Felicity Chandelle (1905 – 2008) pilot.

John Miller, by the age of ten, was hanging around the Curtiss Flying School at Mineola, on Long Island, where he encountered Ruth Law, the third US woman to get a flying license, who let him sit in her cockpit. Miller studied mechanical engineering and graduated from Pratt Institute of Technology in 1927.

By 1931 he had seven years of flying experience and was the first individual to buy a PCA-2 autogyro, which could perform nearly vertical descents. Miller beat Amelia Earhart by being the first to fly one across the US, and unlike her, returned it in one piece, although she got the press attention.

Miller was a captain flying for United Airlines, and also flew loops and rolls at airshows across the country. At the 1932 Cleveland Air Races Show Al Wilson crashed and died after being caught in Miller's updraft. This is documented in the film Pylon Dusters. He did the stunt flying for the film Ladies Crave Excitement, 1935.

In 1937 Wallace Kellett of Kellett Autogiro Company persuaded Miller to undertake a flight test program for his world's first wingless autogiro. Miller broke his neck when an autogyro disintegrated around him. Nevertheless he completed the testing program, and the Kellet KD-1 Autogyro became the first wingless aircraft to obtain official certification in the US.

Kellet's was purely a manufacturing company, but Miller found employment with Eastern Airlines which ran the autogiro mail operation for publicity purposes. During the Second World War, Miller was the lead test flyer for the Grumman J2f Duck which was both a plane and a boat.

He married, and he and his wife had a daughter. Apart from a couple of childhood incidents, John did not start cross-dressing until 1960, when as Felicity, she met other cross dressers through Transvestia magazine. "There was absolutely no sexual impulse, just the love of the clothes and the pleasure of being a different person, in public. Never did any CDing in private. Underclothing held little interest for me." Then she took up the practice enthusiastically. She was 6'2" (1.88m), but naturally assumed that she passed, although others observed that she was usually read. She developed a reasonable contralto voice, quite different from her masculine baritone. She always tried on dresses in the shop. It is told how she went up to a policeman in Times Square pretending to be from Texas, and got him to take her photograph.

In March 1964 Felicity, recently widowed, was arrested in New York near her home by an officer of the West 128^th Precinct for a violation of Section 887, Subdivision 7 of the New York Code of Criminal Procedure which designates as a vagrant any person who 'having his face painted, discolored, covered, or concealed, or being otherwise disguised in a manner calculated to prevent his being identified, appears on a road, lot, wood, or enclosure'. The law dates back to the 1840s when farmers were disguising as 'Indians' to harass Dutch landowners in the Anti-Rent Movement. Despite having no criminal intent John Miller was sentenced to two days, suspended. This resulted in losing her job with Eastern Airlines after 25 years, because such behavior ‘signaled homosexuality’, even though an Eastern Airlines manager actually phoned Harry Benjamin and was reassured that that the conviction in no way impacted on Miller's competence as a pilot.

Virginia Prince and Siobhan Fredericks championed her case and raised over $1,200 to finance an appeal. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief as amicus curiae, and the New York Times carried a sympathetic story. The appeal hearing was denied, by the New York appeal court and by the US Supreme Court.

photo by  Mariette Pathy Allen

At age 60 Miller started his own helicopter air charter service. He sold that business in 1971. He served seven terms as president of the United Flying Octogenarians (UFOs). He continued to give lectures about flying, and attended numerous airshows and conventions. He was awarded the annual Sikorsky Award for his part in the evolution of the helicopter, and received a Certificate of Honor from the National Aeronautic Association for his contributions to aviation. He was given a honorary fellowship in the Society of Test Pilots, for having promoted the moral obligation of the test pilot to the safety of the aerospace world.

In 1990 Felicity and other cross-dressers were featured in a series of photographs by Mariette Pathy Allen.

Felicity lived till the age of 102 and John kept flying until 2006. He was required to have a co-pilot in his later years, but in effect flew alone with a passenger.

*Not the John Miller, pilot hero in the Falklands War, nor the artist, nor the musician, nor the crime reporter.

