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Tara Carnes It was the early days of flight barnstormers and daredevil pilots filled the air with the sounds of soaring wings. And among those famous fliers was Amelia Earhart , an aviation icon of the 20th century. Here, Amelia touches down to set a solo transcontinental speed record.
Amelia Earhart It took me about 19 hours and ah, a few minutes to ah, make the trip. I wish I could have done it faster.
And what did you carry on the trip?
Amelia Earhart You mean to eat?
Yeah, to eat and drink.
Amelia Earhart Well, I carried some water of course because my cockpit is very warm and I carried a sandwich in case. I didn't eat it though. I carried some hot chocolates and uhm, the old reliable tomato juice.
What kind of a sandwich was it?
Amelia Earhart Chicken sandwich.
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart dare to go where no one had gone before. The public adored the pioneering pilot. And newsreels of the day capture her every move. Yet the private side of Amelia would always remain a mystery.
Amelia Earhart I haven't made any official announcement of any flight yet, but pilots are always dreaming dreams.
Biography AMELIA EARHART
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart was the most famous female aviator the world has ever known. She was a rebellious explorer who set countless record-breaking flights and captured the hearts of millions. In 1937 , Amelia Earhart took off in her Lockheed Electra, bound and determined to be the first woman to fly around the world along the equator. But the queen of the air never returned from that flight and her disappearance remains one of the enduring mysteries of the 20th century.
NANCY B. MORSE Amelia Earhart's Cousin
Nancy B. Morse I think she loved her life. She enjoyed it to the hilt. I think she herself always thought that something would happen and she wouldn't live a long time. She seemed to me to bring that up quite often.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart's short but daring life began in the heartland of America . She was born on July 24th, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas . She was a restless child from the beginning. A tomboy, always searching for adventure.
1987 MURIEL EARHART MORRISSEY Amelia Earhart's Sister
Muriel Earhart Morrissey We enjoyed riding bareback on our ponies and uh, the things which uhm, ah, many little girls were not allowed to do. We were ah, quite happy tomboys.
TOM CROUCH National Air and Space Museum
Tom Crouch Earhart was a daredevil even when she was a young girl. There's ah, a famous story about sledding at the home in Kansas , and starting down the hill and seeing that there was a horse and wagon coming down the road and rather than turning aside or something of that sort, zipping right underneath the horse. That's just kind of grasping life for the gusto.
Tara Carnes Amelia's parents Edwin and Amy Earhart groomed their two daughters to be proper little girls. But Amelia , the eldest, loved Chemistry and sports. She wrote that it was unfortunate she lived at a time when girls were still girls.
Nancy B. Morse I think things went the way Amelia wanted them to go. I think her mother was terribly worried and tried very hard to control Amelia and her ideas of life.
Tara Carnes But Amelia's carefree youth was overshadowed by her parents embittered marriage. Edwin Earhart was a struggling lawyer who couldn't hold down a job and was constantly battling alcoholism.
DORIS RICH Biographer
Doris Rich Well, Amelia adored her father but he disappointed her so much in her teens, that her, her reaction to this was to never allow anyone after that to claim her emotions entirely.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes Amelia escaped from the painful memories of her adolescence by shifting her emotions to help others. During World War I, she enlisted as a volunteer nurse at a Toronto convalescent hospital. While caring for wounded military pilots, Amelia was awakened to the wondrous world of flying. After the war, Amelia moved to Southern California where her parents then lived. But the visions of those pilots lingered in her memory.
SUSAN WARE Historian
Susan Ware I can see Amelia growing up and seeing her mother juggling an alcoholic husband, not very much money, moving around all the time and I think throughout her life Amelia tried to avoid any kind of conventional female life.
Tara Carnes Aware of his daughter's restless nature and her secret passion to fly, Edwin Earhart treated Amelia to her first plane ride in an air circus show. And from that moment on, Amelia was hooked. She persuaded her father to pay for flying lessons from a top female flight instructor at Kinner Airfield in Long Beach, California . She eventually borrowed money to purchase her own airplane which she painted yellow and called the Canary. Flying provided Amelia with the thrills and adventure she had hungered for.
[sil.]
Susan Ware When she started to fly in 1920 and '21 , there's no way she could have envisioned the career she had because it really wasn't even a career path for anybody in aviation at that point ah, let alone for women.
