Seventy-five years ago today, Amelia Earhart embarked on her last flight, before disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean, and creating perhaps the greatest mystery in aviation history. Any number of theories have grown up surrounding her disappearance, but few people realize that, in a way, the mystery of whatever became of her began nearly a century ago in Toronto.
Even before her disappearance, Earhart had become an iconic cultural figure in America and across the globe. Her contributions both to aviation and to the role of women are undeniable. She is often cited as the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, but this was just one of the many aviation records that she set. She became involved in the womens liberation movement, joining the National Woman's Party and supporting the American Equal Rights Amendment. In 1935, just a few short years before she died, she became a faculty member at Purdue University, and often counselled other women, advising them as to their career choices. She helped set up an organiztion for female pilots, and was the first woman to ever receive America's Distinguished Flying Cross.
Born in Kansas on July 24, 1897,
Earhart was something of a “tomboy” growing up, and had an
unconventional upbringing, as her parents, particularly her mother,
did not expect her to conform to the behaviour exemplified for young
girls at the time. Along with her younger sister, the young Amelia
Earhart would spend long hours on rambling explorations of the
countryside around her home, getting into mischief, climbing trees,
and even hunting rats with a rifle. It was in her childhood that she
was nicknamed “Meeley”, or sometimes, “Millie”, and longtime
friends often referred to her by this nickname even when Earhart grew
into an adult. For the first several years of her life, Amelia
Earhart was schooled at home, by her grandparents. It wasn't until
she was twelve years old, and entering the seventh grade that she
attended public school for the first time.
Earhart described her childhood as
coming to an end in 1914. Her father's career had suffered due to
alcoholism, and the family fortunes were cast in to jeopardy. The
loss of a family home had a profound impact on young Amelia Earhart.
With the family forced to relocate, young Amelia found herself
attending high school in Chicago. By this point, she was already
fascinated by the prospects of breaking down boundaries – she'd
started a journal, and collected press clippings of women who had
become successful and prominent in traditionally male dominated
occupations. Engineering, mechanics, law, advertising, film
production – they all seemed to draw Earhart's attention, simply
because, nearly a century ago, they were all considered to be “jobs
for men”.
The First World War years brought
Amelia Earhart little stability, as she travelled, took on odd jobs,
and failed to complete any post secondary academic programme. In
1919, she applied for entry at Smith College, but changed her mind
and moved to Columbia University. She attended there for only a year
before quitting and moving back to California, to be with her
parents. It was at Long Beach, California, on December 28, 1920,
that Amelia Earhart, along with her father, visited an air field.
There, they met Frank Hawks, himself a renowned early pilot. Her
father paid $10 and Amelia got a ten minute ride in Hawks' plane.
Amelia Earhart became infatuated, and the rest is history. She
worked odd jobs and did whatever she needed to, in order to put
together $1,000 for flying lessons. Her lessons began in January of
1921 at Kinnear Field, which required Earhart to take a bus to the
end of the line and then walk six kilometres (four miles) to the
airfield. Her instructor was Anita Snook, another pioneer female
pilot.
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| THEN : Frank Hawks charged Amelia Earhart's father $10 to take her up on her first airplane ride, which lasted ten minutes. Hawks would go on to become a celebrity pilot himself, breaking many speed records, before dying in an experimental airplane crash in 1938, the year after Earhart vanished. |
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| THEN : Frank Hawks as mentioned in the "Hall of Fame of the Air". |
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| THEN : Anita Snook photographed at Kinnear Air Field in 1921. She was a groundbreaking female pilot in her own right, but is destined to be remembered as Amelia Earhart's teacher. She was teaching Earhart at Kinnear Field during the same year that this photograph was taken. Snook died in 1991 at the age of 95 years old. |
Earhart was prepared to do anything
that she needed to in order to make it as a pilot. She cropped her
hair short and spent three nights sleeping in her new leather
aviator's jacket, in order to give it the “worn in” look, and
thus pass the unofficial inspection and judgement that she knew she
was bound to receive from male pilots. Her lessons continued, and on
October 22, 1922, Earhart broke the first of many records, by flying
to an altitude of 4,300 metres – the highest altitude a woman had
ever achieved, at that point. Amelia Earhart got her pilot's license
(license number 6017) on May 15, 1923, and in doing so, became the
sixteenth woman to receive a license to fly. The rest was history.
