William Elliott azelgrove's Blog, page 9
September 9, 2019
Finally The Paperback Release of Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair
Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair: The End of the Gangster Era in Chicago is a historical look at Chicago during the darkest days of the Great Depression. The story of Chicago fighting the hold that organized crime had on the city to be able to put on The 1933 World's Fair.
William Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open. The story of Rufus and Charles Dawes who gave the fair a theme and then found financing in the worst economic times the country had ever experienced. The story of the most corrupt mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, who owed his election to Al Capone; and the mayor who followed him, Anton Cermak, who was murdered months before the fair opened by an assassin many said was hired by Al Capone.
But most of all it’s the story about a city fighting for survival in the darkest of times; and a shining light of hope called A Century of Progress.
Paperback Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
William Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open. The story of Rufus and Charles Dawes who gave the fair a theme and then found financing in the worst economic times the country had ever experienced. The story of the most corrupt mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, who owed his election to Al Capone; and the mayor who followed him, Anton Cermak, who was murdered months before the fair opened by an assassin many said was hired by Al Capone.
But most of all it’s the story about a city fighting for survival in the darkest of times; and a shining light of hope called A Century of Progress.
Paperback Al Capone and the 1933 Worlds Fair "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
September 6, 2019
Television Has Ruined Football
I went to the Bears opener with the Packers. What a show. The Air force parachutists, the fireworks, the smoke, flames, the screaming fans. The voltage in the stadium was incredible. National television was there in force with all the interviews and cameras and talking heads. It was amazing. The National Anthem was amazing. The monstrous flag was amazing. And this was the biggest rivalry in the NFL. Then the game started. You know the outcome, but here is what I found amazing. The game is so slow. Not because of the players but because of television
A few plays and then a switch of sides and then everyone stands around and waits. And while you are watching the two hotdogs race on the big screen or a Veteran walk out or a race between two cars the players just stand around with nothing to do. Minutes pass. The players stand around the stadium gets quiet. Oh right. Commercials! Those things that at home give you a chance to get more dip, another beer, hit the bathroom. For the fan at the game it is dead time and for the players, it is an interruption to the game.
I know. Its great that television is there but I watched the momentum wither away. It is incredible how slow professional football has become because of this electronic medium. Television does not try and keep up with football, football slows down to television time. The intensity of a college football game is explosive and even on the opener when the Bears got behind the fans became quiet and every time the Bears started to move the game went cold with challenges, timeouts, and then just for nothing but to make sure all those sponsors get their commercials in.
And yes the Bears lost. So maybe this is just sour grapes but it sure seemed like every time the train started to roll, it ran out of steam. Or it went to a commercial. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
A few plays and then a switch of sides and then everyone stands around and waits. And while you are watching the two hotdogs race on the big screen or a Veteran walk out or a race between two cars the players just stand around with nothing to do. Minutes pass. The players stand around the stadium gets quiet. Oh right. Commercials! Those things that at home give you a chance to get more dip, another beer, hit the bathroom. For the fan at the game it is dead time and for the players, it is an interruption to the game.
I know. Its great that television is there but I watched the momentum wither away. It is incredible how slow professional football has become because of this electronic medium. Television does not try and keep up with football, football slows down to television time. The intensity of a college football game is explosive and even on the opener when the Bears got behind the fans became quiet and every time the Bears started to move the game went cold with challenges, timeouts, and then just for nothing but to make sure all those sponsors get their commercials in.
And yes the Bears lost. So maybe this is just sour grapes but it sure seemed like every time the train started to roll, it ran out of steam. Or it went to a commercial. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
August 23, 2019
Leaving For College
You know it has been coming for a year. Yet you never really recognize the day will come. One month. One week. One day. Then she is saying goodbye to the dog and you wait and hear her sniffs that blend with your own. Then you have the drive up to Michigan that is like a family vacation. You want it be that way. You push it from your mind even as you enter the university and make your way to her dorm. Now you are unloading her belongings in the cart. You are the cheery dad doing the physical stuff you do best. Your wife is already arranging her room and you step back and everyone is in their roles one last time.