• Nick Grinde (dir). Ladies Crave Excitement. Scr: Wellyn Totman & Scott Darling, with Norman Foster & Evalyn Knapp. Stunt flying by John Miller. US 73 mins 1935.
• Lawrence O’Kane. “A TRANSVESTITE GETS LEGAL HELP: Civil Liberties Union Argues Wearing Garb of Opposite Sex Is Not Criminal MISUSE OF LAW CHARGED Group Notes 1845 Statute Was Applied to Persons Disguised as Indians”. New York Times, Oct 13, 1964: 45.
• David Lee Pagari. "Of Transvestites and Other Epicenes". The Realist, 57, March 1965:24. www.ep.tc/realist/57/24.html.
• 145--John Miller, petr., v. New York. Petition for writ of cert. to the New York Court of Appeals denied. “Proceedings Monday and Yesterday in the U.S. Supreme Court.” New York Times. Oct. 13, 1965. p. 71.
• Harry Benjamin. The Transsexual Phenomenon. New York: Julian Press, 1966. New York: Warner Books Edition 1977: 167-8.
• Darrell Raynor. A Year Among the Girls. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1966. New York: Lancer Books, 1968: 50-1.
• Mariette Pathy Allen. Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them. New York: Dutton, 1989:.
• Helen Boyd. “Five Questions With … Felicity”. en|Gender: helen boyd’s journal of gender & trans issues. www.myhusbandbetty.com/?p=489.
• Robert S. Hill. ‘As a man I exist; as a woman I live’: Heterosexual Transvestism and the Contours of Gender and Sexuality in Postwar America. PhD Dissertation. University of Michigan. 2007: 323-7. http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57615/2/rshill_3.pdf.
• Kate Cummings. Katherine's Diary- the Story of a Transsexual. William Heinemann Australia 1992. Revised and updated 2008: 132, 147, 148, 151.
• "John M. Miller: Barnstormer, Pioneer and Timeless Voice. Gyroplanepassion. www.gyroplanepassion.com/John_Miller.html.
• "Captain John Miller: Test Pilot of the Autogiro and the Grumman J2F Duck". HistoryNet, June 12, 2006. www.historynet.com/captain-john-miller-test-pilot-of-the-autogiro-and-the-grumman-j2f-duck.htm.
• "Autogiro pilot John M. Miller (1905-2008) has passed away". Rotary Wing Forum, 6-23-2008. www.rotaryforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17223.
• “John McDonald Miller”.  Davis-Monthan Aviation Field Register, 2008.  www.dmairfield.org/people/miller_jm/index.htm

____________________________________________________________

The HistoryNet article does not mention the 1964 trial and says that Miller left Eastern Airlines because of age-60-mandatory retirement.  However I have gone with the version in Robert Hill that he was fired for “homosexuality”.

It was also Eastern Airlines that fired Karen Ulane in 1981.

Most people no longer know what an autogyro is.  Here is a video showing John Miller flying an autogyro for the US Mail service:

_______

Here is the write-up of the legal case in Turnabout #6

THE MILLER CASE -- A FINALE

IN EARLY OCTOBER of 1965, the Supreme Court of the United States of America made an announcement which brought an untimely end to the transvestite's quest for justice under the law, at least as far as the case of the State of New York vs. John Miller is concerned. The nation's highest tribunal denied our Writ of Certiorari in the Miller case, which means that it refused to consider the appeal which the readers of TURNABOUT and TRANSVESTIA had joined together in financing.

As most of you already know, the Miller case began nearly two years ago when our good friend and fellow TV was apprehended by New York City detectives while on the street in feminine attire and charged with violating the state's antiquated masquerading law - Section 887-7 of the New York State Code of Criminal Procedure. After being convicted of this charge, our friend expressed his willingness to appeal the case as far as was necessary to win reversal if the TV community-at-large would help put up the necessary money. 

The appeal was pursued through the New York state courts and, when these possibilities were exhausted, a Writ of Certiorari was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. When this was denied, no further appeal was possible, and the case is now finished. 

Lest any of you believe that our efforts were wasted, let us consider some of the more positive, even beneficial, aspects of our bitter experience in this pursuit of justice. 

For one thing, a large number of transvestites forgot all their differences of opinion and personality long enough to participate in this appeal fund. More than seventy TVs contributed to the fund through TURNABOUT alone! They came from all parts of the United States, and there were contributions from England and Canada as well. This shows that TVs really do give a damn about one another and can work together when it's really important to do so. 

Another benefit we have obtained is that our case gained a considerable amount of publicity among the legal profession, whose attitude toward the transvestite could best be described as medieval. The American Civil Liberties Union rallied to our cause, and other lawyers read of our efforts in their various legal journals. The staid New York Times ran a very sympathetic story about our case on its second front page, probably the only sympathetic newspaper story ever published about a transvestite. 

But the most important benefit of the Miller case is the magnificent brief prepared by our lawyers in pursuing the appeal.  This remarkable document remains said the ashes of our case, and we consider it the property of all who contributed to the defense fund. Very soon the brief will be published by TURNABOUT on 8½ x 11" sheets, and a copy will go to each contributor -- and to anyone else who requests it.

The Miller brief deals not only with the constitutional aspects of the case and the misapplication of this antique law, but it also discusses the broader aspects of a TV's right to pursue happiness in his own way and demonstrates that a TV who appears in public in feminine attire is not engaged in an anti-social activity as long as he otherwise minds his own business.

We believe that the best use We who receive a copy of this document can make of it is to turn it over to their attorneys -- especially if they plan to go out in public dressed. The brief cites valuable precedents end points of law which could proveuseful to a lawyer who handles a case involving transvestism.

Some time in the near future, the New York legislature will be revising the Code of Criminal Procedures as a follow-up to their recent revision of the state's penal code. The vagrancy statutes, of which Section 887-7 is one, will come into close scrutiny because most are patently unconstitutional. The editors of TURNABOUT hope to gain support for a movement to eradicate this noxious law from the books once and for all. Since we've not been able to strike the law down in the courts, we may be able to do so through legislative channels. If we succeed, other states with similar laws my be influenced to do the same.

The Miller case is a dead issue in the courts, but its ghost may yet rise to haunt those unenlightened prosecutors and enforcement officials who deny the TV's right to cross-dress.

________