Ovington had applied to be and had from his previous opposition him before sunset, but he got came home. Wish you been accepted as a competitor for the and confirmed her as the of- only to Hammond, still east could have seen it. Maybe some day in Hearst prize, so news that he had tried, be- ficial ‘aerial postmistress,’” but of the Illinois state line. Bad Chi. Miss B. said last lated and inadequate as his attempt was, that seems fanciful. weather prevented him from summer she saw eight came as no surprise. But for Hitchcock to In a June 1965 Miami News flying again for the next two in the air at once.” have designated and assigned the trans- interview after her second days. continental airmail route to Ovington two husband died, Mabel Rodgers On Sunday, Oct. 8, Cal flew weeks after Cal Rodgers had departed Wiggin, still calling herself “the to Grant Park on the Chicago with a pouch of mail over that very route world’s first air postmistress,” lakefront where 8,000 people appeared to be an intentional snub. acknowledged to reporter cheered the return of the bird- That was how members of the Rodgers Carol Carey that the post office man who had won the top family and their entourage aboard the Vin “didn’t want anything to do with prize at the air meet there less Fiz Special train reacted to the news while it.” Lebow wrote, “Official re- than two months earlier, but

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H Viz ground crew arrived, but flown by Rodgers,” but lists the 1916. They realized hammer a day ahead of Rodgers. His cachets and fails to warn users prices of $6,000 and $6,500, Continued from page 57 message on the Springfield that the cachets were not origi- respectively, plus 18 percent portrayed. The postal can- card says, “Arrived all OK from nal. Editors of the pioneer sec- buyer’s premiums, despite cellations are genuine. Peoria at 5:25 PM.” Rodgers ar- tion in Vol. 1 of the sixth (1998) Siegel’s deduction that nei- Wiggin’s claims that the rived there after dark. edition had regarded the ca- ther card had been flown. used cards were flown were The Salamanca cover re- chets as bogus and made no Both cards had previously equally unconvincing. If mail alized $300; the Springfield mention of them, so I won- sold in Siegel’s May 15, 1999, had been flown at the Chi- cover, $190. The American Air dered how they had acquired Rarities of the World sale cago or Appleton air meets, it Mail Catalog now values them validity for the current one. (which featured Dr. John Rob- would have predated all the at $7,000 each, in Vol. 3 of the Figure 6 shows those cards ertson’s Vin Fiz collection) and listed pioneer airmail flights seventh (2014) edition, the as they appeared in Robert in Shreves Philatelic Galler- from which flown covers are same value assigned to cards A. Siegel Auction Galleries’ ies’ Nov. 29, 2006, Pioneers of recorded. His message on without either cachet. The March 8, 2018, sale of the Flight (Christopher Gruys) sale the Salamanca card is dated catalog advises that “There is James P. Myerson collection before they appeared in My- Sept. 24, the date that the Vin no evidence these cards were of pioneer flight mail 1910- erson’s splendid exhibit.

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31083p044-63.indd 58 8/1/19 3:51 PM he lingered only long enough the commander of the Department to refuel, eat lunch, deliver of the Pacific; from the command- letters, and take a short ride ing officer of the Atlantic fleet to Rear Admiral Thomas of the Pacific around the city with his mother. squadron; and from Mayor Gaynor At 4 p.m. he departed for points of New York City to the mayor of west and south. San Francisco. The Oct. 9 issue of the Inter- Cal and his crew spent the Ocean newspaper reported: night of Oct. 9 at Joliet. The next day he flew to Peoria, where he Rodgers, aside from his flight in the contest, is demonstrating the performed an air show at the ability of carrying mail by aero- National Implement and Ve- plane. As proof he delivered let- hicle Fair. Figure 23. This photo card is addressed to Bellevue, Ohio, but was not mailed. ters to E. B. Merritt for J. Ogden A fairgoer there bought the The owner wrote on the back: “Long Beach, Cal, April 8-1912 Dear Ralph:- Armour, from Sheepshead Bay, and Figure 16 souvenir postcard. This is a picture of Rogers, and his wrecked machine, and in the spot where also letters to his brother, Lieuten- She mailed it upon her return you see the machine, is where it fell. I saw him complete his ocean to ocean ant John R. Rodgers, U.S.N., and to flight, also saw him before he fell, making his death dip.” to Chicago; it was postmarked Frank M. Whiting of Neenah, Wis., at present in Chicago. In his mail after midnight. Later that af- bag Rodgers has letters from Ma- ternoon Rodgers flew to the Springfield, where he stopped for the jor General Frederick Dent Grant to Illinois state fairgrounds at night.

FIRST RODGERS AERIAL POST MAIL AND 25¢ VIN FIZ FLYER STAMPS On Oct. 10 Cal flew from Springfield, Ill., to Marshall, Mo., crossing the Mississippi River shortly before noon. By reaching Marshall, he had flown 1,398 miles, a new cross-country record flight distance. At Marshall a customer bought a souvenir postcard from Mabel and paid the ex- tra 25¢ fee for Rodgers Aerial Post service. She struck it with her “Carried by RODG- ERS’ AEROPLANE VIN FIZ” cachet dated Oct. 10. Cal carried it in his mail pouch from Marshall to Kansas City, where Mabel mailed it on Oct. 12. That card, pictured in Figure 17, is the Figure 22. After flying over the beach, Rodgers landed and taxied his airplane into the water. This photo card was not posted, but the owner wrote on the earliest known Rodgers Aerial Post flown back: “This is Mr. Rodgers in his machine, the one that flew from the Atlantic to mailpiece to have survived. It was a high- the Pacific. By dipping plane in the Pacific marks the finish of his long flight.” Continued on page 60

In the 1999 sale, Siegel’s plus 10 percent buyer’s pre- 12 cards that Wiggin had con- readily available. description of the Salamanca mium, respectively. signed to Harmer were struck Harmer gave Goodkind cover included the phrase, In the 2006 Shreves sale, by one or both markers. photographs of cards in Wig- “one of two recorded exam- which did not comment on I’m reminded of the quip gin’s consignment that were ples of Type 1 circle hand- whether the cards had been attributed to Josh Billings, “It not illustrated in his auction stamp (the only one used flown, the Salamanca cover re- ain’t what they don’t know; catalog. Goodkind published alone)”; the Springfield cover, alized $4,250 and the Spring- it’s what they do know that pictures of the ones from the “Type 1A circular handstamp field cover $6,000, plus 15 per- ain’t so.” No one can know Appleton air meet “which took with additional ‘RODGERS cent. Both Shreves and Siegel everything, and none of us place weeks before the post- AERIAL ROUTE’ straightline described these cards as can recognize our own blind marks on these two cards.” handstamp in matching ink.” representing the only two re- spots until we are persuaded They had been struck by both The type designations rep- corded examples of the circu- by superior evidence. This is cachets, although “the Vin Fiz resented Siegel’s method of lar handstamped cachet (now especially true for knowledge flight never came near Apple- classifying cachets struck on listed as AAMS Type 1) and about rare philatelic items ton, Wisconsin.” Vin Fiz postcards. The cards combined with the straightline that seldom come to market Figure 7 shows a card can- realized $5,500 and $8,500, marking (AAMS Type 2). But all and whose provenance is not Continued on page 60

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Figure 24. A 1988 postcard published by the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution pictures the restored Vin Fiz Flyer on public display in the museum’s collection.

