Carl J. Bobrow
Charles Augustus Lindbergh literally flew into history when he landed his Ryan built aircraft the “Spirit of St. Louis” at Le Bourget airfield outside of Paris on the evening of May 21st 1927. In response to this event he became a worldwide celebrity, this in turn gave birth to a myriad of artistic expressions from poems, to music, to paintings, and sculptures. Also produced were commercial products which included toys, watches, buttons, pins, etc. In some ways this was unparalleled, they were spontaneous as well as fervent.
This flight was not the first to be undertaken, other attempts had been made and the public’s expectation of a successful crossing was riding high. The newspapers and the media of the time scrambled and jostled to fill the public’s desire for news, images, information and trivia. This in itself increased Lindbergh’s fame and would in a short period of time raise him even higher in the public’s regard.
Shortly after the epic flight Harry Guggenheim funded and sponsored a flying tour of the United States for Lindbergh in cooperation with the US Department of Commerce. The idea was to use Lindbergh’s popularity as means to bring to the American public’s attention the future possibilities of flight. The Daniel Guggenheim Fund paid for the three month nation-wide tour. Flying the “Spirit of St. Louis,” he touched down in 48 states, visited 92 cities, gave 147 speeches, and rode 1,290 miles in parades one estimate suggested that no less than 30 million people came out to see him. This tour not only brought air mindedness to America but created a golden opportunity for business entrepreneurs’ the merchandizing bonanza of a popular figure.
As a result a new form of commercialism, one to supply the public’s growing fascination and adulation of Lindbergh materialized. Every conceivable commodity from ashtrays to wristwatches was produced and made readily available. From a museum standpoint, you can say his popularity generated its own sphere of material culture.
Within the National Air and Space Museum’s collection there is a vast array of these popular culture objects, they range from apparel, and accessories, to luggage, buttons, pins, badges, china, glassware, flatware, furnishings, philately, signs, plaques, toys, hobbies as well as medals and popular entertainment media. Many of these commercial items are still produced today and reflect the public adulation for Lindbergh 80 years after the Spirit’s historic flight.
The interplay of both the media, and “popular culture” merchandizing, in many ways were responsible for creating the Lindbergh-mania of the 20’s and 30’s. This produced a cyclic environment one in which both adoration and emulation facilitated the rapid expansion of aviation. Other famous aviators would emerge and continue in Lindbergh’s footsteps, to the mantra of higher, faster, further which were in large part a response to the public’s appetite and interest in aviation.
A look at Lindbergh mania is an avenue to understand material culture, the enormous popularity of aviation, the pervasive influence of an American hero, the myriad ways popular culture may arise to give meaning to an epochal event, in this case the first solo flight across the Atlantic. The paper will rely upon primary source material from the Lindbergh Collection at the National Air and Space Museum as well as material from the Yale University Archives.