- Mabel Boll
-
Mabel Boll 
Born 1895 Died April 11, 1949 Other names "Queen of Diamonds", Mabel Boll Cella, Countess de la Porceerei, Senora Hernando Rocha-Schioos Citizenship American Occupation Actress Known for Actress, aviation pioneer, jewelry Home town Rochester, New York Net worth Over 1 million Spouse Robert Scott I (m. 1909–1917)
Hernando Rocha (m. 1922–1930)
Count Henri de Porceri (m. 1931–1933)
Theodore Cella (m. 1940–1949)Children Robert Scott II (1914-1942) Parents George Boll Mabel Boll (1895 – April 11, 1949), known as the "Queen of Diamonds", was an American socialite involved in the early days of record-setting flights in the 1920s. She garnered nicknames from the press, including "Broadway’s most beautiful blonde"[1] and "$250,000-a-day bride".
Contents
Early life
The Columbia
Mabel Boll was short, dark-eyed, and "vividly blonde". Her early employment was selling cigars in Rochester.[2] Boll beame an experienced horse rider[3], and married businessman Robert Scott in 1909[4] In 1914 she had a son, Rober Scott.
Boll was known as "The Queen of Diamonds" because of the amount of jewelry she publicly displayed.[5] At times she would wear over $400,000 in jewelry at a time in public and was photographed wearing a gold and platnuim sweater.[6] In 1922 Boll married Colombian coffee king Hernando Rocha, who presented her with over a million dollars in jewels and a 46.57-carat (9.31 g) emerald-cut diamond bearing her name "The Mabel Boll".[7] The diamond was purchased by the Harry Winston collection upon Boll's death in 1949.
In 1934, Boll made headlines again as the "Countess de la Porceerei" in Nice, France when her 27 year old boyfriend Georges Chariot shot himself on her lawn.[8]
Transatlantic fever
1927 was full of publicity surrounding Charles Lindbergh winning the Orteig Prize for his non-stop flight from New York to Paris. Mabel Boll wanted publicity as well and felt that being the first woman to cross the Atlantic would be headline news. While living in Paris, France, Boll announced she would pay 100,000 francs to any pilot that would fly her across the Atlantic from Paris.[9]
Flights in the Columbia
Admiral Byrd and Charles Levine competed for the Ortieg prize, but missed out. Each completed record flights shortly thereafter. While in Europe, Mabel Boll attempted to get Levine to fly her to America in the Columbia, which was still in France after a record-setting flight from New York. The inexperienced owner of the aircraft, Levine, had plans to fly it back to America with a French pilot, Maurice Droughin. After disagreements with Droughin and lawyers left the plane guarded and grounded, Levine took off to England claiming he was just testing the engine. Boll followed Levine to England by boat, talking Levine into letting her be a passenger. Just before the flight, Levine's new pilot, Capt. Hinchcliffe, publicly refused to let Boll fly along and instead flew to Rome, Italy, dropping a present to Benito Mussolini's son. Boll was invited to try an east-west flight from America and she set out for New York by boat in January 1928.[10]
On March 5, 1928, Wilmer Stultz, Oliver Colin LeBoutillier and Mabel Boll on a improvised seat, made the first non-stop flight in the Columbia between New York City and Havana, Cuba, placing Boll on the front page of the New York Times. Boll was sued a month later by Levine's company for $12,000 plus interest.[11] Boll was known as a temperamental passenger, once injuring pilot Erroll Boyd with a Alligator handbag in flight for making a premature landing in bad weather.[12]
In 1928, the same teams that attempted to win the Ortieg prize were competing to be the first to fly a woman across the Atlantic (as a passenger). Levine chose the flamboyant Mabel Boll. On the other extreme, Amelia Earhart was chosen as a demure and capable pilot sponsored by George Palmer Putnam and Amy Phipps Guest.