Tara Carnes The novice flier took on odd jobs to pay for her expensive hobby. She even began looking the part. She secretly cut her long blond hair inch by inch so her mother wouldn't notice. She began wearing riding pants and boots, and a heavy leather coat which she wore to bed to make it look warm. Amelia was breaking all conventions. In between flying, Amelia found time for romance. She became engaged to Sam Chapman , an engineer who boarded with her parents but the engagement didn't last. Amelia grew up wary of marriage. In 1924 , her own parents separated. As a result, Amelia moved with her mother and sister to Boston living behind her airplane and her dreams about flying. Amelia briefly enrolled at Columbia University. Eventually, she accepted a job teaching English to immigrant children at a settlement home in Boston . She even made enough money to take up flying again on the weekends. And on occasion, she was written up in the local newspapers as the girl flier. Amelia thought flying would always remain a hobby. Then in 1928 , she got a surprise phone call. A public relations firm was searching for a female pilot interested in being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. The flight was to be a goodwill gesture between the U.S. and England . At that time, Amelia was unaware her career in aviation was getting ready to take off.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart was unaware she was on the verge of making history. After a brief meeting in New York , she was chosen as the one woman to participate in the transatlantic adventure christened the Friendship Flight. It was scheduled exactly one year after the aviation hero, Charles Lindbergh made his landmark transatlantic hop. Plans for the Friendship Flight were sealed in secrecy, in order to increase the publicity. This was all masterminded by the promoter George Palmer Putnam , better known as " G.P. " He was a book publisher and a publicist who issued the best selling biographies of Charles Lindbergh and polar explorer Richard E. Byrd .
DORIS RICH Biographer
Doris Rich It's very difficult to describe G.P. Putnam . He was flamboyant ah, he was handsome, he could be charming. When he lost his temper his language was incredibly evil. And he seem to ah, need the aura, to absorb the aura of fame of someone else if he couldn't make it himself, so that always he, he was associated with the famous.
Tara Carnes G.P. recognized the marketable star quality in Amelia with her feminine looks and dare-devilish spirit, however, she would not be allowed to fly the plane. The crew consisted of the pilot Wilmer Stultz and the mechanic Slim Gordon . Amelia would assist as captain and log taker.
SUSAN WARE Historian
Susan Ware I think when Amelia decided to go on the Friendship Flight, she thought it would be a vacation. Ah, she thought it would be fun, a great adventure, a death defying adventure and I think, she assumed she would come right back to the settlement house that she was working near in Boston and resume her life.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes After days of delay due to bad weather, the Friendship Flight took off from Boston on June 18, 1928 . But no sooner were they in the air when a blinding fog forced them to land in Nova Scotia .
Doris Rich They were stuck in Nova Scotia for 13 days of rain and bad weather. And during that time Wilmer Stultz who was the pilot and a very good one when he was sober, was not sober.
Tara Carnes Recalling her father's struggle with alcoholism, Amelia forced cups of coffee down Stultz , desperately trying to sober him up. Back up in the air again, the crew flew for over 20 hours in a blanket of fog, snow and icy rain. They finally water-landed off the shores of Burry Port, Southern Wales .
There is Miss Earhart in flying togs. No solo venture this. Miss Amelia shares welcome from Southampton's woman mayor, Mrs. Welch with Stultz her pilot and Gordon her plane's mechanic.
Tara Carnes Over night, Amelia Earhart became a celebrity. She captured the headlines over her two male crew members at a time when women rarely received any press. Reporters even began calling her, " Lady Lindy ", because she bear the physical resemblance to the legendary flier, Charles Lindbergh . But Amelia was horrified by the comparison.
TOM CROUCH National Air and Space Museum
Tom Crouch She really dislike that a lot. But she also worried about the fact that they were portraying her to this guy who had really done something pretty neat and she hadn't flown the airplane across the Atlantic herself.
Susan Ware I think she was also somewhat embarrassed by the attention she got, because as she knew she had done nothing on this flight. She was just a passenger. She kept the log ah, but she really referred to herself as a sack of potatoes.
On 6th of July, 1928 , Amelia again with Stultz and Gordon is given a big city welcome. This time it's New York who logs Amelia as first woman to fly across Atlantic.
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart's life would never be the same. G.P. immediately became the ring leader in her circus to stardom. He groomed his Lindy look-alike to become the famous aviator in the world. As her agent, he instructed her to smile without opening her mouth to hide the gap between her front teeth. He told her to stop wearing silly hats that hid her wavy blond hair. Amelia Earhart quickly adopted to her new found fame. She was an instant sensation on the profitable lecture circuit. Curiously, those who came to hear Amelia speak, commented more on what she wore than on what she had to say about flying. Amelia had such a flair for fashion that she eventually designed her own line of clothing to further promote her image.
