Charles Lindbergh - From New York to Paris 1927

Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic on May 20-21, 1927 is seen as one of the most important events of the 20th century, but memories have dimmed and, in an age when jet airplanes routinely cross the Atlantic Ocean with hundreds of passengers, we have lost sight of its significance. Accompanied by film footage of Lindbergh's flight, Professor Emerita Janet Lieberman of La Guardia Community College/CUNY gives her childhood recollections of the event and a Brooklyn parade celebrating Lindbergh, which she attended with her family. The magnificent Brooklyn parade took place on June 16, its 22-mile route crowded with 700,000 school children and their parents.

Lindbergh was a little-known air mail pilot based in St. Louis in early January 1927, when he heard about a $25,000 prize being offered to the first non-stop flight between New York and Paris. Lindbergh's historic flight earned him this prize and the adulation of the nation. Radio and newsreel film, new media of the age, spread news of his feat in ways unimaginable only ten years earlier. The 1920s was a decade of ballyhoo and heroes, and the Lone Eagle's transatlantic flight made him the quintessential hero of the era. His momentous feat also became the catalyst for the growth and preeminence of the American aviation industry, overtaking its European rivals.

This is only one piece of the Lindbergh story. To learn more about Lindbergh, including the kidnapping of his son, his associations with Nazi Germany, and support of American isolationism, see the excellent biography "The Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh & the Rise of American Aviation" by CUNY Distinguished Professor Thomas Kessner. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general...

Produced by La Guardia and Wagner Archives/CUNY
Copyright 2012 CUNY - The City University of New York

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