Pancho Barnes was a force of nature, a woman who lived a big, messy, colorful, unconventional life. She ran through three fortunes, four husbands, and countless lovers. She outflew Amelia Earhart, outsmarted Howard Hughes, outdrank the Mexican Army, and out- maneuvered the U.S. government. In The Happy Bottom Riding Club, award-winning author Lauren Kessler tells the story of a high-spirited, headstrong woman who was proud of her successes, unabashed by her failures, and the architect of her own legend.

Florence "Pancho" Barnes was a California heiress who inherited a love of flying from her grandfather, a pioneer balloonist in the Civil War. Faced with a future of domesticity and upper-crust pretensions, she ran away from her responsibilities as wife and mother to create her own life. She cruised South America. She trekked through Mexico astride a burro. She hitchhiked halfway across the United States. Then, in the late 1920s, she took to the skies, one of a handful of female pilots.

She was a barnstormer, a racer, a cross-country flier, and a Hollywood stunt pilot. She was, for a time, "the fastest woman on earth," flying the fastest civilian airplane in the world. She was an intimate of movie stars, a script doctor for the great director Erich von Stroheim, and, later in life, a drinking buddy of the supersonic jet jockey Chuck Yeager. She ran a wild and wildly successful desert watering hole known as the Happy Bottom Riding Club, the raucous bar and grill depicted in The Right Stuff.

In The Happy Bottom Riding Club, Lauren Kessler presents a portrait, both authoritative and affectionate, of a woman who didn't play by women's rules, a woman of large appetites--emotional, financial, and sexual--who called herself "the greatest conversation piece that ever existed."
From the Hardcover edition.
A more unlikely minister's wife could hardly be imagined. Yet Florence Lowe Barnes (1901-74) was in fact married to an Episcopalian rector when she began training horses and flying stunt planes for Hollywood studios. As it turned out, however, the hard-drinking, hard-living, primarily male camaraderie she found there suited her far better than the well-mannered lifestyle of her affluent parents and undersexed husband. She acquired her nickname during a roistering 1927 trip to Mexico, and "Pancho" Barnes became legendary as a pioneering female pilot and a world-class party thrower with lovers to spare. (She was no beauty, but many men found Pancho's gusto and humor irresistible.) In the mid-'30s, past her prime as a pilot and looking for a business to support her free-spending ways, she set up as a Mojave Desert rancher near a tiny encampment of the Army Air Corps. Military and test pilots like Chuck Yeager flocked to Pancho's place--whether it was called Rancho Oro Verde, Pancho's Fly-Inn, or the Happy Bottom Riding Club--to savor her openhanded hospitality with food and booze, and to enjoy earthy stories about her past. Readers intrigued by Tom Wolfe's thumbnail sketch of Pancho in The Right Stuff will relish Lauren Kessler's full-length narrative of her adventurous life. --Wendy Smith

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Excellent, complete biography:

This particular book is the BEST bio of Pancho Barnes.
She was quite a figure. Some of the ranchier parts are left out by others who mention her.
This book appears to be matter-of-fact and complete, including the horrors of her solitary death cooped up with dozens of hungry yorkies, etc (you get the picture).
The seller offered this book at a very good price.
They shipped it well and quickly.
If anything, it was in better (tip top) shape than I expected.

Wow:

The only thing you can say to yourself when you finish "The Happy Bottom Riding Club" is Wow, what a life!
This book takes you into the fantasy like life of Florence "Pancho" Barnes. She had one heck of a life and it is certainly fun to read about it. From the cross country flying races to the rowdy parties packed with Hollywood celebrities and flying aces, Pancho Barnes did it all.
How many women are considered among the pioneers of aviation? How many women got to hang out with Jimmy Doolittle? How... more info

Fellow Woman Pilot:

A thoroughly enjoyable biography about a wild and adventurous woman. I have heard so much about Pancho in my flying career and my aviation studies. It was nice to know the whole story. I would have loved to have met Pancho. Perhaps, I'm glad I didn't. I know I'm glad I read this book! Enjoy! CAVU! Dash

Rugged Individualist Aviation History:

This book is MUST READ for anyone interested in the histories of aviation, of the 1920s, of Los Angeles, of the California desert, and of Edwards Air Force Base in particular. Pancho Barnes is a larger-than-life character. A slightly sad one, in a way, since she spent her way out of fortune into poverty; but, wow, if you are going to burn the candle at both ends, this is the way to do it. Flying booze in from Mexico during probihition, stunt riding for Hollywood movies (and the Foursquare Gospel),... more info

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