American History In Video: Charles Lindbergh: Against the Wind
Charles Lindbergh: Against the Wind from The History Channel (A&E Television Networks) 44:30.
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Biography
Harry Smith Charles Lindbergh was America's greatest hero and he became one of America's most reviled citizens. He has been likened to the gods and condemned as a racist and an anti-Semite. He was supremely self-confident and painfully shy. And from the time he was a boy, he found himself drown to danger and adventure. Without calculated risk, Charles Lindbergh believed life is not worth living.
CHARLES LINDBERGH AGAINST THE WIND
Harry Smith February 25th, 1927 , work began at Ryan Aircraft in San Diego on a special rush project. They were to build a small single-engine aircraft for a 25-year old airmail pilot from St. Louis named Charles Lindbergh . He'd ordered the plane for a nonstop flight he planned to make from New York to Paris . Lindbergh had joined the race to be the first ever to make the transatlantic flight and to win the $25,000 price that had been offered by a wealthy hotel owner named Raymond Orteig . But already, two men had died when their overloaded plane could not lift off the runway. Lindbergh carefully reviewed the reports of the crash and concluded that a small light plane would fare better. Anything not absolutely essential to his transatlantic flight Lindbergh resolved would be sacrificed in the name of saving weight. Unlike his competitors, his plane would have only one engine and one cockpit. Lindbergh was confident that both he and his engine could endure the 36-hour flight without failure. But by now, three more teams had failed in their pursuit of the Orteig. In all, six men were killed before Lindbergh's plane was even completed. As to rate Lindbergh's chance of success, Lloyd's of London refused stating simply that the risk is too great. Charles Lindbergh though remained undaunted.
TOM CROUCH HISTORIAN
Tom Crouch He knew he could do this challenge. This was one he was going to undertake and he thought he could, could ah, succeed at it and that's always a part of Charles Lindbergh's make up I think. He looks at the situation, weighs it, makes a decision and you know he's ready to go.
Harry Smith Lindbergh named his plane the Spirit of St. Louis in honor of the group of civic minded St. Louis businessman who donated the $15,000 for his venture. And on May 10th, 1927 , he took off for Long Island, New York , the starting point for his journey to Paris . As he flew East, Lindbergh was unaware that the transatlantic race had captured the attention of the entire country.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg It was a kind of Atlantic fever that broke out and the press really caught on to this 'coz this was a thrilling story. First of all, it's a death defying story and also it's glamorous. It was about aviation. It was about the modern era.
Harry Smith Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis at Roosevelt Field Long Island on May 12th, 1927 . He nearly hit a pack of reporters who had rushed to his plane the moment it touched down. Charles Lindbergh was surprised and annoyed to find that he had become the biggest news story of the day. Lindbergh preferred to be alone. Now, wherever he went, he was mobbed by fans and hounded by the press.
Tom Crouch He's not like these other characters with multi-engineer planes and lots of people in the crew. He's all by himself. And his airplane is much smaller than the other airplanes and I mean it's just a situation that's made to order for the newspapers. They just focused on him.
A. Scott Berg You know, a lot of the people in the press called him the "Flyin' Fool" and ultimately they called him "Lucky Lindy." He really resented those nicknames because he felt there is nothing foolish about what he was doing and that luck had very little to do with his making the flight.
Harry Smith For a week, Lindbergh and his competitors waded out stormy weather over the Atlantic. Then, on the evening of May 19th, the reports indicated improving conditions out at sea. Lindbergh rushed to the airfield to ready his plane. By the time he got to bed, it was midnight but he could not sleep.
[sil.]
Harry Smith At 3:00 am, he was back at the hangar. A light rain was falling and the runway was muddy.
DANIEL CLEMONS SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS EXPERT
Daniel Clemons It was not a good morning to fly. The weather conditions were a lot less than ideal. Ah, the winds had shifted down the runway, he's gotta tailwind, he's gotta contend with. So he's got some major problems and you can see the worry in his face.
