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[[stamp]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamp]]

LOUIS MITCHELL
Early Wright - Wealthy Sportsman Exhibition Pilot
Louis Mitchell was reportedly from Camden, Arkansas.  Developing an early enterprising business ability, he
settled in Memphis, Tennessee about 1902.  There he started a motion picture film agency and made a small fortune from this business.
Mitchell saw his first flying when the  Moisant International Aviators flew an extended exhibition engagement at  Memphis December 1 - 17, 1910.  
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This event was sponsored by the local newspaper, the Commercial-Appeal, and the pilots were Join Moisant, Charles Hamilton, John Frisbie and French
aviators Barrier, Simon, Garros and Audemars. At that event Moisant raced auto race-driver Joey Seymour in a Fiat Racing Car.  Also at Memphis, on April 6, 1911 Mitchell saw Glenn Curtiss, Charles Willard and Bud Mars flying a four-day engagement.
He became very interested and started to investigage the exhibition flying business which appeared to be flourishing.  Aviators and exhibition flights were in great demand Mitchell was reportedly heard to remark that there was undoubtedly "big money to be made" in the flying game and he had made up his mind to cash in on it.  September 22-28, 1910 he saw flights by Phil Parmelee, a Wright Co. aviator, that further stimulated his interest.  As a result he contacted some of the early flying schools about instruction, but they tended to discourage him due to the fact that he was a large man weighing over two hundred pounds.  This did not alter Mitchell's intense interest however, and in the early Spring of 1911 he formed a company known as American Aviators, to give flight exhibitions about the country.His new firm was