Lawnchair Larry: The Man Who Soared with Balloons

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey everyone, and welcome back to the podcast, where we

0:04 Speaker 1: dive into the most outrageous, bizarre, and downright hilarious stories

0:08 Speaker 1: from the world of real life adventures and history. Today,

0:12 Speaker 1: I've got a story for you that will make you

0:14 Speaker 1: look at your backyard lawn chair in a whole new way.

0:18 Speaker 1: That's right. Today, we're talking about lawn chair Larry, a

0:22 Speaker 1: man who decided that the best way to get some

0:24 Speaker 1: altitude wasn't in an airplane, but from the comfort of

0:28 Speaker 1: his own lawn chair. Nineteen eighty two was a year

0:31 Speaker 1: full of iconic pop culture moments, technological advancements, and trends

0:36 Speaker 1: that shape the early eighties. Michael Jackson's Thriller album was

0:40 Speaker 1: released in November nineteen eighty two. Thriller became an instant

0:44 Speaker 1: classic with songs like Billy Jean, Beat It and Thriller Itself.

0:50 Speaker 1: John Cougar Mellencamp had a huge hit with a little

0:53 Speaker 1: ditty called Jack and Diane, helping Mellencamp rise to stardom.

0:58 Speaker 1: Survivors I of the Tiger, this anthem, known for being

1:02 Speaker 1: featured in Rocky three, was everywhere and to this day.

1:05 Speaker 1: Conjure's visions of how someone can overcome anything and win.

1:11 Speaker 1: Duran Duran, the British band was gaining major traction with

1:14 Speaker 1: their new wave hits like Hungry Like the Wolf. But

1:18 Speaker 1: let's get back to lawn Chair Larry, which when I

1:20 Speaker 1: heard this story, it reminded me of the horrible video

1:23 Speaker 1: game from nineteen eighty seven, leisure Suit Larry, but it

1:28 Speaker 1: has nothing to do with it. Lawnchair Larry legally is

1:32 Speaker 1: Larry Walters, and he is living in San Pedro, California,

1:35 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, and like many people, he had

1:38 Speaker 1: dreams of flight. The only problem he had horrible vision problems,

1:43 Speaker 1: so he wasn't able to be a pilot. He wasn't

1:46 Speaker 1: a scientist, and he didn't have an engineering degree. But

1:49 Speaker 1: Larry had something else, a lot of ambition and a

1:53 Speaker 1: healthy disregard for conventional safety practices. Larry found himself in

1:58 Speaker 1: the career of a truck driver, but for years, despite

2:01 Speaker 1: his vision issues, he had a burning desire to fly.

2:05 Speaker 1: So instead of giving up on his dream, Larry thought,

2:09 Speaker 1: why not just build my own way into the sky.

2:13 Speaker 1: He first thought of using weather balloons to fly at

2:16 Speaker 1: age thirteen, after seeing them hanging from the ceiling of

2:19 Speaker 1: a military surplus store. And that's exactly what he did.

2:23 Speaker 1: He went to a local surplus store, bought forty five

2:27 Speaker 1: weather balloons and some helium tanks from California toy time balloons.

2:32 Speaker 1: He filled forty two balloons, although Larry himself sometimes quoted

2:36 Speaker 1: forty three in interviews. He attached them to none other

2:39 Speaker 1: than wait for it, a lawn chair he bought at Sears.

2:43 Speaker 1: If anyone remembers the lawn chairs of the eighties, it

2:45 Speaker 1: was one of the ones that had strips of plastic

2:48 Speaker 1: vinyl woven together with a metal frame. And I believe

2:51 Speaker 1: he paid one hundred nine dollars for it. Yep. Larry's

2:56 Speaker 1: plan was simple, tie the balloons to the chair, sit

2:59 Speaker 1: in it, and float up into the air. The idea was,

3:03 Speaker 1: once he reached about one thousand feet, he'd pop a

3:06 Speaker 1: few balloons to descend back down safely. How was he

3:09 Speaker 1: going to do this? A BB gun? You must imagine

3:13 Speaker 1: it was probably a red Rider BB gun. Do you

3:16 Speaker 1: think it would be a nice controlled little flight? What

3:18 Speaker 1: could go wrong? Right? So, on July second, nineteen eighty two,

3:22 Speaker 1: Larry gets everything ready. He sets up his flight station

3:25 Speaker 1: in his backyard. He's got his parachute, his supplies, even

3:29 Speaker 1: a six pack of beer for the ride, because you know,

3:32 Speaker 1: why not. And then the moment arrives, he releases the

3:36 Speaker 1: helium into the balloons and up he goes. But this

3:39 Speaker 1: is where things went horribly wrong, Like we can't imagine

3:43 Speaker 1: they would have gone right. Larry didn't just float to

3:45 Speaker 1: a casual one thousand feet, Oh no, he shot up

3:50 Speaker 1: like a rocket, way higher than he anticipated, to the

3:53 Speaker 1: point where he ended up at a mind blowing sixteen

3:56 Speaker 1: thousand feet in the air, three miles up, higher than

4:00 Speaker 1: most commercial airliners. At that point, Larry quickly realized he

4:05 Speaker 1: wasn't quite in control of his situation. He was strapped

4:08 Speaker 1: to a lawn chair with a bunch of balloons tied

4:11 Speaker 1: to it. He couldn't steer it, couldn't slow it down.

