Donna in the News – “Route of Flight Changed”

Montran Monday
Montrans in the News
By Don Taylor

“Donna in the News” is my reporting of newly found newspaper articles and advertising regarding my grandmother, Madonna Montran (aka Donna Montran and aka Donna Darling). I am always excited when I find new information regarding my grandmother’s exciting show business career during the 1910s and 1920s. 

This week’s article is from the Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, Mass.) dated 22 July 1915.

Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, Mass.) dated 22 July 1915. (Via Newspapers.com)

ROUTE OF FLIGHT CHANGED

City Officials Refuse to Allow Miss Montran to Drop Pennants on Boston Common

Because of inability to secure a permit to drop the “Birth of a Nation” pennants on the Boston Common, the route of the biplane carrying Miss Donna Montran had to be suddenly changed. Miss Montran, one of the “belles of 1861” in the moving picture at the Tremont Theatre, expected to make two round trips with Captain J. Chauncey Redding, in his aeroplane, from Saugus to Boston, dropping from the machine, while over the Common, one hundred pennants advertising the “Birth of a Nation, twenty-five of which had free ticket attached.

City officials would not allow this to be done, so that instead of coming to Boston Miss Montran flew over Lynn and Revere, where the pennants were dropped. She was attired similar to the lobby girls at the Tremont Theatre, with the exception of the hoop skirt. It is doubtful if the flight over Boston could have been made even if a permit had been granted, for the weather conditions today would not allow for the altitude necessary to insure safety.

This article provided additional detail regarding Donna’s biplane flight in 1915 over Lynn and Revere and how come she didn’t fly over Boston Common and drop the pennants there.

For more about Donna’s 1915 Biplane Flight see July 22-23, 1915 – Saugus, Mass. – Donna’s Biplane Flight (Boston Daily Globe).