Guest For  Thursday March 2,  2006

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                                                   NOTE!!

Dear Members of the List & Others: We are VERY happy to announce:

 

                          Like a Beautiful Soaring PHOENIX - The

 

 STREAMING OF MNN PROGRAMMING IS BACK!!

 

          Utilizing the much improved Windows Media Player format:

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                                             GUEST:

 

                                (Originally Aired 9-13-05)

 

                    NORMAN  WEINSTEIN

                               

                          

                          PLAYWRIGHT

                               Author:

       "A Man With Medals & A Man Without"

"A biographical drama about Eugene Jacques Bullard, an African American

 who leaves home at eleven, reaches France, becomes a decorated hero in

two world wars and the world’s first black combat aviator; he also plays a

part in the 1920s Montmartre scene. Racism defeats him neither physically

nor emotionally as he fights it while remaining true to his concept of  

                                               self."                                            

                     

                    

                                   Eugene Jacque Bullard

                         

                                                    Bullards's Medals

                                 d.nweindeb@verizon.net

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More about Norman Weinstein & EUGENE JACQUE BULLARD

NORMAN WEINSTEIN

Résumé

Biographical Information

Born and raised Roanoke, VA........U.S. Maritime Service and Air Transport Command, WW II.......Teacher of English, journalism, dramatics in Virginia, New York, Greece, France........Stage director and actor in community theater........Volunteer worker in the Bronx Zoo Education Department........Antiques dealer specializing in the Arts & Crafts period........Married, with 3 children and 2 grandchildren........Member of The Dramatists Guild and Times Square Playwrights.

General Writing Experiences

Air Force newspaper reporter, largely writing by-line features.

Full-length book, Let Us Be Greek: Poems and Notes on a People’s Struggle (interrelated engaged verse on the 1967 fascist coup d’état in Greece), published in 1975 by Dorrance & Co.

Copy editor and by-lined columnist for two nationally circulated decorative arts magazines, Style 1900 (Arts and Crafts period) and The Modernist.

Theatrical Writing

Completed:

Arthur of the Little Round Table: comedy, wherein an innocent antiques dealer, Arthur, copes with an arrogant collector, a sleazy antiques picker, and a critical wife as he hunts a missing treasure by the renowned Gustav Stickley. Full Equity showcase production for 10-performance run in NYC in November 2004.(Cast: 3 females, 4 males)

Drummers, Dreams and Family Matters: comedy about a 3-generation family whose unity is challenged by its highly individual members and their respective dreams. (Cast: 3 females, 4 males)

Politics & Bedfellows: comedy about a threatened marriage and small-town politics, chosen as a winner in the Chamber Theatre Festival of Pulse Ensemble Theatre, NYC. (Cast: 3 females, 5 males)

“Lov [sic] Story”: one-act comedy involving a young man and woman who meet in Times Square and manage to blow a possible relationship. Full production by Pulse Theatre’s Open Pulse Arts Lab. (Cast: 1 female, 2 males)

“Homer Should Only Know”: one-act comedy which freely uses the ancient House of Atreus story to comment on current events by exploring the origin of the Trojan War. (Cast: 2 females, 2 males)

“Grampa Cass”: irascible old Cass’s political liberalism strongly disturbs his pro-Bush son and daughter-in-law (Cast: 1 female, 4 males)

“With Gods Like These...”: one-act comedy presenting a contest between an ancient pagan goddess and our own Biblical god to win over a pair of young mortal lovers. (Cast: 2 females, 2 males)

“Ghosts and Other Immigrants”: short comedy in which 3 Mexican immigrants, aided by a Haitian witch, seek advice from long-gone Lower Eastsiders. (Cast: 2 females, 5 males, one of the males doubling)

“Monkey’s Nephew”: short comedy about Bush/Cheney/Rove/Laura vs. Charles Darwin. (Cast: 1 female, 4 males)

"A Man With Medals and A Man Without": a biographical drama about Eugene Jacques Bullard, an African American who leaves home at eleven, reaches France, becomes a decorated hero in two world wars and the world’s first black combat aviator; he also plays a part in the 1920s Montmartre scene. Racism defeats him neither physically nor emotionally as he fights it while remaining true to his concept of self.

