Clem Sohn: ‘batman’ from an earlier era

The following information on Clinton County native, Clem Sohn, is provided courtesy of Indy staff writer, Barry Bauer.

Sohn received international media attention in the mid-1903s for his daring parachute jumps using a ‘bat-wing’ suit. He fell to his death, April 25, 1937, at an air show in Vincennes, France.

Barry’s wife, Betty, acquired the photographs and article that was written by her father, Ed Motz, on the 50^th anniversary of Sohn’s death from Harold Tolles. Betty’s "Grandma Motz" and Sohn’s mother were sisters.

50^th year remembrance of Clem Sohn (Bat Man), April 23, 1987

By Ed Motz

I don’t remember too much about Clem Sohn’s teenage years. However, around 1923 or 1924, he started spending summers with my parents, John and Christine Motz. His older brother, Francis, stayed at our home and went to Frink School. Clem stayed most of his time with his Uncle Bill and Aunt Margaret Kissane after the death of his mother.

Clem was always interested in flying. During the time he spent with us, he liked to build model airplanes. However, he never built one that would fly.

After his father remarried, Clem went to live with them. By the time he graduated from Eastern High School in 1930, he was a veteran pilot.

During that summer, he worked in a gas station and he went to work at the Luce County Airport in Newberry, Mich., that fall after graduation. The airport consisted of an old barn for a hanger, and the runway went through a potato field. When Clem wasn’t busy at the airport, he helped with the potato harvest.

In the early 1930s, Clem joined up with Art Davis. He helped Art rebuild planes for air races where Art would do the flying. This was at Art Davis East Lansing airport. Larry, my brother, and I would spend much time at the airport.

When Clem started to jump at the Ionia County Fairgrounds, Larry and I would be there every day. We were with him when he drew up his plans for his bat wings.

About 1934, Clem bought a J-5 Waco plane, and he began to rebuild it. He put in a bigger engine and remodeled the wings into a taper wing Waco.

About once a week he could buzz our farm at tree top level, and you should have seen our chickens run for the hen house. One day he landed in the field north of our house. Larry and I drove over there, and Clem flew us to Houghton Lake to spend the night. We returned home the next day.

My sister, Helen, and Harold Tolles, who is now my brother-in-law, were returning from a date in Owosso about 11 p.m. when a news flash on the car radio announced the death of Clem Sohn at the Paris Air Show. They stopped in St. Johns and notified Francis Sohn, his brother, and wife. Then, they notified my parents, Larry, and me.

In the early 1960s in Castle Rock, Colo., my sister, Helen, was watching "Bold Men," a television program, and she recognized Clem falling to his death. They sent for and received the filmstrip from Wolper’s Industries in Hollywood.

About two years ago, my sister Helen was reading the autobiography of Margot Fonteyn, the famous ballerina. In this book was a paragraph in which she said, "Only one admirer really touched my heart, and him I never met. He was Clem Sohn, the Bird Man. He had invented a bird suit in which he could fly to the ground from an aircraft. After our ballet performance on Saturday matinee, I received a little bunch of flowers with a note saying, ‘I don’t want to be a Bird Man anymore; I wish I was a ballerina like you,’ Clem Sohn. A week later, he had flown to his death. I mourn him still, and wish I had the chance to talk to him."

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Ed Motz passed away June 14, 2000. The jumping boots that were given to him by Clem Sohn have been donated to the Paine-Gillam-Scott Museum. The museum also has a videotape copy of the last jump made by Clem Sohn.

The following article is reprinted from the 1980 History of Clinton County.

Clement A. (Clem) Sohn, former Clinton County farm boy, who at 26 had become the most celebrated parachute jumper in the history of aviation, fell 1,000 feet to his death at Vincennes, France, April 25, 1937, while thrilling a great crowd with one of his famous "bat-wing dives." Tangled parachute ropes are blamed for the tragedy.

At Vincennes he wore two chutes and while he succeeded in freeing one so that it snapped out above him, it failed to open and the plunged downward to the earth. He had jumped from his plane at 6,000 feet and swooped through space on his manmade wings until he reached the 1,000-foot level where he strove to release his parachute, but in vain.

Mr. Sohn was born near Fowler, Dec. 7, 1911, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gottlieb Sohn. He attended district schools as a young boy. Later he spent some time with Mr. and Mrs. William Kissane and while there was a pupil at the Greenwood School.

He received his high school training at Eastern and Central schools in Lansing, and as a student served an aviation apprenticeship under Art Davis, noted Lansing flyer. He became a licensed pilot, and then took up parachute jumping.

Sohn made his first jump in Florida in 1933. He gradually increased the time of his "delayed" jumps and then conceived the idea of fastening webbing to his arms and legs so that he might swoop and dive while descending in his jumps. This idea was original with Clem, and after much hard and dangerous practice he perfected a wing-like harness. Almost immediately he was dubbed "Bat-Wing" Sohn, and drew thousands wherever he appeared about the country in his celebrated feat.

In the back of Clem’s mind was the thought that out of the wings would develop some invention to make airplane flying more safe and practical.

Survivors include his parents; a brother, Francis, proprietor of the Band Box Cleaners of St. Johns; a niece, Janet Christine Sohn; and a host of friends and admirers among the flying brotherhood.

Sohn’s body will be put on shipboard at France and will reach his former home May 6 or 7, following which funeral rites will be held.

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Planes piloted by his bereaved comrades circled above Most Holy Trinity Cemetery at Fowler May 12, and dropped flowers upon the grave as the body of Clem Sohn was lowered to its last resting place. Funeral rites were conducted at St. Casimir’s Church in Lansing.