#augustus post

Augustus Post in a scene still from the 1914 Broadway production of 'Omar the Tentmaker', which ran for 103 performances from January to April of that year.

Augustus Post, at the wheel of a White Steamer, arrives in St. Louis from New York City after traveling a distance of nearly 1000 miles over 2 weeks during the first Reliability Tour sponsored by the American Automobile Association in 1904. The first to test automobile endurance and reliability over long distances, a trophy was awarded to the first finisher by industrialist and automobile enthusiast Charles Glidden, and later became known as the Glidden Tours. Drivers faced a variety of horrendous road conditions and equipment breakdowns, as well as sabotage and booby traps along the route courtesy of rural folks resentful of the wealthy and their toys.

In spite of injuries suffered when he crashed his airplane at a New Orleans aviation meet in December 1910, Augustus Post was back in the cockpit again in the spring of 1911, sporting a missing front tooth.

Augustus Post has the distinction of being the first person in New York City to receive a traffic citation involving an automobile. When he was driving his 1900 White Steamer on Riverside Drive in the uncharted wilderness of the Upper West Side of Manhattan, he was chased and pulled over by a policeman on a bicycle and promptly ticketed for speeding. He was traveling at a rate of ten miles per hour.

Augustus Post, seated, and Alan Hawley just before their record-setting balloon flight on America II in October, 1910. They drifted from St. Louis to the wilds of Canada for nearly 2 days. Missing for a week and feared dead, both men made it back safely thanks to Post's outdoor skills, and received a hero's welcome in New York City. They had set a distance record for free ballooning of 1173 miles which stood for 95 years.

On the occasion of his last balloon flight in 1949 at age 75, Augustus Post remarked, "There's really no sensation in the world like that of floating between the earth and the heavens with the winds of the world. Some of my friends claim you can create the same feeling by partaking of four very dry martinis on an empty stomach, but I don't believe it."

Orville Wright of Wright Brothers fame, left, and Augustus Post at an aviation meet in the summer of 1909. Post was a pilot himself and a founding member of the Aero Club of America, whose goal was to promote the fledgling field of aviation in the United States.

Augustus Post as 'Omar the Tentmaker' photographed in 1904. Actor, singer, poet, writer, lecturer. Founding member of the Automobile Club of America and the Aero Club of America. Pioneer aviator who was the thirteenth person to fly solo in the United States. Famous balloonist who set distance, altitude, and endurance records.