Speaker 1: She flew not just because she loved it, but she
Speaker 1: flew for women, and hers was a real feminist commitment.
Speaker 1: Eleanor Roosevelt said of Familiar Heart, she helped the cause
Speaker 1: of women by giving them a feeling that there was
Speaker 1: nothing they could not do. I just love mat That
Speaker 1: was author Candice Fleming talking about one of the most
Speaker 1: famous women in history, the inspiration for countless girls and women,
Speaker 1: none other than aviator Amelia Earhart. I'm a land Ververe
Speaker 1: and this is Seneca's one Women to Hear. We are
Speaker 1: bringing you one hundred of the world's most inspiring and
Speaker 1: history making women you need to hear. In the nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: Amelia Earhart was everywhere in books, newsreels, magazines, advertising. She
Speaker 1: made fly ing and feminism popular. She was the first
Speaker 1: woman and second person after Charles Lindbergh to fly solo
Speaker 1: across the Atlantic. That was just one of her great achievements,
Speaker 1: and she remains an object of utter fascination today due
Speaker 1: partly to her mysterious disappearance during a N seven flight
Speaker 1: to circumnavigate the globe. We're learning about her today from
Speaker 1: Candice Fleming, author of Amelia Lost, The Life and disappearance
Speaker 1: of Amelia Earhart. Listen and learn why Amelia Earhart is
Speaker 1: one of Seneca's women to hear. I'm delighted to be
Speaker 1: here today to speak with Candice Fleming about that amazingly
Speaker 1: iconic woman in history, Amelia Earhart. Welcome, Candice, Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thrilled to be here. Maybe you could tell us at
Speaker 1: the outset what you think Amelia should best be known
Speaker 1: for in terms of her greatest achievements and her legacy.
Speaker 1: You know, um, Amelia Earhart, she may be even more
Speaker 1: famous today than she was at the height of her
Speaker 1: flying career. UM, and that fascination has shows no sign
Speaker 1: of abating. UM. The unsolved mystery of her disappearance has
Speaker 1: become sort of this industry that we've devoted ourselves to.
Speaker 1: We want to know what happened to her. UM. We
Speaker 1: have search expeditions, and we come up with all these
Speaker 1: supposed facts that are constantly surfacing. But I think what
Speaker 1: she should be known for is her influence on the
Speaker 1: development of mass culture and the merchandising and popular figures.
Speaker 1: Amelia E. Horhart really transformed herself into this sort of
Speaker 1: carefully crafted brand. She advocated, and she influenced the emergence
Speaker 1: of aviation as a major transportation industry. And she symbolized
Speaker 1: the opportunities for women in modern life. I mean she
Speaker 1: tirelessly promoted equality and opportunities for women and a time
Speaker 1: when women were really expected to stay within those traditional
Speaker 1: roles of wife and mother. Um, she flew not just
Speaker 1: because she loved it, but she flew for women, and
Speaker 1: hers was a real feminist commitment. Eleanor Roosevelt said of
Speaker 1: Amelia Heart, she helped the cause of women by giving
Speaker 1: them a feeling that there was nothing they could not do.