Earhart's life has been well chronicled
in countless biographical books and documentaries and as it the case
with many iconic symbols, several biographers have built careers
around studying and sharing the details of her life. After she set
the record for the highest altitude flown by a woman in 1922, she
would, as mentioned, set a number of other records, too. She spent
the 1920s and 1930s raising the bar of aviation accomplishment and
some of her other breakthroughs are listed here.
In 1928 she became the first woman to
fly across the Atlantic. Charles Lindbergh had flown solo across the
Atlantic the year before, in 1927, and this led the way for interest
in future such expeditions. Earhart left Newfoundland on June 17,
1928, but was accompanied by two men – pilot Wilmer Stultz and
mechanic Louis Gordon. Earhart is credited as the first woman to fly
across the Atlantic Ocean during this voyage, but did no actual
flying herself, and was essentially little more than a passenger.
The trip took just under twenty-one hours, before the plane set down
in Wales. Despite the fact that she contributed little to the
flight, she was feted by the mayor of Southampton, England, and she
returned home to a hero's welcome, attending a White House reception
with American president Calvin Coolidge, and serving as the centre of
attention in a ticker tape parade in New York. As for the
possibilities of her making her own attempt, she quipped, “Maybe
someday I'll try it alone”.
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| THEN : Earhart greats the Mayor of Southampton, Mrs. Foster Welch, on June 20th, 1928, after having become the first woman to be flown across the Atlantic. |
In 1931, she set a speed record while
transporting a cargo of 230 kilograms. That same year, she became
the first woman to fly an autogyro and also set an altitude record
for the same sort of aircraft, taking hers up to over 4,500 metres.
In 1932, she became the first person to
cross America in an autogyro, and also in 1932, made good on her vow
to cross the Atlantic again, becoming the first woman to fly across
the Atlantic solo, and the first person to fly across the Atlantic
twice. That same year, she became the first woman to win the
Distinguished Flying Cross.
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| THEN : Earhart poses in front of an autogyro in Rock Springs in 1931. |
In 1933, Earhart became the first woman
to fly non-stop across America, and set the speed record for a
transcontinental flight.
In 1935, Earhart became the first
person to fly solo between Honolulu and Oakland, California, the
first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City, and the
first person to fly non-stop from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey.
It was her flight – albeit as a
passenger – across the Atlantic in 1928 that secured Earhart's
future and her role as a celebrity. She was already lecturing across
America in 1928 and 1929, and was dubbed the “Queen of the Air”.
Her lectures continued, she published a book, and she made money by
endorsing several product lines, including clothes, luggage and
“Lucky Strike” cigarettes. The cigarettes tarnished her image in
some circles, although she donated $1,500 from that campaign to a
scientific expedition to the South Pole. “Modernaire Earhart
Luggage” and “A.E.” brand clothing for women – all of which
was washable, wrinkle proof and made for “active living” - became
popular household brands.
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| THEN : Earhart gave her name to "Modernaire Earhart Luggage" in one of many product lines, all of which brought in financial sponsorship. |
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| THEN : Earhart's advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes, which apparently calm your nerves on long flights but don't bug your throat. |
Early pilots like Amelia
Earhart began to show the world that flying was not just for
daredevils anymore, and they helped capture acceptance for the new
technology. It's hard for us, who take to the concept of flying in
an airplane so naturally, to understand what an exclusive club it was
eighty years ago. But by the mid-1930s, one major accomplanishment
remained for Amelia Earhart and other pilots : aerial
circumnavigation of the globe. Amelia Earhart took up the challenge,
and by the start of 1936 was planning a circumnavigation of the globe
by following the equator, which represents, of course, the earth at
its widest point. With expedition funding from Purdue University, a
specially constructed Lockheed Electra 10E was built, and dubbed a
“flying laboratory” although it contained little in the way of
scientific equipment. Amelia Earhart's first attempt to fly across
the world began on March 17, 1937. With her was copilot Fred Noonan,
as well as two other crewmen. They flew from Oakland, California and
made it as far as Honolulu, Hawaii. There, the plane required
maintenance, and upon take off, a few days later, there was a
malfunction on take off involving a tire and landing gear. The plane
was shipped back to California for overhaul and Amelia Earhart's
first attempt to fly across the world was scrapped.