NANCY B. MORSE Amelia Earhart's Cousin
Nancy B. Moore I sometimes inherited the suit from Amelia . I was always very pleased to get any of Amelia's clothes and wore them. I wore them till they fell off me.
Tara Carnes The charismatic woman flier received thousands of dollars from product endorsements and corporate sponsors. Aviation was an expensive career and Amelia would do all the publicity necessary in order to continue flying.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes From the beginning, Amelia used her celebrity to help other women fliers. In 1929 , she participated in the first cross country all women's air derby. The press labeled it, "The Powder Puff Derby," and called the pilots, " The Flying Flappers." The officials claimed the flight was too dangerous and that men should accompany the women as navigators. Amelia was furious at the suggestion.
Doris Rich She was very fond of her colleagues and very concerned about their careers. It was very hard for a woman to make a living in flying, a woman who didn't have a George Putnam .
Tara Carnes It became increasingly apparent among aviation circles that Amelia herself was not the best women flier of her time. She was a veteran of many accidents. And every time she flew, her stomach had offset from the gasoline fumes.
Doris Rich Earhart was always on the lecture platform always promoting the next flight, always too busy and always determined to do it as soon as possible. And this is what detracted from a high level of skill.
Tom Crouch Flying skill isn't the whole thing. Personality and the way in which you present yourself and the sort of image that people have of you, those are all key elements too, and Amelia was the one who had the whole package together.
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart was a thoroughly modern woman of her time. She posses both masculine and feminine qualities which made her appeal to both men and women. In depression era America , people needed heroes and Amelia came to symbolize hope for a brighter future.
NEWS FLASHES! PATHE NEWS EARHART MAKES IT!
DORIS RICH Biographer
Doris Rich Earhart would rather be in the air than anything in the world. I mean, she adored flying but she recognized the fact that she could not fly without airplanes, gasoline, service and the money that is consumed in flying, and she was realistic about that.
Tara Carnes G.P. kept Amelia busy raising money to fly rather than actually flying. The two of them began spending more and more time together, and it was rumored that the 43-year-old agent and the 33-year-old flier were having an affair. G.P. eventually divorced his wife of 18 years. Gossip soon spread that Amelia had turned down his proposal of marriage five times. She told a friend that she was still unsold on marriage and viewed it as a cage.
ELINOR SMITH Best Professional Woman Pilot, 1930
Elinor Smith And we had lunch that day, she said, "What do you think would be the reaction if I marry him?" And I, that's when I said, "Well, I think I prefer to see you married to Genghis Khan ." I just can't see it, because everybody in the business hated Putnam .
Tara Carnes Among aviation circles, G.P. was known as the pushy promoter who always muscled his way into photographs with Amelia to profit from her glory. But Amelia somehow felt she needed him and finally agreed to marriage. Although the day before the wedding she got cold feet and drafted a brutally honest letter to him.
AMELIA EARHART I must exact a cruel promise, and that is you will let me go in a year if we find no happiness together.
1987 MURIEL EARHART MORRISSEY Amelia Earhart's Sister
Muriel Earhart Morrissey She didn't wanna be ah, tied down. On her wedding morning, you know, she said that she would try to uh, fulfill her part of the obligation ah, but ah, she said, I ah, I feel that I want to be free.
Tara Carnes G.P. accepted Amelia's marriage conditions. The next day, the two were married during a modest wedding ceremony in Connecticut .
SUSAN WARE Historian
Susan Ware I think, that they did really managed to work out a mutually beneficial relationship between two workaholics and then sometime fairly soon after that he began to see her as something much more than that and it's clear to me that he fell in love with her long before she returned his love although I think, she did eventually returned his love.
Tara Carnes After exchanging vows, Amelia removed her wedding ring and never wore it again. Rather than a honeymoon, the newlyweds went back to work preparing for Amelia's next flight.
Amelia is Mrs. George Putnam now. But as far as planes are concerned, she still Amelia Earhart of the air lanes, who will give flight to anything with wings.
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart had a lifelong competition with herself to set every flying record imaginable. And ever since she flew as a passenger in the Friendship Flight, she wanted to prove to herself that she could fly across the Atlantic on her own.