Then there is a walk around campus. At twilight you look up at her dorm and pick out her window and you know that is where she will look at life now. That window is her new home and you will not be there with her. But there is still time. There is the dinner where the seafood is not quite up to Chicago standards. You joke around with her as you always do and then in the hotel room you watch Ace Ventura and you both laugh laying together on the bed. You always had the same quirky sense of humor.
But now it is morning. You go do down and try and eat something but your appetite is gone. A trip to the Walmart for last minute items. You see other parents looking like zombies with their kids. No one wants to go to this final wake for parenthood. But then you go back to the dorm and unload the bags and now...now there is nothing left to do or say. You cannot talk and hide behind your sunglasses. She hugs your wife and then she hugs you twice. And you murmur I love you. Something you never said enough. And now you are walking down the hallway. If you can just make it to the stairs you will be good.
And then you do and you walk to the car that is now minus one person. And you start the engine and pull out and you leave your daughter behind. And now you just cry and cry because your heart is broken and there is nothing you can do. Your daughter has just left for college. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
Then there is a walk around campus. At twilight you look up at her dorm and pick out her window and you know that is where she will look at life now. That window is her new home and you will not be there with her. But there is still time. There is the dinner where the seafood is not quite up to Chicago standards. You joke around with her as you always do and then in the hotel room you watch Ace Ventura and you both laugh laying together on the bed. You always had the same quirky sense of humor.
But now it is morning. You go do down and try and eat something but your appetite is gone. A trip to the Walmart for last minute items. You see other parents looking like zombies with their kids. No one wants to go to this final wake for parenthood. But then you go back to the dorm and unload the bags and now...now there is nothing left to do or say. You cannot talk and hide behind your sunglasses. She hugs your wife and then she hugs you twice. And you murmur I love you. Something you never said enough. And now you are walking down the hallway. If you can just make it to the stairs you will be good.
And then you do and you walk to the car that is now minus one person. And you start the engine and pull out and you leave your daughter behind. And now you just cry and cry because your heart is broken and there is nothing you can do. Your daughter has just left for college. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
August 20, 2019
How People Handle the Empty Nest
My daughter is off to college tomorrow. Unbelievable. In fact your brain does not believe it but your heart knows. How did eighteen years slip by? I remember when my daughter was a baby and we were laying in the hammock and my neighbor came up and took a picture. I just want to take a picture of this. My son just left for college she explained. This was after my wife and I watched she and her husband hug their son in front of their loaded up car. I even said, that will be us one day but of course I didn't believe it.
The same way I didn't believe the man who passed my son and I eating chips on a bench. He was probably five at the time. Enjoy it, it goes fast he said. Yeah sure. But you don't really get it. I watched other families slowly get smaller and listened to friends talking about the empty nest. I watched my neighbor practically never come home from work after their son left and I often wondered why he would work so late every night but of course now I know.
And in my office are these strange artifacts to childhood. Pictures my daughter did in grade school if not kindergarten. Pictures that curled on the wall that now have to go lest they become constant arrows of the heart. Or the old swing set in the backyard! I realize now like most writers I have been playing with time, freezing it, delaying the inevitable.
Now... it is my turn to face the truth. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
The same way I didn't believe the man who passed my son and I eating chips on a bench. He was probably five at the time. Enjoy it, it goes fast he said. Yeah sure. But you don't really get it. I watched other families slowly get smaller and listened to friends talking about the empty nest. I watched my neighbor practically never come home from work after their son left and I often wondered why he would work so late every night but of course now I know.
And in my office are these strange artifacts to childhood. Pictures my daughter did in grade school if not kindergarten. Pictures that curled on the wall that now have to go lest they become constant arrows of the heart. Or the old swing set in the backyard! I realize now like most writers I have been playing with time, freezing it, delaying the inevitable.