Continued from page 59 One other flown card with Cal’s uncle Robert Slidell light of James P. Myerson’s collection that cachet is known, shown Rodgers had addressed the and exhibit of pioneer airmails 1910-1916. here in Figure 18. I copied it card to another uncle (Rob- At Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries’ sale from the 1961 book First Trans- ert’s brother) Rear Adm. John of Myerson’s collection last year, it real- continental Flight by Charles Augustus Rodgers. Cal carried ized $8,000 plus 18 percent buyer’s pre- Wiggin, published to mark the it in his mail pouch while he mium. Ironically, it is scarcer than flown 50th anniversary of Cal Rodg- flew over Kansas City on Oct. cards and covers franked with Vin Fiz ers’ feat. The card was proba- 11. It was posted and canceled Flyer stamps that command much higher bly a Rodgers family heirloom there Oct. 12. The message prices. at that time; maybe it still is. reads: “Oct 11 – 1911 I boarded

v i n f i z R e s e a RC H Appleton. Figure 8 shows topics after I had finished.” SCOTT TREPEL REPLIES another, canceled Oct. 6 at Figures 9 and 10 show the ca- TO KEN LAWRENCE Continued from page 59 Appleton; on that date, the chets on cards that were not The controversy over the celed Sept. 27 at Appleton Vin Fiz had been delayed by mailed. The next edition of the Salamanca NY September 25 that has a weak strike of a inclement weather at Ham- catalog should include a full and Springfield IL October 9 Vin RODGERS AERIAL ROUTE mond, Ind., 225 miles south- explanation of the markings’ Fiz souvenir cards with hand- straightline cachet below east of Appleton. dubious provenance, and stamped cachets is simply a the postage stamp. On that Goodkind pressed Wiggin should state clearly that other matter of 49 years. There is no dispute over the date, the Vin Fiz Flyer was for an explanation. “I told him examples are known on cards fact that the markings were being repaired at Salaman- that in the opinion of several for unrelated events. applied by mechanic Charles ca, N.Y., after having crashed air mail authorities, and that I Scott R. Trepel, the president “Wiggie” Wiggin, who was part nearby Sept. 24 during a agreed, these two post cards of Robert A. Siegel Auction Gal- of Cal Rodgers’s entourage and takeoff attempt from the had no relationship to Rodg- leries, disagrees with my opin- flight crew. Allegany Indian reservation ers Vin Fiz flight.” Wiggin “of- ion about these markings so I If we could prove that Wiggin at Red House. Salamanca fered no comment upon my asked him to present his con- applied them in 1911 to souve- is about 700 miles east of opinions but went into other trary view. His rebuttal follows: nir cards he planned to mail or

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31083p044-63.indd 60 8/1/19 3:51 PM ‘Vin Fiz Special’ at Marshall Mo parted from Kansas City, he Hartshorne. Cal carried it on his flight and now en route to KC. Cal- fell ill with pneumonia and from Fort Worth to Dallas, where it was braith flying alongside mak- never recovered. He died Jan. canceled Oct. 19. ing good time. Weather good. 31, 1912. His supply of Vin Fiz Allen had misunderstood or been mis- John in KC. R.S. Rodgers.” Flyer stamps probably went led by Mabel’s pretentious title, maybe Robert S. Rodgers was a into the trash, unappreciated with her encouragement. In the Oct. 19 Kansas City attorney, a stamp by his heirs. issue of the Sun he wrote, “Mrs. Rodg- collector and member of the ers, who accompanies her husband on American Philatelic Society. FLYING OVER AND THROUGH the special train, is a duly commissioned He proposed to replace the OKLAHOMA AND TEXAS postmistress,” a report that has but- crudely typeset cachet with Cal and his followers were tressed the Vin Fiz philatelic legend ever a pictorial 25¢ adhesive label delayed by weather at Vinita, since, but it wasn’t true. that pictured the Vin Fiz Flyer, but on Oct. 16 they pressed That same day at Los Angeles, Cal’s which he arranged to have on to McAlester, Okla. From competitor Robert Fowler had launched printed. Kansas City, Robert Rodgers a fresh attempt at a west-to-east trans- Within two days the print- had shipped a supply of Vin continental trip by air, this time hewing er delivered at least a small Fiz Flyer stamps to Mabel in to a southern route that avoided high quantity of the stamps before care of the McFarland Hotel at altitudes, no longer bound by Hearst’s Cal took off for Oklahoma and McAlester. terms that would have required a stop at Texas. The earliest recorded On Oct. 17 Cal flew 265 Chicago and termination at New York or use of the stamp is on a sou- miles in the air from McAl- Boston. The Vin Fiz crew took notice, but venir card flown Oct. 14 from ester to Fort Worth, a record their man was much closer to the Pacific Kansas City to Vinita, Okla., for a single day. On Oct. 18 he Ocean than Fowler was to the Atlantic. posted and canceled there performed aerial stunts at the There was scant likelihood that Fowler the next day. That card is No. Texas state fair in Dallas be- could upstage Rodgers. 11 in my historical census of fore heading west. Meanwhile, From Dallas, Rodgers flew west to Vin Fiz Flyer stamps. on the train trip from McAles- Waco; in his mail pouch was the card Like many collectors be- ter to Fort Worth, Mabel had bearing the census No. 10 Vin Fiz Flyer guiled by the Vin Fiz Flyer sold souvenir postcards and stamp. There, on Oct. 20, Waco postmas- epic, I have wondered why Vin Fiz Flyer stamps to Jasper ter William H. Hoffman formally admin- its eponymous stamps are Allen, the editor and publisher istered the mail carrier’s oath, belatedly scarce. This is my hypothesis: of the Hartshorne Sun. conferring on Cal the status that Ovington Being an active philatelist, One of those cards with the had been granted in September. Properly Robert Rodgers probably stamp is No. 4 in my census. sworn, he was then officially authorized kept a substantial quantity The stamp had been sold to carry U.S. mail. Departing Waco, he of the print order, intending separately from the card in flew west to Austin, then to Kyle, Texas, to distribute them among his 1964 and was reunited with where engine trouble halted his progress fellow hobbyists. But shortly it just last year. The card is for two days. after the Vin Fiz Special de- addressed to Allen’s wife at Continued on page 62

sell along the route, it would be If you believe that in 1960, valuable artifacts are in collec- plied them to cards which they inaccurate to describe them as Wiggin and his wife, the former tor hands. Proof is warranted, sold in a very public auction. spurious, since all Vin Fiz mark- Mrs. Rodgers, whom he mar- but little proof has been of- Interestingly, in 1961 the couple ings were applied by private ried about one year after Cal’s fered. did create crude souvenir 50th individuals. Even if you believe death, applied the markings to Likewise, I cannot prove that anniversary covers with mark- Mabel Rodgers was officially a supply of cards they held on Wiggin applied the markings ings applied in watery blue and sanctioned as a “postmistress” to for 49 years, then the con- 49 years earlier than Mr. Law- red inks. If the couple made or Cal Rodgers was sworn in demnatory labels Mr. Lawrence rence alleges. I would only be the cacheted cards around the as a postal carrier, the sale has applied to the markings speculating and overreaching same time, then they cleverly of the Vin Fiz stamps and the (not the underlying cards) will in my analysis if I explained why used a different style of mark- markings applied to mail (some seem justified. I think they were made in 1911. ings, with different wording, flown, some not) was essen- In my opinion, accusations Perhaps I am giving “Wig- and they used ink that looks tially a private enterprise, with of forgery for pecuniary gain gie” and Mabel the benefit like that found on other flight none of the money going to the should be backed by more than of the doubt when I refuse to cachets of the period. post office. That Wiggin would insinuation and hearsay, espe- believe they had a commercial I am grateful to Mr. Law- want to get in on the fun and cially since the accused are rubberstamp manufacturer rence for the opportunity to profit is not surprising. dead and defenseless, and the create markings, and then ap- present this rebuttal.