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| THEN : The proposed route for Earhart's flight across the globe, which more or less followed the equator. |
The plane was soon repaired and plans
were made for a second attempt. This time, Earhart would be
accompanied just by co-pilot Fred Noonan. They left Oakland,
California and flew to Miami, Florida, and announced there plans to
try again. The trip officially began when they departed Miami on
June 1, 1937, and the world watched and listened as they made several
stops in South America, across Africa, India, Pakistan, southeast
Asia, and finally arrived at Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937. At
this point, over two-thirds of the journey was complete. Earhart and
Noonan had come 35,000 kilometres and had 11,000 kilometres left to
go. But the last leg of the voyage was the most dangerous, as it was
all set over the vast, remote expanse of the Pacific Ocean. In 1937,
there was no such thing as radar, and the plan had to navigate by
radio signal – and Amelia Earhart was known for her lack of
efficiency and prowess at radio operation. Her and Noonan would rely
on a single device – a battery operated radio – to help them find
their way from one tiny island to the next, where they would need to
land and refuel.
After their stopover at Lae, New
Guinea, their next intended stop was Howland Island. They'd need to
cover over 4,000 kilometres to get there, and then identify the
island using radio signals and eyesight. The island was only 2,000
metres long and just 500 metres across. At it's highest point it
soared less than six metres out of the water. A coast guard ship,
the Itasca, was stationed near Howland Island, and the crew
had orders to stay in contact with Earhart by radio, and use the
plane's radio signals to help guide Earhart to the island.
The enduring mystery
that has become a part of the Amelia Earhart legend stems, of course,
from the fact that her and Fred Noonan never made it to Howland
Island. To this day, what happened remains unclear, but it seems to
hinge on failings in radio communication. Some theories claim that
the antenna on Earhart's plane was lost or damaged on take off.
Others cite Earhart's lack of profficiency in operating the radio
equipment. It seems clear that Earhart and Noonan were unable to
identify Lake Howland. It was a cloudy day, and the dark reflections
of clouds over the waters would have made telling them apart from the
actual island difficult. Earhart and Noonan took off from New Guinea
at midnight, Greenwich Mean Time (7:00 p.m. Toronto time) on July 2,
1937. There were confirmed radio communications between their Electa
airplane and the Itasca as late as 7:42 and 7:58 the next morning.
The panic in her voice was building. They were running low on fuel,
and running low on time. Because of the more primitive nature of
radio communication, there were shadow messages, hisses and pops,
that may have come from Amelia Earhart, or may not have. There was
also confusion of which frequency she was broadcasting on. But
according to most sources, the last known and confirmed broadcast
from Amelia Earhart came at 8:43 a.m. With the panic audible in her
voice, she said, "We are on the line
157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210
kilocycles. Wait."
At some point shortly after, Amelia
Earhart and Fred Noonan flew their Electra into thin air, and
disappeared into the annals of legend and mystery. Within an hour of
her last known transmission, search efforts for Earhart and Noonan
began. They had an inflatable life raft and emergency provisions on
board. Had they ditched in to the water of the Pacific they might
have survived for some time. 390,000 km2 were covered,
and $4-million were spent, on what was at the time the largest search
and rescue campaign the world had ever seen. But the search was
eventually fruitless, and was called off, at least officially, on
July 19, 1937. Armchair historical detectives and theorists have
been spent the last seventy-five years in the quest to discover what
happened to Amelia Earhart.
