When I was a young lad in late 1930, my father purchased the restaurant and banquet facilities at the Burbank Airport. On the ground floor were the kitchen, banquet room and coffee shop. On the second floor was the very famous early California styled 'Sky Room', which overlooked all the action on the runways. A dumbwaiter hoisted food, and sometimes myself, up to the second floor. I recall getting out of bed at 4 am to go to the airport to start the large coffee pots so coffee would be ready when we opened. We didn't have any electric timers in those days, to do the work for us.

The airport was originally named United Air Terminal and was known as "The Safest Airport In Southern California". It had five long (for the time) runways, which radiated out in a star configuration. They did not all cross at the same point; they were offset by a few yards, which left a plot of land in the middle where a smudge pot was kept burning. A pilot could tell which way the wind was blowing by the direction of the smoke or if it was going straight up then there was no wind.

We had the very first company owned airplane in the world at United Air Terminal. It was a stunning twin-engine Fokker with an aluminum body that had been brushed to an overall design of small circles that would catch the light. This wonderful airplane belonged to the Rio Grande Oil Company and it was put on display just outside the main terminal building where the public could see and admire it. At night, it was kept in a hanger across the field and sometimes I got to taxi in it with the pilot.

The entire airport was purchased by the Lockheed Company in 1940 and closed to the public as preparations for war were made. It was renamed Lockheed Air Terminal and was very busy all through the war as a production and test area. Even after the war, when LAX took most of the passenger activity away, the non-scheduled airlines like Slick and Flying Tiger came to Burbank to haul freight and charters.

While my father ran the restaurant, California's Governor Rolf and Governor Merriam would visit. They were both sportsmen and when successful at hunting in Utah, would bring the venison back to my father so he could dress and age the meat. On the scheduled day, the members of the California State Legislature and their spouses would fly down from Sacramento for an elegant gourmet repast in the beautiful Sky Room banquet room.

My first airplane flight was with Captain Eddie Rickenbacher, the famed flying ace of the elite United States Lafayette Escadrille of WWI. I happened to be in a hangar as he was trying to sell a Stinson airplane to a wealthy Beverly Hills matron. She asked if flying was safe and he puffed up with pride and said, "I'll prove how safe it is. This boy (me) is a friend of mine and I would like to take you both for a flight so you can see how safe it is!" I was thrilled. Capt. Rickenbacher flew us over Glendale and then over her home in Beverly Hills. On our return my mother was looking for me. When asked where I had been I replied, "Oh, I went flying with Captain Eddie Rickenbacher!" She was angry that I didn't come and ask her permission but I said, "Oh, I knew if I did that you would never have let me go!"

I met many other famous flyers including Amelia Earhart, Paul Mantz, Jacqueline Cochran, Roscoe Turner, Howard Hughes and Wiley Post. Amelia Earhart was always nice to me and would speak to me whenever we saw each other. She had a friend, Albert Bresnick, who was the only one she would pose for to take pictures. Roscoe Turner had a lion named Gilmore and when they landed, I was given the lion to walk around the airport. I was one very proud little boy, walking 'my' lion. The head chef and I discovered that Gilmore liked vanilla ice cream and he always got some when he visited Burbank. I had to smuggle him in because my father felt that a lion in the kitchen of a public restaurant was very unsanitary.

In the days before wire transfer of photos, when a major news event would take place the Los Angeles Examiner newspaper would produce photos and prepare two sets of negatives. Both Amelia Earhart and Roscoe Turner would get calls to be at their airplanes. They would each get one set of negatives and then they were off…to race across the U.S. to New York City. The first one to walk into the Hearst Newspaper offices with the negatives would receive one thousand dollars as a reward. Jacqueline Cochran was an eccentric lady who entered the Bendix Trophy races and sometimes won them. Women pilots were rare in those days and some men pilots resented her. She had grown up under a stern and religious minister father and when she was finally on her own she really let go. She would swear like a trooper, hop over fences rather than open gates and she insisted on using the men's restroom, which drove my mother up the wall.

United Air Terminal was also popular with the Hollywood motion picture industry and our restaurant was used as the commissary for production companies. I particularly remember a film named "Fifty French Men Can't Be Wrong" because I was in it. It starred Olsen and Johnson and Helen Broderick. It was filmed at the Burbank terminal at night with artificial rain. I was given a raincoat and umbrella and as she arrived at the airport I welcomed her. I still have a 1931 advertising poster for this picture.

On three occasions I was able to visit the control tower. The entire operation was very fascinating and I loved watching the planes taking off and landing through the large windows. They had a green coating on them to reduce the glare from the sun. Normally this area was off limits to me. United Air Terminal was usually very busy with passengers and freight so there was no time for frivolous things like air shows. We would drive to Mines Field (LAX) in Inglewood where we saw many daring and death defying feats of spectacular flying. The original Main Terminal Building still remains there, on the south side of the airport. (This is the only aviation related building designated a California Historical structure. Ed.) Our airport was greatly favored by both the movie industry and the public for charter flights. Our main competitor was Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, which was the home of TWA or "Trans Western Airlines", which later became Trans World Airlines. Grand Central only had one runway, which was shorter than those at Burbank and mountains were on both sides.

My time at the Burbank airport was during the Great Depression and as a family, we realized that we were very lucky to have work and food on the table; it was an exciting time.

Mr. Charles A. Bausback is a researcher for Huell Howser's "California's Gold" television series.