TAOS, N.M. – Paul “Ed” Yost, considered the father of modern hot-air ballooning for a successful three-mile trip on a propane-powered balloon, has died. He was 87.
Yost died Sunday at his home in New Mexico, according to a statement from his son.
According to the National Balloon Museum in Indianola, Iowa, Yost piloted the first flight of a balloon using the envelope-and-propane burner system he developed. The 25-minute, three-mile flight departed from Bruning, Neb., in October 1960.
Though the world’s first balloon flight is believed to have taken place in France in 1783, Yost is credited for advances in modern ballooning because his propane-burner system made longer flights possible. Before that, fire and helium were used to send balloons aloft.
Born in Bristow, Iowa, in 1919, Yost joined the High Altitude Research Division of General Mills in Minneapolis in 1949 and worked on many balloon projects.
Yost also is known for other balloon trips. In April 1963, he and Don Piccard made the first hot air balloon flight across the English Channel, flying from Rye in England to Gravelines Nord, France in three hours, 17 minutes.
George Greeley wrote ‘Favorite Martian’ music
LOS ANGELES – George Greeley, a pianist, conductor, composer and arranger who composed the theme music for television’s “My Favorite Martian,” has died. He was 89.
Greeley, who had emphysema, died Saturday at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, said Teri York, Greeley’s longtime companion.
As staff pianist at Columbia Pictures in the 1950s, Greeley performed on hundreds of motion pictures. He also worked as a composer and orchestrator at the studio.
“He was an extraordinary pianist,” said Jon Burlingame, who teaches a class on the history of film scoring at the University of Southern California.
As a recording artist for Warner Bros. Records, Greeley produced and performed on 15 albums for piano and full orchestra.
Moving into television in the 1960s, Greeley wrote the musical themes and underscores for “My Favorite Martian” and “My Living Doll.”
For “My Favorite Martian,” the 1963-66 sitcom in which Bixby’s newspaper reporter character befriends the stranded Martian played by Walston, Greeley used an instrument called an electro-theremin to make the weird science-fiction-like sound every time the Martian’s antennae went up or he used his powers of levitation.
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