Author's Note
Amelia and Eleanor. Just mentioning their names brings choruses of "They're my heroes," or "I always loved and admired them." So when I found an obscure reference to this incident, I couldn't wait to write a story about it, if only it was true. I sat in a library and scanned rolls and rolls of newspaper film and finally found the Associated Press articles, and later Brian Selznick found a photograph from that very evening. It really happened!
In 1932, Amelia Earhart did what was then considered unthinkable. She flew solo across the Atlantic to demonstrate that "women like to do such things, and can!" The world's reaction was unbridled. In addition to Amelia's flying achievements, she made her mark in other ways. In the 1930s she fought for equal rights for men and women and disapproved of the special minimum wage law for women, which was lower than for men. After her famous flight, she was invited to speak at many functions where she discussed her political views as well as flying. In 1932, Eleanor Roosevelt was asked to introduce Amelia. That's how they met.
Eleanor Roosevelt moved into the White House in 1933 during the Great Depression. She transformed the role of First Lady by becoming a commanding role model. When the country went on food rationing, she insisted that the White House do the same. When cars became increasingly popular, she drove herself, despite criticism. When she saw inequality, she became an activist for women's and human rights. Her practical approach to issues gained her enormous respect. Many have said she was a woman ahead of their time. She would have said it was just common sense.
Eleanor loved flying and did receive her student's pilot license at the encouragement of Amelia, who intended to teach her. Eleanor sent the license to Amelia as proof that she was ready to begin her training but Franklin discouraged the plan: they could not afford an airplane and it was a risk that he did not wish her to take. Eleanor agreed but she continued to love and promote air travel. She flew more passenger miles in the 1920s and 1930s than any woman in the world!
On April 20, 1933, Amelia and her husband, G.P. Putnam, were invited to spend the night at the White House. Amelia was in town to give a speech the next day to the Daughters of the American Revolution. That night, still in formal dresses and white gloves, Amelia and G.P. arranged to take Eleanor for a flight over Washington, D.C.
For the purposes of this book, I sentimentally imagined Eleanor and Amelia together in the cockpit, although the plane was actually flown by two of Easter Air Transport's regular pilots. But Amelia did take the controls during part of the flight and Eleanor took a turn in the cockpit with the captain who explained the controls to her. When the plane took an unexpected dip, the reporters joked that Mrs. Roosevelt was flying the plane. Almost all of Amelia's and Eleanor's dialogue though, are from newspaper accounts, book transcripts, or diaries.Eleanor loved driving and cars! Some said she liked to drive fast. Whether or not there was a new car waiting when she and Amelia got back from the airport that night remains to be seen. One research account supports the story and I loved the idea that they might have really sneaked out.
Amelia Earhart told me herself that they had crab chowder that night for dinner. She mentioned in her thank you note to Eleanor which I found during the research. And Angel Food Cake was Eleanor's favorite dessert, confirmed by The White House Diary and The Presidential Cookbook, both by Henrietta Nesbitt, the Roosevelt's housekeeper during their White House years.
Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were remarkable women who mesmerized the public with their lives. Sadly, in 1937, in an attempt to be the first woman to fly around the world, Amelia's plane mysteriously vanished somewhere in the area of Howland Island in the South Pacific. She was never heard from again.
In 1938, a year after Amelia Earhart's tragic disappearance, her husband, G.P., found Eleanor Roosevelt's student pilot's license among Amelia's papers. He wrote to Mrs. Roosevelt and enclosed the license as a memento of the time that Eleanor Roosevelt almost became Amelia Earhart's "star pupil".
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