Now... it is my turn to face the truth. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
July 5, 2019
What Fun Fatherhood Is...
I have had a longer run that most. Many of my friends are now empty-nesters. Our kids were staggered more and we had them later. So I have always looked over the fence and wondered what it was like to have your children leave. Now we are on the long side of parenthood with a daughter off to college in the fall and my son getting an apartment soon. We still have one daughter just beginning high school but it is there like a spot in the sun.
You see the young fathers now. They play ball with their son or are in a store with their daughter. You remember that. You remember as if it was yesterday the million moments that make up fatherhood. Scouts, baseball, football...throwing a ball in the backyard. And then just going to get some chips and soda on a hot summer day. I remember thinking we have years and years of this when my son was just six. I loved that thought because I had discovered how much fun fatherhood could be.
And now, now it is all fading. You don't want to think that way but your job of father is winding down. You know it. You see that end date and more you see the diminishing role. And you mourn. It was the best job you ever had and while it will continue it will not be those bright years where you were snuggled into family life with no thoughts it would ever end...or that you would ever say, what fun fatherhood was.
www.williamhazelgrove.com"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
You see the young fathers now. They play ball with their son or are in a store with their daughter. You remember that. You remember as if it was yesterday the million moments that make up fatherhood. Scouts, baseball, football...throwing a ball in the backyard. And then just going to get some chips and soda on a hot summer day. I remember thinking we have years and years of this when my son was just six. I loved that thought because I had discovered how much fun fatherhood could be.
And now, now it is all fading. You don't want to think that way but your job of father is winding down. You know it. You see that end date and more you see the diminishing role. And you mourn. It was the best job you ever had and while it will continue it will not be those bright years where you were snuggled into family life with no thoughts it would ever end...or that you would ever say, what fun fatherhood was.
www.williamhazelgrove.com"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
February 6, 2019
The Women in White and Our First Woman President
You couldn't help but stare at the women in white last night during the State of the Union. It has been a hundred years since women got the vote and the women of the senate were showing their solidarity with those women who marched a century before. But there is another one hundred year anniversary and that is the Presidency of Edith Wilson. She took over the White House when Woodrow Wilson had a massive stroke and was hidden away in a bedroom. She really was our First Woman President even though she was not elected.
But the symbolism of all those women in the House of Representatives shows how far women have come. Edith Wilson only had three years of school and had buried a baby and a husband when she met Woodrow Wilson. She was forty four to his fifty nine and driving an electric car with the first drivers license issued in the District of Columbia. She had only been married to the President four years when he had a stroke after returning from a whistle stop tour to pass the League of Nations. The decision not to tell the public and the reluctance of the Vice President made Edith the defacto President.
She ruled for only two years and in a touch of irony the suffragettes had been chaining themselves to the White House gates for years to convince Wilson to support the vote for women. Little did they know a woman would run the White House. So the women in white are really celebrating two anniversaries, the vote for women and a secret presidency where a Woman ran the United States.
Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
But the symbolism of all those women in the House of Representatives shows how far women have come. Edith Wilson only had three years of school and had buried a baby and a husband when she met Woodrow Wilson. She was forty four to his fifty nine and driving an electric car with the first drivers license issued in the District of Columbia. She had only been married to the President four years when he had a stroke after returning from a whistle stop tour to pass the League of Nations. The decision not to tell the public and the reluctance of the Vice President made Edith the defacto President.
She ruled for only two years and in a touch of irony the suffragettes had been chaining themselves to the White House gates for years to convince Wilson to support the vote for women. Little did they know a woman would run the White House. So the women in white are really celebrating two anniversaries, the vote for women and a secret presidency where a Woman ran the United States.