4:14 Speaker 1: But because Larry was a man of action, he didn't

4:18 Speaker 1: panic right away. He just floated serenely high above Los

4:22 Speaker 1: Angeles until well, things started getting a little complicated. He

4:27 Speaker 1: drifted straight into the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport. Yeah,

4:33 Speaker 1: that was a problem. Air traffic controllers understandably freaked out.

4:38 Speaker 1: They thought it was some kind of rogue aircraft, and

4:40 Speaker 1: it took a moment for them to realize it was

4:43 Speaker 1: just a man in a lawn chair floating casually across

4:47 Speaker 1: the sky. You can imagine how that conversation went right.

4:51 Speaker 1: So Larry's up there, totally unaware of the chaos he's

4:55 Speaker 1: causing on the ground as he floats over lax and

4:59 Speaker 1: he's just minding his own business, and he realizes he

5:03 Speaker 1: needs to decide how to get down safely. His only

5:06 Speaker 1: choice he has to shoot a few balloons. He had

5:09 Speaker 1: a great fear of causing things to become unbalanced, but

5:12 Speaker 1: he successfully shoots several of the balloons. They start deflating,

5:17 Speaker 1: and that's when he begins his descent. Except now Larry's

5:21 Speaker 1: not just going to land softly. Oh no, no, He

5:24 Speaker 1: ends up tangled in a power line, and I mean tangled. Luckily,

5:28 Speaker 1: Larry wasn't seriously hurt, but let's be clear, this was

5:32 Speaker 1: one way to make an entrance. Eventually, ground crews were

5:36 Speaker 1: able to help him out. Walters was immediately arrested by

5:40 Speaker 1: waiting members of the Long Beach Police Department. Regional Safety

5:44 Speaker 1: Inspector Neil Savoy was reported to have said, we know

5:47 Speaker 1: he broke some part of the federal Aviation Act, and

5:50 Speaker 1: as soon as we decide which part it is, some

5:53 Speaker 1: type of charge will be filed. If he had a

5:55 Speaker 1: pilot's license, we'd suspend that, but he doesn't. Walt initially

6:00 Speaker 1: was fined four thousand dollars for violations under US federal

6:04 Speaker 1: aviation regulations, including operating an aircraft within an airport traffic

6:09 Speaker 1: area without establishing and maintaining two way communications with the

6:13 Speaker 1: control tower. Walters appealed and the fine was reduced to

6:18 Speaker 1: one thousand, five hundred dollars a charge of operating a

6:22 Speaker 1: civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect.

6:26 Speaker 1: An airworthiness certificate was dropped as it was not applicable

6:30 Speaker 1: to his class of aircraft. Just after landing, Walters spoke

6:34 Speaker 1: to the press, saying it was something I had to do.

6:38 Speaker 1: I had this dream for twenty years and if I

6:40 Speaker 1: had not done it, I think I would have ended

6:43 Speaker 1: up in the funny farm. He also said, since I

6:46 Speaker 1: was thirteen years old, I've dreamed of going up into

6:49 Speaker 1: the clear blue sky in a weather balloon. By the

6:52 Speaker 1: grace of God, I fulfilled my dream, but I would

6:55 Speaker 1: not do this again for anything. The aircraft was dubbed

6:59 Speaker 1: Inspiration on lawn Chair Larry was awarded the title of

7:03 Speaker 1: at Risk Survivor in the nineteen ninety three Darwin Awards.

7:07 Speaker 1: Regardless of the risk and peril, Lawnchair Larry survived and

7:11 Speaker 1: Larry Walters became a legend. He got a taste of

7:13 Speaker 1: the sky and for him it was worth the chaos

7:16 Speaker 1: and the risk. He did not get the fame or

7:18 Speaker 1: recognition he expected, but he became a symbol, a symbol

7:22 Speaker 1: of doing whatever it takes to chase your dream, even

7:25 Speaker 1: if that dream involves sitting in a lawn chair and

7:28 Speaker 1: flying up into the heavens. The moral of the story, well,

7:32 Speaker 1: maybe it's something like dream big, but maybe have a

7:36 Speaker 1: backup plan or never underestimate the power of helium balloons

7:40 Speaker 1: and a clever idea. No matter how reckless it seems.

7:44 Speaker 1: Either way, I think we can all agree lawn Chair

7:47 Speaker 1: Larry's story will live on as one of the most

7:49 Speaker 1: hilarious and wildly ambitious attempts to reach the sky in history.

7:55 Speaker 1: That is it for today's episode of Strange History. I

7:58 Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the wild of lawn Chair Larry's high

8:01 Speaker 1: flying escapade. If you have got your own crazy stories

8:04 Speaker 1: or know of any others we should cover, hit me

8:07 Speaker 1: up on social media, or drop me an email. Who knows,

8:10 Speaker 1: maybe one day we will be telling your adventure. Thanks

8:14 Speaker 1: for listening, and remember, whatever your dream is, you never

8:18 Speaker 1: know when a lawn chair and a couple of weather

8:20 Speaker 1: balloons could take you places you never imagined. Until next time,

8:24 Speaker 1: keep adventuring.