Detail View: Movie Posters: The Great Air Robbery

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The Great Air Robbery

Adventure

Decade 1910

1919

Universal

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0011241

Ormer Locklear,�Allan Forrest,�Ray Ripley

Jacques Jaccard

Ormer Locklear wasn't merely a pilot, he was a daredevil, a man who thought nothing about tempting fate while walking on the wing of a biplane or leaping from one plane to another in mid-air.

The Great Air Robbery (Universal, 1919). One Sheet (27 X 41). Ormer Locklear wasnt merely a pilot, he was a daredevil, a man who thought nothing about tempting fate while walking on the wing of a biplane or leaping from one plane to another in mid-air. Even as a child, he practiced gap jumping, leaping his bicycle over ever-increasing distances, to amuse his friends and neighbors. He enlisted in the Air Service during World War I, and later became a popular barnstormer, giving exhibitions across the country at state fairs and air shows. Inevitably, Hollywood beckoned, and Locklear relocated to the West Coast, where he soon came to the attention of Carl Laemmle, who signed the brave young man to a series of pictures. In 1919, Locklear made his first movie, The Great Air Robbery, in which he played Larry Cassidy, a pilot for the U.S. Air Mail Service, who defends a shipment of $20,000 in gold from the villainous clutches of the evil Chester Van Arland (Ray Ripley). Of course, the film made use of all the stunts that had made Locklear a household name as a barnstormer. The picture was a hit, and Locklear was on his way to a fabulous career on the silver screen. During the filming of his next picture, however, The Skywayman, tragedy struck when signals got crossed during a night shoot. Shooting at night required high-intensity lights, and Locklear instructed the lighting technicians to keep the lights on him as he plunged to earth, seemingly to his death, until he reached about 500 feet, at which point they were to turn the lights off, allowing him to level off and land. During the stunt, he would be effectively blind, making it critically important that the lights be shut off at the proper time. For whatever reason, they werent, and Locklear crashed to the ground, killed on impact. He was 29 years old. The footage of the crash was used in the final print of the film. Offered here is a beautiful stone litho one sheet from Locklears first film, sporting a handsome

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