Le Bourget Field in Paris, May 21st,1927. National Geographic
The Prizes
Fortune...
Charles A. Lindbergh and Raymond Orteig, Hotel Brevoort, New York, June 16, 1927. Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database
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Lindbergh's check, Orteig Prize. Collection of the National Air and Space Museum, Archives Division
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Orteig Prize medal awarded to Charles Lindbergh, May 1927. Missouri Historical Society Collections
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Lindbergh quickly amassed a fortune due to his newfound celebrity status.
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Charles A. Lindbergh on platform, during his visit to Detroit, Michigan as part of the 1927 Guggenheim goodwill tour. August 10, 1927. Detroit Public Library
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...and Fame
Lindbergh’s feat made him America’s “Golden Boy”, a hero when they needed one most, the beginning of the Great Depression and his feats regularly earned him front pages worldwide.
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"The country had just lived through the Teapot Dome scandal and the corruption of (President Warren G.) Harding administration. They were ready for a hero like Lindbergh. The president sent a navy ship to bring Lindbergh home...no one questioned this!"
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-Rick Angler, Cradle of Aviation Museum; Personal interview, Dec. 27, 2018
Hover for caption and click to enlarge
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"I was astonished at the effect my successful landing had in France had on the nations of the world. To me, it was like a match lighting a bonfire."
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- Charles A. Lindbergh
-President Calvin Coolidge, 1927
"No living American-no dead American, one might say, save perhaps Abraham Lincoln-commanded such unswerving fealty. You might criticize Coolidge, or Hoover, or Ford or Edison or Bobby Jones of any other headline hero; but if you decried anything that Lindbergh did, you knew that you had wounded your auditors.
For Lindbergh was a god." |
-Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s
Over 200 songs were written about Lindbergh following his flight:
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"For Lindbergh, oh what a flying fool was he
Lindbergh, his name will live in history Over the ocean, he flew all alone Gambling with fate and with dangers unknown Others may take that trip across the sea Upon some future day But take your hat off to lucky, lucky Lindbergh The eagle of the U.S.A." |
Internet Archive
"Lindbergh" The Eagle of the USA by Vernon Dalhart
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All songs from the Minnesota Historical Society.
Hover to read captions.
Hover to read captions.
