"The Mystery of Amelia Earhart" at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts

Amelia Earhart’s courageous exploits and spirited personality made her an international celebrity in the early 20th century. In this lively living-history program, meet Amelia as portrayed onstage by Leslie Goddard. This 90-minute one-intermission play reveals her experiences as the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane (1928) and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932). How she learned to fly and what inspired her adventurous spirit are explored as well as her dubious marriage to book publisher-turned-husband-mnager and promoter G. P. Putnam. In 1937, she headed out for an around-the-world flight and disappeared – creating a mystery of the ages as inspired by Amelia Earhart’s books “20 Hrs., 40 Min.” (1928), “The Fun of It” (1932) and “Last Flight” (1937, posthumous). Chicago Tribune Media Newspaper Columnist Philip Potempa is included for a cameo scene in the Act 2 as infamous gossip columnist Walter Winchell.