Bert Hall
Encyclopedia
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, actor, writer and military aviator
Military aviation
Military aviation is the use of aircraft and other flying machines for the purposes of conducting or enabling warfare, including national airlift capacity to provide logistical supply to forces stationed in a theater or along a front. Air power includes the national means of conducting such...
. Hall was one of America's first combat aviators, who flew with the famed Lafayette Escadrille
Lafayette Escadrille
The Lafayette Escadrille , was an escadrille of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique militaire, during World War I composed largely of American volunteer pilots flying fighters.-History:Dr. Edmund L...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, before the U.S. entered World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He has been given the honorable title "Soldier of Fortune" due to his distinguished career. Perhaps this title also reflects that a leave of absence from fighting may have contributed to saving his life. Survival of these combat aviators was extremely low, since many of them were shot down after only a few weeks. Hall was known to be boastful, but he put his words into action through writing and movie making:
Bert Hall gave live presentations, for his 1919 Romance of the Air movie, in the theaters.
There is an entirely different version o this man's life (ref: theaerodrome.com). Dennis Gordon wrote a book called "Autobiographies of the Lafayette Escadrille" published by the Doughboy Historical Society - POB 3912 Missoula, MT 59806. Biography 13 tells the story of Weston Birch Hall, a.k.a. "Bert Hall". According to this book, Bert Hall was a four-flusher, a liar, and a deserter. He did get four confirmed kills in the LS and several medals and was the sqdn. adjutant. But he was a liar and a good poker player who could read his opponents. and usually cleaned the table. In civilian life he was a con man, and you'll enjoy his capers...
He once obtained $20,000 or so from the Chinese Government with the assurance that he would buy surplus planes from the U.S. Government and return to China to set up an air service for them. He spent the money on other things and was charged and sent to prison by the U.S. Bert Hall was released from McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in May 1936 and lived in Seattle for a few months before heading to Hollywood to work for Twentieth Century Fox studios. Weary of Hollywood, in 1940 he moved to Dayton, Ohio and in 1944 settled in Castalia, Ohio where he started the Sturdy Toy Factory. On December 6, 1948 he died of a massive heart attack while driving down the highway near Fremont, Ohio. His ashes were scattered over his hometown of Higginsville, Missouri on January 20, 1950.