Speaker 1: I just love that. I love that too. Well, let's
Speaker 1: change that out a little bit, because she was a
Speaker 1: huge celebrity in her day and a trendsetter. There were
Speaker 1: magazine covers or newsreels or influence. Uh. It was really
Speaker 1: quite best. Uh. And she endorsed products as well. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us more about all of that. Yeah, she
Speaker 1: was everywhere. Like I said earlier, she was a brand,
Speaker 1: and she carefully cultivated her public image. She worked, I
Speaker 1: mean really worked at being a popular hero. Um. Then
Speaker 1: that started with the light across the Atlantic. Um that
Speaker 1: meant that fourteen hours a day, truly fourteen hours of
Speaker 1: her every day she spent lecturing or at receptions in
Speaker 1: big and small towns all across the United States. And
Speaker 1: that also meant cranking out instant books. She actually wrote
Speaker 1: two best sellers. She dealt with the newsreel, photographers and
Speaker 1: reporters right at the very moment of her grueling flights,
Speaker 1: just when they finished. She would have to deal with
Speaker 1: the reporters. Um. It also meant always being on display
Speaker 1: wherever she went. UM. One of her favorite saying, so
Speaker 1: I hope I can remember this right. No pay, no fly,
Speaker 1: and no work, no play. She was caught in that
Speaker 1: cycle public appearances and endorsements. Um, we're all part of
Speaker 1: what was necessary for her to earn money to fly,
Speaker 1: because flying, of course wasn't cheap. So she broke an
Speaker 1: aviation record, or she did some flying stunt, and then
Speaker 1: she lectured and wrote about it. And let's not forget
Speaker 1: that she had a world class promoter and her husband,
Speaker 1: George Putnam. He was from Putnam Publishing, and he brought
Speaker 1: in endorsement fees two and endorsements were big business, but
Speaker 1: only if they were done right. And actually the first
Speaker 1: endorsement she did, they did wrong. She took fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: dollar fee for um Lucky Strikes Lucky Strikes cigarettes after
Speaker 1: her first Atlantic flight in nineteen and despite it being
Speaker 1: the rebellious nineteen twenties, it was still not acceptable for
Speaker 1: nice women to smoke um. The general public wasn't impressed,
Speaker 1: and one of the her um fans wrote to her
Speaker 1: and said, I suppose you drink too, And actually Amelia
Speaker 1: didn't do either, and she didn't endorse either product after
Speaker 1: that sort of debacle either, and said she went on
Speaker 1: to endorse products like Kodak film and Pratt Whitney, wasp
Speaker 1: and and Franklin and Hudson automobiles and Timesaver stationary. She
Speaker 1: also received some royalties for the use of her name
Speaker 1: for Ornstein Trunk Company's the Amelia Heart air Light luggage,
Speaker 1: and she had her full size image. I would wish
Speaker 1: I could have seen this. Her full sized image was
Speaker 1: in the windows at Macy's along with her luggage. She
Speaker 1: also designed and marketed her own line of women's clothing,
Speaker 1: and she called them Active Clothing, and the tagline, which
Speaker 1: she wrote herself, read, this is the era of feminine activity.
Speaker 1: The stay at home and the hammock girl are gone.
Speaker 1: Modern women are strenuously active. She even modeled her own
Speaker 1: creations and magazines and at events. UM in her sportswear,
Speaker 1: she said, she tried to recreate the beauty of aviation
Speaker 1: in the color in the line um, and that was
Speaker 1: that she had found in the air. And by the way,
Speaker 1: clothes were important to her, and she made the best
Speaker 1: less arm sorry, she made the best dressed list x times.
Speaker 1: My goodness. Well, she she certainly knew how to promote
Speaker 1: herself and all of the causes that she was involved in,
Speaker 1: and all of the products that she wanted to put
Speaker 1: before the public. It's just fascinating to hear you talk
Speaker 1: about all of that. And you mentioned, of course her flying,
Speaker 1: which she's probably most noted for. And in the twenties
Speaker 1: there were other women pilots making headlines as well, probably
Speaker 1: something we're not so much aware of, and one of
Speaker 1: them was Bessie Coleman. What was going on in all
Speaker 1: of that for women flight? Other times women were really
Speaker 1: you know, no pun intended, but they really were taking wing.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen twenties, it was a period of huge change. Um.
Speaker 1: The First World War had really debunked women's ideas of
Speaker 1: self sacrifice and duty and that working for the greater good. Um.
Speaker 1: They asked themselves what had it all been for millions
Speaker 1: of people at die um. Add to that to the
Speaker 1: success of the suffrage movement, women could now vote and
Speaker 1: they were politically engaged in ways they hadn't been before.
Speaker 1: And all of this sort of led to this expansion
Speaker 1: of thinking of women in the nineteen twenties, this idea
Speaker 1: of freedom, their own personal freedom, um, and they began
Speaker 1: to struggle for freedoms in their own personal lives. Suddenly
Speaker 1: morality resided in being true to oneself rather than a cause.