Harry Smith The Spirit of St. Louis weighed 5,000 pounds fully loaded with fuel, a thousand pounds more than it had ever carried.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Lindbergh did not know how long it would take him to get the Spirit of St. Louis airborne. But he did know that once he passed the halfway point on the runway, he would have to get the plane up or he would crash. It's less of a decision of logic, he noted than of feeling.
sil.
Harry Smith Lindbergh and his plane cleared the telephone wires at the end of the runway by just 20 feet.
[sil.]
Daniel Clemons What would make this guy go ah, in all of those bad conditions? To me, it spelled doom. And there's no way with 450 gallons of fuel you can land the Spirit of St. Louis. There was no chance for error. He had to shut it down or get it off the ground. No other way. If he got that thing up off the ground ah, he couldn't get it back on the ground without killing himself.
Harry Smith Eight hours later, he was over Nova Scotia . Already, he had to force himself to keep from drifting into sleep. By now, he had been awake for two days straight but he had 25 hours more to go.
[sil.]
Harry Smith He flew past St. John's, Newfoundland then out to open sea and into the dark of a moonless night.
JIM NEWTON FRIEND
Jim Newton When he left Newfoundland and disappeared for 16-hour, no radio, over the ice, no sleeping(ph), no nothings, just no word and the world stood still.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Nearly half way across the ocean, his wings iced up so he detoured south. Then his compasses malfunction, so he flew blind until he cleared the magnetic storm and then he hit fog. Yet, what threaten Lindbergh the most was not the weather but the excruciating fatigue. "It seems impossible to go on longer", he wrote. "All I want in life is to throw myself down flat, stretch out and sleep." Lindbergh found himself drifting into a semi-conscious state. Remembrances of his childhood flooded(ph) over him. Bedtime in winter, at the Little Falls, Minnesota farmhouse, Charles' mother would shake hands with her little boy and sent him off to sleep. He would curl up in bed wearing his father's old coat. His father had left home, leaving behind the turbulent marriage and his young son.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles was a painfully shy boy and always an outsider. Other children teased him relentlessly and took to calling him "Lindbergher" or just plain "cheese".
[sil.]
Harry Smith Lindbergh had always lived close to danger. At 16, he bought an excelsior motorcycle, and roared through Little Falls had break next speed(ph). He loved the feeling of power, the exhilaration of risk. Young Charles though longed for even more speed and greater danger. He dreamed of hurdling through the air at a hundred miles an hour of piloting his own plane. By the time he was 20, Charles had scraped together $500,000 and bought a World War I surplus "Jenny". And for the next five years, he would do nearly anything to keep himself in the air. He flew the barnstorming circuit. He trained in the Army Air Corps, and went on to pioneer the US Air Mail route between St. Louis and Chicago . Charles had thought that his winter as an Air Mail pilot had prepared him for anything, but it did not prepare him for absolute exhaustion. Lindbergh shook himself out his semi-conscious state. He could barely bring himself to note the fuel consumption, let alone keep the Spirit of St. Louis on course. After close to 27 hours in the air, Lindbergh saw what it first he thought was a mirage. It was the coast of Ireland .
DANIEL CLEMONS SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS EXPERT
Daniel Clemons He was an excellent navigator. Hey, stop and think. Ah, he travels 1900 miles over open ocean, comes into the Southern tip of Ireland , looks it, climbs up the 2,000 feet, sees Dingle Bay, and talk about a yahoo recognizes San Vicente Island in the middle of Dingle Bay. Ah, that's a real yahoo. I've survived 1900 miles over the Atlantic.
Harry Smith The moment he sighted land, Charles felt reborn. "I've been to eternity and back," he wrote. "I know how the dead would feel to live again."
[sil.]
Harry Smith Finally, after flying 3,610 miles in 33 1/2 hours, he was over Paris .
[sil.]
Harry Smith When Charles Lindbergh brought the Spirit of St. Louis in for a landing, he was met by a crowd of over 150,000. As the newspapers, radio reports and newsreels were dispatched, Charles Augustus Lindbergh became famous all around the world and his life as he'd known it was over.
