Speaking of Cmdr. Byrd:

In his autobiography “The Public is Never Wrong,” Adolph Zukor, one of the founders of Paramount Pictures and a great Hollywood moghul, reveals a surprising interest in aviation.

“In the spring of 1927, I was traveling in Europe but paying close attention to the papers for news of the trans-Atlantic flyers who were poised to take off from America. I was particularly interested in Commander Richard E Byrd because I had participated in the financing of his North Pole expedition a year or two earlier and had met him on several occasions.”  Pictured above, one of those occasions. 

Zukor goes on to describe how Byrd and his French pilot, Bert Acosta, were still “waiting for favorable weather” while a virtual unknown coming from nowhere – well, from St. Louis – suddenly appeared in the fog. Zukor and his aviation buddies ran out to Le Bourget field, and were there to cheer the landing of Lucky Lindy.