Madam President The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
January 31, 2019
Cabin Fever During the Polar Vortex
Most of us ignore the weather. It is something we noticed between house store office club car. There is no real event that takes us out of our safety zone. Our homes can withstand just about anything except a tornado and then it is down to the basement where we assume we are safe. So when something comes that restricts us to the home with schools and businesses closed then we are in a new world. Something akin to the colonists who had to revere the elements and ride out bad winters and broiling summers. We simply don't know how to stop though with our computers and phones and our incessant drive to get it all done.
The Vortex is about the only thing that has really stopped people. Get out the book. Take a hot bath. Sleep like the cats and dogs who know danger is just outside the door. Enjoy your kids, talk to your friends or parents on the phone because danger is just a window pane away. In this way we are like the mountain men of the nineteenth century who would ride out winters in their cabins or the gold prospectors who went to the Yukon to endure months of black cold. Jack London summed this up in many stories of men who for months could not venture far from their cabins or risk death.
And it is not a comfortable feeling. We don't think of the weather as life threatening. But this time it is. End up on the side of the road and start counting the minutes. Was that trip to the grocery store really worth it. Better to put on woolen socks get under a blanket and read by the fire. Better to check out for a while and know that we are a spot of warmth on a frozen planet in space. Our ancestors knew this and now so do we. At least in Chicago we do.
William Hazelgrove
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
The Vortex is about the only thing that has really stopped people. Get out the book. Take a hot bath. Sleep like the cats and dogs who know danger is just outside the door. Enjoy your kids, talk to your friends or parents on the phone because danger is just a window pane away. In this way we are like the mountain men of the nineteenth century who would ride out winters in their cabins or the gold prospectors who went to the Yukon to endure months of black cold. Jack London summed this up in many stories of men who for months could not venture far from their cabins or risk death.
And it is not a comfortable feeling. We don't think of the weather as life threatening. But this time it is. End up on the side of the road and start counting the minutes. Was that trip to the grocery store really worth it. Better to put on woolen socks get under a blanket and read by the fire. Better to check out for a while and know that we are a spot of warmth on a frozen planet in space. Our ancestors knew this and now so do we. At least in Chicago we do.
William Hazelgrove
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
December 4, 2018
Released Today Wright Brothers Wrong Story
Controversial Book 'Wright Brothers, Wrong Story' Declares One Brother Flew
Just Released Book (Dec 4) Wright Brothers Wrong Story points to Wilbur Wright as the Man who Invented Flight with his brother Orville changing history to claim credit. Smithsonian brings new thesis on Wright Brothers Historic Flight to light.A new book has turned aviation upside down with amazing reviews https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-hazelgrove/wright-brothers-wrong-story and a full write-up in the Smithsonian Magazine https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-wilbur-wright-deserves-bulk-credit-first-flight-180970714 with the assertion that Wilbur Wright was the man responsible for inventing the first plane capable of powered flight.Bestselling Author William Hazelgrove's http://williamhazelgrove.com new book "Wright Brothers, Wrong Story" has set the assumed belief that the brothers worked in tandem on its head by delving into the papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright and emerging with a very different story than the standard team story of two men who banded together to produce the worlds first airplane. As pointed out in the Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6411537/New-book-claims-Orville-Wright-exaggerated-role-invention-flight.html the book explores the family life of the brothers as well and the strange proclivities of the insular Wright children who never left home.
