By S. Mark Rhodes

The great Pancho at the peak of her profane glory. (Courtesy of the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate)If there was ever a figure worthy of cult status in the aviation world, that individual must be Florence “Pancho” Barnes.  Barnes is probably best known as a character in Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff as well as the film version (played by Kim Stanley).  The time frame of the book and especially the film pick up at a point in Barnes’ life where she is the owner and operator of the “Happy Bottom Riding Club.”  The HBRC was basically a saloon out in the middle of the Mohave Dessert, which catered to the flyers at Muroc Field (later Edwards Air Force Base) who happened to be some of the finest and most legendary test pilots of the time like Chuck Yeager, Scott Crosffield and Buzz Aldrin.  Barnes held court at this raucous bar and “dude ranch” for many years helping provide emotional and libational support to this elite group of aviators.

The recently released Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club (Nick Spark Productions) helps give a full picture of Barnes that has only been hinted at in The Right Stuff.  Barnes grew up in a kind of blue blood family in Pasadena, California where she was expected to become a society lady like her mother.  This was not to be as the young Florence showed an adventuresome streak that was at considerable odds with her mom’s idea of how a young woman should conduct herself in public.