Speaker 1: At the same time, you had some dramatic changes in
Speaker 1: the work patterns. Something like one third of unmarried women
Speaker 1: moved into paid employment. This made women a consumer power,
Speaker 1: and their sexual morays were changing too, and women were
Speaker 1: beginning to claim that same sexual license as men. So
Speaker 1: what you see in women in the nineteen twenties with
Speaker 1: Amelia Bessie Coleman, you see them puzzling out what freedom means,
Speaker 1: testing personal limits. They were really trying new things. They
Speaker 1: were being bold, and they were embracing adventure and interestingly
Speaker 1: individualistic heroines like Amelia and Bessie Coleman, they were sympathetically
Speaker 1: reported in the media and spread by popular culture, and
Speaker 1: this really had an effect on that ordinary woman who
Speaker 1: lived in Indiana. For Kentucky or Nevada, they too began
Speaker 1: to see that they could have adventures themselves. So a
Speaker 1: real lesson in how more people adopted to these changing times.
Speaker 1: What prompted her to become a flyer, And maybe in
Speaker 1: answering you could also say a little bit about her instructor,
Speaker 1: who was also a woman. I love that a snook.
Speaker 1: I love her name right, and it isn't wonderful. And
Speaker 1: at our house we actually when something goes bad, we go, oh,
Speaker 1: not a snook, because it's such a such a just
Speaker 1: great name. Um Amelia's interest actually was sparked when she
Speaker 1: was a twenty year old um and she was working
Speaker 1: in a Canadian military hospital during World War One and
Speaker 1: it was near nearby. The hospital was close to up
Speaker 1: An airfield and she sort of hung around. She loved
Speaker 1: hanging around and listening to the pilots talk about there's
Speaker 1: exciting adventures with bad weather and with air battles, and
Speaker 1: she loved watching those planes take off. And she claimed
Speaker 1: it was the first time that she actually felt that
Speaker 1: pull to fly, But it wasn't until nineteen twenty when
Speaker 1: she moved to California that aviation, as she says, caught her. Um.
Speaker 1: Flying was all the rage, especially in southern California, and
Speaker 1: every week there was something going on. So they had
Speaker 1: plane races and somebody was doing stunt flying or wing walking.
Speaker 1: And Amelia and her father attended an air air meat
Speaker 1: and she watched these amazing flyers and then turned to
Speaker 1: her father and said she thought she would like to
Speaker 1: do that too. Um. Her father, of course, he was
Speaker 1: not enthusiastic. What parents would want their daughter to go up,
Speaker 1: and especially in n I mean airplanes were basically kites
Speaker 1: with with an engine, not say um. But she convinced
Speaker 1: him that to arrange a flight, a trial flight for
Speaker 1: her um. And so she went up the next day
Speaker 1: was the first time she'd ever flown. Now, her father
Speaker 1: really intended for her to be terrified and get over
Speaker 1: this idea of flying, but instead she was exhilarated and
Speaker 1: she just had to learn how to fly. She was
Speaker 1: completely hooked, so that backfired. UM. She chose Netta Snook
Speaker 1: because Netta was the only female flyer in southern California
Speaker 1: who was in the business of giving lessons, and Amelia
Speaker 1: thought she would feel much more comfortable with a woman instructor. Um,
Speaker 1: and Netta snook while she was something. She was this feisty,
Speaker 1: redheaded twenty four year old. She taught herself or she'd
Speaker 1: um paid for her own lessons and had learned to
Speaker 1: fly as a teenager. And then then when World War
Speaker 1: One started, she tried to bull her way, bulldoze her
Speaker 1: way into the U. S. Air Corps. Um. Of course
Speaker 1: they wouldn't take her because she was a woman. She
Speaker 1: was a fantastic pilot, so they missed out. Um, she
Speaker 1: became an airplane mechanic instead. I mean, think about that,
Speaker 1: she's a mechanic during World War one. Um, when the
Speaker 1: war did end, she bought herself a wrecked warplane. She
Speaker 1: repaired it, and then she barnstormed across the country. She
Speaker 1: charged passengers I think it was fifteen dollars for a
Speaker 1: fifteen minute ride. And like I said, she was a
Speaker 1: great pilot. And so besides the basics of flying, which
Speaker 1: in those days were pretty basic, he had a stick
Speaker 1: in a rudder. Um, Netta taught Amelia had to keep
Speaker 1: her mind focused on flying. Netta always claimed that Amelia
Speaker 1: daydreamed during flying, which wasn't safe. She taught Amelia to
Speaker 1: always check her fuel gauge before they took off. Amelia
Speaker 1: tended to hop into the plane and want to hit
Speaker 1: the clouds immediately, and sometimes safety did not come first,
Speaker 1: And Netta taught Amelia about what to do in emergencies.
