THE MOVIE “AMELIA” COMES OUT 2009
Hilary Swank plays the title character, the legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world. Ewan McGregor plays author Gore Vidal’s father, the great love of Amelia’s life. Richard Gere plays Amelia’s husband, publisher George Putnam. Virginia Madsen plays the ex-wife of Putnam, a Crayola Crayon heiress.

The Medford Public Library has a plaque dedicated to aviator Amelia Earhart. Carol Albright, editor of Italian Americana, and I are giving a reading this evening in the Medford Public Library. We’re reading from WILD DREAMS: THE BEST OF ITALIAN AMERICANA a compilation of the best of the best from the past 20 years of the journal. It just came out. Fordham University Press “Great American Literature” series.

Last year, while at the Medford Public Library for a lecture, I noticed a big plaque on the wall dedicated to Amelia Earhart and a big black and white photo of Earhart, with her flying googles draped around her neck. ( (WANT TO KNOW ABOUT HER SINUS PROBLEMS? GO TO YOU TUBE    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gl4tgxGGxQ&feature=channel_page)

    

Come to find out she lived in Medford for a while–in 1924-26– and worked as a social worker in the Deniston House. What brought Earhart to the Boston area?  She had sinus problems and consulted with surgeons and doctors here in Boston. She also had plans to attend MIT, but her mother ran out of money and couldn’t pay the fees.

Here’s how she got chronic sinus problems: during the great flu epidemic of 1918, when Earhart was 20, she worked as a nurse in Canada. She caught the flu became a patient herself and contracted maxillary sinusitis, which plagued her for the rest of her life. This was before  before antibiotics, so she had to suffer through the pain. She had a lot of pressure around one eye, mucus drainage, headaches, and multiple operations to wash out her sinuses. The operations didn’t work. The sinus problem flared up when she flew–but she didn’t allow the pain to stop her. Occasionally she wore a bandage over her cheek to hide a drainage tube that went straight to her sinus.

Do you think Hilary will be wearing a sinus bandage when she plays Amelia in the upcoming movie?

Anyway: Amelia Earhart is a fascinating lady. A true risk taker. Totally liberated about men and money. A strong woman who I couldn’t do justice to in a blog. Read her books. Go see the movie Amelia when it comes out.

I collected a few of her quotes. Notice how many times she uses some form of the word of “to do.”

“…decide…whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying….”

“Worry retards reaction and makes clear-cut decisions impossible.”

“Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.”

“Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done.”

“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.”

“Never do things others can do and will do, if there are things others cannot do or will not do.”

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.”

fan club websitehttp://www.ameliaearhart.com/home.php