In the fall of 1929, the stock market crashed. Many people lost a lot of money. Many also lost their jobs. It was the start of the Great Depression. Amelia worried about her parents who had split up again. Her mother was living with Amelia’s sister and husband. Amelia helped out by giving her mother some money every month. Her father was ill. So Amelia bought the log cabin in Los Angeles where he was living. Amelia felt a strong sense of duty to her parents.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
It started on October 29, 1929. That was the day a lot of people lost a lot of money on the stock market. Since they had less money, people couldn’t buy things. Businesses had to close. Millions of people lost their jobs. Soup kitchens were set up to feed people. The hungry waited for hours in long lines hoping to get a little free food.
The Great Depression dragged on for years. Mother Nature made things even worse. There was very little rain in the Great Plains during the 1930s. Farmland turned to dust. More families became homeless.
Under President Franklin Roosevelt, the government formed a plan to make things better. It was called the New Deal. Jobs were created. People began to make money again. By the end of the decade, the worst was over. But people who lived through the Great Depression would never forget the hard times.
Amelia had to keep earning money but that was not easy during the Depression. She still gave speeches but she had another job, too. Amelia helped start an airline on the East Coast. It was called The New York, Philadelphia and Washington Airway because it flew between those cities. Amelia’s job was to convince people to fly on the airline.
It was difficult to run an airline in the early days. Only a few cities had airports. Once three planes arrived in Philadelphia at the same time. Some passengers had to change planes. Some people just got off to stretch their legs. But airline workers got confused. They put people on the wrong planes. Some were accidentally flown back to the city they had just left!
Another problem on the early flights was airsickness. It wasn’t just the bumps. Fumes from the engine often came into the cabin. There also was no air conditioning. Sometimes more than half of the passengers on a plane threw up. Still, more than fifteen hundred passengers flew on the tiny airline during the first ten days. Amelia was happy to report that almost half the tickets had been sold to women.
AVIATION INDUSTRY
Today traveling by plane seems as normal as taking a bus. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, your grandparents may not have stepped foot on an airplane until they were grown-ups!
At first airplanes primarily delivered mail, not people. But the many small companies that carried mail sometimes allowed passengers to travel as well. By the late 1920s, these smaller companies combined to form four larger airlines—TWA, United, Eastern, and American. They were known as the “Big Four” and were the first to schedule passenger-only flights. In 1923, the first nonstop flight to travel across the country carried passengers from New York to San Diego. It would be another thirty years before a passenger jet traveled nonstop between New York and London. By mid-century, the airline industry in the United States had truly taken off!
Besides working with the airline and taking care of her family, Amelia was still trying to set records. That was part of being Amelia Earhart, the celebrity. In the summer of 1930, Amelia set three new speed records. The fastest speed she recorded was 180 miles per hour. Today the average passenger jet flies at around 500 to 700 miles per hour.
Amelia was doing exactly what she had dreamed of doing. It was an exciting time. But then, in September of 1930, Amelia received bad news. Her father had cancer. He would not live much longer. Amelia flew out to see him in California. She stayed with her father for four days. She took care of him and said her good-byes. During her return trip to New York, she got word that her father had died.
It was a very sad time for Amelia. She missed her father. She also was under a lot of pressure. She worked for an airline. She gave speeches all over the country. She raced her airplane and set records. She took care of her family. Amelia was tired. She needed help. Amelia turned to her long-time manager, George Putnam.
George Putnam was divorced now and wanted to marry Amelia. Amelia had said no many times. But maybe marriage to George Putnam could be different. George was ten years older than Amelia. He already had two grown children. George wouldn’t expect Amelia to stay at home. In fact, he wanted to help her become even more famous.
Amelia decided to take the risk.
On February 7, 1931, she and George Putnam were married.
Both bride and groom were in agreement on one important issue. Amelia would definitely keep her career.
And although she didn’t plan it, she even got to keep her name. Although she officially became Amelia Earhart Putnam after her marriage, the press didn’t like the change. They soon dropped the “Putnam” and called her Amelia Earhart—just as they always had.
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