Thanks for opening up this thread. While I have nothing to add on the discussion as to what age was considered "old" in the past and is now, I would like to offer some more thoughts on Amelia Earhart.
I have been interested, actually fascinated, by the Earhart story for many years. I have a shelf full of books on AE, her disappearance in the Pacific, and the various theories, or should I say some conspiracy theories on what happened. One organization that has been searching for her plane or parts of it to prove where she ended up is TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery). They have spent many years since the late 1980's and millions of dollars in their search efforts. TIGHAR is led by its Executive Director Ric Gillespie. He has written two books on the subject, both published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press. The most recent volume: *"One More Good Flight - The Amelia Earhart Tragedy"* appeared in September 2024. At some 400 pages, it contains extensive information on the Earhart story. It includes lots of details backed up by voluminous footnotes and a helpful bibliography. TIGHAR was quick to respond to the New Yorker piece as follows [image: https://files.constantcontact.com/94370124301/720aa619-b65c-43e0-ba0d-b5d04577da2f.png?rdr=truea=1135118483532] Here We Go Again An article in the June 2nd issue of THE NEW YORKER magazine headlined “Amelia Earhart’s Reckless Final Flights” is an excerpt from a book titled The Aviator and The Showman, scheduled for release on July 15th. The subtitle for the article describes the author’s premise: “The aviator’s publicity-mad husband, George Palmer Putnam, kept pushing her to risk her life for the sake of fame.” The good news is, the book is apparently not a conspiracy-fest or a worshipful paean. She correctly presents Earhart as an incompetent pilot and Putnam as a jerk. The bad news is her characterization of their relationship, and the premise of the book, is invalid. Earhart did not need to be pushed to risk her life for the sake of fame. As her friend and fellow record-setting aviator Florence “Pancho” Barnes wrote: There were at that time, dozens of more competent women pilots than Amelia but because of her disappearance and all of the publicity that surrounded her last flight, she achieved her great aim, to be the most famous woman pilot. Earhart was a willing accomplice in Putnam’s ruthless promotion of her celebrity. Elinor Smith, one of the dozens of more competent women pilots than Amelia, wrote that Earhart achieved her fame through “gut-courage that transcended the sanity of reason.” The New Yorker excerpt, and presumably the rest of the book, is rife with factual inaccuracies, unsubstantiated rumors, and common myths. Even the proof-reading is sloppy. Earhart and Noonan had to pass notes to communicate due to “the thunderous engine.” It’s not surprising that the article ends with: “Roughly twenty hours after the Electra took off, it went down somewhere in the Pacific. The location is still unknown. The ocean has kept its secret.” We can think of a book Ms. Shapiro might find enlightening. [image: Cover of One More Good flight] Full disclosure - I am a long time member of TIGHAR.and made a small contribution to the new book publication. Cliff Argue On Fri, Jun 6, 2025 at 6:36 PM David Wardell via Mifnet < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Jack, > > One final tidbit from the article: > > The writer quotes AE as saying that she was thinking of wrapping up her > aviation exploits, as she was "getting old" at 38. > > One assumes she is thinking of the rigor of her adventures, which are > definitely in the world of the young, but still I can't recall reading > anything from that era which would describe 38 as "old." > > DW > > *David Wardell* > +1.757.561.0582 > [email protected] > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Revised: 20250507 > > You are receiving The Mifnet because you requested to join this list. > > The Mifnet is largely a labor of love, however the infrastructure isn't > exactly cost-free. 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