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Continued from page 61 to the present day, No. 9 in my Phoenix, but his engine quit My collection includes two duplicate census. After minor repairs far- running at Maricopa, forcing printed Vin Fiz souvenir cards, similar to ther along at Lordsburg, Cal him to land. Overnight his me- those in Figures 6 and 7 from the first left New Mexico and flew next chanics made repairs. More week in New York, which a spectator had to Willcox, Ariz. than 8,000 people were on purchased Oct. 20 at Kyle. They were not At Willcox, Mabel sold an- hand Nov. 2 to watch him circle mailed as postcards but were probably other Vin Fiz Flyer stamp to and land at the Phoenix Circus enclosed in an envelope. another buyer, who affixed it Grounds. A written message that begins on the to a postal card addressed to a Cal’s next stop was Stoval back of one and continues on the other relative in Germany, No. 1 in my Siding near Yuma, where for includes this excerpt dated Oct. 21: “These census. Oddly, those two spe- the first time since leaving are pictures of an aviator & his flying ma- cial airmail stamps are the only New York, not a single person chine. It was flying in the Hearst contest, ones we know that passed greeted his arrival. No fuel was from New York to California. He is flying through the mails but were not available at that desert out- this way we saw him yesterday at Kyle; he attached to Vin Fiz souvenir post, so he spent the night in stopped there over night, & him & his par- picture postcards. the sleeping compartment ty came to our show. He has a special train As Rodgers approached Ari- on the train while his helpers to carry his party & it keeps up behind him zona from the east, Fowler ar- went off to find a supply. he is due in San Antonio tomorrow.” rived from the west. On the flight from Kyle to San Antonio, Over Tucson on Nov. 1, CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME Rodgers carried a postcard with the cen- Rodgers performed an aerial At daybreak Nov. 3, Rodg- sus No. 5 Vin Fiz Flyer stamp affixed. Okla- display while the crowd be- ers was off to California. As he homa newsman Allen had addressed it to low cheered, then “with a passed 4,000 feet over Impe- the Dallas News and had left it with Mabel low sweep over the munici- rial Junction, his motor explod- to post after being flown; it was canceled pal playground on east Sixth ed. A cylinder had blown out Oct. 22 at San Antonio. Street, the Vin Fiz suddenly with terrific force, damaging Attempting to take off on the morning arose and swung to the south- a wing of the biplane, but he of Oct. 25, Cal crashed at Spofford, Texas. east where it landed in a va- glided 6 miles to a safe land- Unlike earlier major wrecks at Salaman- cant field on east Ninth Street ing. ca, Red House and Huntington, this one at 12:52 p.m.” wrote Lebow. Between Phoenix and Im- wasn’t the subject of any picture post- Fowler “jumped into an auto- perial Junction, Cal’s mother, cards I’ve seen, but archival photographs mobile and raced to the field Maria Sweitzer, had addressed depict extensive damage. The upended where Rodgers stood waiting. the flown blank cards bearing biplane had smashed wings, shattered Springing from the automo- Vin Fiz Flyer stamps to friends propellers and splintered skids, but Rod- bile, Fowler grabbed Rodg- and members of her family, gers was unscathed. ers’s hand and congratulated and Mabel Rodgers had in- A local carpenter cobbled together him.” scribed them with notices that replacement parts made from an apple From Tucson, Rodgers was they had been flown from Tuc- crate. With his aircraft finally safe to oper- less than 500 miles from his son to Phoenix. ate by the next afternoon, Cal flew next to destination in California, but The ones that have been Sanderson, Texas. On that trip he carried Fowler was more than 1,900 collected are Nos. 2, 3 and 12 the card canceled Oct. 26 at Sanderson miles from his. Nevertheless, in my census. Others might yet that has the census No. 13 Vin Fiz Flyer as the first two men to per- be discovered. Those cards stamp affixed to it. sist in their determination to plus the cover collected at After high wind kept the Vin Fiz Flyer on cross the continent by air, they Deming (No. 9) all were mailed the ground for a day, Cal resumed trav- underscored the historic sig- and canceled at the Imperial eling to El Paso, landed there on Oct. 29, nificance of their missions by Junction post office on Nov. 4. and stayed for two days while his me- praising each other’s achieve- The Vin Fiz Flyer stamps chanics serviced the biplane’s engine. ment. By the time Fowler ar- are such enthralling philatelic He had spent two weeks crossing Texas; rived at Jacksonville, Fla., on treasures that stamp writers finally, he could move on to New Mexico. Feb. 8, 1912, he had spent 149 have paid scant attention to days from start to finish. the Imperial Junction post- FLYING OVER AND THROUGH Mabel loaded the last of marks, which also are scarce NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA the mail decorated with her and seldom seen. As a town The morning of Oct. 31 brought Rodg- special stamps into Cal’s mail with just 64 residents in 1911, ers to Deming, N.M., to refuel. While the pouch, including several un- according to Lebow, not much Vin Fiz Special train stopped there, Mabel addressed cards. After less mail originated there. The Im- sold a stamp that the buyer affixed to the than two hours on the ground perial Junction post office was only known flown cover that has survived at Tucson, he took off toward established Sept. 26, 1910, and

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31083p044-63.indd 62 8/1/19 3:52 PM renamed Hobgood May 6, 1913. Long Beach, at Compton, the the Pacific Ocean on April 3, 1912. The The town mark was in service engine failed and the airplane Figure 23 photo postcard shows him be- for less than 20 months. Today crashed. Cal Rodgers was un- fore his final flight, and the ruins of his it is named Niland. derneath the wreckage, se- Wright Model B Flyer in which he died. On Sunday Nov. 5 Cal Rodg- riously injured. After he was Two years later his widow, Mabel, mar- ers landed at Tournament Park rescued and in the care of ried his young understudy and mechanic, in Pasadena, where a crowd physicians, the wrecked air- Charles Wiggin. An article by Dorothy Sil- of 10,000 welcomed his ar- plane was taken away for his va and Jack Hiddlestone in the Summer rival with prolonged cheers mechanics to rebuild a fifth 1999 issue of the Lackawanna Historical while his hosts wrapped him time. Society Journal narrated the aftermath: in an American flag. After 49 A second cachet was added For two years after Cal’s death, his widow trav- days he had reached his goal. to the flown cards — “Machine eled exhibiting the aircraft. However, in 1914, Cal’s His total flying time had been wrecked at Compton Aviator mother, Maria C. Rodgers Sweitzer, sued Mabel, three days, 10 hours, and four Injured” — before they were won possession of the plane, and never spoke to minutes, a cross-country flight posted Nov. 16 at Long Beach. her former daughter-in-law again. … record that would stand until The example in Figure 19 was In 1927, the Carnegie Institute renewed inter- 1919. in Myerson’s exhibit; at Siegel’s est in the Vin Fiz and built a replica using parts salvaged from other Wright EX biplanes. No au- sale it realized $5,000 plus thentic engine could be found, so a replica was ONWARD TO THE 18 percent buyer’s premium. constructed of wood, and the plane was exhibited PACIFIC OCEAN To date 10 of the cards flown at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933. Although he had completed from Pasadena Nov. 12 have After the Chicago Exposition, the Smithsonian his arrangement with Armour been reported; one of them Institution acquired the plane and it was restored and had been appropriately lacks the added cachet about following Wright Company construction methods honored as an aviation hero, the crash. with parts similar to the originals. The problem of the missing engine was solved by installing one after celebration and recuper- Still determined to fly the from a Wright B model. The rebuilt Vin Fiz can be ation Cal would not be satisfied rest of the way to the seacoast, viewed at the National Air and Space Museum of until his Vin Fiz Flyer reached Cal was on crutches when he the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. the Pacific shore and touched prepared to resume his quest the water. on Dec. 10, as he was when Figure 24 reproduces my copy of a In anticipation of his final ef- the Figure 20 postcard photo Vin Fiz Flyer postcard distributed by the fort, the Nov. 11 Los Angeles was snapped at Long Beach. National Air and Space Museum in 1988. Times reported: The Figure 21 photo postcard I hope that, sometime soon, curators Mayor Alexander has been shows his flight in the air over there might meet with their counterparts asked to be at Long Beach at 3 the water, and the photo on at the National Postal Museum to spon- o’clock tomorrow to receive a letter the Figure 22 card captured his sor a joint exhibit that brings together the from Mayor Gaynor of New York, smile after he had landed and restored Vin Fiz Flyer biplane with the which Rogers carries. The aviator taxied into the surf. rare semiofficial Vin Fiz Flyer stamp on also carries letters from Capt. C. S. Elliott, U.S.N., to Maj.-Gen. F. D. the postal card to Germany, to increase Grant, and from Rear-Admiral Leutz EPILOGUE popular appreciation of both that heroic to Admiral Thomas of the Pacific On New Year’s Day 1912, Cal episode of aviation history and its iconic fleet. Rodgers flew over Pasadena, philatelic pearl. After that, maybe Holly- Cal did take off from Pasa- showering carnations on the wood will call. dena on Nov. 12. Once again multitude gathered below Mabel sold souvenir postcards to observe the Tournament ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and added them to the load in of Roses parade. He was a Thanks to David Beech, Betsy Gamble, Cal’s mail pouch. She had no celebrity now, a hero for the Krystal Harter, James Kloetzel, Bobby Liao, more Vin Fiz Flyer stamps to whole nation. The Aero Club Lewis Kaufman, William Lommel, Hugh sell, but she struck the cards of America presented him McMackin, Marian Mills, Richard Morel, El- with a handstamped cachet in with a gold medal in honor of len Peachey, Daniel Piazza, Scott Tiffney purple ink that read: his contribution to aviation. and Scott Trepel. He had visions of perform- I dedicate this report to the memory of pi- Via air ship from Pasadena to Long Beach, Cal. Nov. 12, 1911, by ing even more daring feats. oneer airmail collector Myron G. Hill Jr., who Cal. P. Rodgers first aviator to cross One idea was to cross the died in 2013. Thirty years ago Myron taught the continent in an air ship. Leav- Atlantic Ocean in an airplane. me the philatelic importance of Vin Fiz Flyer ing Sheepshead Bay, N.Y., Sept. 17, But those possibilities be- collectibles, and the remarkable triumph 1911, and arriving at Long Beach, came his legacy to later gen- they represent, when he invited me to stay Cal. Nov. 12, 1911. erations of aviators. Cal Rod- at his lakeside second home near Cleveland It was not to be. About half- gers died when his Wright during a March Party stamp show hosted by way between Pasadena and Model B biplane crashed into the Garfield-Perry Stamp Club.