Naturally, several theories on what
actually happened to Earhart and Noonan have surfaced. The most
widely accepted theory is perhaps the simplest – they crashed due
to lack of fuel, and either the couple sank with the plane or they
died at sea in some other circumstance. In this theory, their flight
was just poorly planned and carried out. There has been decades of
investigation and study that seem to hold up this theory. As it is
unclear where exactly the plane would have struck the ocean, and as
the floor of the Pacific lies as deep as five kilometres in some
areas around Howland Island, the search and raising of Earhart's
plane still evades searchers. But if it is ever discovered, the
raising of the plane would be a watershed event in the annals of one
of the twentieth century's most enduring mysteries.
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| THEN : Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in May of 1937, less than two months before they flew into thin air. |
There are several other theories, all
of which contain at least small amounts of evidence to substantiate
conjecture. Some suggest that Earhart and Noonan landed on Gardner
Island, about 500 kilometres from Howland Island, and later perished
there. Several expeditions have been mounted to Gardner Islands,
with claims of the discovery of several inexplicable artifacts. In
1937, Gardner Island was uninhabited, but there were reports in 1940
of the discovery of a skeleton on the island. An examination of the
remains concluded that they were the remains of a male, but a later
analysis in 1998 suggested that the bones had in fact come from a
tall female of northern European ancestry. It's all conjecture,
anyway, as the skeletal remains were somehow lost in Fiji sometime
after 1941. Other uncovered artifacts include a metal panel, which
may have come from an Electra type plane, a size nine shoe heel, and
a piece of plexiglass that matches the description of one of
Earhart's Electra windows. The Gardner Island theory has become the
second most commonly accepted explanation of whatever happened to
Earhart and Noonan, but it remains unsubstantiated.
There are a lot of popular culture
myths and legends to explain what happened after Earhart and Noonan
disappeared. There is generally a lack of evidence for any of these
theories, and they remain largely dismissed. A theory that Earhart
was spying on the Japanese for President Roosevelt made it into a
1943 movie called “Flight For Freedom”, but a search
through the records of both the American and Japanese governments
after the Second World War has disproved this theory. A related
theory was that Earhart and Noonan were captured by Japanese military
forces, and executed as spies, either on the island of Saipan (which
was under Japanese occupation) or less often, the island of Tinian.
Several American troops, who served in the Pacific during the Second
World War, claimed to have come up against some evidence to support
the Japanese prisoner theories, but none of these claims have been
substantiated. Excavations of suggested grave sites have proven
fruitless. Photographs of Earhart that claimed to show her in
captivity were proven to either be fake or to have been taken before
her final flight.
In 1990, the popular American television series, "Unsolved Mysteries", aired a segment on the Saipan theory of the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Claims made by those contributing to the Saipan theory have never received significant support.
Other claims that Earhart was captured
and forced to make anti-American propaganda broadcasts have also been
discredited. Just like her physical appearance, Earhart's voice was
well known to many, and the supposed propaganda broadcasts, Earhart's
voice was never identified.
There are
organizations, and websites, that chronicle the Second World War era
aircraft wrecks all throughout the Pacific region. Over time, there
have been various claims that particular wrecks belonged to Earhart,
but none of these claims have ever been substantiated.
Perhaps one of the most
bizarre episodes in the quest to prove what happened to Earhart
involved the supposition that she somehow survived her ordeal, moved
back to New Jersey, and sought anonymity. How or why she would do
such a thing was never specifically dealt with, but in 1970, and
author named Joe Klaas published a book called “Amelia Earhart
Lives”, and he put forward the suggestion that Earhart was actually
living under an assumed identity, and was now going by the name of
Irene Bolam. Professional forensic experts studied the facial
structure of both Bolan and Earhart, debunking this claim. Bolam's
life was thoroughly studied, and was substantially documented,
proving that she was not Earhart. Most damning of all was that Bolam
herself denied these claims and filed a lawsuit for $1.5-million in
damages.
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| THEN : A book published in 1970 claimed that Earhart (left) had somehow survived, returned to New Jersey, and taken on a new identity, and was living as Irene Bolam (right). Pretty soon, just about everyone discredited this theory, including Bolam herself, who sued for $1.5-million. |
Amelia Earhart's
accomplishments as an aviatrix have, in many ways, been overshadowed
by her fame as a missing person. But few people seem to be aware of
the early connections she had with flight while residing in Toronto.
