After greetings, Jackie Cochran ushered Barbara into the living room where she met some of the other party guests, all women fliers in their twenties or young thirties. Alma Velut had come to the party from Colorado; Lucille Friesen from Wichita, Kansas; Margaret Kerr from Oklahoma; Kay Menges from New Jersey; Jean Landis of near San Diego; and half a dozen others who had flown from various parts of the country to meet her.
Barbara felt like she was among royalty. She was, in a way. She was among an elite group of some of the best pilots in America, male or female.
"There's only one man here, besides some employees," Jackie said. "My husband Floyd is in his 'office,' at the swimming pool. You'll meet him for dinner. But I do expect a male party-crasher. Howard Hughes phoned me when he heard the party was for you, and said he'd drop in, literally. Howard usually shows up wherever attractive young women are. He must have seen your photo in the papers."
"Is he still seeing Jean Harlow?" Barbara asked, shrugging off the compliment. "He discovered her, didn't he? I'm a big movie fan. She's was so beautiful and glamorous in Hell's Angels. And I loved her last year in China Seas with Clark Gable."
"Howard brought Miss Harlow here just after she finished filming China Seas." Then Jackie laughed. "Yes, on-screen she's beautiful and glamorous. Here, she was beautiful but not very glamorous. She wore a man's shirt and bluejeans the whole time. Spent more time in the kitchen helping prepare and clean up after meals,. and pulling weeds in our vegetable garden, than she did in the parlor. She's really just a 'down home' girl at heart. When Howard wasn't listening, she told me what would really make her happy would be to have a good man for a husband who loved her, and to raise a family."
Barbara couldn't agree more. "Ditto to that!"
"Howard doesn't usually bring young women with him when he comes here. I think he's more interested in meeting someone new when he visits us. I predict, he's going to like you."
"Oh, you're psychic?" Barbara asked, joking.
Jackie became serious. "Actually, I am a student of psychic phenomena. I believe in predictions and some types of fortune-telling. Floyd and I like to play psychic games. Some time, I'll invite you when I have a seer here again."
"Tell us how you've ever been psychic?" Margaret Kerr asked.
Jackie remembered one example. "On Amelia's first visit to the ranch..."