Speaker 1: Want to pull up the nose, want to shove that
Speaker 1: nose down? Um. Netta went on to not be particularly
Speaker 1: complimentary about Amelia's flying abilities. Um. They only flew together
Speaker 1: for about seven months, and then Amelia changed in structures
Speaker 1: instructors left Anetta behind. Oh wow, but it sounds like
Speaker 1: Nedda was quite entrepreneurial herself of fixing that plane and
Speaker 1: charging people to go for rides on it. They must
Speaker 1: have been quite a duo as long as it lasted. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there was probably some jealousy there on both parts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's fascinating. Well, so she makes the famous flight, that
Speaker 1: solo flight across the Atlantic. What can you tell us
Speaker 1: about that? What was it like? Physical and mental challenges
Speaker 1: surely must have been there for her. You're such a
Speaker 1: wonderful scenes setter. Help us understand what that was like. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a amazing flight, at least I
Speaker 1: think so. I think Melia probably would not call it amazing. UM.
Speaker 1: She took off on two and I love the reason
Speaker 1: that she took off. It was the fifth anniversary of
Speaker 1: Charles Lindbergh's famous solo flight. So there's our girl promoting
Speaker 1: herself as much as she can. It was a good
Speaker 1: choice for a date. She left from Harvard Grace, Newfoundland.
Speaker 1: UM in her cockpit she took along some tomato juice,
Speaker 1: canned tomato juice, and a couple of squares of chocolate
Speaker 1: for sustenance. UM. And things went pretty well, at least
Speaker 1: in the daytime. And then it got dark and her
Speaker 1: ultimater failed, and without it, she had no way of
Speaker 1: knowing how far above the ocean she was actually flying. Luckily,
Speaker 1: the night was bright so she could see the water
Speaker 1: below UM. Then she smelled something burning. She stood and
Speaker 1: she saw this flame out front, and she realized that
Speaker 1: it was UM a manifold seam that had broken a
Speaker 1: broken weld in the manifold seam, and hot exhaust gases
Speaker 1: were escaping from her plane cylinders, causing this flame. She
Speaker 1: hoped the fire wouldn't spread, and she flew on just
Speaker 1: I think it's amazing because she's over the Atlantic. Um.
Speaker 1: But she kept looking out the side window, and she worried.
Speaker 1: Later on, she actually admitted that she thought about turning back,
Speaker 1: but she was already four hours out and so it
Speaker 1: would be four hours back, so she might as well
Speaker 1: just keep on going. Then the weather turned absolutely awful.