It was in those tumultuous years during and just after the First
World War, when she was travelling, and prior to her 1920 return to
California and her first ever ride in an airplane. In December of
1917, Earhart visited her younger sister, who was living here in
Toronto. Moved by the plight of injured Canadian soldiers who were
coming home from the battle front, Earhart signed up for training rom
the Red Cross, and began working as a nurse at the Spadina Miltary
Hospital (located at 1 Spadina Crescent, just north of College
Street). There, she assisted with the preparation of meals and the
handing out of medicine to the patients.
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| NOW : 1 Spadina Circle, where Amelia Earhart worked as a nurse at the end of the First World War, is pictured in this contemporary and (appropriately) aerial photograph. |
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| THEN : A seldom seen photograph of Earhart while serving as a nursing aide in Toronto. It's often overlooked that her chance encounter with some Canadian soldiers on King Street inspired her to get into nursing in Toronto, and that her subsequent stay in Toronto inspired her to become a pilot. |
With the outbreak of
the Spanish Flu, and a world wide pandemic, Earhart soon became a
patient. She developed pneumonia, and had a slow recovery, spending
months convalescing. Her sinuses became infected, too, and although
she received a small operation, she would experience related problems
all of her life, which sometimes impacted her career as a pilot. But
it was in Toronto tha she developed her love of flying. She began
attending air shows put on by the pilots of the Royal Flying Corps,
at the Armour Heights air field, located near today's Avenue Road and
Wilson Avenue. Then, in 1919, she joined a friend in a visit to the
Canadian National Exposition, where together they watched an airshow
performed by a First World War flying ace. According to the stuff of
legend, Earhart and her friend had a good vantage point, in a
clearing away from the crowds. The pilot saw them, and dove down to
“buzz” the pair. Earhart would later say, “I am sure he said
to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'. I did not understand it
at the time,but I believe that little red airplane said something to
me as it swished by.” Earhart stood her ground in the face of the
daredevil pilot.
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| THEN : During her convalescene in Toronto from pneumonia, Earhart attending flying demonstrations put on by members of the Royal Flying Corps at Armour Heights air field, pictured here. The airfield was located near Wilson Avenue and Avenue Road, and fell into disuse after 1921, however, it was there long enough to inspire Amelia Earhart. The site of the old air field is now home to the Canadian Forces College. |
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| THEN : An air show at the Canadian National Exposition, circa 1907. A dozen years later, Earhart would attend a similar air show, and would soon be thrilled by the possibilities of flight. |
It's often overlooked,
but Amelia caught the “aviatrix bug” here in Toronto. In 2009,
the film “Amelia”,
a biopic of Earhart's life, was released. It was largely filmed in
Toronto, with scenes shot around the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Union
Station, and the Elgin and Winter Garden theatre centres, amongst
other locations. Toronto was a fitting back drop for the movie, as
it was also the back drop for Earhart's initial love affair witht he
airplane. It's hard to imagine that a chance encounter with a group
of Canadian solders on King Street inspired Earhart to work as a
nurse, and that her convalescence in and around Toronto included an
airshow, which lay the seeds of her inspiration to become a pilot.
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| THEN : Richard Gere and Hilary Swank filming the 2009 biopic "Amelia" outside Toronto's Royal York Hotel. |
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| THEN : Richard Gere and Hilary Swank filming the 2009 biopic "Amelia" outside Toronto's Union Station. |
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| THEN : Front Street, between Union Station and the Royal York Hotel, gets a makeover for the 2009 film "Amelia". It's terribly appropriate that the film was made her, given Earhart's early connections with Toronto. |
Earhart became a
feminist icon, as well as a leading figure in aviation, and the
mystery of her fate still captivates us. As Tom Crouch, a senior
curator at the (American) National Air and Space Museum, said, “...
the mystery is part of what keeps us interested. In part, we
remember her because she's our favourite missing person.”
Recently, there has been a resurgence in finding out whatever
happened to Amelia, with American leaders like Hilary Clinton
throwing support for stepping up the search. Seventy-five years ago
tonight, Earhart embarked on her last ever voyage, but it was nearly
twenty years earlier that Toronto inspired her to become a legend.
