Sybil Bruncheon's "My Merry Memoirs... Kabooom!"...

Zeppelin Collage (474).jpg

The Hindenburg Disaster: May 6th, 1937; Darlings!!!! Mummie was digging through the attic as she always does right before anniversaries of major events in her life... (I don't know!... they bring out the Miss Havisham in me!)... and while rummaging through my steamer trunks, I found some old photos and treasures, including a photo of a silent film I had done with Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Fatty Arbuckle, and Hester Xylph about the adventures of a young chanteuse who "Charlestons" her way around the world on a zeppelin! The original book was called THE GIRL WHO DANCED ON AIR! But the movie was retitled THE FLOOZY FLIES ON FRIDAY!! Here's my sterling silver cocktail shaker that L.B. Mayer gave me on opening night and the poster for the film!!!... I got so interested in air travel that I got my aviatrix's license and bought stock in a failing airship company and its fleet of three bi-planes and four old WWI zeppelins. I renamed it AERO-BRUNCHEON... ah, good times... good times!...

... sadly, right after the Hindenburg went down right beside our landing strip... well, you can imagine there was a big fall-off in ticket sales!!... I ended up wallpapering my ballroom with the beautifully engraved stock certificates. They were printed in the loveliest shade of sage-green... to match my eyes!... almost exactly! (ps. I adore Klieg lights for ANY occasion don't you!? That’s the poster for THE FLOOZY FLIES ON FRIDAY!… and look! There I am hanging from the gondola!!!)

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Sybil Bruncheon’s “My Merry Memoirs!”… Just Floating Along... April 15th, 1912...

APRIL 15th, 1912...

So many of you have asked how Mummie survived the Titanic disaster... and I've explained that when the liner struck the iceberg, I was in the casino hosting the "Smarty-Pantz Trivia Challenge" with the famous electrified Chauncey Wheel!! We had just completed several amazing questions from the categories "Give Me Head...Lines", "Artsy-Fartsy", and "Let's Visit Uranus"! We had our three finalists, and the crowd was on the edge of their seats, when suddenly we struck the iceberg!... and they were literally on the edge of their seats!!... and then dumped on the floor as the room began to tip! The entire Chauncey Wheel broke loose from its decorative platform and swept me up in its gear-works! We slid the full length of the grand ballroom, through the Pastry & Fine Custards Pantry, past the silverware and crystal closets, then right out onto the deck...AND OVERBOARD!...

Technically, I was the first person to actually leave the ship according to a nice stewardess who was having a quick smoke and tried to grab one of my epaulets as I slid by! I floated away on the Chauncey Wheel while the whole tragedy unfolded, and I actually conversed with Rose DeWitt Bukater as she paddled by on a bathroom door.... or was it a 2nd class ping pong table....whatever! The tremendous suction of the sinking ship was no match for the bouyancy of the brightly colored Chauncey wheel… or of my own spirits while sprawled on its cheery face! Interestingly, I had been saved by the very same Chauncey Wheel when I dove under it at the Veterans' Convention Hall on the corner of Post and Grant Avenue.... during the San Francisco earthquake six years earlier... almost to the day!! And, of course, my beloved Chauncey Wheel was my heroic companion again later in 1936 on a trans-Atlantic tour I did that ended on the Hindenburg... ah, good times... good times... Oh! Did I mention the Andrea Doria??...

(Sybil photo by Koitz F. Etxeberria)

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