Speaker 1: A rainstorm came alound around and just pummeled her little aircraft,
Speaker 1: reduced visibility to almost nothing, and so she really was
Speaker 1: now lying blind. Um. She felt sure that she had
Speaker 1: been buffeted way off course. And then the rain turned ice,
Speaker 1: and it coated the plane and it weighed it down,
Speaker 1: and the plane went into a spin. Amelia claimed she
Speaker 1: doesn't know how long she was in a spin, but
Speaker 1: of course she managed to pull it out. Um. But
Speaker 1: then she had no choice but to descent to the
Speaker 1: warmer weather or warmer air, closer to the water so
Speaker 1: that the ice on the plane would melt. But sometimes
Speaker 1: she dipped too low, and then the waves would lick
Speaker 1: at the landing gear, and just when you think that's
Speaker 1: bad enough, the fog rolls in and so now she
Speaker 1: really cannot see. So she would climb again in hopes
Speaker 1: of getting above the fog, and then they would start
Speaker 1: to ice up, and she would lower down into the
Speaker 1: fog to let the ice melt, and then she would
Speaker 1: ascend to get above the fog, up and down and
Speaker 1: up and down. It must have been harrowing. She actually
Speaker 1: had some smelling salts with her that she used to
Speaker 1: maintain her concentration, and she later admitted to almost losing
Speaker 1: her nerve over the ice and fog. Um. It really
Speaker 1: was a nightmare. Daybreak finally came and that flaming broken
Speaker 1: weld was shaking and rattling um, and she was really
Speaker 1: worried about that. And then when she went to switch
Speaker 1: on her reserve fuel tank, which was overhead the switch
Speaker 1: was overhead, she discovered that the gauge linked and so
Speaker 1: gasoline was trickling down her neck. I couldn't I know,
Speaker 1: It's like so many bad things at once. And so
Speaker 1: she made a decision right there and then that she
Speaker 1: was planning to go all the way to Paris and
Speaker 1: do the Lindbergh, you know, do what Lindbergh had done.
Speaker 1: But now she decided that she would just land at
Speaker 1: the first possible place. Pretty soon, she sees a meadow,
Speaker 1: she circles down, she lands beside a herd of astonished cows,
Speaker 1: and then she I bet they were astonished. And then
Speaker 1: she climbs out of the cockpit and calls to an
Speaker 1: equally astonished farmer where am I? And he calls back
Speaker 1: Gallagher's pasture and she had actually landed in northern Ireland.
Speaker 1: Um didn't make it all the way to Paris, but
Speaker 1: still becomes the first woman to fly solo two thousand
Speaker 1: miles across the Atlantic Ocean. I mean, you've described that
Speaker 1: in such dramatic ways that I felt myself on the
Speaker 1: edge of my my seat here as I'm taking the
Speaker 1: flight with her, truly harrowing, truly harrowing senecas one hundred
Speaker 1: women to hear will be back after the short break? Well,
Speaker 1: I know she. Um went on to create the ninety
Speaker 1: Nines and International Organization to Advance Female Pilots. Did that
Speaker 1: organization have impact? It? Did? It still does? Um. There
Speaker 1: were what twenty six female pilots. They got together in
Speaker 1: an air hanger and Curtis Field UM in New York
Speaker 1: and they decided that they would create this organization. And
Speaker 1: I love this because it is such an Amelia heart
Speaker 1: thing to do. She felt that women pilots, women in
Speaker 1: aviation needed a group to support each other and perhaps
Speaker 1: look for employment for each other UM, and keep information
Speaker 1: on women in aviation and their achievements. She also wanted
Speaker 1: to promote the advancement of aviation and women's place in it.
Speaker 1: She did not want people to forget about women's place
Speaker 1: in aviation. UM. The name came from the sum number
Speaker 1: of their members, and originally it was so the group
Speaker 1: was originally called the eighty six is, and then they
Speaker 1: were the ninety seven's and finally the ninety nine and
Speaker 1: that name stuck UM. Although the group does still exist
Speaker 1: and the group has membership that is far surpassed ninety nine.
Speaker 1: It's worldwide and it includes not just pilots, but technicians,
Speaker 1: mechanics UM. Any woman who has had achievement in aviation,
Speaker 1: and I think she would Amelia would just love that
Speaker 1: well and so interesting that her legacy also continues in
Speaker 1: that way as well. Well. Let's fit it now to
Speaker 1: that much discussed topic that you mentioned at the outset
Speaker 1: her disappearance. It's a whole cottage industry UM has been
Speaker 1: put in place to deal with that. What do we
Speaker 1: know exactly about what happened. Here's what we do know,
Speaker 1: verifiable right. We know that on July two, Amelia and
Speaker 1: her navigator Fred Noonan, they took off from New Guinea
Speaker 1: in her big Lockheed Electra. They were headed for Howland Island.
