The Sky Parade
Cast & Crew
Otho Lovering
William Gargan
Katherine Demille
Kent Taylor
Robert Fiske
Grant Withers
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
World War I fighter pilot Scotty Allen returns home and learns that his wife has died giving birth to their first son Jimmie. After the Armistice, Scotty refuses to see his son until his fellow airmen, Speed Robertson and Tommy Wade, convince him it is his duty to raise Jimmie. Speed and Scotty join their old buddy Casey Cameron's flying circus, while Tommy joins his father's bank. Years pass, during which record-breaking flights are made around the world. In 1924, Casey adds parachutist Geraldine "Geri" Croft to the troupe. Casey then leaves the circus to smuggle goods for "Gat" Billings. Tommy's father offers to back Scotty and Speed in becoming professional flying aces, while Geri agrees to put Jimmie through school. In 1927, Speed and Scotty attempt to cross the Atlantic in thirty-six hours. Their plane crashes before take-off, however, and Scotty is killed. Although Speed proposes to Geri, she refuses, believing he only wants to protect young Jimmie. Charles Lindberg, meanwhile, lands in Paris, and Amelia Earheart crosses the Atlantic. Speed and Tommy decide their daredevil days are over and turn to commercial aviation. By 1933, their airline, Continental, has become incorporated. Casey then returns, following Billings' run-in with the authorities, and asks for a job with Continental, but Speed refuses him. Continental meanwhile, is perfecting an automatic pilot device, which Billings hopes to sell to Russian Baron Ankrevitch. Casey gets a job next door in order to spy on the project. After a five-year absence, Geri returns with high school graduate Jimmie, who wants to learn to fly. Although Speed and Geri still carry a silent flame for each other, she dates Casey until Speed finally asks her to dinner. Casey then offers to let Jimmie take his first plane up in order to procure information on the automatic pilot. Continental loses its mail contract to the army and is desperate to fly their new plane to Washington, D.C. and secure a patent for the auto-pilot. When the plane takes off from Las Vegas, Billings and Casey intercede and hold Geri and Speed hostage. Jimmie hides in the plane, however, and after Casey and the pilot are shot, lands the plane with Speed's help. Speed and Geri make plans to marry, and Continental gets its mail contract. Jimmie is now a bonafide pilot.
Director
Otho Lovering
Cast
William Gargan
Katherine Demille
Kent Taylor
Robert Fiske
Grant Withers
Sid Saylor
Edgar Dearing
Georges Renavent
Jimmie Allen
Billy Lee
Bennie Bartlett
Myra Marsh
Colin Tapley
May Wallace
Irene Bennett
Eddie Dunn
John Morley
Arthur Singley
Hal Craig
Sam Ash
Wheaton Chambers
Keith Daniels
Harold Stein
Robert Littlefield
Jack Paul
Ralph Mccullough
Edwin Stanley
George Pearl
Frank Faylen
George Magrill
Lucien Prival
Budd Fine
Pat O'malley
Arthur Rowlands
Hal Cooke
Frank Losee
William Arnold
Bill Dill
Frank Du Frane
Monty Vandegrift
Dick Allen
Earl M. Pingree
Jack Kenny
Crew
Arthur F. Beck
Arthur J. Beckhard
Everett Douglas
Hans Dreier
A. E. Freudeman
Alfred Gilks
Jack Goodrich
Henry Herzbrun
Harold Hurley
Don Johnson
Brian Marlow
William C. Mellor
Byron Morgan
Robert Odell
William Tummel
Adolph Zukor
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although Jimmie Allen is listed above the title in the opening credits, the end credits list him last with Billy Lee. "The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen" was a popular radio serial produced in Chicago starring Jimmie Allen and featuring Robert Fiske as Allen's pal "Speed." According to a modern source, Allen, also known as Murray McLean, was sixteen when the serial was first broadcast in 1933 and was a trained pilot. Reportedly, the serial was originally slated for another title, but sponsor Richfield Oil liked Allen so much, the hero was made over in his image and the title was changed. The serial fostered "Jimmie Allen Flying Clubs" nationwide, which had, in total, more than three million members. Transcripts from the original broadcasts, which were aired through 1936, were re-released in the early 1940s. As reported in Hollywood Reporter on February 20, 1936, Sky Parade, the first of a series of Jimmie Allen pictures optioned with Arthur F. Beck's Air Adventures Corp., was being "plugged" on the radio in anticipation of the film's preview. According to Hollywood Reporter, in late January 1936, Jimmy Allen and Robert Fiske, awaiting possible retakes for the film, planned to record the next twenty-three installments of their radio serial in Hollywood. According to news items in the Hollywood Reporter, Sidney Marcus sued Paramount, Harry O. Hoyt and Arthur F. Beck, as producers of Sky Parade on grounds he was promised $100 per week employment plus a percentage of the picture's profits when he made small loans to Hoyt in 1934. The judge cleared the defendants of any responsibility to Marcus. Betty Jane Rhodes and Dean Jagger appear in the cast in early Hollywood Reporter production charts, although they do not appear in the film. According to a modern source, an S4C Thomas Morse Scout and C-3 Stearman aircraft appear in this film.