[sil.]
RADIO ANNOUNCER Lindbergh , Lindbergh is coming down of the gangplank.
Harry Smith Charles Lindbergh had been extremely well-prepared for his Atlantic flight but nothing had prepared him for life in the public eye. Nearly every town across the country clamored for a visit by the fame aviator.
HARRY MILES MUHEIM WRITER
Harry Miles Muheim My father taken my sister and me to see Lindy . He be disappointed me because he didn't look great and heroic, he was in a blue suite and looked quite tired in waving in a sort of one fashionist as he went up Market Street.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg He really didn't like the adulation. He couldn't stand the parades. He thought it was insane standing in front of people waving. What was he waving for? What was he there for? He always needed purpose for things. And, and the idea of being a celebrity had absolutely no purpose just in and of itself.
Harry Smith Everyone was celebrating but Charles , "I began to realize", he wrote "that as one gain's fame, one losses life." And Charles wanted his life back to himself.
A. Scott Berg In Lindbergh -like fashion, he all but made a checklist of things he had to do to restore some personal equilibrium to his life and that included falling in love and getting married.
Harry Smith Charles though was willfully unprepared for what he called "his girl-meeting project." He was 25-years old and had never asked a girl out for a date. But in December of 1927 , everything changed. An invitation of the US Ambassador to Mexico Dwight Morrow , Charles paid a visit to Mexico City . There, he met the Ambassador's daughter, 21-year-old Anne Morrow and sat next to Charles at a luncheon and did not say a word to him. As a result, she made quite an impression on Charles .
A. Scott Berg I think, the great attraction here was that he found someone as shy as he was, because Anne Morrow was extremely shy. And upon meeting Charles Lindbergh , I could barely look at him, say nothing to talked to him. She was, she was so tongue tied and that was the very quality I think that drew Lindbergh to her.
Harry Smith Anne too was affected by the encounter. "My world, my little embroidery beribboned world," Anne wrote in her diary "is smashed."
[sil.]
Harry Smith Anne Spencer Morrow had grown up in wealth and luxury. But privately she longed to escape the sheltered life she had been living. Charles took her flying and enjoyed the comfort he felt in their silences. After just two more dates, he asked for Anne's hand in marriage and she accepted.
REEVE LINDBERGH DAUGHTER
Reeve Lindbergh My feeling about my parents is that there was intense and tremendous physical attraction. They were almost immediately, intensely aware of each other, very passionate about each other and for both of them uhm, they both have said that, that it was instant.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles would take Anne on one challenging air adventure after another but Anne was not just a passenger. She was co-pilot. She learned how to fly, navigate and operate the short wave radio. Together, they would break the transcontinental speed record, pioneered commercial air routes to Japan and to Europe. And along the way, they encountered some of the most challenging flying conditions anywhere. Anne handled it off without complaint but Anne wanted to begin living what she called real life, starting a family and making a home. The Lindbergh's built a house of their own design in Whirl Hopewell, New Jersey . And on June 22nd, 1930 , Anne's 24th birthday, she gave birth to a seven-pound six-ounce boy. They named him Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg They really felt like they were settling down together and I think in some ways it was probably the happiest moment in Charles Lindbergh's life.
Harry Smith Late in 1931 , when little Charlie was just 18 months old, Anne gave Charles the news. She was pregnant again, due in August. But then one night, in the winter of 1932 , joy suddenly turned to anguish. Charles and Anne found themselves living in nightmare that would not end.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Anne Lindbergh penned a note to her mother-in-law early in February 1932 . "It is such a joy to hear Charlie calling for mommy", Anne wrote "and Charles Jr. and Sr. have a wonderful time together." But less than a month later, their family life was shattered. On the night of March 1st, 1932 , the Lindbergh's baby nurse went up to check on Charlie as he slept but he was not in his crib. When the nurse yelled out, Charles went to his son's room. There he found a ransom note demanding $50,000 for the safe return of the boy. He looked over at Anne and said, "They have stolen our baby."
