Arizona Contractor & Community Fall 2015 V4 I3

became famous as a wedding site for eloping English couples. In America, several towns became known as “Gretna Green” destinations because of their lenient marriage requirements. Thousands of weddings took place in Elkton Maryland, the state’s closest county seat to New York and Philadelphia, during the 1920s and 1930s. Celebrities who wedded in the “Elopement Capital of the East Coast” include Debbie Reynolds, Willie Mays, and Pat Robertson. In the West, Reno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Yuma benefited from the California “gin marriage” law. Luminaries who wedded in Yuma include Joe Louis, Bette Davis, Tom Mix, Charlie Chaplin, and Stan Laurel, who tied the knot there three times. The town’s most popular venue was the Gretna Green Wedding Chapel, which claimed it was “the oldest and most famous establishment of its kind in the entire Southwest.” The venue was operated by Yuma Justice of the Peace R.H. Lutes. “My father would sometimes perform more than 200 weddings a week,” Bob Lutes, his son and the present owner, says. While most eloping California couples drove to Arizona, some Hollywood types took to the air on all-expense wedding trips called “Cupid’s Specials,” according to a 1939 Popular Aviation article. These celebrity elopements were often to avoid publicity—or get some. The Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and American Airlines together built a Spanish Mission style wedding chapel at Sky Harbor Airport to serve them in 1937. The $115 roundtrip ticket from Los Angeles included services attended by “Cowboys and Indians.” The Sky Harbor Chapel was razed in the 1940s. Or couples could fly roundtrip from Burbank to Yuma in Roscoe Turner’s “Honeymoon Express” plane for $125. The Travelair cabin plane featured Cupid with drawn bow and quiver full of arrows, painted on the side. Turner’s plane was also featured in the 1937 Columbia Pictures movie, Criminals of the Air. Yuma’s wedding bonanza died off after 1956 when the marriage laws between the two states became similar. Still, the town’s Gretna Green Wedding Chapel survives, offering $150 services plus the $76 wedding license, available even on weekends. “We still get couples stopping by seven days a week,” Lutes says. “It’s a nice place for people who want to get married quickly. A lot of our business is military or comes from Imperial Valley or Tijuana.” The historic chapel spans generations, having become a family affair in more ways than one. “People often stop by who got “My father would sometimes perform more than 200 weddings a week" married here, bring their families, and take pictures,” Lutes says. “We’ve even had several ceremonies with a child of a couple who got married here.” Images courtesy of author Across page, top: Laura Harley and Billy Horner. Bottom: Postcard of the Gretna Green Chapel, 1930s. Bottom right: United Airlines Cupid's Special airliner, late-1930s. Bottom left: A fly-in couple getting married at Sky Harbor Airport, late-1930s. www.arizcc.com Arizona contractor & community

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