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[[newspaper clipping]] Girl Quits Stage Career to Take Up Aviation Now Manila Davis Sells and Flies Airplanes [[line]] [[image - graphic of biplane in flight]] Plans an Attempt to Establish a Refueling Endurance Mark and Other Feats. [[line]] By FRANKLIN P. COLLIER, JR. [[line]] MISS MANILA DAVIS of Brookline gave up a stage career to enter commercial aviation. She was recently made a member of the Curtiss Wright Flying Service sales force and hostess for that company at Boston Airport. This spring she will buy a plane of her own to demonstrate [[column 1]] to prospective customers. She is interesting many of her men and women friends in flying "The first thing I will do when I get my plane is to fly to my home in the Allegheny mountains," she said. My cousin, Farr Nutter, who has been flying since 1914, has brought ships down there several times Aviation Her Life Work "There are many long cross-country trips I want to make. I would like to fly to the west coast and into Mexico. Next winter I hope to hop to Miami. "Aviation has become my life work. This spring I will start competing as an airplane demonstrator and saleswoman on an equal basis with men pilots and salesmen. "My duties as airport hostess keep me at the field Saturday afternoons and Sundays, when I look after the needs of visiting women fliers and show newcomers about the airport. "During the week I talk to prospective students and plane purchasers, both at the field and about town. I fly every day we have decent weather and hope to get my transport license this year." [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] Now Trying Stunting Miss Davis is at present taking a 10 hour course in stunt flying. She was to have taken up flying in 1920, when her father ordered a plane for her. This was cracked up by her cousin on the way home from the factory, and her instruction was postponed. She started active flying last May and was soloed by Lieut. Charles I. Emerson in October. She was on the stage two years and appeared as a concert pianist after graduation from New England Conservatory of Music in 1923. Her only public appearances now are in airplanes, with which she can attract attention with her spiral landings. She is a grandniece of Stonewall Jackson on her mother's side. [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] Miss Manila Davis was about to make a forced landing in the mud flats on the East Boston side of the Narrow Gauge tracks when her motor picked up and enabled her to return to the airport. "It is surprising how easy it is to interest newcomers to the airport in flying," said Miss Davis. "One man I persuaded to come over and look around assured me emphatically beforehand he would never be interested in aviation. He was impressed from the moment we arrived at the field. "As he left he said, when I get back from Miami I think I'll learn to fly. It doesn't look so hard." Women Enthusiastic "Of 200 girls and fellows I have talked to, 75 per cent evidenced considerable interest in the idea of learning to fly and getting planes of their own during the coming year. Several girls at Belmont Springs Country Club where I belong are enthusiastic about learning to fly. "Women are filling many roles formerly occupied only by men, and are due for a prominent place in aviation. If I can fly and land a plane successfully, weighing as I do but 105 pounds, almost anyone ought to be able to. [[/column 3]] [[/newspaper clipping]]
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duplicate of page 41