Speaker 1: Howland Island, of course, is this tiny spit of coral
Speaker 1: sand in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Because it
Speaker 1: was so small and thus so hard to locate from
Speaker 1: the air, the US coastcard Um had sent out the
Speaker 1: Itasca to help make it easier for her to spot,
Speaker 1: and at dawn the Itasca began belching out these thick
Speaker 1: clouds of black smoke as a visual signal, and the
Speaker 1: ship's radio men waited to receive an send messages to
Speaker 1: her when she got within signal distance. They also had
Speaker 1: been sending out a set a steady stream of Morris
Speaker 1: code the letter A A A A A A as
Speaker 1: a guide to help her find the island. Um the
Speaker 1: radio man first heard her, we know from the log
Speaker 1: book at a m and she sounded very calm and
Speaker 1: reported on the weather. Cloudy and overcast is what she said.
Speaker 1: The rest of her message got lost in static. No
Speaker 1: one was particularly worried because they felt she was too
Speaker 1: far out yet. Um at five am they heard her
Speaker 1: again again. She was reporting on the weather. It was
Speaker 1: partly cloudy, she said, and then again lost in static.
Speaker 1: At six fourteen a m. They heard her say it Taska,
Speaker 1: this is k A j Q, which were her call numbers,
Speaker 1: want bearing and will whistle in mike. And so she
Speaker 1: told them she was two hundred miles away, and she
Speaker 1: began whistling into her radio's microphone, and this shocked the
Speaker 1: ray you A men on the itasca Um. They did
Speaker 1: have a direction finder on the ship that could pick
Speaker 1: up radio signals and could determine where they were coming from.
Speaker 1: But Amelia was using the wrong radio frequency for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they realized. They were horrified that they realized they
Speaker 1: could not help her, not the way that she needed.
Speaker 1: So thirty minutes passed and there were no transmissions from her,
Speaker 1: and then at six forty five she came back at
Speaker 1: least take bearing at us, and she whistled in the
Speaker 1: microphone again. For the next hour, the TESCA radio man
Speaker 1: sent signals and messages in Morris code and they were
Speaker 1: absolutely frantic. Um. They knew she'd been flying about nineteen
Speaker 1: hours at this point they knew that her fuel had
Speaker 1: to be running low. At seven forty two, she breaks
Speaker 1: through again and she says, we cannot we can. We
Speaker 1: must be on you, but cannot see you. We're flying
Speaker 1: at an altitude of a thousand feet. The Itasca has
Speaker 1: had radio man at this point I thought the signal
Speaker 1: was so sad, so strong. He actually stepped outside because
Speaker 1: he was sure that she was right overhead, and of
Speaker 1: course she wasn't. At she said, we are listening, but
Speaker 1: cannot hear you. And at eight am she said, please
Speaker 1: take bearing on us an answer. Those radio men were sick.
Speaker 1: They tried everything for forty five minutes. They tried, They
Speaker 1: got pretty creative. Um. One of the chief radio men
Speaker 1: actually said I was sitting there sweating blood. And then
Speaker 1: she said, we are online thirty five. We will repeat message.
Speaker 1: We are running online north and south, and her voice,
Speaker 1: according to that same radio man, sounded frantic. And then
Speaker 1: there was nothing all day. At six pm that same day,
Speaker 1: at six pm that evening, radio men thought they heard her,
Speaker 1: but the signal was too weak, and so they asked
Speaker 1: the sender the center to give them a series of
Speaker 1: long dashes, and in reply they heard this on and
Speaker 1: off again, sound like a generator starting and stopping. And
Speaker 1: radio men actually disregarded the sound because normally Morris code
Speaker 1: is sent with a sending key, and what they didn't
Speaker 1: know is that Amelia did not have a Morris Code
Speaker 1: sending key on the plane, and so for her to
Speaker 1: send Morris code, she had the pot had to actually
Speaker 1: pushed the two talk button on a radio microphone UM,
Speaker 1: and when she did this, it sounded like a generator
Speaker 1: going on on and off. UM. They actually recorded their
Speaker 1: long while all of this in their log book UM.
