Pancho Barnes
Biography and Photos
Florence Pancho Lowe Barnes (1901 - 1975) was born to a wealthy and prominent Pasadena family. Her mentor and paternal grandfather, Thaddeus Lowe, was a famed balloonist, who developed aerial reconnaissance techniques for Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, and is considered the Founding Father of the United States Air Force. He was also a brilliant entrepreneur, who accumulated immense wealth from inventing an artificial ice machine (which was the first form of refrigeration that allowed cross continental shipment of perishables), a coke oven, and an incandescent gas system for lighting cities. Her maternal grandfather, Richard Dobbins, was a famed architect and engineer, designing and building hotels and public buildings in several East Coast cities, including designing and building the official buildings for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Through the years, grandfather Dobbins invested his money wisely in real estate, including purchasing major hotels in New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia. The Dobbins side of the family was even more wealthy than the Lowes. Granddaughter Florence would eventually inherit the bulk of these combined estates.
In the meantime, Florence experienced childhood with all the privileges. As she once said, "Nothing exceeds like excess!" She grew up in a 35-room mansion in Pasadena's finest neighborhood. She was an extremely bright, strong willed, energetic little girl with a huge curiosity. With the constant encouragement of Grandfather Lowe, she quickly came to the conclusion that she could achieve almost anything that she set her mind to. She was educated in private schools. She had horse-riding lessons from the best in their day, and by age 3 was most comfortable on horseback. She won her first trophy at age 5 at the First Annual Pasadena Horse Show. At one time in her youth, she held the record for the furthest distance jumped on a horse. Her best friend, riding partner and next door neighbor was George Patton (who later distinguished himself during his service as a commanding general during WWII). Florence's mother, also socially conscious, made sure that young Florence was trained in all the proper lady-like pastimes, such as needlework, painting, music and dance. At age 10, she was so skilled at dance that she was chosen to dance with the great Russian prima ballerina, Anna Pavlova, during her first California performance at the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1911.
However, despite her training and skill in the arts, she first and foremost loved activities involving fun and adventure. To the dismay of her family, she would often take her favorite horse and ride down to Grandmother Dobbins estate on Emerald Bay in Laguna Beach, or down to visit her friend Peggy Bixby at the famed Bixby Ranch in what is now Orange County . She and Peggy often would continue the ride down into Mexico. After a few of these adventures, Mrs. Lowe packed her off to Ramona Convent, a strict Catholic boarding school in Alhambra, in the hopes that the convents nuns would have some positive influence regarding her behavior. The exposure to the nuns, however, didn't help much. She later was enrolled at the very proper and religious Bishops School in La Jolla where she graduated high school. She continued her education at the Stickney School of Art in Pasadena, studying painting with internationally renowned painter, Guy Rose. Florence was quite the accomplished painter, readily selling all canvases she could produce.
Upon the arrangement of her mother, Florence was introduced to Rankin Barnes, who was the handsome and eligible bachelor pastor of the St. James Episcopal church in South Pasadena. The two dated for almost a year, and at age 20 she became Florence Lowe Barnes. For awhile, she settled into being the wife of a pastor. Within 9 months of the marriage, a son (William) was born. She referred to this as the virgin birth because she had been totally inexperienced when it came to sex. Although she and Rankin loved each other, it was a marriage on paper and they lived separate lives.
While married to Rankin, she went off by herself on long trips to South America, and extensively traveled within the USA. One adventure had her jumping what she thought was a banana boat to South America, only to find when it was out of port that it was actually running guns to Mexican revolutionaries. Of course this only delighted her, and she took up the cause. It was on this trip that her traveling companion, Roger Chute, christened her "Pancho." Throughout her life, Pancho traveled extensively in Mexico, and had an especially fond place in her heart for the Mexican people and culture.
Upon her return from the Mexico gun-running adventure she discovered that her cousin Dean Banks was taking flying lessons so that he could obtain a pilots license. She had long been fascinated by flight. At age 9, grandfather Thaddeus had taken her to the first American Aviation Exhibition held at Dominguez Hills in 1910. He predicted that one day she too would have a flying machine. So now the opportunity to fly presented itself, and she decided to go for it. However, in July 1928, there were few women pilots and the airfield was decidedly a male bastion. It wasn't that long ago women had gotten the right to vote! So on a lark, she decided to dress like a man when having her photo taken for her license application. The photographer was then a Laguna Beach unknown by the name of George Hurrell. She and George hit it off right away, and they became fast friends. They shared similar interests in fun, adventure and fishing.
Pancho's best friend at that time was Ramon Novarro, who was the most famous star in the world. He had just starred in the silent film Ben Hur, which was a hit worldwide. However, sound was coming. His contract was also coming up for renewal with MGM, and he was not sure that with the advent of talkies his Mexican accent would be accepted by American audiences. So to hedge his bets, he decided to secretly pursue plans for an operatic career in Europe should his contract negations fail. Ramon Novarro had a world-class operatic voice, so this would not be a problem. Getting publicity pictures in operatic costumes would be. He couldn't use the studio's photographers or those in town, because word might leak back to MGM and undermine his contract negotiations. So Pancho proposed using her new friend George Hurrell, who not only took a great photo of her for her pilot's license application, but had also made her look glamorous in some other photos he had taken. The photos of Ramon Novarro from that shoot with Hurrell were amazing. For one of the photos, George Hurrell used Pancho's favorite white horse, and positioned Ramon standing next to him holding a sword in a reflective pose. When Pancho saw this photo she commented, "If George can make my horse look as beautiful as the most handsome man in America, then George Hurrell is the photographer everyone should be using!" Ramon showed this photo, and the others from the session, to his close friend and confidant, Norma Shearer, who was married to Irving Thalberg head of MGM studios. She saw them and commented, "Wow, how sexy you look Ramon!!" Norma Shearer was also a star at MGM studios, but always played the sweet ingenue roles. She had recently read a script for The Divorcee, and wanted the lead role so she could finally portray a wild and sexy woman. However, when she told her husband that she wanted to try for the role he answered, "Honey, you're not sexy like that." This of course infuriated her, and she decided that she would also go outside the studio system and secretly have some sexy photos taken so she could prove her husband wrong. Hurrell took those pictures, and Norma got the role she wanted. She was also awarded the Academy Award for best actress for her role. Soon, George Hurrell was the most important and in-demand photographer in Hollywood. He later became the head glamour portrait photographer at MGM. Pancho had provided all the necessary introductions.
With her pilots license, Pancho was off and flying. She added an airstrip down at her bluffside mansion in Laguna Beach. She was an early barnstormer and stunt pilot. During the second half of her life, she would become even more famous as the brilliant and outrageous owner of The Happy Bottom Riding Club home to all the subsonic and supersonic test pilots with the Right Stuff.
Here are some more photos from the life of Pancho Barnes:
This photo of Pancho was taken by George Hurrell.
This photo of Pancho by George Hurrell
was used for publicity purposes during the Powder Puff Derby.
Pancho and friends at her home in Pasadena.
Photographs on this website are copyrighted by Pancho Barnes Enterprises, Inc.
