Tex Johnston's first flight was in 1925 with the age of 11 on a "barnstormer". At the time where the first flight regulation appeared in the US.

Back then "flight acrobatics" beside showing off the skills of a pilot was the art of "selling" planes/flying and making it popular after all the "Jennies" were sold off (and the pilots laid off) by the government after WWI[0] for essentially pennies: about $200 (~$4.000); production cost initially at $5.000 (~$100.000). Civil aviation "mass-adopted".

So, by selling a 707 with a barrel roll is as old school as it gets.

[0]https://web.archive.org/web/20150324051634/http://www.southe...