Event

THE FLYING ACE

Live Organ Accompaniment by MoMA's Ben Model!
During the silent film era, the Norman Film Manufacturing Company was one of the leading producers of "race films" in America. The sole surviving production of the Norman Company is this high-flying adventure of a veteran WWI pilot and war hero on a mission to recover a stolen railroad company payroll and capture a gang of thieves. Stars Lawrence Criner has verve and swagger as Capt. Billy Stokes, and Kathryn Boyd is the dare-devilish Ruth Sawtelle (inspired by the real life aviation pioneer Bessie Coleman), but the real scene stealer is Steve Reynolds as "Peg", Stokes' one-legged crime-fighting assistant.
USA, 1926, 65 min., B&W | Director: Richard E. Norman
Tagline: African-Americans were not allowed to serve as pilots in the United States Armed Forces until 1940, but that didn't stop Richard Norman from making a black fighter pilot the hero of The Flying Ace. In this 1926 film, Captain Billy Stokes returns home victorious after World War I to resume his civilian career as a railroad detective.