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The 10-Year-Old Girl Who Danced On The Wings Of A Flying Airplane In 1926
Dancing and aerial stunts were both wildly popular in the 1920s — one girl did a stunt that combined the two
The roaring 1920s was a time of great change and experimentation. Burgeoning support for movements like women’s rights, and advances in technology such as air travel brought numerous new and exciting experiences; many of which had never been seen before or since. One of the most unusual was the story of a 10-year-old girl named Mildred Unger, who combined new crazes and rose to prominence by dancing the Charleston on the wing of an airplane while it was in mid-flight.
Born in 1915, Mildred Unger was the daughter of Edward Unger, a hot air balloon operator for motion pictures, and a government aviator. It’s safe to say that his affinity for the skies rubbed off on his daughter, who eventually became a professional dancer.
In 1926, when she was just 10-years-old, Mildred saw an intersection of her interests of dancing and being in the air. The Charleston is a dance, famously portrayed during the swimming pool scene in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, that was sweeping the nation at the time. Popular culture loved this high-spirited dance and they adored the heros and heroines who were seemingly…