Speaker 1: And then there was something else too. Later a man's
Speaker 1: voice could be heard on that same signal, and there
Speaker 1: was some this terrible miscommunication because ITASCA didn't know that
Speaker 1: fred Noonan was along with her. She they thought she
Speaker 1: was actually flying alone, and so when they heard a
Speaker 1: man's voice, they chucked that signal up to being a hoax. Eventually,
Speaker 1: the coast Guard, along with the Navy, searched for for
Speaker 1: sixteen days and it one point UM a biplane spotted
Speaker 1: um signs of habitation on Gardner Island, which was about
Speaker 1: or is about three fifty miles south of Holland Island, UM,
Speaker 1: but he didn't report what he saw, and no one
Speaker 1: followed up. And I think this is amazing that the
Speaker 1: US government actually spat four point five million dollars on
Speaker 1: searching for her. Now, this is during the depression, which
Speaker 1: comes to about fifty eight million dollars nowadays, and they
Speaker 1: still came up at d handed. Um. Curiously, during this time,
Speaker 1: dozens of ordinary people who had short wave radios in
Speaker 1: their homes claimed to have heard her calling um, and
Speaker 1: some of them seem legitimate to modern day Earharts scholars,
Speaker 1: But back then officials just thought they were all pranks. Wow,
Speaker 1: And the industry continues to to go on speculating correct. Indeed,
Speaker 1: I've just recently we had a national geographic team out
Speaker 1: looking right off the coast of Gardner Island for her.
Speaker 1: Again they came up empty handed, but I understand they'll
Speaker 1: be returning soon. Well. I know you wrote the book
Speaker 1: Amelia Lost, The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart. What
Speaker 1: were some of the most interesting and little known facts
Speaker 1: you discovered about her, separate from everything you've already told us. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, there were so many little things. I loved
Speaker 1: it that she had an open marriage with her husband,
Speaker 1: George Putnam. What I love about that is that she
Speaker 1: actually sent him a letter prior to the wedding pretty
Speaker 1: much spelling out, um the terms of her marriage. I
Speaker 1: mean that is I love that women just to do
Speaker 1: that right um. Or that the fact that she was
Speaker 1: not the best pilot out there, She was just the
Speaker 1: gutsyst and the best promoted. But I think what what
Speaker 1: I found most fascinating was that she was um a
Speaker 1: bit of a fiber um for example. And there's this
Speaker 1: famous anecdote about her, so it appears, I think in
Speaker 1: almost every air heart book I've read about how in
Speaker 1: nineteen o eight, when she was an eleven year old,
Speaker 1: she went to the Iowa State Fair with her family
Speaker 1: where she saw her very first airplane. She described it
Speaker 1: as a thing of wire and wood. But she was
Speaker 1: not remotely interested in what basically was her future, because
Speaker 1: she was wearing this absurd little or this absurd little
Speaker 1: hat that was made out in of an inverted peach basket,
Speaker 1: and she was just too um interested in her hat
Speaker 1: to notice a plane. And this is such a charming story,
Speaker 1: but when you place it in aviation history, it can't
Speaker 1: possibly be true because the Right brothers just five years
Speaker 1: earlier in nineteen o three had made that first sort
Speaker 1: of bumbling flight, and they didn't fly again in public
Speaker 1: until the very year that she claimed to have seen
Speaker 1: a plane at Iowa State Fair. Um, in nineteen eight.
Speaker 1: But we know that Wilbur was doing demonstration flights in
Speaker 1: France and Orville was doing flights in Virginia. So was
Speaker 1: there a plane at the Iowa State Fair. I actually
Speaker 1: called the Iowa State Historical Society and they said no,
Speaker 1: no planes, And I thought, well, that's too bad. It
Speaker 1: was a good story, I can't use it. Um. Then
Speaker 1: I discovered that that wonderfully tussled hair, which the press
Speaker 1: and during her life really sort of had a fixation on.
Speaker 1: They would always say, take off your hat, Amelia, show
Speaker 1: us your hair. That sort of tussled hair do that
Speaker 1: she had, I discovered was very carefully quaffed. She took
Speaker 1: up curling iron to it every day. Um. So there
Speaker 1: was another great story I couldn't tell. And then there
Speaker 1: was this wonderful story about how fred Noonan never sat
Speaker 1: in the cockpit with her, but instead would tell her
Speaker 1: when to change course by by writing a note that
Speaker 1: he would attach them to a fishing pole of bamboo
Speaker 1: fishing pole, and he would. I know, it's ridiculous when
Speaker 1: you think about it, but people actually believed in it.
