Nineteen sixty-six was a milestone year for women in aviation — it was the 20th year of the Powder Puff Derby, an annual transcontinental air race for women pilots. But that anniversary event was memorable for another reason, too; for the first time ever, a Black woman would participate in the race.
The All Woman Transcontinental Air Race, as the competition was formally called, wasn’t the first time Joan Murray had made history for being “the first.”
A pilot partnership in the making
In 1965, CBS News hired Murray as an on-air correspondent for its flagship station, WCBS-TV in New York, making her the first-ever African American woman to report the news on a major network show. Murray became a pilot so the station could tell the story of someone learning to fly a small airplane.
“Not knowing what I was getting into,” Murray recounted in her 1968 autobiography, “I said ‘OK’ and began what was one of the most exciting and interesting experiences of my life.” A film crew shadowed her as she took flying lessons at the Flying W Airport and Resort in New Jersey, which was known for its plane-shaped swimming pool. The Small Plane Boom documentary aired on CBS’s series Eye on New York in 1966.
The Powder Puff Derby’s 20th anniversary that year provided a timely news hook for Eye on New York to put Murray in the air.
Murray wasn’t yet qualified to fly competitively in 1966, so CBS went in search of an experienced co-pilot. A few weeks before the race, Eye on New York producer Robert Weimer met Merle Chalow (now Merle Starer) while at the Redding Air Show in Pennsylvania. She agreed to fly for Murray in an Aero Commander 200 provided by the manufacturer.
Starer was 14 when she started flying, soloed at 16 and earned her private pilot’s license at 17. She first flew in the Powder Puff Derby as a co-pilot in 1963, finishing in 13th place, and on her own the next two years. As the youngest command pilot in Powder Puff history, Starer finished fourth and best in class at age 18 in 1964, earning $400 and the Flying Magazine Award. She finished fifth in 1965, and was just 21 when she flew with Murray for the documentary in 1966.
Fast trek from Seattle to Clearwater
With the derby starting in Seattle that year, Murray and Starer had to fly across the country to enter the cross-country race. Another plane flew along with them to film their flight— a B-25 fitted with 16 mm cameras on the nose and side turrets. The World War II-era bomber belonged to the owner of the Flying W, who agreed to let CBS use it to capture footage for the documentary.
“The only extra equipment we were allowed to carry in our plane during the race was a tape recorder to document everything my co-pilot and I said,” Murray recounted in her book.
The toughest part of the race was leaving Seattle under visual flight rules. “The weather was just awful,” Starer recalled. “I think it was two days they had to postpone the start of the race,” and the weather remained marginal on the third day. “Getting out of the whole Seattle area was a mess until we got over that first mountain range.”
The other big challenges were exclusive to Starer as she tried to stay in formation with the B-25. Although the bomber flew slower than usual, Starer still had to push the Aero Commander close to full throttle to keep pace. Flying to the right and rear of the B-25 also put her in wake turbulence. “I quickly learned the exact location of the vortex coming off the wing tip so I could fly just above it, keeping the plane steady and level for the camera,” Starer said.
The Aero Commander’s top speed was 201 miles per hour, the fastest of the competing aircraft. That advantage meant Starer and Murray had to take off last for each leg of the race. They still finished the 2,875-mile race at Clearwater Airpark in Florida the day before any of the other 87 competing planes arrived. But, because they were filming a documentary, their first-place finish didn’t count; that honor went to Bernice Steadman and Mary Clark, who won the race in a Piper Cherokee.
‘Experimental’ flying in mountain terrain
The work on the documentary didn’t end when the race did. CBS wanted some scenic aerial footage for the story, so Murray, Starer and the film crew headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the Grand Teton Mountains served as their backdrop.
The follow-up flights gave CBS the opportunity to get close-ups of Murray and Starer in the Aero Commander. With FAA permission, the network mounted a 16 mm camera on the front of the plane, facing into the cockpit. “This was quite an engineering feat, as the 18-inch-high camera had to be attached to the engine mount to ensure that it remained secure in the 200 mph slipstream,” Starer said. To satisfy the FAA’s categorization of the plane, a sign that read “experimental” was affixed to the door any time the camera was mounted.
The team endured one tense aviation moment while in Wyoming. The camera was mounted on the plane, and a producer and cameraman were in the back seat, putting the Aero Commander at maximum gross weight. With filming for the day complete, Starer looked for a pass to get back to the airport. The mountains around her obstructed the ground navigation signal, so she used a sectional chart to find her way.
“As I headed into the pass back to Jackson Hole Airport with the 12,000-foot peaks on either side of me, something didn’t look quite right,” she said. “As I rounded a corner I suddenly realized that I had mistakenly flown up a box canyon!” It was an intimidating situation for a pilot who had done most of her flying over flat terrain in New Jersey and who only knew about the hazards of box canyons from instructional books.
The weight of the camera on the nose and the heat of the July day limited the plane’s ability to climb over the mountains, Starer said. “So I ever so gingerly put the plane in a shallow turn, dropping the nose a little to maintain speed while skimming the sides of the canyon walls as I nursed the Aero Commander out of that box canyon.”
As if that weren’t enough drama, Murray added in her book that the plane’s engine died. “We had just enough lift and speed to take us over a small mountain peak, and there — thank God — was the airport,” she wrote. “We landed ‘dead stick’ — that is, with no power at all.”
‘A Powder Puff for Joan’
Filmed in July, the colorcast documentary “A Powder Puff for Joan” aired on WCBS over two Sundays, Sept. 26 and Oct. 2. The Women’s Advisory Committee on Aviation hosted a screening for FAA employees and their spouses on Nov. 2, the first showing outside New York. “Eye on New York” producer George Dessart helped arrange the event.
“It is exceptional to be permitted to show it before general distribution,” FAA Executive Secretary John Kennedy said in announcing the screening. The documentary was one of two films presented that night. The other was a 29-minute color FAA film titled “Aviation Workshop.” Produced for use in schools, it provided a behind-the-scenes look at FAA careers and featured clips from past FAA films.
Deputy Administrator Thomas suggested that CBS share “A Powder Puff for Joan” with other television outlets and asked CBS if the agency could arrange screenings before aviation audiences. “As a possible exchange, we have several films of general interest on aviation subjects that might be useful to you,” Thomas wrote. Multiple chapters of The Ninety-Nines hosted screenings of the CBS documentary in the ensuing months.
After leaving the TV industry, Murray founded an advertising and marketing firm geared toward minorities, worked for the U.S. State Department to distribute films to African nations, and helped open a hospital and ran a boutique in Los Angeles. Starer met her husband, Bob, on an airport ramp while parachuting, and they have spent a lifetime in the clouds, including in the Aero Commander 200D he bought her as a wedding gift.
The Starers now live on a Cape Charles, Virginia, farm that is home to Starbase Airport, a 5,000-foot grass strip.
