Product Details

• Actors: Buzz Aldrin, Kathy Bates, Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover, Gene Nora Jessen
• Directors: Amanda Pope, Nick T Spark (Producer)
• Format: NTSC, Surround Sound, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Nick Spark Productions LLC
• DVD Release Date: October 1, 2009
• Run Time: 64 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002NHX1YK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,645 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you haven't seen the film, and you love aviation history ... you need to see it. --PilotMag, July 2010

Aficionados of aviation's golden age will find a life and times tale here that is as entertaining as it is comprehensive. --Aviation History, March 2011

A thoroughly entertaining look at a very unconventional life. If all you know of Pancho Barnes comes from Kim Stanley's portrayal of her in The Right Stuff, well, you've come to the right place. --After Ellen, July 2009

Product Description

Winner of an Emmy and multiple film festival awards including Best Documentary Film and Audience Awards in 2010, The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club is a fun-filled documentary romp through the life of one of the most colorful and accomplished female pilots of the early 20th Century. Florence ''Pancho'' Barnes was the first woman stunt pilot in Hollywood in 1929 and shattered Amelia Earhart's air speed record in 1930. In the 1940's and 50's, Pancho entertained the greatest test pilots in the world, the men with the right stuff at the infamous ''Happy Bottom Riding Club'' guest ranch near Edwards Air Force Base. When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 in 1947, he partied with Pancho. A friend of the fast and the famous, Pancho Barnes was a swaggering, forceful, ill-behaved woman whose exploits and accomplishments are truly the stuff of legend.

Featuring never-before-seen photographs and film footage and interviews with many of Pancho's friends including astronaut Buzz Aldrin and famed test pilots Bob Cardenas, Bob Hoover and Chuck Yeager, The Legend of Pancho Barnes is an unforgettable, exciting, and poignant romp through aviation history. Narrated by Tom Skerritt, with Kathy Bates as the voice of Pancho Barnes.

This multi-award-winning film has screened throughout the United States on public television (PBS), in Australia, and in nearly a dozen film festivals. Celebrated within the aviation community, it was specially screened at the EAA's AirVenture in 2010 and 2011, at AOPA's annual convention, at Sun 'N Fun, the Arlington Fly In, NASA Dryden, and at scores of air museums nationwide.

This deluxe DVD features both the broadcast version (as seen on public television) and the special uncensored film festival version of the documentary, along with nearly 18 minutes of additional video including deleted scenes. It also features commentary from writer/producer Nick Spark and director Amanda Pope, a study guide for secondary school students, and more.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We got your prime pilots, & we got your pudknockers., October 8, 2009

By 

Ben Margot - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club (DVD)

If you saw the classic movie "The Right Stuff", and were interested in the rough-hewn female bartender who ran the local watering hole "Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club" and put Gordon Cooper & Gus Grissom in their place at the bar at Edwards AFB, this film is for you. This amazing documentary has been years in the making, and was well worth the wait. The life and times of the legendary, inimitable, Florence "Pancho" Barnes is told by many of the people who knew her best, America's finest test pilots of the era- including Chuck Yeager, Bob Hoover, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Bob Cardenas, among others who worked & actually lived with Pancho. More than just a biography, this film for me was also a history lesson studying the early years of female aviation, as well as a glimpse at the men who risked their lives daily at Edwards, testing 'hurtling pieces of machinery', some with no method of ejection from when things went wrong, which they often did. The DVD is loaded with extras, including 2 versions of the film, the longer 64 min. one a little racier for adults, as well as 18 min. of bonus scenes, and a rare audio track where Pancho relates some of her experiences in her own voice during an interview for a student. Chock full of vintage photos & video, this film delves into the character of a woman who lived her own dreams and never gave up, an individual that many would consider larger than life. In her own words, "We have more fun in a week than other weenies do in a lifetime". Narrated by Tom Skerrit, with the voice of Kathy Bates as Pancho, this is an entertaining, informative look into an era that could never happen again. A fine addition to the video library of the aviation enthusiast.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Full Story of Pancho Barnes, April 6, 2010

By 

P. J. Okawa "aviation historian" (Palmdale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club (DVD)

I heard of the "colorful" Pancho Barnes when I moved to
the Antelope Valley in 2000. This movie tells her story more fully with interviews by her contemporaries and material from her estate.
I did not know her grandfather was the famous Thaddeus Lowe. She is
still a presence in aviation circles at Edwards Air Force Base.

This film is for anyone interested in American aviation history.
Yes, there was Amelia Earhart and Jackie Cochrane, but there was also Pancho Barnes who made contributions to the development of flying that should be better known. This movie does just that.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pancho Barnes, November 24, 2009

By 

Josh W. Scheider - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club (DVD)

Great educational video. But most of all Pancho was one of the Greatest American's that ever lived. I just wish the video "Pancho Barnes" with Valerie Bertinelli was on DVD too. I think Kim Stanley in "The Right Stuff" had a better grasp on how Pancho acted. Though Bertinelli had no idea how to pro tray Pancho because Pancho really could get her own way at times, and she much louder than life it self. This video that was put out gets as close to Pancho as you can imagine.