Gail Skroback Hennessey

TO TELL THE TRUTH

WITH

AMELIA EARHART

by Gail Skroback Hennessey

Host: Today's guest is Amelia Earhart. Only one of the three on the panel is the real aviator. The other two are imposters. Your job is to listen carefully to the information presented and decide which of the three guests is the REAL Amelia Earhart.

Let's begin by meeting our guests.

Amelia Earhart 1: Good day, students. My name is Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart 2: Hello, my name is Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart 3: It's very nice to be here today. My name is Amelia Earhart.

Host: Let me read this brief summary on Amelia Earhart.

"I, Amelia Earhart, was born in Atchison, Kansas, on July 24, 1897. I began college but dropped out to become a nurse's aide at the Spadina Military Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Listening to the wounded World War 1 pilots sparked my interest in flying. After work, I often would spend time at the military air field watching the pilots practicing with their airplanes. In 1928, I was the first woman passenger on a transatlantic flight. I eventually learned to fly. I wanted to prove that I could do more than be a passenger on an airplane. I was the first woman to fly the Atlantic in 1932. Some people nicknamed me "Lady Lindy"(after the aviator Charles Lindbergh who first flew across the Atlantic in 1927). Other records for which I gained fame included being the first woman to fly from Honolulu to California and the first woman to fly across the United States in both directions. I also was the first woman to fly in an autogiro(part plane and part helicopter). I was the first woman to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by the United States Congress for outstanding achievement in aviation. While attempting an around the world flight in 1937, my plane disappeared. There was never any trace of my plane or me and to this day, many continue to try to solve the mystery of what happened to me.

Signed,

Amelia Earhart

Let's begin the questioning with panelist 1.

Panelist 1:While you were growing up, girls were supposed to play with dolls, learn to cook and sew and wear long skirts and hair ribbons. You were different. You played baseball, collected insects and worms, explored caves and walked on stilts. Tell us, Amelia Earhart, more about your childhood.

Earhart 1: I was fortunate that my mom allowed her daughters to be different. Perhaps, because SHE was the first woman to climb Pike's Peak. She made us dark blue bloomers(pants) to wear outside. The neighbors shook their heads especially when they saw me jumping fences instead of opening gates!

Earhart 2: For Christmas one year, I wanted a sled, not the kind girls got which was simply a chair on runners but a real belly sled that the boys used. I got one! I had a close call one day when I slid on the ice and headed straight into the path of a junkman's cart. Luckily, I managed to slide between the front and hind legs of the horse to safety.

Earhart 3: My sister and I loved to play a game we called "bogie". We'd sit in an old abandoned carriage for hours and imagine trips to far away lands. Studying over maps while playing the game taught me a valuable skill for when I was an aviator.

Panelist 2: As a child you loved to read but were saddened that girls never seemed to have any adventurous roles in books. You once built a roller coaster with an eight foot ramp coming down from the woodshed in your yard. You said of the experience that it was like flying. Tell us more about growing up, Amelia Earhart.

Earhart 1:Unfortunately, my father had a drinking problem and it caused a lot of pain growing up. I remember one time seeing a whiskey bottle in his suitcase as he was preparing for a business trip. I secretly removed the alcohol and poured it down the drain. When my dad found out what I had done, he was very angry with me.

Earhart 2: Because my family moved a lot, I went to six different high schools. In my yearbook, I was listed as the girl in brown who walks alone. I didn't attend high school graduation because I didn't care whether or not I received a paper saying I had done something I knew I had done.

Earhart 3: I remember one year in school, I was very excited about Poetry Day and had spent a lot of time memorizing a poem to recite with hopes of winning the first prize. On the way to school, the day of the poetry competition, I stopped to feed a neglected horse and I placed clean straw in its stall. I got to school late and missed the contest! It didn't really matter, however, because learning the poem was more important than getting a prize.

Panelist 3:In 1908, you were about 11 years old when your family went to the Iowa State Fair. It was the first time you saw an airplane demonstration. What was your reaction?

Earhart 1: Believe it or not, but I was totally unimpressed! I preferred to see the beautiful horses on exhibit and not spend time looking at an airplane.

Earhart 2: It was the most awesome sight. From that moment, I knew that I wanted to fly an airplane. That night, I took out my lego plastic building blocks and built an airplane which I set on my night stand.