[sil.]
A message that shocks the world comes in on the police teletype. Out over the wires and immediately, there begins the greatest manhunt in the history of modern crime. Troopers are going through the neighborhood with a fine tooth comb.
Harry Smith The first investigators on the scene found a broken wooden ladder not far from the house.
Sectional ladder carried by the kidnappers was been placed exactly as it was by the abductors.
The crime was committed by means of a ladder.
Stolen away at night from this window, a sleeping suit.(crosstalk)
The whole country was aroused by the terrible crime.
This ladder, and footprints and a warning note put in the empty crib were the only clues left behind for the police to work upon.
Harry Smith From the start, Charles took control of the investigation.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg He had all but made checklists of how he was gonna get through each day and what the police were meant to be doing each day and, and what he could be doing. And indeed, he was doing everything humanly possible.
Harry Smith Charles had always low(ph) the intrusiveness of the press but now he released the home movies he had recently taken of little Charlie hoping that someone, somewhere would see his boy in the newsreels and help get him back home. But days passed into weeks and Charles and Anne still did not know what had happened to little Charlie . Finally, one month after their boy was taken, the kidnapper sent instructions for the payment of the ransom money. And on April 2nd, 1932 , Charles had $50,000 delivered to a man waiting in a Bronx cemetery. But his son was not returned.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Then on May 12th, 1932 , ten weeks after Charlie was taken, Anne's mother sat her down on the bed and told her that Charlie's body had been found in the woods not far from their house. He had been dead since the night he was kidnapped. At first, Anne felt an odd sense of relief that she finally knew what had happened to Charlie . Then she began to cry and could not stop. "No control over tears", Anne wrote. "Spasms of emotion uncontrollable, impossible to talk without crying."
[sil.]
Harry Smith But even in her intense sadness, she worried about her husband for she never once saw Charles shed a tear.
REEVE LINDBERGH DAUGHTER
Reeve Lindbergh He did not express emotion. He would not had been able to talk about it but I know he felt. I, I, I know him and I know he felt it very deeply and very strongly.
JIM NEWTON FRIEND
Jim Newton I can see also after the, the kidnapping, I could see the, the hearts, the broken heart of a father who had lost his son under terrible circumstances who just kept it to himself. And when it was to just kept that to himself the hurt, somewhere has been said that he was cruel or cold or emotionless, that's the only way he could handle it.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles had his son's remains cremated and then he took the ashes out over the Atlantic and scattered them to the wind. He took comfort in the fact that nobody could ever again disturb his boy.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles and Anne abandoned their new house hoping to live behind their memories of the kidnapping. They move into the Morrow's family mansion in Englewood, New Jersey . And on August 16th, 1932 just three months after Charlie had been found dead, the Lindbergh second son was born. They named him Jon . Charles and Anne tried their best to keep clear of the press and to raise Jon in peace. But the peace was not to last. On September 19th, 1934 , after a two and a half year investigation, the police arrested Bruno Richard Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of their first born son. The trial was set for January 2nd, 1935 in Flemington, New Jersey . When Charles got to the courthouse, he found that reporters, photographers and curiosity seekers had taken over the town. Salesman hawk Lindbergh photographs, package of fake baby Lindbergh hair and replicas of the kidnap ladder.
[sil.]
Harry Smith On the witness stand, Charles was asked if Hauptmann was the man who received the ransom money in the Bronx graveyard three years earlier. Charles said he was and a gasp ripple through the courtroom. On February 13th, 1935 the case went to the jury, Bruno Richard Hauptmann was found guilty of murder. His sentence, death by electrocution.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg Although Lindbergh never really show that, I think, the kidnapping affected him profoundly. We figured he'd followed all the rules, he had done everything he was supposed to do to get his baby back, he had put trust in all of the people, he, and, and it ended up nowhere, it ended up with the dead baby. And I think that made him weary, wearier than he had ever been for the rest of his life.
