Poster for The Flying Ace

In this 1926 film, black fighter pilot Captain Billy Stokes, played by Laurence Criner, returns home from World War I a hero and resumes his civilian career as a railroad detective. The role of pilot Ruth Sawtelle, played by Kathryn Boyd, is inspired by aviator Bessie Coleman. Coleman had been in talks with race film studio Norman Productions to star in a film about her life when she was killed during a flight in Jacksonville, Florida.

This movie poster depicts a man in a World War I uniform while above him another man is parachuting from a burning plane. The large figure of a man in uniform stands in the lower left corner. Shown from the waist up, he wears a World War I uniform. At his left shoulder is a large heart shape, within which is a vignette of a man and a woman, both in uniform. Above the heart shape to the left is a man in a suit hanging from an open parachute. Slightly above him is a burning airplane. In large red letters below the plane scene is written [THE FLYING ACE] and in smaller blue print [WITH AN ALL-COLORED CAST]. Below the heart vignette and next to the WWI solder is written [STARRING A PROFESSIONAL CAST / FEATURING / LAWRENCE CRINER / AND KATHRYN BOYD / SUPPORTED BY / BOISE DE LEGG, HAROLD PLATTS, / LIONS DANIELS, GEORGE COLVIN, SAM JORDAN, DR. R.L. BROWN AND / STEVE REYNOLDS (PEG) / PRODUCED BY THE NORMAN STUDIOS ARLINGTON, FLA.].

Transcribed by Digital Volunteers