Help needed to ID aircraft and starlet

The Avian in the photo is Mk.IIIA c/n 148.The engine fitted was Cirrus II No.421. It was issued with UK CofA No.1461 on 21.06.28 to M.A.Northrop, and exported to USA where it was registered NC392. The film star posing with it was Lya DePutti. In Jan.1929 it was sold to Russel Simpson, Hollywood, and again in Oct.1930 to W.W.Mayes.
The last record I have for this a/c was in 1936 when it was owned by Jane C.Goodall, Andover (CA?) Hope this answers you question.
George Jenks, Manager, Avro Heritage Centre, Woodford

George – many thanks indeed, and welcome to the forum.

I should have perhaps thought of dropping a line to the Avro Heritage Centre, but thanks for such a comprehensive answer.

Allan King

If I may be permitted to introduce a slight thread drift, there was an interesting bit in Paul Merton’s recent BBC4 mini-series on Hitchcock, where The Maestro is seen screen testing an Eastern European actress’s vocals and her accent is very thick, so then a scene is shown of the subsequent movie and Merton reveals how it was recorded with an off-screen actress speaking while the EEA mouths the words. Sadly, Merton went on to reveal that the said EEA’s career did not prosper thereafter.

Very interesting detective work in this thread, by the way, nothing is impossible here!

Avro Avian

The Avian in the photo is Mk.IIIA c/n 148.The engine fitted was Cirrus II No.421. It was issued with UK CofA No.1461 on 21.06.28 to M.A.Northrop, and exported to USA where it was registered NC392. The film star posing with it was Lya DePutti. In Jan.1929 it was sold to Russel Simpson, Hollywood, and again in Oct.1930 to W.W.Mayes.
The last record I have for this a/c was in 1936 when it was owned by Jane C.Goodall, Andover (CA?)
Hope this answers you question.
George Jenks, Manager,Avro Heritage Centre, Woodford

Fascinating thread everyone!

Yes indeed! What happened to her plane?

Fascinating thread everyone!

Sorry, but it really was just slogging through Google entries for “Hungarian actress, Hollywood, 1920s” and looking up every one I could find named.

You will note that I listed a number of them, and featured someone else, not Lya de Putti!

Although I did see that her death was a bit more dramatic than Pondskater mentioned.

First, background:

Born as Amalia de Putti in Vécse, Hungary (today Slovakia), she was one of the four children of Julius de Putti, a cavalry officer, and his wife, the former Countess Maria Katarina Hoyos. She had two brothers, Geza and Alexander, and a sister, Mitzi.

She began her stage career on the Hungarian Vaudeville circuit. She soon progressed to Berlin, where after performing in the ballet, she made her screen debut in 1918. She became the premiere danseuse at the Berlin Winter Garden in 1924.

Around that time German film director Jol Mai noticed her and cast her in her first important film, The Mistress of the World. She followed this success with noteworthy performances in Manon Lescaut and Varieté. The latter, from 1925, featured her opposite Emil Jannings. Both films are Ufa productions. While in Germany De Putti starred with such actors as Conrad Veidt, Alfred Abel, Werner Krauss, Grete Mosheim and Lil Dagover and was filmed by directors F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang.

The actress came to America in February 1926. At the time she told reporters she was twenty-two years old. Her ocean liner’s records list her as having been twenty-six. De Putti was generally cast as a vamp character, and often wore her dark hair short, in a style similar to that of Louise Brooks or Colleen Moore.

De Putti starred in D.W. Griifith’s The Sorrows of Satan (1926). The film was released in two versions, one in America and the other in Europe. In the American version one scene had De Putti fully dressed. The same scene in the European release had De Putti topless.

The following year, De Putti went to Hollywood, but found little success there. Despite working with such distinguished actors as Adolphe Menjou and Zasu Pitts, she failed to make it big, and left the screen by 1929 to attempt to re-start her career on Broadway.

Her Hollywood efforts were inhibited by her foreign accent. Later she went to England to make silent movies and studied the English language. Soon she returned to America to attempt talkies.

Then the dramatic scene:

She was hospitalized to have a chicken bone removed from her throat, and contracted a throat infection. She was taken to the Harbor Sanitarium, then located at 667 Madison Avenue. She reportedly behaved irrationally and eluded her nurses. Eventually she was found in a corridor. She developed pleurisy in her right side, followed by pneumonia in both lungs.

She died in 1931, aged 32, in the Harbor Sanitorium.

The fact that the combined wisdom here could ID the plane is no surprise…but what I really want to know is how Badger1968 figured out who the actress was.

Please don’t tell me it was as simple as Goggling “Hungarian Silent Film actress” I’d much prefer a more exotic story.

Wow indeed. You guys are good at finding stuff! Her career certainly was in decline. Although she made a number of silent films in Hollywood, when the Talkies arrived, her Hungarian accent greatly limited work opportunities.

I’m sure she wasn’t the only aviatrix in Hollywood at that time but nice to get some info for the photo.

AllanK

Wow – great…
‘Lya de Putti’s star interview with The Picturegoer in April 1929 barely disguises a career in decline – despite announcing that she has brought her Packard car and private Avro Avian aeroplane with her for her London debut in The Informer.’
The Informer by Patrick F. Sheeran

This would appear to be a British built Avian IIIA sold by Air Associates Inc of NY and is License No 392, Owned by M A Northrop (the designer) and flown by film star Lya de Putti. So 1928 or 29. Early Cirrus engines had american rotation hence my thought that it was a Whittlesey product.

Source A J Jackson Avro page 247

John

The Whittlesey Company only started manufacturing the Avian in 1929 at Bridgeport Conn.

John

Bager1968 – thank you, I’ve think you’ve named her!

Have a look at this close up of the signature in the bottom right corner (darkened to enhance it)

And this signed photo of her:

And another:

She was a silent era actress who typically played vamps (see IMDB) but died tragically young in 1932 from pneumonia following a throat infection. That, of course, narrows the date window for the photo.

And another pic of her from Silent Ladies:

I’ve read a few of her on-line biographies but she doesn’t appear to have any particular aviation connection – unless it was simply to be at an event at Grand Central Air Terminal.

I still know nothing about this particular aircraft and little about the airport. Does anybody know more about the history of the airport. This link has some history including the detail that its official opening in 1929 was a big celebrity event. Do the part built buildings in the background help with a date?

AllanK

From 1925 to 1928 the “hottest” Hungarian actress in Hollywood was Vilma Banky. Her last film was in 1932 (her thick accent caused problems when Hollywood started shooting sound films).

Pic from SON OF THE SHEIK that also starred Rudolph Valentino (1926)

This shot has more than a passing resemblance:

Then there are Lucy Doraine, Maria Corda, Lya de Putti, and many others,,, all came over in the mid-1920s and lost their careers by the early 1930s due to their thick accents.
Most of these girls share similar facial features.

I hadn’t noticed the propellor direction – thanks for that, it might explain why it hasn’t shown up in my books. And for the ID of N6882 – which certainly seems to fit.

It would be nice to know who the lady is and why she was there, although I think that airport was used a lot by Hollywood at the time.

AllanK

It’s probably a Whittlesey Avian, note the prop rotation.

John

…only a guess:
Avro Avian 594, with “unlicensed aircraft identification mark” 7083
owned by Amelia Earhart, she made a flight across the US 1928 and one station was Glendale (maybe the time and place for the photo?)

There once was a US reg no N6882 connected with an Avro Avian 594