Company:LaVerne Browne
LaVerne Browne | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Screenshot of John Trent as Tailspin Tommy In Danger Flight (1939) | |
| Born | LaVerne Ward Browne December 5, 1906 Orange, California, USA |
| Died | May 12, 1966 (aged 59) Torrance, California, USA |
| Other names | "Brownie" |
| Occupation | Actor, pilot |
Early life
Born LaVerne W. Browne on December 5, 1906, in Orange, California, as the third child of Edwin J. Browne, a farm worker, and Phebe Alice Proctor Browne.[1] His first focus was in the legal field. Attending the University of Southern California (USC), he switched career aspirations only after completing his law studies.[2]
Aviation
Browne attended the Hancock School of Aeronautics and Flying School, Santa Maria, California. He found steady work as a commercial pilot for Transcontinental & Western Airways flying the Douglas DC-2 airliner, just entering service. He was also commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps Reserve.[2]
Film career
When the good-looking pilot was noticed by B. P. Schulberg, a Paramount Pictures executive, who happened to be a passenger on one of his TWA DC-2 flights, Browne was encouraged to try acting. Heading for Los Angeles, he did a screen test, was put on contract, and given the name, "John Trent".[3]
Tailspin Tommy
Monogram Pictures cast him in four films based on the comic strip aviator, "Tailspin Tommy."[4] Trent was a natural for the part of the obsessed youthful pilot who became the focus of a popular comic strip years back during the Charles Lindbergh craze of the late 1920s.[5] The four films Trent starred in for Monogram were: Mystery Plane (1939), Stunt Pilot (1939), Sky Patrol (1939) and Danger Flight (1939).[6]
Trent disparaged his acting, in later years, stating, "It was a pretty good job until politics, sex and long working hours moved in. And when talkies came in, I was finished with my growling voice. Didn‘t go over worth a damn."[7]
Filmography
- The Sky Spider (1931) as Buddy Morgan
- Under-Cover Man (1932) (uncredited)
- Springtime for Henry (1934) (uncredited)
- Badge of Honor (1934) as Harvey Larkin
- John Meade's Woman (1937) as "Mike"
- A Doctor's Diary (1937) as Dr. Dan Norris
- The Great Gambini (1937) as Grant Naylor
- Blossoms on Broadway (1937) as Neil Graham
- She's No Lady (1937) as Alden ["Bill"] Carter III
- Sky Patrol (1939) as [Tailspin] Tommy [Thompson]
- Mystery Plane (1939) as Tailspin Tommy [Tomkins]
- Stunt Pilot (1939) as Tailspin Tommy [Tompkins]
- Danger Flight (1939) as [Tailspin] Tommy [Tomkins]
- Wolf Call (1939) as flying instructor (uncredited)
- Start the Music (Short) (1939) as Doctor Reed
- I Wanted Wings (1941) as Lieut. Ronson
Aviation career resumed
Using his birth name, LaVerne Browne, he returned to "civilian" life in 1941, finding a job as a test pilot, first with the Fletcher Aviation Corporation, flying the Fletcher FBT-2, an experimental "drone controller" on April 26 and 27, 1942.[8]
From 1942 to 1957, Browne worked as a test pilot at Douglas Aircraft in El Segundo, California.[9] First working as a "production test pilot" in 1942, callsign "Tailspin", assigned to the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber program. By 1943, Browne became a project test pilot with his first assignment, the successor to the venerable Dauntless.[2]In March 1945, Browne was appointed Director of Flight Test (chief pilot) of the Douglas El Segundo Flight Test Division.[10]
Browne made the maiden flight of the first XBT2D-1 (Bu No 09085), later to be re-designated the AD-1 Skyraider from Mines Field, California on March 18, 1945.[11] Browne would retire from Douglas in the 1960s. Friends at the company called him, "Brownie" or "Brown with an 'e'."[7]
Personal life
On January 28, 1926, Browne married Dorothy Leonore Bach at Los Angeles, California. They had one daughter, Barbara May Browne, born December 6, 1926, but later divorced. On June 12, 1933, Browne re-married to Harriette Fitzgerald Dodson at Norfolk, Virginia.[2]
Death
At the age of 59, LaVerne Browne died on May 12, 1966, of cancer, at his home in Torrance, California.[12]
References
Notes
Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Brumburgh Gary."John Trent Biography." IMDb, 2019. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Hal Forrst and Tailspin Tommy." collectair.org, 2019. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ Wagner, Bill. "Oh, Doctor Browne." TWA Skyliner Magazine January 1, 1937. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ Farmer 1984, p. 130.
- ↑ Wynne 1987, pp. 172, 175.
- ↑ Beck 2016, pp. 184–185.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "LaVerne "Brownie" Browne." AAHS Journal, Vol. 54, No. 3, Fall 2009. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ "Browne vs Fletcher Aviation Corporation." caselaw.findlaw.com, 2019. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ "LaVerne Browne". Test & Research Pilots, Flight Test Engineers, September 29, 2013. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ Swopes, Bryan R."LaVerne Ward Browne." This Day in Aviation, 2019. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ Close, Gilbert C. "The Navy's Pedigreed Pulverizer." Flying, April 1950, pp. 18–19. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
- ↑ "Laverne Browne Obituary." newspaperarchive.com, 2019. Retrieved: July 9, 2019.
Bibliography
- Beck, Simon D. The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016. ISBN:9-781476-663494.
- Farmer, James H. Celluloid Wings: The Impact of Movies on Aviation (1st ed.). Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: TAB Books 1984. ISBN: 978-0-83062-374-7.
- Pendo, Stephen. Aviation in the Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. ISBN:0-8-1081-746-2.
- Wynne, H. Hugh. The Motion Picture Stunt Pilots and Hollywood's Classic Aviation Movies. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1987. ISBN:0-933126-85-9.
External links
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