Harry Smith With the trial over, Charles began secretly preparing to take his family out of the country. He longed for a safe and private haven away from a relentless press.
Harry Smith In December 1935 , the Lindbergh's moved to Weald, Kent, England where they hope to live undisturbed. Charles had no plans to return to America but the American government had plans for Charles Lindbergh .
[sil.]
Harry Smith In the summer of 1936 , the American embassy in Berlin asked Charles to evaluate the strength of the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles was impressed. He was also impressed by Adolf Hitler . " Hitler is undoubtedly a great man," Charles wrote, "and I believe he has done much for the German people." Charles chose to ignore what Hitler had already done to the German Jews. By 1936 , Hitler's campaign to deny Jewish people their human rights was well under way.
A. Scott Berg They were starting to carrel(ph) Jews. And Lindbergh just, just didn't wanna deal with that because it didn't fit in with the rest of the formula. Everything else seem to work in Germany .
Harry Smith Charles was so enamored with German society that he plan to move his family to Berlin as soon as Anne could find them a house.
[sil.]
Harry Smith On the night of November 9th, violence broke out against Jews all across Germany . Synagogues were burned, Jewish owned stores were destroyed and thousands were thrown into concentration camps. The pogrom would be remembered as Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass." Charles admitted that he could not understand what he described as the German's difficult Jewish problem but he did note in his journal that, "A few Jews had strength and character to a country but too many create chaos." Still the events of Kristallnacht convinced the Lindbergh to cancel their plans to move to Berlin . Charles decided it was time to return to the United States . For years he had done his best to keep out of the public eye, but now Charles wanted to use his stature as America's greatest hero to help keep America out of a war with Germany . Charles Lindbergh days as an untarnished hero where about to end. September, 1939 , fighting broke out across Europe and immediately Charles Lindbergh took to the airwaves to call for America to stay out of the war with Germany .
CHARLES LINDBERGH These wars in Europe are not wars in which our civilization is defending itself against some Asiatic intruder. This is not a question of bonding together to defend the White race against foreign invasion. This is simply one more of those (crosstalk).
Harry Smith He called for a Western wall of race and arms. And he wrote that the airplane permits the White race to live at all in a pressing sea of yellow, black and brown. Charles came under immediate attack for his views. The press labeled him a "somber cretin" and "pro-Nazi." And F.D.R. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes lashed out against the Lindberghs every chance he got.
Harold Ickes The Lindberghers, Lindberghs. It was a natural slip to my nostril they smell the same.
Harry Smith The attacks only seem to spur Charles on.
Charles Lindbergh We believe that the security of our country lies in the strength and character of our own people and not in fighting foreign war.
Harry Smith In April of 1941 , he became the top spokesman for America First. An isolationist group that already had a following of millions around the country. President Roosevelt was fighting to gain public support for the war effort and he saw Charles Lindbergh as his chief opponent. So F.D.R. went on the offensive, publicly labeling Charles a "copperhead," a civil war term for a defeatist and a traitor.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg Charles Lindbergh was in the army Air Corps reserve. Franklin Roosevelt was his commander-in-chief and upon being called basically a traitor by his commander-in-chief, Charles Lindbergh felt he had to do the thing he didn't want to do most in the world which was tender his resignation. Lindbergh loved the military. He loved his title but he did surrender it.
Harry Smith Charles vow to step up his own attacks against those he felt where pushing America into war.
CHARLES LINDBERGH The leaders of both the British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war.
[sil.]
CHARLES LINBERGH We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other people's to lead our country to destruction.
Harry Smith Charles speech provoke a firestorm of criticism. It was labeled un-American and an abused of free speech. The socialist leader Norman Thomas put it simply. Lindbergh he said, is a great idiot. On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 , the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the debate over American involvement in the war was over. Charles immediately release a statement calling for all Americans to unite behind the war effort. "Our country has been attacked by force of arms," he wrote, "and by force of arms, we must retaliate." Then he offered his services to the army air corps but F.D.R. refused him, saying only, "I will clip that young man's wings." But Charles would not be stop from serving his country. He got himself hired as a consultant to United Aircraft and was given clearance to go to the combat zone in the South Pacific as a test pilot. He was now on the front lines but only as a civilian.
