File:The Flying Ace (1926 film).webm

English: 'The Flying Ace is a 1926 black-and-white silent drama film directed by Richard E. Norman with an all-African-American cast. This six-reel film, made by Norman Studios in Jacksonville, Florida, utilized a mix of professionals such as leads Laurence Criner and Kathryn Boyd, and non-professional actors.

Films such as The Flying Ace, that used an all-African-American cast and were shown specifically to African-American audiences, were known as "race films". Norman Studios produced feature length and numerous short race films during the 1920s. The untapped black filmgoing market and the plethora of talented performers unable to get work in mainstream films led to the production of race films by Norman Studios.

Richard Norman's reason for producing race films was not solely a business decision. Although the studio was filling a niche, Norman was also motivated by the state of race relations at the time and wanted to make a positive impact.

In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

With principal photography in Jacksonville, Florida, The Flying Ace was an example of producer Norman's "home talent" films, in which he would travel to various towns with stock footage and a basic script. After recruiting local celebrities for minor roles, they would film a small portion of footage (approximately 200 feet of new material) over the course of a few days. The films were processed at Norman's laboratory in Chicago. Once completed, the films would be screened and any funds raised would be split between Norman and the town where the scenes were shot.

Norman cast J. Laurence Criner, a veteran of Harlem’s prestigious all-black theater troupe the Lafayette Players, in the leading role of Captain Billy Stokes, a black pilot who fought in France during World War I. While Eugene Bullard was a black pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille, African-Americans were not allowed to serve as pilots in the United States Army Air Corps until 1940.

The role of pilot Ruth Sawtelle, played by Kathryn Boyd, is loosely based on African-American aviator Bessie Coleman. Coleman had sent a letter to the Norman Studios expressing a wish to be in a film based on her life. Only a day before she was to appear in an exhibition in Jacksonville, she lost her life on April 30, 1926, when she fell from her aircraft. It is unclear whether Norman and Coleman had met.

The Flying Ace was advertised as "the greatest airplane thriller ever filmed"; however, save for one brief sequence, the film was filmed entirely on the ground, using camera tricks, such as the creative use of the camera to create the upside down sequences to imply movement and altitude for the stationary aircraft. A full-scale mock-up of a Curtiss JN-4 biplane was also constructed.

Megan Pugh writes, in an essay for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2010, "While it’s impossible to measure the influence The Flying Ace had on its viewers, it is reasonable to assume that audiences found its lead character inspirational."

The Flying Ace is the only one of the Norman Studios-produced "race movies" that is known to have survived. The Library of Congress keeps a copy of the film as it is deemed culturally significant.

Additionally, The Flying Ace is still shown in many silent film festivals and theaters. Its first public screening in decades took place in July 2010, at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, where a restored print of The Flying Ace was shown at the Castro Theatre.'

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Ace

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129928/