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
Just Released Book (Dec 4) Wright Brothers Wrong Story points to Wilbur Wright as the Man who Invented Flight with his brother Orville changing history to claim credit. Smithsonian brings new thesis on Wright Brothers Historic Flight to light.A new book has turned aviation upside down with amazing reviews https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/william-hazelgrove/wright-brothers-wrong-story and a full write-up in the Smithsonian Magazine https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-wilbur-wright-deserves-bulk-credit-first-flight-180970714 with the assertion that Wilbur Wright was the man responsible for inventing the first plane capable of powered flight.Bestselling Author William Hazelgrove's http://williamhazelgrove.com new book "Wright Brothers, Wrong Story" has set the assumed belief that the brothers worked in tandem on its head by delving into the papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright and emerging with a very different story than the standard team story of two men who banded together to produce the worlds first airplane. As pointed out in the Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6411537/New-book-claims-Orville-Wright-exaggerated-role-invention-flight.html the book explores the family life of the brothers as well and the strange proclivities of the insular Wright children who never left home. By far the best published work on the Wright brothers' personal and professional lives. Thought-provoking and controversial in highlighting Wilbur's brilliance in aeronautics and showing how he clearly overshadowed his brother's contribution to manned flight.Alan C. Carey, Author of "We Flew Alone: Men and Missions of the United States Navy's B-24 Liberator Squadrons""I wanted to demythologize the Wright Brothers and find out who these two men were who dropped out of high school, never married, and never left home," Hazelgrove said in a recent interview. The book has been making waves in the aviation community that has stuck to the view that both brothers equally created the worlds first plane. "What people don't understand is this was Wilbur's dream and that he solved the head-cracking physics of flight and he went down to Kitty Hawk alone initially... it was his plane first and last."The book claims Orville Wright exaggerated his role in the invention and rewrote history in a one-sided biography of himself "In Wright Brothers, Wrong Story," author William Hazelgrove reveals the real genius was older brother Wilbur, who died nine years after the first flight in 1912Orville, who died in 1948, claimed to have come up with wing warping - Wilbur's big breakthrough and was also photographed in the famous flying photo Wilbur's letters to his friend and fellow inventor Octave Chanute show Orville was not involved in any of his plans It was only when Wilbur arrived in Kitty Hawk, NC to test his flight in 1900 - the boys' father Milton sent Orville to help himThe book reveals Orville and Wilbur showed no interest in the opposite sex and were raised to stay at home and believe only "family could be trusted"The book is released by Prometheus Books and available everywhere. "Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
November 29, 2018
Smithsonian Magazine: Why Wilbur Wright Deserves the Bulk of the Credit for the First Flight
Why Wilbur Wright Deserves the Bulk of the Credit for the First Flight
Smithsonian Magazine Article December Issue A new book advances a controversial theory about the singular contribution that went into the brothers’ pioneering achievement
The breakthrough propeller, its blades shaped by hatchet and drawknife from two-ply spruce, was sheathed in linen and sealed with aluminum powder mixed into a heavy varnish. (Eric Long)By William HazelgroveSMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | SUBSCRIBE DECEMBER 2018220127We believe in myths. George Washington did cut down a cherry tree. (Never happened.) Benjamin Franklin did fly a kite with a key to discover electricity. (Not exactly.) Wilbur and Orville Wright, the legendary brothers, together invented manned mechanical flight.To deconstruct that myth today, all we really have to go on are two foundational sources: the Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers, housed at the Library of Congress, and the 1903 Flyer, the prototype plane they succeeded in sending aloft on that storied morning of December 17. The Flyer itself, including its propeller, reside in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “All propellers built heretofore are all wrong,” Wilbur wrote in a letter to fellow scientist Octave Chanute in 1903. After conducting experiments on marine propellers and devising a kind of wind tunnel for testing, Wilbur envisioned cutting-edge propellers “which are all right!”When I began research for what would become my book, Wright Brothers, Wrong Story, immersion in the documents led to a new narrative, and it counters the defining assumption: that Orville and Wilbur jointly produced the Flyer. That makes for the ultimate teamwork epic—but the Wrights’ saga is actually the story of Wilbur.
Wright Brothers, Wrong Story: How Wilbur Wright Solved the Problem of Manned FlightHow could two misanthropic brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics have figured out the secret of manned flight? This new history of the Wright brothers' monumental accomplishment focuses on their early years of trial and error at Kitty HawkBUYimage: https://public-media.smithsonianmag.c...
