A lot of people believe paid political messages have gotten out of hand — they seem to follow us online, on television, in print, or on the radio — but at least you’ve never been bombarded by ads from a World War I fighter plane. During William Beach’s 1926 campaign for Sheriff he hired pilot, Tom Merchio to fly a surplus Jenny over the skies of Morris County where campaigner, Charles Righter dropped thousands of flyers onto the citizens below.
The campaign ads read, “Message from the air. Vote for William Beach”, and according to a March 5, 1968 Daily Record article “a little girl in Morristown was so excited, trying to catch one, that she ran into the street and was nearly hit by a car.” Not long afterwards, Morristown passed an ordinance making it illegal to drop anything out of an airplane.
Nevertheless, William Beach won two terms as Sherriff in the 1920s and 1930s. He lived well into his 90s, retiring to upstate New York where his son, Norman, worked for Eastman Kodak.
