Paul Wing

Although his family heritage was based in Maine, Paul Wing was born in Tacoma, Washington to Dr. Peleg Benson Wing (1861-1932) and his wife Ida M.

(Porter) on August 14, 1892 (some conflicting records indicate 1891).

Married 18-year old Martha Gillis Thraves (1894-1981) in Pohatan Courthouse, VA on Christmas Day, 1912.

Family history: His father, Dr. Peleg Benson Wing (1861-1932) divorced his mother Ida M. Porter on April 9, 1912 after 27 years of marriage; remarried to Anna McCormick (1879-1954) sometime prior to 1914. Grandfather: Lewis Melvin Wing (1828-1909) was married to Lucretia A. Foss (1836-1888). His middle name was derived from his paternal great-grandfather, Massachusettes-native Reuben Wing (1771-1862).

Paul served in the military during WWI and became a mid-level Paramount Studios executive during the 1920s-30s and relocated to Hollywood.

Both of his daughters, Madison (Pat Wing Gill) and the ravishing Martha (Toby Wing Merrill) became chorus girls in the 1930s.

He received screen credit for The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) but spent most of his career as an unbilled line producer for the studio. His film resume is undoubtedly highly incomplete.

Paul was an amateur pilot and survived a serious plane crash in 1935. Wing, a career reservist, re-entered the military prior to WW2 and, as a major, was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines, surviving the infamous Bataan Death March (he is mentioned in "No Uncle Sam: The Forgotten Bataan" by Anton F. Bilek, Michael S. Levy and Gene O'Connell). He was rescued from the Canabatuan Prison Camp in a daring maneuver by U. S. Army Rangers.

When the U.S. entered World War II, Wing headed a signal construction battalion in the Philippines. Among the survivors of the Bataan death march, he was one of 513 prisoners of the Cabanatuan prison camp freed by Army Rangers in the rescue mission later portrayed in "The Great Raid" (2005).