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by KEN LAWRENCE Historical census of 13 recorded 1911 25¢ Vin Fiz Flyer semi-official airmails the genuine Vin Fiz Flyer stamps ARE LISTED HERE IN THE ORDER THEY BECAME KNOWN TO STAMP COLLECTORS.

Recording the number of genuine Vin In 1969 Henry M. Goodkind Only one that has gum and is Fiz Flyer stamps known to exist has never compiled a census of the ex- not canceled fits every reason- been easy. They were unknown to col- amples he had recorded, but able definition of an unused lectors until 14 years after the flight. From because he had missed a fel- stamp. 1925 to 2015, they have become known low collector’s joke, he count- one by one, never as a group, roughly at an ed one of them twice. Scott R. VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP average rate of one fresh discovery every Trepel published a census he NO. 1, ON POSTAL CARD, seven years. compiled as an appendix to NOT CANCELED the Robert A. Siegel Auction C.F. Thiele, director of the Galleries May 15, 1999, Rarities Centurion Arizona Mining Co. of the World auction catalog. A copper mine, sent this postal revised and expanded version card from Willcox, Ariz., to Otto is now a research tool on the Muenter, Umbrella factory, Co- Siegel website. logne, Germany. The message, As I studied the history, I which misspelled Rodgers’ learned of a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp name, reads: on a flown card that Trepel did not include in his census. Willcox Ariz. I spotted misreadings and Nov 1, 1911. misunderstandings in several Dear Otto, As the first Transcontinental auction-lot descriptions. Pur- Rogers aeroplane (Atlantic to Pa- suing Goodkind’s and Trepel’s cific coast) passes through here to- leads, I excavated additional day, I’ll use these means of convey- information about the prove- ance by air route to send you a few No. 1. The only Vin Fiz nance of several that they had lines which please attach to your Flyer stamp sent to a counted. In constructing my stamp collection. With kind regards to all foreign destination is on census here, I have listed and Your a. b. i. l. [affectionate broth- this card flown between numbered them in the order Arizona and California. er-in-law] they became known to stamp C.F. Thiele. collectors. Classifying these stamps Cal Rodgers transported as unused or used is a mat- it by air on at least one leg of ter of definition, because they his flight between Arizona and were not U.S. postage stamps California. The card entered and because Rodgers Aerial the mail and was canceled Post applied no cancellations. Nov. 8 at Pasadena. Whether a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp This was the first example was or was not canceled de- of a 25¢ Vin Fiz Flyer stamp pended on its placement in re- recorded by a philatelic publi- lation to the postage stamp. To cation. Alexander Berezowski avoid debating whether a non- illustrated the stamp only, not postal label can be considered the card, in the 1925 edition “used,” I have described all but of his German Handbuch der one as either canceled or un- Luftpostkunde: Katalog samtli- canceled (by the post office). cher und Abstempelungen der

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31083p064-72.indd 64 8/1/19 3:55 PM Luftposten (Airmail Handbook: lent to $22.40 in 1959. It real- Catalog of Postmarks and Air ized £280, equivalent to $784. Posts). Holcomb York next pic- Hildesheim became the new tured and captioned it as “The owner. Having missed and re- Famous ‘Vin Fiz’ Stamp Itself” gretted his first opportunity in an article titled “Rodgers’ to own it in 1926, and having Transcontinental Flight – 1911” failed to take possession of the in the December 1929 Airpost census No. 3 flown card that Journal. had been promised to him, de- Erik Hildesheim described scribed in that section, in 1930, and explained it in his article “A he did not let his third chance Story About the Vin Fiz Air Mail” pass. in the June 17, 1933, issue of Siegel sold Hildesheim’s Stamps magazine: collection in its March 15, 1974, No. 2. This card addressed to Cal Rodgers’ sister Martha Pease was a framed sale of United States pioneer In 1926 I indulged in some win- wall decoration at her Long Island home, the only time its location was reported. air post covers. The Vin Fiz ter sports in the Giant Mountains in Germany and stopped en route Flyer card to Germany real- described and explained it in his 1933 to visit Mr. Berezowski, the lead- ized $4,750. It next appeared Stamps magazine article. ing German air mail dealer. He a quarter century later, in Sie- showed me an American post card gel’s May 15, 1999, Rarities of Out in California I learned [in 1926] from the for- which had been sent to Cologne in the World sale that included mer municipal director at Long Beach that he had endeavored, but failed, to raise funds for a local 1911. It was included in his air mail Dr. John Robertson’s Vin Fiz catalog with what little information monument in memory of this early bird, who was could be gleaned from the speci- collection, where it realized killed shortly after the transcontinental flight. My men. Off hand I could not enlighten $80,000 plus 10 percent buy- informant recalled the last name of the pilot’s mar- him much beyond recalling that er’s premium. ried sister in New York, so upon my return I called the Wright pilot Cal Rodgers had The card’s final stamp mar- every party of that name until I located the right completed the first flight across the ket appearance was in Shreves one. When I visited the lady and explained that I United States. Philatelic Galleries’ Nov. 29, was compiling material for a history of the pioneer By the time I had ascertained postal flights and was anxious to obtain a speci- 2006, sale of the (Christo- that the words “Vin Fiz” stood for men, my attention was drawn to a framed speci- a soft drink and that the company pher Gruys) Pioneers of Flight men on the wall. I offered to pay a sum to charity making it had financed the venture, collection, where it realized for it, but the lady did not want to part with it as she the post card had passed through $60,000 plus 15 percent buy- had received it from her sister-in-law. However, the hands of another German er’s premium. Today the card I was favored with photostats and Mr. Rodgers’ dealer to a British air mail dealer is in the Smithsonian National sister added encouragingly that her mother had received a similar card from her daughter-in-law and had come to rest in a famous Postal Museum collection in English air mail collection. which was out in her country house in Long Island Washington, D.C. The image is and I could have it the next time she went there. The owner was John Crich- courtesy of the museum. ton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of The picture Hildesheim published has Bute, a Scottish peer, not Eng- VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 2, shadows at the edges cast by the frame. lish. His son John Crichton-Stu- ON POSTCARD, NOT CANCELED He obliterated the addressee’s name and art, the 5th Marquess of Bute, Cal Rodgers’ twice-wid- location to prevent others from learn- inherited the collection when owed mother, Maria Rodgers ing Pease’s married name and where she the father died in 1947. After Sweitzer, addressed this card lived. Federal law at the time forbade pic- the 5th Marquess died in 1956, to Cal’s sister Martha (Mrs. torial reproductions of U.S. stamps, so he the Vin Fiz card appeared in Walter Albert Pease) at Hemp- also obliterated the 1¢ Benjamin Franklin Robson Lowe’s March 25, 1959, stead, Long Island, New York. stamp that had paid the postage. sale of airmail stamps and cov- Cal’s wife, Mabel, wrote the Martha Pease died in 1936. The subse- ers offered by the order of the message, which explained it: quent whereabouts of this Vin Fiz Flyer Marquess of Bute. “Calbraith carried this on his souvenir card has not been reported to my Lowe described it as “1911 Wright Model EX (racing) aero- knowledge. I would not be surprised if it (Nov. 8th) postcard to Germa- plane from Tucson, Ariz., to has remained an heirloom in the posses- ny with a very fair but slightly Phoenix. Keep it as a souvenir.” sion of the Perry-Rodgers-Pease family’s damaged example of the It entered the mail at Impe- descendants. The image is copied from semi-official 25c. black adhe- rial Junction, Ariz., where it was Lissiuk’s catalog. sive label depicting a Wright canceled Nov. 4. aeroplane and inscribed ‘ROD- Hildesheim pictured this VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 3, GERS AERIAL POST/VIN FIZ card in the 1930 edition of The ON POSTCARD, NOT CANCELED FLYER’ (Sanabria 502).” The es- Historical Air Mail Catalogue Cal Rodgers’ mother, Maria Rodgers timated value was £8, equiva- edited by Kalenik Lissiuk. He Continued on page 66