Amelia Earhart I feel as if I were in readiness for our transatlantic hop. What is the latest report Bennett on the weather?
Tara Carnes On May 20th, 1932 , Amelia Earhart arrived in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland ready to embark on her solo overseas flight.
George P. Putnam Please don't forget to phone just the minute you get there.
Amelia Earhart I will.
George P. Putnam Goodbye.
Amelia Earhart So long.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes At 7:15 pm, Amelia lifted off in her Lockheed Vega, but no sooner was she in the air when trouble began. She found herself flying through blinding clouds. Ice and snow coated her wings.
AMELIA EARHART The last two hours were the hardest. I turned down the reserve tank and found the gauge leaking. I decided I should come down at the very nearest place.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes As dawn approached, she landed in the cow pasture near Londonderry, Ireland . Local farmers were stunned to see a woman in pants emerged from the plane. Within hours, photographers and reporters mobbed the meadow. Cables of congratulations poured in.
Amelia Earhart I really had no objective when I started. I struck rain like this on the way across, so I'm not ah, unaccustomed to do this at all. Alright to all(ph) the pleasures in fact.
UNIVERSAL NEWSPAPER NEWSREEL WORLD HAILS DARING AMELIA EARHART FOR SUCCESSFUL SEA HOP SAINT JOHN, N.B., CANADA EXCLUSIVE PICTURES
Tara Carnes Amelia's flight was a triumphant success. Back in New York , she was honored with an extravagant ticker-tape parade. Five years earlier, Americans applauded Charles Lindbergh for becoming the first man to make the ocean hop. Now, they cheered on Amelia Earhart , the first woman to solo across the Atlantic. Charles Lindbergh himself and his wife Anne send congratulations to their pioneering friend. Amelia was modest about her accomplishment. She said, she did it for the fun of it.
NANCY B. MORSE Amelia Earhart's Cousin
Nancy Morse I don't think, she ever worried about what people thought about her efficiency. I think, she was so sure herself what she was doing what, what was the right thing and she had such confidence in herself.
Tara Carnes More than skill, Amelia's confidence and raw courage helped her solo across the Atlantic. She was already 35-years old and her greatest aviation challenge was yet to come.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes By 1934 , Amelia Earhart was one of the best known women in the world. More than any other aviator of her time, Amelia used her notoriety to popularize commercial air service. She attracted customers to a new airline which eventually became T.W.A.
Amelia Earhart However, I foresee regular transatlantic service established certainly within our lifetime.
Tara Carnes Amelia even took up First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on a night flight. Mrs. Roosevelt was so excited by the experience that she wanted to get her pilot's license. But President Roosevelt flatly refused. He said he couldn't afford to lose the First Lady in an airplane accident.
SUSAN WARE Historian
Susan Ware I think she and Eleanor Roosevelt really hit it off. Ah, she would stay at the White House when she came to Washington . And I think, somehow she and Eleanor both had the sense of curiosity of wanting to try things.
Tara Carnes Like her friend, Eleanor Roosevelt , Amelia passionately crusaded for social causes. She supported the Equal Rights Amendment and fought to end discrimination against women pilots.
DORIS RICH Biographer
Doris Rich She felt that everyone ought to get out there and do the job they could do and then get the salary they were owed for it, irrespective of gender.
Tara Carnes G.P. had greatly contributed to Amelia's success in a man's world. After three years of marriage, Amelia wrote to her mother saying, "I believe the whole thing was for the best."
NANCY B. MORSE Amelia Earhart's Cousin
Nancy B. Morse I went out and had dinner with G.P. and Amelia and they seemed to be, to be matching each other very nicely. I think it was a happy, happy marriage even though it was misinterpreted a great deal and who knows.
Tara Carnes Amelia and G.P. eventually moved from New York to Southern California . G.P. had been spending much of his time in Los Angeles working as editorial director for Paramount Pictures. Amelia soon found herself spending time with movie stars such as, Mary Pickford and Gary Cooper but she was careful to keep her private life out of the public eye.
TOM CROUCH National Air and Space Museum
Tom Crouch I think Amelia Earhart is one of those individuals whose probably ah, untouchable at the core. The private person is very difficult to find.
ELINOR SMITH Best Professional Woman Pilot, 1930
Elinor Smith I really and honestly don't think she was a person that anybody would ever really know, because it depends on how we're brought up, that she never really got to know herself. To me she had a very sad life.