JOE FOSS FRIEND
Joe Foss We were on an island called Emerald in the Solomon Island chain and ah, he says I'm ready for duty. He flew ah, and flew all day everyday actually dive bombing and strafing.
[sil.]
Joe Foss I'd recall ah, Charlie Lindbergh hit an oil dump(ph). He pulled out, made a second run to make sure that he got it.
Harry Smith But his greatest contribution had more to do with his knowledge of airplane engines than aerial combat. He knew how to fly farther on less fuel and he taught the other pilots how he did it. General MacArthur called his contribution a gift from heaven. American planes could now be in the air longer than anyone expected. And that meant the Japanese could be caught by surprise deeper in their own territory.
TOM CROUCH HISTORIAN
Tom Crouch I think, when you look at Charles Lindbergh experience in the air in World War II, you see someone proving that he is one of the most proficient aviators in the world. This is what he does and he does it as well as anybody does better.
Harry Smith Without fanfare Charles flew a total of 50 combat missions. And in the fall of 1944 , after being away for nearly six months, he felt that he'd done what he could. He headed back to 38-year old Anne and their family that had grown to include four children. But Charles would not stay home for long.
[sil.]
Harry Smith On May 7th, 1945 , the Nazis surrendered and Charles Lindbergh was on his way back to Germany . The country that had so impressed him before the war. The navy wanted him to evaluate German advances in aviation and rocketry. At North Houston(ph) Charles inspected the underground assembly lines where V-2 rockets had been produced by slave laborers.
[sil.]
Harry Smith He then went to see what was in a nearby factory building and quickly realized he was in a crematorium. There a newly freed prisoner told him quietly 25,000 died here in a year and a half and then he led Charles to an open grave overflowing with ashes. But Charles was unable to truly comprehend the depth of Hitler's evil. He could only compare the Nazis' mass extermination of Jews to the limited number of atrocities committed by American GI's against Japanese soldiers. "We, who claimed the German was defiling humanity in his treatment of the Jew," Charles wrote, "we're doing the same thing in our treatment of the Jap."
REEVE LINDBERGH DAUGHTER
Reeve Lindbergh I think he felt that this enormous horrible thing that had happened did not indicate something wrong with the German people. I think, that he, he thought that it, it indicated something wrong with humanity. Something wrong with us and ah, I'm sure, I'm sure that, that was the way he felt about it.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles blamed humanity for the German death camps and he blamed science for the devastation unleashed by airplanes and bombs.
[sil.]
Harry Smith He considered renouncing his profession in disgust, but he could not turn his back on aviation.
[sil.]
Harry Smith Charles Lindbergh emerged from the war as one of America's foremost aviation consultants. Working for the Air Force and Pan American Airways he traveled almost non-stop. And wherever he went, he carried with him a stock of paper and his favorite fountain pens. He was working on an account of his heroic flight to Paris . And in 1953 , after nearly 15 years of writing and rewriting, Charles' book was published.
The Spirit of St. Louis
Harry Smith It won him the Pulitzer Prize. And soon after, he received the one honor that meant more to him than any other. The Air Force make Charles Lindbergh a Brigadier General. He was finally, officially welcome back into the military more than a decade after F.D.R. had turned him away.
A. SCOTT BERG BIOGRAPHER
A. Scott Berg I think Americans are basically a forgiving people and, and we do have this thing about creating our heroes than knocking them down. But then after you've had your time in the wilderness, Americans will take most of our heroes back even Charles Lindbergh who was as rivaled as any American in the century really.
Harry Smith In October of 1972 , during a routine physical, Charles doctor discovered cancer. He underwent radiation therapy but he could not beat back the disease.