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and Worn, Was Carried Across [In 1930] I left for South America Nation in Plane — Only Two and while there read in an air mail Others”: magazine that a Vin Fiz card had been found in an ash can by a Long WOOSTER, Jan. 27 — Running Island schoolboy. … up and down alleys and rummaging Upon my return … I inquired of through rubbish piles doesn’t sound the lady who promised me the sec- like the way to become the hero of a ond card when I might expect it. modern Horatio Alger tale but a 15 The reply was that it had been sto- year-old boy with a stamp collection len. Then I wrote to the dealer who hobby stands to realize half a thou- had bought the Vin Fiz card from sand dollars for doing just that. the boy. The youngster had submit- The boy, who lives on Long Is- ted it to him because he edited an land, received offers for his prize air mail column and he informed the by mail, by telegraph and by tele- boy that it was a rare item and of- phone, the bids being received by fered him either a flat sum — inci- his “agent” here Saturday. dentally the same amount that I had No. 3. Cal Rodgers’ Continued from page 65 Seeing an old post card in a rub- suggested to the lady — or would mother, Maria Rodgers Sweitzer, addressed this card to herself bish pile behind a house on Long handle it on commission. The boy Sweitzer, sent this decided on immediate cash. at Hotel Alexandria in Los Angeles. Cal’s Island, the boy examined it care- card to herself. It was fully and then asked the lady of the I secured the name of the boy wife, Mabel, wrote the message, which stolen from her estate house if he might have it. and one Sunday I drove out to see in 1930, recovered explained it: “Carried by Calbraith on his “Certainly,” she said. “Everything the boy who readily admitted that and subsequently Wright Model EX racing aeroplane from out there is to be hauled away by he had entered the premises with- disappeared, but the Tucson, Ariz., to Phoenix. Keep it as a sou- the ash man.” out permission and his mother of- Philatelic Foundation The boy, trained in his hobby, fered to refund the money he had examined it in 1990. venir.” It entered the mail at Imperial Junc- tion, Ariz., where it was canceled Nov. 4. sent the post card to Donald Dicka- received for the card. This was acceptable to the dealer who had This is the card that Martha Pease had son of this city for appraisal. Dicka- son edits the air mail department of bought the card and to the final promised to Erik Hildesheim. Before he Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News and purchaser, none of whom would returned to claim it, it vanished in a petty- the boy had seen his name in that actually lose any money on the crime-and-tragedy, fact-is-weirder-than- magazine. transaction. Thus the card would fiction, serial melodrama. It happens that the card, soiled be returned to Rodgers’ sister. The Ohio airmail dealer Donald Dickason an- and worn, will net the youngster collector however, as the last purchaser, made the justified demand nounced his acquisition of this card in his close to $500. that he see a written confession “Air Mail News” column in the Jan. 20, issue Dickason headed his display from the boy (which was procured) of Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News: advertisement in the March before giving up the card. 1930 Airpost Journal, “The Third Here, however, fate interfered. It is my real pleasure to share with you the thrill Known Copy of the Cal Rodgers Before the arrangements could be that came a few days ago in the discovery and – Vin Fiz Card is in my hands for completed, the collector having the identification of the third known cover of those sale.” He continued: Vin Fiz card smoked one night in carried by Calbraith Rodgers in 1911, on his first bed. The bed cover caught fire and flight across the continent. … Suffice it to say he was burned so severely that he At the time I write this ad, nego- that the card was found by a 15-year-old boy in died shortly afterwards. tiations are in progress which may the refuse from a large house nearby, and he re- The party having sold him the result in its sale. ceived permission to keep anything found there. It Vin Fiz card was instructed by the If you’re interested in this very is almost an exact duplicate of the one illustrated widow to sell her late husband’s air fine specimen of this classic card, in the Historical Catalog. It is postmarked Imperial mail collection, but this specimen however, it may not yet be too late Junction, Cal., Nov. 4, addressed to Los Angeles, was not among the items. for you to get in touch with me. and forwarded to Pasadena, and bears postmarks I asked the middleman to find out This card is almost an exact du- of these two points, dated the 10th and 11th, on the from the widow the whereabouts plicate of that in the Hildesheim col- face of the card. It bears the famous Vin Fiz stamp. of the Vin Fiz card, if possible, as lection, illustrated in the last Lissiuk It was evidently mailed by the same person who he opined that the collector had catalog. Postmarks are similar, and sent the one illustrated, as the writing is the same, bought it because he was inter- the handwriting is that of the same and the message is almost identical, word for ested in the Rodgers family, which sender. word, but addressed to a different person. Wheth- hailed from the same city, and might Don’t expect to buy this for noth- er it will come on the market, I do not yet know, have made someone a present of it. ing — but I’m quoting a very reason- but if it does, there will probably be somewhat of Before the party could comply with able price for this great rarity. a scramble! the request, the lady ended her life and the present existence of this A syndicated article in Ohio news- Dickason sold the card to Vin Fiz card is unknown. papers gave a later account of the dis- Clarence V. Price, who owned covery. These excerpts are quoted from a nearly complete collection Evidently Harry A. Truby, a the Jan. 27, 1930, Massillon Independent, of worldwide airmail stamps. first-generation collector and headlined “Stamp Found in Pile of Rub- Hildesheim picked up the nar- scholar of pioneer airmail cov- bish Valued at $500 — Postal Card, Soiled rative in his 1933 article: ers, had somehow managed to

