Cummings, Robert Orville, Capt

From wikipedia: While attending Joplin High School, Cummings was taught to fly by his godfather, Orville Wright. During high school Cummings would give Joplin residents rides in his plane for $5 per person.

[Author's note: The airport from which Cummings flew in those days was located just east of what is now Range Line Road, between south 20 & 30th Streets, in an area that to this day remains basically flat open space behind the shopping centers built since. The runways were not paved. The steel skeletons of old hangars are still standing. As recently as the 1960s that area of east Joplin was sparsely populated from there to the nearby village of Duquesne. In that period, there was a large Bob Cummings restaurant on Range Line adjacent to the area where the airfield used to be.]

Cummings studied briefly at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, but his love of flying caused him to transfer to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[7] He studied aeronautical engineering for a year before being forced to drop out for financial reasons, his family having lost heavily in the 1929 stock market crash.[7] Since the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City paid its male actors $14 a week, Cummings decided to study there. He studied drama for two years before appearing in Broadway in 1931. As British actors were heavily in demand, Cummings traveled to England and learned to mimic an upper-class English accent. He had a brief career on Broadway under the name Blade Stanhope Conway, posing as an Englishman. Cummings then decided to use his own name, acting throughout the 1930s as a contract player in a number of supporting roles...

World War II In November 1942, Cummings joined the United States Army Air Forces. During the war he served as a flight instructor. Cummings had worked as a flight instructor for many years prior to the war. He was, in fact, the first certified flight instructor in the United States, having gained certification in 1938. After the war, Cummings served as a pilot in the United States Air Force Reserve. ----------

Bob Cummings AKA Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings Born: 10-Jun-1908 Birthplace: Joplin, MO Died: 2-Dec-1990 Location of death: Woodland Hills, CA Cause of death: Kidney failure Remains: Buried, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, CA Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States Executive summary: The Bob Cummings Show Military service: US Army Air Corps (WWII, pilot, stationed Oxnard CA) Wife: Emma Myers (two sons) Wife: Vivi Janiss (m. 1933, div.) Wife: Mary Elliott (m. 3-Mar-1945, div. 15-Jan-1970, five children) Wife: Regina Fong Wife: Jane Berzynsky (m. 1989) High School: Joplin High School, Joplin, MO (1928) University: Carnegie Tech University: American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Manhattan, NY Emmy 1955 for Studio One ("Twelve Angry Men") Hollywood Walk of Fame 6663 Hollywood Blvd. (motion pictures) Hollywood Walk of Fame 1718 Vine St. (television) TELEVISION The Bob Cummings Show Bob Collins (1955-59) My Living Doll Dr. Robert McDonald (1964-65)

Filmography Seasoned Greetings (1933) (short subject) Sons of the Desert (1933) [as "Blade Stanhope Conway"; crowd extra] The Virginia Judge (1933) So Red the Rose (1935) Millions in the Air (1935) Desert Gold (1935) Forgotten Faces (1936) Border Flight (1936) Three Cheers for Love (1936) Hollywood Boulevard (1936) The Accusing Finger (1936) Hideaway Girl (1936) Arizona Mahoney (1936) The Last Train from Madrid (1937) Souls at Sea (1937) Sophie Lang Goes West (1937) Wells Fargo (1937) College Swing (1938) You and Me (1938) The Texans (1938) Touchdown, Army (1938) I Stand Accused (1938) Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) The Under-Pup (1939) Rio (1939) Everything Happens at Night (1939) Charlie McCarthy, Detective (1939) And One Was Beautiful (1940) Private Affairs (1940) Spring Parade (1940) One Night in the Tropics (1940) Free and Easy (1941) The Devil and Miss Jones (1941) Moon Over Miami (1941) It Started with Eve (1941) Kings Row (1942) Saboteur (1942) Between Us Girls (1942) Forever and a Day (1943) Princess O'Rourke (1943) Flesh and Fantasy (1943) You Came Along (1945) The Bride Wore Boots (1946) The Chase (1946) Heaven Only Knows (1947) The Lost Moment (1947) Sleep, My Love (1948) Let's Live a Little (1948) The Accused (1949) Reign of Terror (1949) Tell It to the Judge (1949) Free for All (1949) Paid in Full (1950) The Petty Girl (1950) For Heaven's Sake (1950) The Barefoot Mailman (1951) The First Time (1952) Marry Me Again (1953) Lucky Me (1954) Dial M for Murder (1954) How to Be Very, Very Popular (1955) My Geisha (1962) Beach Party (1963) The Carpetbaggers (1964) What a Way to Go! (1964) Promise Her Anything (1965) Stagecoach (1966) Five Golden Dragons (1967)

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