Works in progress:

Two Cats and a Kid: musical comedy for all audiences  - adult, about two strangers, in reality cats, who attempt to bring young Trudy into their world, but she decides, reluctantly, to stay with her parents. (Cast: 3 females, 3 males)

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USAF Museum History WWI History   Lt. Erwin Bleckley Capt. Phelps Collins

Eugene Jacques Bullard

Of more than 200 Americans who flew for France during WWI, one of particular uniqueness was Eugene Bullard, the only Black pilot of WWI. A great tribute to Bullard is found in the famous book by Nordhoff and Hall, The Lafayette Flying Corps, published in 1920. "The writer will never forget one occasion when he was waiting at 23 Avenue du Bois to see Dr. Gros. Suddenly the door opened to admit a vision of military splendor such as one does not see twice in a lifetime. It was Eugene Bullard. His jolly black face shone with a grin of greeting and justifiable vanity. He wore a pair of tan aviator's boots which gleamed with a mirror-like luster, and above his breeches smote the eye with a dash of vivid scarlet. His black tunic, excellently cut and set off by a fine figure, was decorated with a pilot's badge, a Croix de Guerre, the fourragere of the Foreign Legion, and a pair of enormous wings, which left no possible doubt, even at a distance of fifty feet, as to which arm of the Service he adorned. The eleces-pilotes gasped, the eyes of the neophytes stood out from their heads, and I repressed a strong instinct to stand at attention. There was scarcely an American at Atord who did not know and like Bullard. He was a brave, loyal, and thoroughly likable fellow, and when a quarrel with one of his superiors caused his withdrawl from the Aviation, there was scarcely an American who did not regret the fact. He was sent to the 170th French Infantry Regiment in January, 1918..." Following WWI, Bullard remained in France until the German occupation of Paris in 1940, at which time he had to flee the country because of his previous activities of spying against the Nazis. He returned to the U.S. and lived in New York City until his death in 1961. Thus passed from the scene the first black pilot in the history of military aviation. Bullard's Medals The cover of The Black Swallow of Death a book about Bullard.

Eugene Jacques Bullard

 

 

One of the greatest American flying aces of World War I never flew for the United States. All of his medals and military decorations were bestowed by the French.

Eugene Jacques Bullard, the world's first black combat pilot, born in 1894 in Columbus, Georgia, the grandson of a slave. A childhood dream was to live in France, because he he had been told that bigotry was unknown there. So Bullard sailed to Europe as a stowaway, and in 1914 enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, where he earned the nickname “Black Swallow of Death.” After recovering from serious wounds received at Verdun, Bullard arranged transfer to the French Flying Corps.

When the United States entered the war in 1917, it was announced that the American pilots serving in France would be accepted in the U.S. air corps and commissioned as pilots. Bullard applied but his application was ignored. Bullard remained in the French Flying Corps. Engaged in many dogfights, his plane was once forced to land behind enemy lines. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre among several other decorations. Despite this he was unexpectedly permanently grounded - on charges of insubordination, clearly a case of bigotry in his beloved France. He served the rest of the war in the French infantry.

After the Armistice, Bullard worked in France as a bandleader, and subsequently married a French countess, ran an athletic club and his own nightclubs. During World War II he joined the French Underground. After being wounded at Le Blanc, he returned to the U.S., working at a number of menial jobs.

Among the many medals he was awarded was the Legion d'Honneur - France's highest honor, the equivalent of our Medal of Honor in the United States.

He lived his last years in a cluttered Harlem apartment, where he died in 1961. He was buried in the French War Veteran's Cemetery in Flushing, New York.

Provided by Jim Thompson of African-American Heroes.

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