Left: Orville Wright in 1905 at age 34 in a photograph taken by his brother Wilbur. Right: Wilbur Wright in 1905 at age 38 (Library of Congress)The crude propeller is, I would argue, wholly the product of Wilbur’s vision. To him we owe that first 12 seconds of successful powered flight.Wilbur may never have applied his genius to aeronautics if it hadn’t been for a random misfortune. In the winter of 1886, Wilbur, age 17, suffered a devastating setback when his jaw was shattered during a hockey match. Wilbur’s dream of attending Yale was dashed. Instead, at home in Dayton, Ohio, he endured a grueling convalescence and, for three years, serious depression. It was during this enforced inactivity that Wilbur alone became obsessed with figuring out the secret of manned flight.In 1896, Wilbur, on his own, contacted the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Samuel Pierpont Langley, requesting information on human attempts at mechanized flight, including “such papers as the Smithsonian has published on this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English language.” Langley’s assistant, Richard Rathbun, obliged by sending a “list of books and pamphlets on aviation.” Wilbur alone contacted the United States Weather Service, asking for data on meteorological conditions, including wind speed, at locations throughout the United States—information that would lead Wilbur to choose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, as the test site. Wilbur wrote to the Chicago-based aeronautical scientist Chanute. Their correspondence would produce 500 letters and culminate in Wilbur’s breakthrough thinking. Wilbur built the first “kite wing,” a box-shaped wing with two levels, and tested that prototype alone in a field near the family home in Dayton. Wilbur then built a glider, in his workshop above the brothers’ bicycle repair shop, and shipped it to Kitty Hawk. And in the first year of the new century, Wilbur headed to this fishing village...alone.On September 23, 1900, Wilbur wrote his father, Bishop Milton Wright, “I have my machine nearly finished....I do not expect to rise many feet from the ground and in case I am upset there is nothing but soft sand to strike on....It is my belief that flight is possible.”His father, in turn, acknowledged Wilbur’s leading role. In a letter, he admonished his son to be mindful of safety: “You have so much that no one else can do so well. And alone, Orville would be crippled and burdened.” Orville would not make his first attempt at flight until 1902, long after Wilbur had made hundreds of tries.Orville was Wilbur’s student and helpmate. But he was also the keeper of history. The Wright brothers’ story was the product of death, a friendship and a biography that would set the stage for every future chronicle. Fred C. Kelly published The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright in 1943. Wilbur Wright died in 1912 from typhoid fever. Orville would live until 1948, the survivor who gave access to some family letters and documents to Kelly, a friend who adhered to the dictate that Orville must approve every page of the biography. The book is ultimately Orville’s version of events, which was that the brothers deserved equal credit for the invention of the airplane. (Indeed, Orville’s name appears in the biography 337 times to Wilbur’s 267.)Wilbur Wright was the man who really invented controlled flight, though it is nearly heretical to say so. Orville, though a gifted mechanic, never had the genius to make the leap from theory to application.The brothers took turns piloting the aircraft at Kitty Hawk that month, and a coin toss determined who would be at the controls on the morning the plane first successfully lifted off: Orville, his historic triumph immortalized by a box camera.Wilbur possessed the imaginative intuition that transformed a crude wooden propeller into an instrument that vaulted humans into a new era. That is the difference between the poet and the scribe. And that is all the difference in the world.image: https://public-media.smithsonianmag.c...
