Don't be a modock Joe. Publishers gonna publish.

Hearst caught his first ride at the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet he co-sponsored, first in America.

Hooked he was. After that Hearst papers ran regular aviation columns, prizes and promotions like the U.S. Transcontinental and the Graf LZ-127's Weltrundfahrt.

One can never know with such things but think it almost certain he was grandfathered into Ye Anciente and Secret Order of the Quiet Birdmen.


More birdmania: Prof. Charles Colby (of Yellow Bird &c.) appears in one of those wiki LA Meet images and the modock is a relative of the oozlum, or so the story goes.