Tara Carnes Amelia loved her periods of solitude. Flying alone across a pastel sky, or speeding down a lonely dirt road in her automobile. But she increasingly had less and less time for herself. Amelia needed another aviation challenge to revive her public appeal. In January of 1935 , she took off from Honolulu . Eighteen hours later, she landed in Oakland, California to become the first person man or woman to fly solo from Hawaii to the mainland.
Amelia Earhart On this flight, really no bad weather at all except few little rains squalls. I saw the moon and stars most of the night. Of course, in both flights I was very glad to see land.
UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL EARHART HOPS FOGGY PACIFIC IN 18 HOURS OAKLAND, CALIF.
Tara Carnes The flight was a phenomenal success but the press labeled it "a corrupt publicity stunt." G.P. apparently received money to fund the flight from Hawaiian businessmen who had failed to pay their taxes.
Susan Ware People criticized G.P. for pushing Amelia too hard. Ah, number one, I think, she was a willing participant in this and number two she really had to do it. That was the way that she would raise the money for these flights and she and G.P. were not independently wealthy.
Tara Carnes But as Amelia's popularity declined, some friends claim that the constant pressure on her to make money began putting a strain on their marriage. Both Amelia and G.P. had grown accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. And for years Amelia had also supported her mother and sister.
Elinor Smith She was tired of his constant nagging about money and she was fed up with the constant uh, social climbing that went on and the deals that were made and a lot of the things were done without her knowledge and where her name was used and things like that.
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart managed to keep herself in the public eye for almost to ten years. But the era of setting record-breaking flights was coming to a close. Amelia needed one more profitable flight in order to be financially set up for life. In 1936 , Amelia Earhart announced her most challenging and dangerous long-distance flight to date. She was determined to set a new record, but it would be her last.
[sil.]Tara Carnes Amelia was about to take the greatest risk of her life. She announced a solo around-the-world flight, countless pilots had already successfully made the flight but no one had flown it circling the equator.
Amelia Earhart Ah, it will be the first flight if successful, which approximates the equator. Indeed, I cross the equator four times.
Tara Carnes In order to make such an ambitious flight Amelia traded in her Lockheed Vega for a two-engine Electra, the most advance aircraft of its time. Amelia raised $80,000 for the ambitious flying mission from Purdue University were she had been on staff career counseling young women. To prevent any gossip of the flight being another publicity stunt, Amelia stated that the airplane was to be a flying laboratory for aeronautical research.
Amelia Earhart Ah, with that, I hope to accomplish something really scientifically worthwhile for aviation.
Tara Carnes Amelia was initially going to make the trip solo. But due to her lack of navigation skills, she assembled an elite crew. Paul Mantz , her technical advisor and topnotch navigators Harry Manning and Fred Noonan .
[sil.]
Tara Carnes The Electra aircraft was installed with a two-way radio and a Morse code transmitting key. But Amelia was never comfortable using Morse code
SUSAN WARE Historian
Susan Ware There's a certain stubborn quality to her willfulness that she really see in the last flight where she's cutting some corners. She's not learning how to use her radio. Ah, and I think, she just assumed that she would be able to make up the difference by her skill and she'd always been able to do it before and I think, she assumed she would be able to do it again.
Tara Carnes Amelia was preoccupied lecturing all across the country to make money for the flight. Physically and mentally she was at the point of exhaustion. Amelia told a friend that this was going to be her last big stunt(ph) flight.
AMELIA EARHART I have a feeling that there's just about one more good flight left in my system and I hope this trip around the world is it.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes On March 17th, 1937 , Amelia and her crew embarked from Oakland, California on their around-the-world flight. They made a successful take-off for Hawaii . But when speeding down the runway on Honolulu , the Electra suddenly ground looped and crashed. Many blamed the accident on careless flying but Amelia was prepared to make a second attempt. Repairs on the Electra soared up to almost $30,000 and the flight was rerouted.
DORIS RICH Biographer
Doris Rich Earhart did not express any fear of flying ever until the last flight. But Earhart was very victorian about the promise made and kept and there were contracts, there were all kinds of arrangements for this that had been settled and she felt she had to do it.
Tara Carnes Amelia would have to make the second attempt with two less crew members, Harry Manning had to return to his job and Paul Mantz was edged out by G.P. Some claimed they had been bickering over money.
ELINOR SMITH Best Professional Woman Pilot, 1930
Elinor Smith The story I got was that Putnam thought that he was having an affair with ah, Earhart and ah, I just can't believe such a thing. Amelia just wasn't a flirty person. You know, I mean, there are some women that will flirt with a chair like if it's handy. She wasn't, or, or there would be laughter or, or some indication, I never saw that.
