Air Comics

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2005 1:39 pm

I saw this on the MustangMustangs site and thought it would be of interest.

I remember waaaaay back in the Jurassic, when we used to have an event called
the "Fresno Warbirds Fly-In" at Chandler Field in downtown Fresno,
California. This was 1974-77 IIRC. Anyway, in 1976 (I remember it well with
all the Bicentennial hoo-rah going on), the B-25 "Executive Sweet" - at the
time owned by the owner of Challenge Publications, Ed Schnepf - arrived for
the show. Mr. O'Leary, climbed out, settling his robe and crown on his
shoulders at a jaunty angle, and was followed by several of the "cover girls"
from the "other" Challenge Publications publications - a sight to see they
were, in their hotpants and platform boots. They were *not* such a sight to
see shortly thereafter when, at the behest of Mr. O'Leary, they started
climbing on the airplanes. Now, it's true that a P-51 has a stronger skin on
the wing than a Sopwith of any variety, but high heels are still considered
not a good idea, because of the intense pressure on the particular point of
contact - to say nothing of the potential liability when said cover girl fell
off the wing on her posterior and sued the owner. So, when people saw this,
they immediately said "get off the airplanes!" (actually they said it with
much more imperative intonation than that), to which O'Leary, Schnepf, et al
replied, "We're from Challenge Publications," to which the response was
(again with much more imperative intonation) "we don't care, get off the
airplanes." This soon escalated, with the result being that the ladies did
get off the airplanes and "Executive Sweet" was cleared for immediate
departure. As he climbed in the plane, Mr. Schnepf declared "You people and
this show will *never* appear in our publications again!" And in fact, we
didn't. The closest I have come to an appearance was riding in the back seat
of the Planes of Fame Mustang (the flight memorialized on the cover page of
my personal website), and when it came time for Mr. O'Leary to photograph the
airplane, I ducked. The photo did make it into the magazine, and if one
looks closely, there is a strange "antenna bulge" just faintly observable
over the sill in the rear seat.

One of many wonderful tales people in the California warbirds movement can
tell about their favorite photographer and his platform of publicity.

mrhenniger · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2005 1:50 pm

Good story Jack!

Mike

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2005 4:29 pm

Not my story I was only 11 years old.
This is posted on the
mustangsmustangs.com site.

HarvardIV · **Joined:** Mon Oct 04, 2004 9:08 pm **Posts:** 1437

Maybe he was wanting to photo some models for a calendar. He probably spent a lot of money, and was pretty disappointed.

JohnH · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2005 5:16 pm

An old friend who worked at a bookstore used to tell me that Challenge also published other magazines more inline with the main industry in San Fernando Valley. I know now they no longer own those but I never got to see them.

John

corsair166b · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2005 6:16 pm

I've heard that too, that Mr. Schnepf was involved in several, more 'colorful' ventures involving pretty girls and minimal...or non-existent...clothing....so I would hazard a guess there is some truth to it all. As for stories about dealings with the magazine and Mr. O'Leary, I have a few of my own with not so happy endings, but in the interest of 'mending fences' and the fact that I got along relatively well with Mr. O'Leary at the last Corsair gathering (the last time I saw him), I choose not to burn the bridge that I have started to build...

Mark

Scott Rose · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2005 8:35 pm

For legal reasons this post is locked for now, it might reopen later.

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