I first encountered Wanda McKay in one of her three appearances on The Lone Ranger TV show in the early 1950's. Some of us do such things in these days of modern times. I thought she looked familiar, so I consulted Wikipedia and found an entry for her. She wasn't the actress I was thinking about, but lo and behold what did I find--an Alabama connection. See how these things work?
McKay was born on June 22, 1915, in Portland, Oregon, under the name of Dorothy Quackenbush. The family moved to Texas where she finished growing up, and after high school graduation moved to New York City. She did some modeling that included magazine covers and advertisements and billboards for Chesterfield cigarettes before finding a job with Trans World Airlines as a clerk in the Kansas City office as well as occasional model for TWA.
According to that Wikipedia entry and her obituary in the Los Angeles Times, TWA sent her to an air show in Birmingham in 1938 as its entry in the Miss American Aviation contest. She won and by the following year had a contract with Paramount Studios in Hollywood. From 1939 until 1957 she appeared in more than forty films and TV episodes. From 1977 until his death in 1981, McKay was married to the great singer and songwriter Hoagy Carmichael. She died April 11, 1996.
So far I've discovered little else about McKay's visit to Birmingham. The air show was apparently the National Air Carnival which was held in the city in September 1938. Further research awaits!
UPDATE 22 March 2021
A bit of research for me by an archivist at one fo the Smithsonian Institution's museums in Washington, D.C. has produced a windfall. These air show images are courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum's Archives Department. Further comments are below.
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