A Pilot Sponsored By Red Lion Gasoline Decided He Should Make A Real Lion His Co-Pilot

Celebrity within the Nineteen Thirties was different from celebrity today. In early 1930, celebrity pilot Roscoe Turner and Gilmore Oil set a transcontinental flight record aboard the Lockheed Express, making the run from Recent York to Los Angeles in only 18 hours, 42 minutes. On the time Gilmore Gasoline was branded as “red lion,” touting the fuel as giving your automobile’s engine more “roar.” A flamboyant showman, Turner convinced the owner of a lion farm to donate a cub for the record attempt. The three-week-old cub he dubbed Gilmore the Flying Lion was utilized in his stunts, including the speed trials and the then-world-famous Cleveland National Air Races.

Turner was an air racer and aerobatics ace, well-known for his flair for the dramatic. Having learned to fly for the U.S. Army during World War I, Turner quickly became a nationally renowned barnstormer, performing wing-walking stunts and artfully choreographed parachute jumps. In 1922 he served prison time for purchasing a Curtiss JN-4 that turned out to be stolen government property. Turner later opened the Roscoe Turner Flying Circus before moving on to flying stunts for movies and starting an airline. When the Great Depression killed his entrepreneurial spirit, he jumped back in speed planes and secured sponsorship from Gilmore Oil.  

Turner and his flying lion gained international popularity of their stunts from April through December of 1930. After the cub grew too large to proceed flying, Turner’s notoriety continued to bloom. He won his first Bendix Trophy race in 1933 and Thompson Trophy air race in 1934 after working with Jimmy Wedell and Harry Williams to develop a brand new low-wing speed plane. The monoplane was little greater than a seat, a tiller, and a Pratt & Whitney nine-cylinder radial engine. 

Jimmy Doolittle, a Turner competitor before happening to flying fame in World War II, rated him highly.

“You usually knew when Roscoe was around. His broad smile topped with a broad waxed mustache was the very first thing you noticed,” Doolittle said, as recounted on historynet. “Then you definately saw his uniform — highly polished boots, riding breeches, powder blue military jacket with diamond studded wings, sometimes a Sam Browne belt or a silver buckle, gold-and-crimson helmet and goggles. Then you definately heard him joshing with everyone, anxious to satisfy anybody he hadn’t known before. You could not help but like him.”

But Turner got into trouble with the Humane Society when it heard in regards to the flying lion. To satisfy its complaints, Turner outfitted the 17-pound cub with a static-line parachute. For several months Turner continued to try point-to-point aviation speed records, including a run from Vancouver, Canada to Aguascalientes, Mexico with the lion in tow. All paid for by Gilmore Oil (no relation to the top-rated Gilmore Automotive Museum). 

Gilmore the lion wasn’t only a plane passenger, but an envoy for the corporate, for Turner’s profession, and for aviation usually. The cub would turn up anywhere Turner went, including air shows, movie premieres, and evenings in town. But by the point the lion was 10 months old he weighed 150 kilos, and Turner knew it was time to part ways. Gilmore had logged over 25,000 miles within the air during his tenure as spokeslion for an oil company. 

Gilmore the Lion remains to be an unlimited a part of American marketing history, showing the ability of outside-the-box considering. While the petrochemical company isn’t any more, merged many years ago into the corporate that will turn out to be Mobil, its legacy is considered one of creative marketing that captivated the nation. 

Despite his short-lived time as a flying lion, Gilmore rose to the extent of cultural institution nearly 100 years ago, along with his name known across the country. Following his profession in aviation, Gilmore spent nearly a decade in captivity, living in a cage on the Burbank airport in Southern California, before being moved to a distinct cage at a Gilmore gas station in Beverly Hills. Once a beloved symbol of power and speed with a flamboyant best friend within the sky, Gilmore had turn out to be little greater than a static display, feet planted on terra firma. Still, through the Nineteen Thirties Gilmore would make periodic publicity appearances at Turner’s side, though never again airborne. 

In 1940 Gilmore was returned to the farm where he was born, the Louis Goebel Lion Farm in Agoura, California. He lived on the grounds for one more decade before passing, with Turner occasionally visiting and continuing to send money for his care. Gilmore died on December 17, 1950 on the ripe old age of 20. 

Gilmore’s stays were sent to a taxidermist for mounting, and moved to Turner’s Indianapolis, Indiana home. When Turner died in 1970 the stuffed Gilmore was entered into the gathering of the Roscoe Turner Museum, which opened that 12 months. When it shuttered in 1972 he was transferred to the National Air and Space Museum, our Amber DaSilva’s favorite automotive museum. Gilmore became a part of the gathering and stays there to at the present time. In line with the museum, the stuffed Gilmore weighs a full 328 kilos.