Background
Wells, Linton was born on April 1, 1893 in Louisville. Son of Rufus Coleman and Minnie Belle (Tindel) Wells.
aviator radio broadcaster traveler writer
Wells, Linton was born on April 1, 1893 in Louisville. Son of Rufus Coleman and Minnie Belle (Tindel) Wells.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 1, 1893, he attended the United States Naval Academy with the Class of 1914, but left before graduation.
He began his career as a foreign correspondent with the China Press in Shanghai in 1912, covering Sun Yat Senator and the Xinhai Revolution. Returning from China early in World War I via Europe, he covered a revolution in Mexico, learned to fly in 1915, and helped build the first dam in Samoa. After service in the Navy during World War I, he covered the Russian revolution, being imprisoned briefly by the Bolsheviks near Irkutsk.
Following reporting from East Asia, he returned to the States in 1921 to cover Hollywood and events along the West Coast, returning to Japan in 1923, just in time to be injured in the Great Kantō earthquake of September 1, 1923.
In 1924, while working for the Associated Press, he stowed away on the United States Army aircraft Boston during the Calcutta to Karachi leg of the first round-the-world flight. The following year he and Leigh Wade, who had been the pilot of the Boston during the First World Flight, made the first non-stop automobile trip between Los Angeles and New York (167 hours and 50 minutes).
In 1926 he and Edward Steptoe Evans set a record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe (28 days, 14 hours, 36 minimum). The following year he participated in fighting in Nicaragua, and returned to newspaper work in 1929 reporting from Europe for the International News Service.
After covering the coronation of the Puppet Emperor Puyi in Manchukuo, he returned to the United States. He published an autobiography, Blood on the Moon, in 1937.
In 1939, at the suggestion of President Roosevelt, and in support of a secret British request, he and Fay investigated potential locations in Africa for a Jewish homeland. On December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was part of one of the first television news broadcasts. From 1942–1946 he and Fay headed the United States Commercial Company in West Africa, buying strategic materials for the war effort.
In 1962 he came to Washington in 1963 to open the Washington News Bureau for the Storer Broadcasting Company (then the largest privately owned radio and television network in the United States), serving as the Washington Bureau Chief until 1972.
Linton Wells died in Washington, District of Columbia in January 1976.
Served with United States Navy, World War I. Member Radio and television analysts New York City (founder). Clubs: National President International (founder), Georgetown (Washington).
Married second, Fay Gillis (traveler, aviztrix, writer, broadcaster), April. Children: Barbara Jeanne, Patricia.