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31083p064-72.indd 66 8/1/19 3:55 PM acquire it from Price’s estate. Irwin Heiman later obtained Truby’s photograph of the card, which he passed along to Goodkind, but it was not included in Heiman’s May 10-12, 1961, sale of the Harry A. Truby collection. Truby must have disposed of it separately. Subsequent owners have not been identified, but in 1990 the card was sub- mitted to the Philatelic Foun- dation for certification and declared genuine. The image is courtesy of the foundation. VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 4 ON POSTCARD, NOT CANCELED, LATER OFF CARD Jasper M. Allen, editor of the Hartshorne Sun newspaper, sent this card to his wife at Hartshorne, Okla. His message said, “We left MCA [McAles- ter, Okla.] at 7:45 and are now running 60 miles per hr. Japp.” Rodgers carried it on his flight from Fort Worth to Dallas, where it entered the mail and was canceled Oct. 19. E.P. Stein wrote that Mabel Rodgers sold the stamp on this card to Allen on the Oct. 17 train trip segment between McAlester, Okla., to Denison, Texas, as “her first such sale.” Perhaps she did, but at least one Vin Fiz Flyer stamp had been mailed earlier, listed in this census as No. 12. This was the first Vin Fiz Flyer stamp that large numbers of stamp collectors and members of the public had an opportu- No. 4. The Vin Fiz Flyer nity to see. It was a rare show- stamp was attached to the back of this card piece in Philip G. Cole’s exhibit in the 1930s, but by of worldwide airmails that won 1964, in the possession the airmail class grand award, a of venerable airmail gold plaque, at the Third Inter- specialist Thomas A. national Philatelic Exhibition in Matthews, the stamp and card had been New York City in 1936. separated. They have Three years later, at F.W. cluding the Vin Fiz card, real- Islands: The Thomas A. Matthews Col- recently been reunited. Kessler’s Oct. 26-27, 1939, sale ized $4,500. lection," the stamp appeared by itself, no of the famous “Dr. Philip G. Its next owner was Thomas longer attached to the card, described as Cole” collection of rare airmail A. Matthews. But in H.R. Harm- “THE ONLY UNUSED COPY KNOWN.” stamps and covers, a large er’s Nov. 4, 1964, sale titled In a letter about the Vin Fiz lot in Kes- scrapbook of flight memora- "Air Post Issues of the United sler’s sale, Matthews had written tongue bilia and documentation, in- States, Canal Zone & Philippine Continued on page 68

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Continued from page 67 But when the flown card the Hoffman sale, courtesy of in cheek to Bernard Harmer, “This was the without the stamp next ap- Siegel. Scott Trepel has advised one sold a few years ago for $4,500 and peared in Siegel’s March 8, me that the stamp has now I know the man who bought it very well.” 2018, sale of the James P. Myer- been reunited with the card, a Harmer gave a copy of the letter to Good- son collection of pioneer flight praiseworthy achievement. kind, but neither Harmer nor Goodkind mail 1910-1916, the lot descrip- caught the point of Matthews’ quip, that tion included this comment: VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 5, Matthews himself had bought it. … the [missing] single stamp ON POSTCARD, CANCELED When the stamp came to market in (one of three off cover or card) is Jasper M. Allen, editor of the Matthews’ estate sale separated from the probably the unused copy sold by Hartshorne Sun newspaper, card, no one recognized it as the same our firm (ex Lettick and Zoellner addressed this card to the Dal- stamp that had been attached to a flown collections). This card with the las News. Mabel Rodgers add- card in Cole’s exhibit. Goodkind’s census stamp still affixed was described ed the message, “McGinty and and photographed in the 1939 Kes- listed it twice, once as used on a card and Estes Aviators To Be mailed sler auction catalogue of the Dr. once as unused. Philip G. Cole collection (Part 1). from San Antonio.” Cal Rodgers In the Matthews sale, it realized $4,800. The photo is very much reduced, transported it by air on at least The next owner was Edward Lettick. In but the margins of the Lettick- one leg of his flight between Siegel’s Sept. 27, 1994, sale of the Edward Zoellner stamp match the stamp Dallas and San Antonio. The Lettick collection of pioneer air post cov- pictured on the card. Further, we card entered the mail and was ers, the description read, “A FINE UNUSED can rule out the other two Vin Fiz canceled Oct. 22 at San Anto- stamps, leaving the Lettick-Zoellner EXAMPLE OF THIS PIONEER AIR POST nio. Originally the stamp had copy as the only real possibility. RARITY OF WHICH ONLY FOUR ARE RE- We previously counted the Dr. Cole been folded over the top of the CORDED IN UNUSED CONDITION.” It re- copy and the Lettick-Zoellner copy card and affixed to both sides. alized $26,000 plus 10 percent buyer’s as two different stamps, but now This card became well premium. Four years later, in Siegel’s Oct. we are now confident they are one known to the hobby in the ex- 8, 1998, sale of the Robert Zoellner col- and the same. Reuniting the stamp hibit of rare U.S. airmail stamps lection, again described as one of four un- with this card would restore this and covers owned by American flown card to its former greatness. used, it realized $30,000 plus 10 percent. Air Mail Society vice president Meanwhile Thomas O’Sullivan had ac- Goodkind had published a Ethel B. Stewart, which she pre- quired the flown postcard without the larger photograph of the card sented at the 1938 dedication stamp. In Siegel’s March 11-13, 1997, sale in Cole’s collection with stamp of the Franklin Institute in Phila- of his collection, it sold for $2,200 plus 10 affixed, reproduced here, delphia during National Air Mail percent. The stamp, still described as one which confirms that deduction. Week, at the New York World’s of four unused, realized $47,500 plus 15 Myerson’s card sold for $7,500 Fair in 1939, at the 1940 Postage percent at Siegel’s May 8, 2008, sale of the plus 18 percent buyer’s pre- Stamp Centennial exhibition in Jay Hoffman collection. mium. Washington, and at the 1940 Besides Goodkind’s picture American Philatelic Society of the stamp on the card, im- convention in Buffalo, N.Y. ages here include both sides In 1941 the widowed Ethel of the card with the stamp re- Stewart married fellow collec- moved from the Myerson sale, tor Walter R. McCoy. As Ethel and the stamp off the card from McCoy, she continued to lend her airmail exhibit as an attrac- tion for major philatelic events, until her famous Inverted Jen- No. 5. Some of the ny error block of four stamps best-known American was stolen during the 1955 airmail collectors of APS convention at Norfolk, Va. the past century have That loss tore the heart from owned this card: Ethel B. Stewart McCoy, Dr. the McCoy airmail collection. R. Hasbrouck Shrady, She bequeathed the missing Henry M. Goodkind, stamps to the American Phila- Edward Lettick, telic Research Library. Three Thomas J. O’Sullivan of them have been recovered; and Christopher Gruys. the most recent one in 2016. The loss of her favorite stamps drastically lessened popular interest in McCoy’s airmail exhibit. She turned her