REEVE LINDBERGH DAUGHTER
Reeve Lindbergh I remember when he was dying I was afraid for him. And what I was afraid of was that he would lose control and that it would be terrible for him. My father had to be in control. I think that was as essential to his personality and character as any other piece of him. That was absolutely essential that he control his life, every little bit of it. As it happened uhm, he really never did lose control.
Harry Smith He planned for his death and burial the way he'd plan for his flight to Paris nearly a half century earlier. No detail missed his attention. He chose the psalms for his service, oversaw the digging of his own grave and asked to be buried in his khaki work-clothes.
Reeve Lindbergh When he was dying he said to my brother, "Don't let your mother spend the rest of her life defending me. I may have made mistakes but if I had made mistakes they're my mistakes."
[sil.]
Harry Smith On August 26th, 1974 , with Anne at his side, Charles Augustus Lindbergh died. He was 72-years old.
[sil.]
Harry Smith "After my death," Charles once wrote, "my being will return to the earth and the sky."
A Biography Written and Directed by Bruce Alfred Narrated by Harry Smith Archival Footage and Stills Provided by ABC News Videosource AB/Wide World Photos Archive Films Archive Photos Brown Brothers Richard Brown CBS News The Clemens Collection Courtesy of the Clemens Collection: The Lindbergh Collectors Society Frank H. Robertson Jr. The Ryan Aeronautical Library Cobbiestone Films, Inc. Corbis/Bettmann - UPI Corbis/Underwood Underwood Cradle of Aviation Museum Culver Pictures Emdee International F.I.L.M. Archives Globe Photos, Inc. Harris Ewing, Courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Hearst Entertainment, Inc. Historic Films HBI Shots Cool Cuts Hulten Getty/Liaison Agency The Image Bank Library of Congress Reeve Lindbergh Lockheed MacDonald Associates Minnesota Historical -Society Missouri Historical Society Musee de L'Air et de I'Espace National Archives Nebraska State Historical Society New Jersey State Police Museum The New York Daily News The New York Times Pan Am Historical Foundation Photofest Princeton University Library Radio Yesteryear Scribner Sherman Grinberg Smithsonian Institution, National Air And Space Museum Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College The San Diego Aerospace Museum UCLA Film And Television Archive United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives Courtesy of U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives: Trudy Isenberg David Wherry Dr. Adolpt Vess (illegible text) WETA-TV The WPA Film Library Yale University Library YIVO Institute Special Thanks to A.Scott Berg Daniel Clemons The Elisabeth Morrow School Highfields Residential Group Center Reeve Lindbergh The Mayflower Hotel, Washington D.C. Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Jack Purdy Barbara Robbins Morley Saler Judith Schiff Lyn Sheldon Music Associated Production Music "Lindbergh (The Eagle of the USA)" Written by Johnson and Sherman Courtesy of Historic Films "Lucky Lindy " Written by L.W. Gilbert A. Baer EMI Feist Catalogue, Inc. and Able Baer Music Company Courtesy of EMI-Feist and Historic Films Title Design Dominic Analore Chelsea Post On-Line Editor John Rehberger DuArt Colorist Mike Maguire DuArt Audio Editing Jim Heffernan National Sound Sound Mix Ed Campbell National Sound Camera Bestor Cram Alan Dater Mead Hunt Steven McCarthy Allan Moore Audio John Bernstein Robert J. Blauvell John D. Steadwell Merce Williams Helicopter Aerials Mike Peavey Wiggins Airways Biplane Aerials Kenwood Cassens Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome Animation Stand Ralph Pitre Associate Editor Linda Hattendorf Production Coordinator Genevieve Standing Production Associate Delia Watson Produced in Association with Cobblestone Films Associate Producer Bruce Hattendorf Editor Kris Liem Senior Producer Alison Guss Executive Producers CarolAnne Dolan Susan E. Leventhal Biography®
LindbergClip 31:30
LIndberg Climp 00:24
Bruno Hauptmann 02:10