Heavenly Matches

Lest anyone think that getting married in an airplane is a publicity stunt peculiar to the 20th Century, Sportsman Pilot for August (out last week; published an article, "Matches Made in the Heavens,'' proving that the aerial wedding stunt is something like 100 years old. Publicly-loving couples of the 19th Century used to get married in balloons decked with satin, festooned with ribbons and banners. Historians of these phenomena are Mrs. Bella C. Landauer, Manhattan bibliophile and only important woman collector of aeronauticana, and Harry Bischoff Weiss, associate editor of the American Book Collector.

The earliest aerial-wedding proposal on record was made by the French Socialist Philosopher Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon. In 1802 he learned of the death of the husband of famed Essayist Mme Anne Louise Germaine de Stael. Promptly the Comte divorced his own wife, hastened to Geneva, informed Mme de Stael that he and she, ''the most extraordinary persons who exist.'' would be married in a balloon and would create a child "who will startle the world at large." Mme de Stael said no.

First air-wedding to be recorded, few years later, was that of a young Belgian aeronaut, Georges Raoul Thiel, and Madeleine Bailly. Their balloon, a primitive affair composed of gasbag and plain square basket, was named Lime de Miel ("Honeymoon"). The Thiels were married by the Brussels burgomeister in the public square, then cast off in the Lime de Miel to sail over the countryside, landing prettily in a cow pasture a few miles away.

Few years later (1824) a pre-nuptial flight ended in tragedy. The English aeronaut Thomas Harris took his fiancee up in a balloon from Vauxhall, London. After getting altitude he opened a hydrogen valve, to hover in the skies with his lady. Then occurred the same mishap as befell Commander Settle and his stratosphere balloon over Chicago last fortnight. The valve refused to close again, down came the balloon. Aeronaut Harris dumped all ballast, threw overboard his own clothing and even his fiancee's. Still the balloon plunged downward. Grimly Harris kissed his companion goodbye, then jumped to his death, lightening the basket enough to save her life.

Harper's Weekly recorded the first balloon honeymoon in the U. S. in 1865, when Mary West Jenkins of Northampton, Mass, married John F. Boynton. Their pilot was Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, who had proposed to fly a balloon across the Atlantic but gave up the scheme when the Civil War broke out. (He organized and commanded a two-balloon air force for the Union Army.) A crowd of 6,000 cheered the take-off of the Jenkins-Boynton party from Manhattan's Central Park. The balloon was a gorgeous affair, the basket draped with red and gold damask, thickly carpeted, with a cushioned seat covered in green flowered satin. The cords from the bag were alternating red, white and blue, crossed by ropes of red and green. U. S. flags stuck out at all angles. Bride & groom were dressed magnificently. High above the city they signed a marriage contract, landed in the suburbs, rode back to town that night. Mrs. Boynton died only last April.

Lost to history are the names of the couple who in 1880 were married over Taunton, Mass, in a balloon labeled "Cupid's Bridal Chariot" (see cut). According to the advance handbill in Mrs. Landauer's collection: ". . . Telephones will be attached to the Bridal Chariot and from thence to the different portions of the vast congregations below, that all may hear. ... At the conclusion of the marriage ceremony the balloon will be lowered to the earth, the bride will be presented with $100 in gold. The balloon will then be let loose and the wedding party started on their heavenly tour of bliss."

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