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31083p064-72.indd 68 8/1/19 3:56 PM attention to commemorative No. 6. Wright brothers’ stamp issues. Her flown card mechanic Charles “Zach” Taylor, with the Vin Fiz Flyer stamp employed by Cal appeared in Irwin Heiman’s Rodgers to service and Nov. 11-14, 1958, auction. It sold repair the Vin Fiz Flyer for $1,550. It next appeared in on his transcontinental Harmer’s Nov. 18, 1966, sale journey, mailed this card from Texas. of the Gold-Medal collection of air post pioneers and semi- officials offered by the order of Dr. R. Hasbrouck Shrady, where it realized $1,350. Goodkind was the new owner. He wrote: “In 1960, Mrs. Wiggin told me what she re- ized $3,600. 25, 1991, sale of important U.S. stamps and membered about this post Charles Edward Taylor, nick- covers including the “Aurea” (David Gold- card. She had sold it on the named Zach, addressed it to en) collection of U.S. air post issues. There Vin Fiz train to Mr. Allen with Miss Marghretta L. Pierce at it realized $52,000 plus 10 percent buyer’s the 25 cents stamp affixed one New York City, with the mes- premium. half on each side of the card. sage “Fond Birthday Greetings. She believes that she did this. Via AERIAL Post ‘Zach’ Dallas, VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 7, Mr. Allen asked her to have Mr. Texas Oct 17 – 1911.” UNUSED WITH FULL GUM Rodgers fly it and then mail the Taylor was the Wright broth- Herman Herst Jr. announced the discov- card to the ‘Dallas News’ from ers’ chief mechanician, as me- ery of this stamp in the January 1969 issue San Antonio. It had no mes- chanics were called in those of Aero Philatelist Annals, in an article titled sage, so Mrs. Mabel Rodgers days. He had built the engine “Second Vin Fiz Mint Copy Appears.” The later scribbled the message that powered their biplane for inference of his title was that the stamp before her husband flew it on the historic Dec. 17, 1903, first Matthews had removed from the card was the Vin Fiz plane.” flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C. With the “first mint copy.” In Harmer’s May 6, 1971, sale the Wrights’ permission, Rodg- A picture of the stamp of the “Henry M. Goodkind” ers had hired Taylor to service appeared on the front air post issues of the United and repair his Wright Model cover of Herst’s Feb. 26, States, it realized $1,700; in Sie- EX plane on the cross-country 1969, auction catalog. His gel’s March 27, 1974, Rarities of flight, assisted by less expe- lot description read, “San. the World sale, $2,800; in Sie- rienced mechanics including #S2 1911 VIN FIZ, Fine gel’s Sept. 27, 1994, sale of the Charles Wiggin. mint, never hinged single, Edward Lettick collection of pi- Rodgers flew the card to clean and fresh; barely oneer air post covers, $42,500 Waco, where it was posted noticeable corner crease, plus 10 percent. In Siegel’s and canceled Oct. 20. Mean- not visible on face; this is March 12, 1997, sale of air post while Waco postmaster Wil- the first airmail stamp is- covers featuring the Thomas liam H. Hoffman administered sued in the U.S., franking J. O’Sullivan collection, it sold the oath that officially quali- the 1911 RODGERS’ AER- for $42,500 plus 10 percent; fied Rodgers to carry mail for IAL POST, Coast to Coast. and in Shreves’ Nov. 29, 2006, the Post Office Department. (A reserve of $3,000 has Pioneers sale, $47,500 plus 15 Beginning on that date, cards been placed on this lot by No. 7. In 1968 a percent. and letters he carried were U.S. the owner.)” California collector mail, not just flight souvenirs Goodkind protested, correctly, that the named James Reno VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 6, being carried to a post office. 1877 Buffalo Balloon stamp (Scott CL1) found this unused fully ON POSTCARD, CANCELED Shrady was the new owner was the first U.S. airmail stamp; the Vin gummed Vin Fiz Flyer Besides the census No. 4 of the card. In Harmer’s Nov, Fiz Flyer stamp was the second. His other stamp in a boyhood collection. For more stamp that had been on a card 18, 1966, sale of his collection, complaint seems churlish to me: “Is this that 20 years, it was in Kessler’s Oct. 26-27, 1939, it again realized $3,600, more [stamp] actually mint? It has gum on the owned by Hawaiian sale of the Cole collection, the than twice the amount that back. But is the gum original to correctly airmail specialist Harmer’s Nov. 4, 1964, sale of Goodkind paid for Shrady’s classify it as mint, o.g.?” Absent a reason to Alexander S. Atherton. Matthews’ collection included other flown Vin Fiz card that suspect that the stamp had been altered, this card with a canceled Vin had previously been owned by that part of Herst’s description seems rea- Fiz Flyer stamp, which had not Ethel McCoy. sonable to me. The stamp realized $5,750. previously been known to the Out of view for a generation, After the sale, Herst gave additional de- stamp hobby at large. It real- it reappeared in Christie’s Sept. Continued on page 70

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1991, Ivy Shreve & Mader sale up another Vin Fiz and I am enclos- of the Alexander S. Atherton ing a photograph of it which will be collection of airmail stamps run with my column on Monday. As you can see, it is still sticking to the of the world, where it realized torn part of a post card and the pic- $30,000 plus 10 percent buy- ture that remains on the other side er’s premium. is of part of an airplane with a man’s portrait — the pilot (?) — in a circle. VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 8, The owner is a longtime stamp ON PIECE OF A POSTCARD, collector, a retired insurance man NOT CANCELED with a heart condition, and an oc- casional dealer and dealer’s helper. Henry Goodkind’s June 1968 The fragment with the Vin Fiz stamp banquet address to the attached was discovered in an- Texas Philatelic Soci- other one of those old collections. ety at Dallas initiated This one was a single album which a chain of events that he had purchased for $35, not be- led to the discovery cause of any stamps therein but because his wife admired some first of this Vin Fiz Flyer day covers it had contained and he stamp attached to had hoped her interest would tone a torn fragment of a down some of her complaints about Vin Fiz souvenir post- his own affliction. card. Actually the label is none too In his talk, Good- impressive as you can see. There are scuffs at the top right border No. 8. A Texas Continued from page 69 kind had told the story and in my estimation it is trimmed newspaper article in of Rodgers’ flight and men- tails of its history in the Summer 1969 issue too close. What the destruction of 1969 brought to public of his newsletter Herst’s Outbursts: tioned that three cards bear- the post card will mean I cannot attention this Vin Fiz ing the rare stamps had been Flyer stamp on a piece say, but the stamp appears sound A collector, James Reno, of El Toro, Calif., found of a souvenir card. mailed in Texas, with cancels and whole. one of these stamps some months ago in a boy- from Dallas, Waco and San Goodkind, however, ob- hood collection. Not knowing whether it was worth Antonio. He noted that the served that the stamp: anything or not, he sent it to us for an offer, and he … unfortunately has a wide tear was pleasantly surprised to be told that instead of one in his collection was ad- in the upper righthand corner. … being the near-worthless label it purported to be dressed to the Dallas News Word has just reached me that this … its value was quite a few thousand dollars. Mr. newspaper. newly found Vin Fiz copy has been Reno accepted our suggestion to put it in one of The February 1969 issue of sold by private treaty for $2,500 by a our auctions, rather than attempting a private sale. the Texas Philatelist summa- New York auction firm that has han- rized those parts of Goodkind’s dled some of the past sales of this The new owner was Alexander Simpson presentation in an article by 1911 air mail rarity. Upon inspec- Atherton. In a 1987 oral history interview, Sid Pietzsch titled “Cinderella tion, this copy from Texas showed “Pug” Atherton, as he was best known, said Texas-Sized,” which included that the tear in the upper righthand this about his hobby: a picture of Goodkind’s cover. corner practically separated the corner from the rest of the stamp. He wrote, “If three out of the six Thus, if one tried to remove the Dad was a great stamp collector specializing known copies used bear Texas stamp from the torn piece of post in Hawaiian stamps. In fact he had the largest postmarks, there is a good card, the corner would probably fall collection of Hawaiian stamps anywhere, which chance even more rest unsung off. The defect obviously affected collection he gave to the [Honolulu] Art Academy the price of this copy. and which collection has recently been purchased in this state or in those border- by Thurston Twigg-Smith, who now has the finest ing it.” Not enough of the card re- collection of Hawaiians in existence. I was not in- The stamp columnist for the mained to show whether it had terested in collecting Hawaiian stamps because, Dallas Morning News, H. Row- been addressed and mailed, almost literally, they were coming out of my ears land, followed up in the Feb. 10 but the piece shows no post- when I was growing up, seeing Dad poring over his issue with a story titled “Early mark. It publicly changed collection night after night. Flight Carried Gems” below a hands at Christie’s Sept. 25, I became interested in a specialized collection and that is of airmail stamps of the world. I gradu- picture of Goodkind’s cover. 1990, “Aurea” sale, where it re- ally, over a period of many years, have acquired an “How many Vin Fiz cards or alized $2,800 plus 10 percent. almost complete collection of air mails. This has labels remain in the attics of In Siegel’s June 27, 2018, Rari- been very interesting, very time consuming, but a Texas or Oklahoma? No one ties of the World sale, it failed lot of fun. The interest has waned during the past knows,” teased the author. to draw a bid that met its own- two or three years inasmuch as there are few left In April, Rowland wrote to er’s reserve. Between those that I need. I’m still out half a dozen or so but they Goodkind: auctions it had gained a 1991 are very, very scarce and hard to come by. As you expected, the article in Philatelic Foundation certifi- The stamp next emerged in the July 13, the “Dallas Morning News” did turn cate and a 2013 Diena certifi-

