The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 217 ratings
Price: 17.72
Last update: 08-26-2024
About this item
Pancho Barnes was a force of nature, a woman who lived a big, messy, colorful, unconventional life. She ran through three fortunes, four husbands, and countless lovers. She outflew Amelia Earhart, outsmarted Howard Hughes, outdrank the Mexican Army, and outmaneuvered the US government. In The Happy Bottom Riding Club, award-winning author Lauren Kessler tells the story of a high-spirited, headstrong woman who was proud of her successes, unabashed by her failures, and the architect of her own legend.
Florence "Pancho" Barnes was a California heiress who inherited a love of flying from her grandfather, a pioneer balloonist in the Civil War. Faced with a future of domesticity and upper-crust pretensions, she ran away from her responsibilities as wife and mother to create her own life. She cruised South America. She trekked through Mexico astride a burro. She hitchhiked halfway across the United States. Then, in the late 1920s, she took to the skies, one of a handful of female pilots.
She was a barnstormer, a racer, a cross-country flier, and a Hollywood stunt pilot. She was, for a time, "the fastest woman on earth", flying the fastest civilian airplane in the world. She was an intimate of movie stars, a script doctor for the great director Erich von Stroheim, and, later in life, a drinking buddy of the supersonic jet jockey Chuck Yeager. She ran a wild and wildly successful desert watering hole known as the Happy Bottom Riding Club, the raucous bar and grill depicted in The Right Stuff.
In The Happy Bottom Riding Club, Lauren Kessler presents a portrait, both authoritative and affectionate, of a woman who didn't play by women's rules, a woman of large appetites - emotional, financial, and sexual - who called herself "the greatest conversation piece that ever existed".
Top reviews from the United States
She had been born to wealth and had been greatly influenced by her grandfather who was an inventor, businessman, risk taker, etc, and Pancho inherited many of these traits. My first real exposure to Pancho's story was through a 1988 movie that starred Valerie Bertinelli as Pancho Barnes, which vastly improved on the real Pancho's looks. Pancho wasn't pretty, she swore as a normal part of her vocabulary, constantly told off-color stories, and developed a liking for younger men-including one of my uncles who was married to her, for a while. But she was always up for a good time and would freely share whatever she had. Her parties went on for days and were legendary, attended by fellow pilots and Hollywood friends.
She had many great business ideas but as soon as thing started coming together she lost interest and was on to the next thing. This combined with a total lack of financial common sense resulted in her going through money like there was no end to it resulting in many business failures. Along the way, because of her connections with other pilots, including Jimmy Doolittle, Chuck Yeager, and others, she developed a pilot training center on her property during WWII and many of her acquaintances along the way continued to hang out at her facilities including the book's namesake Happy Bottom Riding Club. She experienced many successes but also many failures. This book was well written and researched and put some realism to the life of a very colorful individual that had been softened quite a bit for the 1988 movie.
Anyone with an interest in the early days of aviation, women in aviation, WWII pilot training, development of new aircraft and the test pilots who proved them, and how not to run a business as well as many other topics will enjoy this book. To sum up Pancho Barnes' general philosophy in life I will just list one of her quotes here: Ah, hell. We had more fun in a week than those weenies had in a lifetime. - Pancho Barnes
One very (very) minor flaw with the book: a map of the Antelope Valley area showing the location of the Happy Bottom Riding Club between the Edwards and Rosamond dry lakes would have assisted readers with conceptualising those parts of the book. That however is a very minor point and doesn't stop me giving it 5 stars.
Well worth the read.
Until I read this book, I only knew of Pancho Barnes and her Happy Bottom Riding Club from the movie THE RIGHT STUFF. She was the proprietor of the saloon/motel/dude ranch where all the test pilots from nearby Edwards Air Force Base hung out. Her character didn't get much footage in the movie, but she was compelling enough to warrant further investigation.
Author Lauren Kessler offers an insider's view into the life of this enigmatic woman, from her privileged childhood to her poverty-stricken death. This is no mere biography...it's a tour de force of the woman behind all the legends.
Pancho Barnes was raised by wealthy parents. Her grandfather had made his fortune with patents and in real estate in the early part of the 20th century. Her grandfather died broke, but he lived large. Her grandfather and father doted on her and indulged her every wish. She was puzzled by her mother's world of socials, needlework and fancy dresses. She was dazzled by horses, the outdoors and demanding physical activity.
Early on, it was clear that Florence was not going to be a beauty, nor was she the shy and retiring kind. She rode horses, played outside and generally behaved as a young boy. School bored her. Afternoon teas and the
idea of running a house set her teeth on edge. Even though she obeyed her family's wishes and married an Episcopalian minister and had one child, she was never a conventional wife or mother, in any form, shape or fashion.
As a diversion from her unhappy marriage, she found work as a horse wrangler in the fledgling movie industry. She worked as a stunt person in some of the films she provided horses for. She discovered flying and it became her life-long passion. She found love in the arms of many men, including her four subsequent husbands. She cussed like a sailor, drank whiskey with the best of them, and rubbed elbows with Hollywood elite. She could hold an audience captive with her storytelling acumen. She ran a dairy farm, a pig breeding business, a boisterous resort and maintained a stable full of fabulous horses. She spent three fortunes and died broke, but she lived life to the fullest and made the most of every moment.
I read this book in one sitting and dare anyone who starts it to try and put it down.
Pancho Barnes was one of a kind. What a dame! I wish I had known her.
Enjoy!