Earhart 3: Just like, Earhart Number 2, I also was very impressed at seeing an airplane especially when the pilot went so fast that he created a sonic boom with his jet plane!

Panelist 4: It was the belief of the time that no respectable woman would fly an airplane. Yet, the desire to fly was your dream. At 18, you signed up for auto mechanic classes to learn the workings of engines. Flying lessons were expensive, so you did all sorts of jobs, including driving a sand and gravel truck to earn money for the lessons. Tell us about your early days of flying.

Earhart 1:Today, this may not sound like much of an accomplishment but in 1928,I was asked to be the first woman to ride in an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean. The flight took 20 hours and 40 minutes! Afterwards, I was asked to speak on my record making trip and I was hired to advertise many products. I believed that women could do more than just be a passenger in an airplane and I set out to prove it.

Earhart 2:Since lessons were so very expensive, I purchased a Nintendo game and learned all about flying an airplane by playing the game. I especially liked to shoot the laser guns at the alien space ships which were attacking the earth.

Earhart 3: Really, flying an airplane wasn't my goal. I wanted to FLY. I eventually developed energy packs that when placed on my back enabled me to fly through the air with the greatest of ease.

Panelist 5: You formed a women's aviation club with another woman pilot named Ruth Nicols. It was called the Ninety-Niners for the 99 original members. In 1929, the first Women's Air Derby was held. It was nicknamed the Powder Puff Derby. How did you make out on this eight day airplane race?

Earhart 1: I was in the lead and eager to win the $25,000 prize money when I noticed that one of the pilots had crashed. I stopped to assist her and because of this, I finished third.

Earhart 2:I'm the greatest woman aviator in history. How do you think I did? I won, of course!

Earhart 3:I lost the race because I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy laughing at the in-flight movie, Home Alone, which was playing on the plane flight.

Panelist 6: Today, you may find this hard to believe but in the early 1900s, people didn't think of airplanes as a means of transportation. Airplanes were simply a source of entertainment. In 1937, you decided to set another record. You would fly around the world at the equator from California heading west. The route would take you over 27,000 miles. Trouble caused you to cancel the trip but you didn't give up on your dream. You changed the direction from west to east, a longer trip (over 29,000 miles) and set out with navigator, Fred Noonan, on your around the world flight. You disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. What happened?

Earhart 1: No one is really sure what happened to Fred and me. It's still a mystery. It's believed we were low on fuel and missed the Howland Island stop. No wreckage was ever found. Some stories say that the Japanese, who were getting ready for their conquest of the Pacific, shot the plane down believing I was on a secret spy mission for the United States.

Earhart 2: While over the Pacific Ocean, aliens took us to their planet where we lived the rest of our lives sharing information about the people of the earth with the aliens.

Earhart 3: My plane was traveling over the Bermuda Triangle, a place known for the boats and planes which have disappeared, located in the Atlantic Ocean. The last thing I remember was entering into a very foggy area. We never came out.

Host: Panelists and members of the audience, it is now time for you to decide who you think is the real Amelia Earhart. Is it Number 1, Number 2 or Number 3. Alright, the votes have been cast. Will the REAL Amelia Earhart, please stand up...

The real Amelia Earhart is Number 1.

Notes:

All the answers to panelists 1 and 2 are correct.

The first pilot to break the sound barrier was Captain Charles E. Yeager of the US Air Force in 1947.

Richard Gillespie of TIGHAR(International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) believes that he has solved the mystery behind the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. He has made two expeditions to the NIKUMARORO Island in the Pacific. It is his belief that Earhart was forced to land her plane on an uninhabited island because it was low on fuel and could not make the Howland Islands. Because this island does not have any fresh water, Amelia and Fred eventually died. His evidence includes:A. a size 9 narrow shoe(Cat's Paw Rubber Co. USA), a style worn by Earhart found on the island

B. An aluminum navigator's book case similar to that of an Electra plane's book case flown by Earhart.

C. US Navy information that pilots flying over the island during the search for Earhart recorded evidence of a campground on the island. No land search was conducted because it was thought to be made by natives.

Additional Reading:

Story of Amelia Earhart. Lost Star by Patricia Lauber

Amelia Earhart Takes Off by Fern G. Brown

Amelia Earhart Aviation Pioneer by Roxanne Chadwick

Life Magazine April 1992(pages 69-74)

****To Tell the Truth Plays are based on the gameshow created by Mark Goodson Productions