Brazos Past: Aviators former vaudeville troupe at Waco air base
By Terri Jo Ryan Special to the Tribune-Herald
Rich Field, the U.S. Army air base established southwest of Waco from 1917 to 1919, was a place of solemn, serious training in the deadly arts of war.
But it also had its softer side — a goofy side, actually — where the men could laugh away some of their cares even as they prepared for duty overseas.
Rich Field was built southwest of Waco near what is now the intersection of Bosque Boulevard and 41st Street. It served as the temporary home for some 400 cadets and their instructors.
One of the amenities was a $10,000 pool (more than $160,000 in today’s dollars) constructed by the Waco YMCA. A group of student aviators and other officers endeavored to show their appreciation to the nonprofit organization by “paying back” some of the costs associated with the pool’s installation.
They formed the Rich Field Vaudeville Company and stocked it with performers, such as magicians, cartoonists, comic ensembles, an “eccentric juggler,” a ventriloquist and musical acts.
From April through June 1918, they toured Central and North Texas cities, from Waco to Dallas, and raised more than $3,000 for the YMCA. As men were sent off to European skies for battle, other acts were rotated in.
Cadets and instructors also got a shot of jocularity from each weekly issue of the “Rich Field Flyer,” the camp newsletter. It published corny jokes, gossipy tidbits about the service personnel and several cartoons by contributing artists like Sgt. George W. Hoffman of Squadron C and E.G. Bahl (who later went on to barnstorm with Charles Lindbergh in the early 1920s).
Although Rich Field was abandoned as a military base by the spring of 1919, aviation activity continued there as a civil airport for two more decades. Private flying lessons were available, and during the 1920s and 1930s, traveling air shows occasionally visited Rich Field.
Sources: The Conjuring Arts Research Center; EarlyAviators.com; Mike Cox, TexasEscapes.com; Col. C. R. Glasebrook, American Aviators in the Great War 1914-1918; Handbook of Texas Online; TheAerodrome.com; AeroFiles.com.
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