Orville Wright takes to the air at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the world’s first powered, controlled, sustained flight, on December 17, 1903. His brother Wilbur (on the ground, right) has just released his hold of the right wing’s forward upright. (John T. Daniels / Library of Congress)
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
Smithsonian Magazine Article December Issue A new book advances a controversial theory about the singular contribution that went into the brothers’ pioneering achievement
The breakthrough propeller, its blades shaped by hatchet and drawknife from two-ply spruce, was sheathed in linen and sealed with aluminum powder mixed into a heavy varnish. (Eric Long)By William HazelgroveSMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE | SUBSCRIBE DECEMBER 2018220127We believe in myths. George Washington did cut down a cherry tree. (Never happened.) Benjamin Franklin did fly a kite with a key to discover electricity. (Not exactly.) Wilbur and Orville Wright, the legendary brothers, together invented manned mechanical flight.To deconstruct that myth today, all we really have to go on are two foundational sources: the Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers, housed at the Library of Congress, and the 1903 Flyer, the prototype plane they succeeded in sending aloft on that storied morning of December 17. The Flyer itself, including its propeller, reside in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “All propellers built heretofore are all wrong,” Wilbur wrote in a letter to fellow scientist Octave Chanute in 1903. After conducting experiments on marine propellers and devising a kind of wind tunnel for testing, Wilbur envisioned cutting-edge propellers “which are all right!”When I began research for what would become my book, Wright Brothers, Wrong Story, immersion in the documents led to a new narrative, and it counters the defining assumption: that Orville and Wilbur jointly produced the Flyer. That makes for the ultimate teamwork epic—but the Wrights’ saga is actually the story of Wilbur.
Wright Brothers, Wrong Story: How Wilbur Wright Solved the Problem of Manned FlightHow could two misanthropic brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics have figured out the secret of manned flight? This new history of the Wright brothers' monumental accomplishment focuses on their early years of trial and error at Kitty HawkBUYimage: https://public-media.smithsonianmag.c...Left: Orville Wright in 1905 at age 34 in a photograph taken by his brother Wilbur. Right: Wilbur Wright in 1905 at age 38 (Library of Congress)The crude propeller is, I would argue, wholly the product of Wilbur’s vision. To him we owe that first 12 seconds of successful powered flight.Wilbur may never have applied his genius to aeronautics if it hadn’t been for a random misfortune. In the winter of 1886, Wilbur, age 17, suffered a devastating setback when his jaw was shattered during a hockey match. Wilbur’s dream of attending Yale was dashed. Instead, at home in Dayton, Ohio, he endured a grueling convalescence and, for three years, serious depression. It was during this enforced inactivity that Wilbur alone became obsessed with figuring out the secret of manned flight.In 1896, Wilbur, on his own, contacted the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Samuel Pierpont Langley, requesting information on human attempts at mechanized flight, including “such papers as the Smithsonian has published on this subject, and if possible a list of other works in print in the English language.” Langley’s assistant, Richard Rathbun, obliged by sending a “list of books and pamphlets on aviation.” Wilbur alone contacted the United States Weather Service, asking for data on meteorological conditions, including wind speed, at locations throughout the United States—information that would lead Wilbur to choose Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, as the test site. Wilbur wrote to the Chicago-based aeronautical scientist Chanute. Their correspondence would produce 500 letters and culminate in Wilbur’s breakthrough thinking. Wilbur built the first “kite wing,” a box-shaped wing with two levels, and tested that prototype alone in a field near the family home in Dayton. Wilbur then built a glider, in his workshop above the brothers’ bicycle repair shop, and shipped it to Kitty Hawk. And in the first year of the new century, Wilbur headed to this fishing village...alone.On September 23, 1900, Wilbur wrote his father, Bishop Milton Wright, “I have my machine nearly finished....I do not expect to rise many feet from the ground and in case I am upset there is nothing but soft sand to strike on....It is my belief that flight is possible.”His father, in turn, acknowledged Wilbur’s leading role. In a letter, he admonished his son to be mindful of safety: “You have so much that no one else can do so well. And alone, Orville would be crippled and burdened.” Orville would not make his first attempt at flight until 1902, long after Wilbur had made hundreds of tries.Orville was Wilbur’s