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31083p064-72.indd 70 8/1/19 3:56 PM cate. The latter suggests that leg of Rodgers’ flight between one or more European airmail New Mexico and Arizona. The specialists had possessed it addressee is Miss Rosa Benicia between those sales. Stone at Oakland, Calif. The first illustration, photo- A photocopy of the enclosed graphed as it appeared when letter, quoted by Siegel, reads: it was first discovered, is from Goodkind’s article in the July Deming, New Mexico, October 1969 Aero Philatelist Annals. 30, 1911, My Dear Benicia: I have hurried from the lightning place of The second, with Irwin Hei- the Vin Fiz to mail this letter to you. man’s signature at the lower I am somewhat nervous, but the right, is from Christie’s “Aurea” airship is not at all so. It came in No. 10. This example sale. The third, showing both at 12:30 and after circling the city, mails of the world, it realized £35,000 plus of a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp sides of the card and with four settled on the show ground. Tell 10 percent buyer’s premium, the total on a flown postcard signatures, is from Siegel’s your uncle Dick and he will tell you amount equal to $57,500. At Siegel’s March has appeared in public 2018 Rarities of the World sale. where that is. Love to all, and I wish 1, 2002, sale of the William C. Mack collec- view only once, at a that I could come with this letter. 1984 auction sale. Lovingly, Aunt Sallie tion, it realized $105,000 plus 10 percent. VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 9, At Shreves’ Nov. 29, 2006, Pioneers sale, it ON COVER, CANCELED The postage stamp on the realized $70,000 plus 15 percent. The im- This is the only known ex- cover was canceled Nov. 4, ages are courtesy of Siegel. ample of a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp 1911, Imperial Junction, Ariz. on an envelope. In 1969 Ber- A Nov. 6 Oakland arrival post- VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 10, nard Harmer gave Goodkind a mark tied the Vin Fiz Flyer ON POSTCARD, CANCELED photo of the cover but no infor- stamp on the back side. To my knowledge this card has ap- mation about its ownership. It At the Harmers of London peared only once, in Siegel’s April 14, 1984, originated Oct. 30 at Deming, Dec. 16, 1993, sale of the Jack Rarities of the World sale, from which I N.M., and flew on at least one C. Boonshaft collection of air- copied this picture. The handwriting is indistinct and difficult to read, but I believe it was addressed by “Mr. Harry Albright, Oct 19 1911” to “Mrs. Stella Kirkpatrick, Chilton, Texas.” Rodgers probably carried it on his Oct. 19 flight from Dallas to Waco. It was mailed and canceled Oct. 20 at Waco, where Rodgers was officially sworn in as a mail carrier on that date. At the Siegel sale it realized $13,000. VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 11, ON POSTCARD, CANCELED Ernest Newton McCormack sent this postcard canceled Oct. 15, Vinita, Okla., to his fiancee Nettie Strawn at Wakefield, Kan. He wrote, “I am sending this by aeroplane. E N Mc.” It is the earliest use of a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp, flown from Kansas City to Vinita before the main supply of the labels had been delivered to Mabel Rodgers at the McFarland Hotel in McAlester, Okla., on Oct. 16. It was pictured without a caption or explanation in the April-June 2002 issue of Jack Knight Air Log. An article titled “New ‘Vin Fiz Flyer’ card surfaces, sells privately” appeared in the Jan. 6, 2003, issue of Linn’s, which reported: No. 9. The only Vin Fiz Flyer stamp attached to an envelope achieved a record The postcard recently changed hands privately six-figure realization in a 2002 auction sale. for $75,000. The price was confirmed by a sales re- Continued on page 72

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No. 13. Cal Rodgers carried this Vin Fiz Flyer postcard on his flight from Spofford to Sanderson, Texas.

It appears that the card had Imperial Junction, Ariz., where it been pasted on a scrapbook was canceled Nov. 4. The back No. 11. Cal Rodgers carried this card on his Oct. 14 flight from Kansas City to page with the picture side up and has an indistinct Pittsburgh ar Vinita, Okla., the earliest recorded use of a Vin Fiz Flyer stamp. the postal side down, conceal rival postmark. ing the stamp from view except According to an article in the Continued from page 71 for the back side of the torn and Jan. 14, 2002, Linn’s, the card ceipt inspected by Linn’s. ragged top edge. That might “was recently purchased for sev The seller was veteran Linn’s reader Dick Flu- serve as a clue to help stamp eral hundred dollars at an Inter gum, who said in an interview that he learned sleuths who search for unrecog net auction.” At Siegel’s Dec. 17- about the rare postcard in 1984 and finally suc- nized rarities. Parts of the scrap 19, 2001, sale it realized $40,000 ceeded in purchasing it from its owner in 1994. book page adhered to the card plus 10 percent. At Shreves’ Nov. The card had been included in the cen when this photograph was taken. 29, 2006, Pioneers sale it real sus that Siegel had published in 1999, but The image is courtesy of Siegel. ized $60,000 plus 15 percent. At with the handwriting altered in the illustra the April 15-17, 2019, Classicphil tion. The Linn’s reporter mistakenly thought VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 12, sale in Vienna, Austria, it realized they were different cards, counting the ON POSTCARD, NOT CANCELED €36,000 plus 25 percent buyer’s same item twice in the Linn’s and Scott cen Cal Rodgers’ mother, Maria premium plus €2 lot fee, in total sus, but Siegel has since corrected its listing Rodgers Sweitzer, addressed equal to $50,280. with an unaltered photo. This compilation this card to Mrs. Wharton Mc has corrected the Linn’s/Scott census. Knight in Pittsburgh and signed VIN FIZ FLYER STAMP NO. 13, it “Maria Cal.” Wharton Mc ON POSTCARD, NOT CANCELED Knight was a Pittsburgh indus This card was first reported trialist. He and his wife shared in a Linn’s online article by Mi Social Register prominence chael Baadke dated Oct. 23, and high society celebrity with 2015, and in the print edition the Rodgerses. Cal’s wife, Ma dated Nov. 9. The writing on bel, wrote the message, which the card is difficult but appears explained it: “Calbraith carried to read “10-25-11, Spofford, this on his Wright Model EX Texas, from the McClingers,” racing aeroplane from Tucson, addressed to “Miss Mary Chap Ariz., to Phoenix. Keep it as a man, Liberty, Texas.” Rodgers souvenir.” It entered the mail at flew it from Spofford to Sand erson, Texas, on Oct. 26. It was posted and canceled Oct. 27 at Sanderson. At the Spink USA Nov. 18-19, 2015, Collector’s No. 12. Unknown until it sold for a Series sale, it realized $25,000 few hundred dollars in a 2002 Internet plus 25 percent plus $100 buy auction, this Vin Fiz Flyer card has er’s premium. subsequently sold at three major philatelic auctions for five-figure Unfortunately, Linn’s, Spink prices, most recently at a sale in and the Philatelic Foundation Vienna, Austria. all misidentified the cancel as Anderson, Texas, which was not a stop on Rodgers’ trans continental flight. The image is courtesy of the foundation.

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