Tara Carnes This left Amelia with Fred Noonan . Neither of them were skilled in radio communications and Noonan was known to have a drinking problem. Yet, for Amelia there was no backing out.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes On June 1st, 1937 , Earhart and Noonan took off once again, this time from Miami, Florida . The Electra was now loaded down with nothing more than naive optimism. Amelia had left behind two key communication devices, a trailing wire antenna and her Morse code key. Neither of which she had ever needed on her previous flights.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes Their route took them to South America, Africa, India and Australia . Amelia had flown almost three quarters of the way around the world without a hitch. But when they landed to refuel in Lae, New Guinea , Amelia cabled a coded message to G.P. of a personnel problem. It was assumed that Noonan had been drinking, but Earhart herself was not well.
[sil.]
Doris Rich On Earhart's last flight, having started out with ill health fatigue on the way along the flight she would fly an average ah, very often of ten to 12 hours a day. And eventually her, her stomach just went utterly into pieces and ah, so by the time she got to Lae , she was, she was a wreck.
Tara Carnes G.P. cabled back to Amelia telling her to abort the flight but she was determined to march forward. On July 2nd, Earhart and Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea bound for Howland Island . It was a small stretch of land in the South Pacific where they planned to refuel before completing the last leg of the trip. Amelia had relied on her celestial navigation skills thus far, but a thick cloud cover made that impossible and their map of the island was off by over five miles.
[sil.]
Tara Carnes The Coast Guard cutter Itasca was positioned near Howland Island to pick up radio signals from the Electra aircraft but Earhart couldn't adjust her radio to the correct frequency.
AMELIA EARHART We must be on you, but cannot see you. The gas is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio.
Tara Carnes It became apparent that the Itasca could hear her but she couldn't hear them and Amelia was unable to use Morse code. As the minutes slipped by Amelia signaled again.
AMELIA EARHART Running out of gas. Only half hour left. Can't hear you at all.
Tara Carnes The Electra was still nowhere in sight. After 20 hours in the air Amelia's faint voice was heard for the last time.
AMELIA EARHART We are on the line of position 157-337. We are running north and south.
Tara Carnes No other transmission was heard after that. Earhart and Noonan had vanished.
NANCY B. MORSE Amelia Earhart's Cousin
Nancy B. Morse I telephoned all my siblings and we'd talk a good deal about anything we could do which was nothing.
Tara Carnes The U.S. Government immediately launched the largest and most expensive search for any lost American in United States history. Sixty-five airplanes and nine naval ships scoured the Pacific. G.P. even put up his own money to continue the search. But after two years, he surrendered to the fact that she was never coming back.
UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL AMELIA EARHART DOWN IN PACIFIC ON GLOBE FLIGHT
Tara Carnes No one could believe the heroine of aviation was gone forever. Myths and conspiracy theories mounted about her disappearance. There were stories that she was captured and then executed by the Japanese during the World War II, that she was on the spy mission for the Roosevelts from which she could never return. Some even claim to have found pieces of metal from her plane on several South Pacific islands.
TOM CROUCH National Air and Space Museum
Tom Crouch I think, in the case when a lot of people who knew her best, there was that sense that it, she can't be gone. But from the point of view of most rational people who have looked at this ah, there's nothing to indicate that ah, Amelia and Fred didn't simply ah, disappear in the Pacific, didn't, didn't come down at sea somewhere.
Tara Carnes Amelia's mother never gave up hope that her daughter would someday return. And for many Americans, the angel of the air was transformed into an enduring legend.
1987 MURIEL EARHART MORRISSEY Amelia Earhart's Sister
Muriel Earhart Morrissey It's not the mystery of her disappearance that ah, ah, we want to stress. To her ah, flying was ah, such a wonderful experience and she wanted it to be safe and she wanted ah, people to ah, enjoy it as she did.
Tara Carnes Amelia Earhart faced death in much the same way she faced life. A poem that she wrote years before her disappearance defines the essence of her legacy.
AMELIA EARHART Courage is the prize that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things, knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bigger joy can hear the sound of wings.
[sil.]
They live among us. Normal from outward appearances but their twisted thoughts play out in heinous headlines. Misfits, murderers, madmen. See how they became who they are and what demons drove them to becoming notorious. Weeknights at ten only on the Biography Channel.
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