Speaker 1: It gets reported even today, and of course that's completely
Speaker 1: not true. And all of these stories were stories that
Speaker 1: Amelia told herself. Um. At one point, I remember coming
Speaker 1: out to my family when I was in the middle
Speaker 1: of writing this book. I had all these wonderful anecdotes
Speaker 1: that I've now discovered I can't use because they're not true.
Speaker 1: And I remember coming out and saying to my family,
Speaker 1: I'm going to call this book flyer flyer pants on fire. Um.
Speaker 1: But I realized that, of course that was all part
Speaker 1: of that promotional that need to be palatable to the
Speaker 1: public so that she could continue to fly. Well, I
Speaker 1: guess she was ahead of her time in that respect too,
Speaker 1: because we have a lot of that sort of thing today.
Speaker 1: We're running out of time, I regret to say, But
Speaker 1: let me just ask you before we have to stop.
Speaker 1: If she were alive today, what causes do you think
Speaker 1: she'd be involved in? And clearly she was interested in
Speaker 1: the ninety nine, but were there other kinds of things
Speaker 1: as well? You think, oh, definitely, Wow, I think I
Speaker 1: think I can actually envision her doing something like UM
Speaker 1: an Amelia Earhart Foundation to encourage girls to get involved
Speaker 1: in technology and science and advocating STEM education particularly for females,
Speaker 1: even providing scholarship for females who want to enter those
Speaker 1: types of fields. I mean, that was something that she
Speaker 1: was really interested in just before her death, and she
Speaker 1: was doing it at for Due University UM, encouraging girls
Speaker 1: and to go and going into aviation and engineering. So
Speaker 1: I think she would definitely have continued with that UM
Speaker 1: and I have no doubt that she would have been
Speaker 1: a feminist organizer. I think if she was alive today,
Speaker 1: she'd be mobilizing a diversity of women UM across countries,
Speaker 1: across groups of women. UM. When I think about what
Speaker 1: her message was, it still rinks pretty fresh and compelling today.
Speaker 1: I mean her message was women are the equals of men,
Speaker 1: both should have equal opportunities. Now, her message was there
Speaker 1: are no limits to what a woman can do if
Speaker 1: given the chance, and that women and men must live
Speaker 1: together as equal partners. Well, we we hope we get
Speaker 1: to that place some days. Certainly the journey continues. Bit
Speaker 1: shirt us. Thank you so much, Candice for really bringing
Speaker 1: Amelia Earhart's story to us in such a lively way
Speaker 1: and helping us to understand her better, her times, her
Speaker 1: pioneering spirit, and her sense of adventure. Clearly so, we
Speaker 1: are very very grateful to you. Thank you, Candice Fleming,
Speaker 1: Thank you well. You can see why Amelia Earhart remains
Speaker 1: an icon for more than eighty years after her disappearance.
Speaker 1: Here are three things I took from my conversation with
Speaker 1: biographer Candice Fleming. First, Amelia Earhart showed the world what
Speaker 1: a strong independent woman looked like. She chose the career
Speaker 1: she wanted, she dressed as she pleased, and she encouraged
Speaker 1: other women to follow her example. Second, she was ahead
Speaker 1: of her time at a moment when mass media was
Speaker 1: a new phenomenon. She understood the value of publicity. Every
Speaker 1: action she took, every interview she gave, and every endorsement
Speaker 1: she made was done to enhance her carefully cultivated brand.
Speaker 1: And finally, Amelia Earhart believed in bringing other women along
Speaker 1: with her. She helped found the ninety Nines, an organization
Speaker 1: to support and advocate for other women pilots. Her message
Speaker 1: was that women could and should do anything men can do.
Speaker 1: Tune in next Tuesday to hear about our next featured woman,
Speaker 1: and discover why she's one of Seneca's one Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with
Speaker 1: support from founding partner PNG Have a Great Day.