On June 26, 1928 Mabel was filmed leaving Roosevelt Field in the Columbia.[13] Boll was later spotted in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland as a passenger in the Columbia, piloted by Oliver Colin LeBoutillier and Arthur Argles owned by Columbia Aircraft Corp Chairman Charles Levine. While Boll publicly announced her aspiration to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart was also in Newfoundland at the same time, along with the German Thea Rasche.[14]
The newspapers focused their attention on the aspirations of “the Diamond Queen of Broadway”. Preparations for the trip were done with full publicity. At the same time in relative secrecy, pilots Wilmer Stultz and Gordon were believed by the press to be preparing Byrd’s Fokker “Friendship” for his planned trip to the South Pole. Stultz himself planned to be the pilot of the Columbia and defected to Byrd's crew.[15] On June 17 the “Friendship” took off from the bay at Trepassey, Newfoundland with Earhart on board, while the crew of the Columbia were grounded for five days due to the weather.[16] Upon learning of successful flight by Earhart and crew, Boll returned to America, donating $500 to the Newfoundland airstrip for development.[17]
A Junkers W 33Boll wanted a new nickname, "The Queen of the Air". For her last serious record attempt, Levine purchaced a customized long-range Junkers W 33 for $50,000 emblazoned with the logo "Queen of the Air" across the sides. Plans were made for Bert Acosta to fly Boll and Levine from Paris to New York for a new record, which was changed to London to New York attempt. By the time the aircraft arrived in late August 1928, the flying season was comming to an end and Levine was preoccupied with legal matters in the United States.[18] "The Queen of the Air" Junkers was transported back to America, damaged, and resold to William Rody. He renamed it to the "de Espírito Santo Agostinho" (ESA) and attempted a three man transatlantic crossing record from Libson on 13, September 1931. The aircraft landed in the Atlantic ocean, and the aircraft's empty tanks kept the crew for afloat several days before being rescued. [19] Boll's last effort to become a transatlantic passenger was refused by airplane owner, and entertainer Harry Richman.[20] Boll avoided the perils of record setting flights until 1936, when she announced she had been cured of her flying obsession.
Mabel Boll died of a stroke at the Manhattan State Hospital on Wards Island in April 1949 at the age of 54.[21]
References
- ^ "Harry Winston Jewlers". http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/california/los-angeles/beverly-hills/rodeo-drive/harry-winston/. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ "AERONAUTICS: Tale of Two". Time. Monday, Jun. 18, 1928.
- ^ Susan Sloate. Amelia Earhart: challenging the skies.
- ^ "MABEL BOLL DIES; 'DIAMOND QUEEN'; Bartender's Daughter Owned Fabulous Gems -- Balked in Efforts to Fly Atlantic". New York Times. April 12, 1949.
- ^ "Mabel Boll". http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/boll.html. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ The Atlantic monthly, Volume 159.
- ^ "Harry Winston Jewlers". http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/california/los-angeles/beverly-hills/rodeo-drive/harry-winston/. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ Rochester Evening Journal. 15 May 1934.
- ^ Susan Butler. East to the dawn: the life of Amelia Earhart.
- ^ Susan Butler. East to the dawn: the life of Amelia Earhart.
- ^ The Milwaukee Journal. 22 May 1928.
- ^ Ross Smyth. The Lindbergh of Canada: the Erroll Boyd story.
- ^ "MABEL BOLL IN RACE TO FLY OVER ATLANTIC". http://service.nfo.ac.uk/purl/article/0005-0003-3546-0000-0-0000-0000-0. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ "Mabel Boll". http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/boll.html. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ Judith Thurman (September 14, 2009). "Missing Woman Amelia Earhart’s flight". The New Yorker.
- ^ This World, Vol. 2, No. 21 San Francisco Chronicle. September 11, 1938.
- ^ "Columbia A Little Competition for Miss Earhart". http://www.hrgrace.ca/air.html. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
- ^ Richard Bak. The Big Jump: Lindbergh and the Great Atlantic Air Race.
- ^ "10th September 1931: Der Ozeanflugversuch der W 33 "ESA" September 1931: The ocean flight test of the W 33 "ESA"". http://www.junkers.de/kalenderblatt/201009_kb39_ozeanflugversuch_w33.html. Retrieved 6 July 2011.
- ^ Rochester Journal. 11 September 1936..
- ^ "Mabel Boll Dies. 'Diamond Queen'. Bartender's Daughter Owned Fabulous Gems. Balked in Efforts to Fly Atlantic". New York Times. April 12, 1949. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40B11FA3D5F177B93C0A8178FD85F4D8485F9. "Mrs. Mabel Boll Cella, who wanted to be Queen of the Air when the world knew her as the Queen of Diamonds, died Sunday of a stroke in Manhattan State Hospital for the mentally ill on Wards Island."
External links
Categories:- American aviators
- Aviation pioneers
- Female aviators
- 1949 deaths
- 1895 births
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