student and helpmate. But he was also the keeper of history. The Wright brothers’ story was the product of death, a friendship and a biography that would set the stage for every future chronicle. Fred C. Kelly published The Wright Brothers: A Biography Authorized by Orville Wright in 1943. Wilbur Wright died in 1912 from typhoid fever. Orville would live until 1948, the survivor who gave access to some family letters and documents to Kelly, a friend who adhered to the dictate that Orville must approve every page of the biography. The book is ultimately Orville’s version of events, which was that the brothers deserved equal credit for the invention of the airplane. (Indeed, Orville’s name appears in the biography 337 times to Wilbur’s 267.)Wilbur Wright was the man who really invented controlled flight, though it is nearly heretical to say so. Orville, though a gifted mechanic, never had the genius to make the leap from theory to application.The brothers took turns piloting the aircraft at Kitty Hawk that month, and a coin toss determined who would be at the controls on the morning the plane first successfully lifted off: Orville, his historic triumph immortalized by a box camera.Wilbur possessed the imaginative intuition that transformed a crude wooden propeller into an instrument that vaulted humans into a new era. That is the difference between the poet and the scribe. And that is all the difference in the world.image: https://public-media.smithsonianmag.c...Orville Wright takes to the air at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in the world’s first powered, controlled, sustained flight, on December 17, 1903. His brother Wilbur (on the ground, right) has just released his hold of the right wing’s forward upright. (John T. Daniels / Library of Congress)"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
November 27, 2018
The Wright Brothers Controversy
Once upon a time there were two brothers. Everyone said they were the same but in fact they were not. The reason people saw them as the same is their father willed it be so. The Bishop was adamant that to the world they must provide a United Front. Their father believed the world to be evil and he wanted his children to stay home and provide him with a home when he returned from his travels. So Wilbur Katherine and Orville did just that. They stayed home their entire adult lives and kept the Bishop company and presented an equal united front to the world.
But Wilbur was different. He was smashed in the mouth with a hockey stick by a future mass murderer and went into a three year depression. By the end he wanted to fly. His brother had no real interest in flight and was happy to continue making bicycles. But Wilbur read everything and then contacted the Smithsonian and then the weather bureau to find out where the winds blew constantly. He then built his own kite flyer and flew outside of Dayton. He knew then that he was onto something and went down to Kitty Hawk North Carolina with a gilder he built. He went alone.
But Orville would join him and watch Wilbur fly his gliders for two years. By 1902 Orville tried the gliders and crashed but to the world they were now the Wright Brothers and nothing would change this. Even when Wilbur presented his findings to engineers in Chicago and had a five hundred letter correspondence with Octave Chanute where he worked out the physics of flight. Orville was not part of any of this but a photo on Dec 17 1903 showed him flying and not Wilbur. From then on it was assumed they both invented the first plane. All the books said so...
Until now.
Wright Brothers Wrong Story
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
But Wilbur was different. He was smashed in the mouth with a hockey stick by a future mass murderer and went into a three year depression. By the end he wanted to fly. His brother had no real interest in flight and was happy to continue making bicycles. But Wilbur read everything and then contacted the Smithsonian and then the weather bureau to find out where the winds blew constantly. He then built his own kite flyer and flew outside of Dayton. He knew then that he was onto something and went down to Kitty Hawk North Carolina with a gilder he built. He went alone.
But Orville would join him and watch Wilbur fly his gliders for two years. By 1902 Orville tried the gliders and crashed but to the world they were now the Wright Brothers and nothing would change this. Even when Wilbur presented his findings to engineers in Chicago and had a five hundred letter correspondence with Octave Chanute where he worked out the physics of flight. Orville was not part of any of this but a photo on Dec 17 1903 showed him flying and not Wilbur. From then on it was assumed they both invented the first plane. All the books said so...
Until now.
Wright Brothers Wrong Story
"Rocket Man is the funniest novel since Russo's Straight Man."
Chicago Sun Times
"Rocket Man is a hilarious, well written novel about one man's search for the New American Dream." James Frey, author A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning
