On July 18th 1938, at
Baldonnel Aerodrome, outside Dublin, a small aircraft landed without any
advance warning. On board was a solo pilot Douglas Corrigan. He was about to
become a cultural icon and celebrity and would forever be known as ‘Wrong Way
Corrigan’. An aircraft mechanic who had helped build Lindbergh’s ‘Spirit of St.
Louis’ that itself had crossed the Atlantic, he had purchased a 1929 Curtiss
Robin aircraft and modified it. He applied for permission to cross the Atlantic
from the United States but was denied as the authorities deemed his aircraft not
to be airworthy to make the crossing. On July 9th, Corrigan and his aircraft
left Long Beach, California and landed at Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York. On
July 16th he took off again from Bennett’s Field having filed a flight plan to
return west to California. But instead, he later claimed accidentally, his plane
flew twenty-seven hours west landing in Ireland.
He became an instant
media sensation and radio played a pivotal role in spreading his fame. A front-page
story across the world, he was even introduced to the Irish Taoiseach Eamon
DeValera at Irish Government buildings. The following day after he landed in Ireland
Corrigan would broadcast live on NBC across America from Dublin and that the broadcast
in itself received unprecedented press coverage.
Despite the fact that
Radio Eireann in their studios to the rear of the GPO on Dublin’s main thoroughfare
O’Connell Street closed transmissions at 11.30pm, the studios were opened at 3am
in the morning for Corrigan to broadcast to America. From Radio Eireann’s
studios and live across the United States, Corrigan held a conversation with
his grandmother, Aunt and Uncle in Hollywood, California. It would be his
native Hollywood California that would also turn his adventure into a big
screen movie ‘The Flying Irishman’ made by RKO Pictures. In his international
interview with Robert Ripley the creator of ‘Believe It or Not’ the host asked,
‘How
are they treating you?’
‘Oh
swell, they are treating me like an Irishman’ he replied according to the Irish
Independent report
‘He
then introduced the famous airman to his audience and then asked him a series
of questions similar to those he has been asked by newspaper men since he
suddenly appeared out of the clouds at Baldonnel’
Ripley in Hollywood continued
"Hello, Douglas; here's your uncle," and' the airman's uncle
greeted him with the news that Douglas also had become an uncle in
the previous 24 hours. "Your niece, Lucille Ann, was born at 12.17 last
night," he said.
Then his Uncle asked,
"Have you any need of money? "
" I guess not," replied Douglas.
"
Well, anyway," said his uncle, " I am sending you some through the
American Consul and don't fly back."
Douglas was just starting
to cash in on his new found celebrity status which included ticker tape parades
in both New York and Chicago. He was paid $2,000[1]
($36,000 in today’s money) for his interview with NBC but Radio Eireann got
little or nothing for their efforts to open their station doors to allow the
broadcast.
Corrigan, who was housed
in the American embassy in the Phoenix Park, gave an interview to Radio Eireann
the following Saturday. According to the newspapers,
‘Mr. Douglas Corrigan. the
American was the centre of attraction last night when he broadcast a
talk of five minutes from Radio Eireann.
"Hello,
Irishmen." were the first words used by Mr. Corrigan when he
stepped to the microphone.
Mr.
Eric Boden. compere, asked: What did it feel like when you came down at Baldonnel?
"
It felt pretty good to get on the ground again," said Mr. Corrigan. "I
was then a bit dubious as to what was going to happen next."
Mr. Corrigan had
some nice things to say about Baldonnel. Everybody interested in Ireland, he
said, knew about Baldonnel. The flying field was a good one but the buildings
did not seem quite so new as those in America.
Mr.
Boden, ‘When you were broadcasting previously you said you were being treated
here like an Irishman. What was implied by that?
Mr.
Corrigan-Well, I was being treated as good as anybody could treat anybody else.
I have met Mr. de Valera, and 1 have met Dr. Douglas Hyde[2].
Mr. Walsh. Mr. Leyden. Major-General Brennan, and they have all been very nice
to me.’
Before he departed
Ireland via Cobh, he spoke one again live to the US audiences in the early
hours of the morning, late night on the East Coast of the United States. Broadcasting for
CBS from the Customs office, at the Deep-Water Quay, Cobh, Douglas Corrigan gave
the American people some of his impressions of his stay in Ireland following
his flight. He made the broadcast through a long land link-up with
England, and in the little room those present could only hear the replies made
by Corrigan to the questions put to him by the interviewer, who was speaking
from America. Corrigan heard the questions through earphones.
Sharp at 4.30 a.m.
Corrigan, who was wearing the leather jacket in which he flew the Atlantic, two
weeks earlier, stepped up to the microphone and announced: "Hello, Dublin!
hello, London! hello, New York, this is Corrigan,' speaking from Cobh,
Ireland, I am sailing in about half an hour for New York. It is 4.30 here, and
a very wet night."
In reply to the questions
put to him Corrigan said he was most impressed by "the large crowds who
waited at each of the railway stations coming down from Dublin to Cork on the
train last night. They all wanted autographs, and 1 was very gratified, because
it was raining all the time.”
Corrigan returned with
his plane to New York by ship and was feted wherever he went, now known as ‘Wrong
Way Corrigan’.
