Spirit of St. Louis – Memphis Flyer

If you were reading this thrilling, heart-warming blog waaaaay back in 2009 (and I certainly hope you were), then you might recall that I told about the day in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh visited Memphis. It was only a few months after his world-famous transatlantic flight, and the “Lone Eagle” had embarked on a cross-country tour in The Spirit of St. Louis to talk to various civic leaders about the advantages of air travel.

Lindbergh landed here at Armstrong Field on an October afternoon, and was driven to Overton Park, where he was greeted by some 100,000 fans. He gave free rides to a few VIPs (including the Lauderdales, I’m almost positive), then took off the next morning. All accounts of his visit mention the newsreel cameramen and newspaper photographs who captured his every move, and back in 2009 I wondered: Where are those photographs?

Well, one of them has finally turned up, as you can see here.

James Webster, now living in Galena, Illinois, wrote me a few weeks ago and told me this:

“I have an 8×10-inch glossy photo of Lindbergh taken on that visit. He is behind the wheel of a convertible, seated next to an unknown gentleman. My great uncle, William Lake Hayes (7/12/1891-9/13/1973), who was a Memphis city attorney, is in the rear, seated next to another unknown gentleman.

“As a child in the 1950s and early 1960s, I spent many summer days in Memphis visiting my grandparents, who lived on Oakview Street, near Lamar Ave. I would walk over to Uncle Lake and Aunt Margaret’s house (at the southwest corner of Kendale Ave. & Burris St.) on the other side of the Southern RR tracks, to be regaled by his stories of the Boss Crump days in Memphis (while turning the freezer crank for my aunt’s homemade ice cream).

“Other than my memories, I’ve been able to find very little about my uncle or his career in Memphis city government. As an amateur archaeologist, I’d certainly welcome more information.”

Charles Lindbergh‘s solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 certainly captured the hearts of people around the world. Honors and awards were heaped on the young pilot, and every city in the country wanted to meet “America’s Greatest Hero,” as newspapers called him. And even though he was an aw-shucks-it-was-nothing kind of fellow (much like myself), the “Lone Eagle” saw that his fame gave him an opportunity to promote the commercial possibilities of flying. So, just weeks after returning from Europe (aboard the Navy cruiser Memphis, by the way), he clambered in his famous plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, and soared across America.

His journey finally brought him to Memphis on October 5, 1927 — the 62nd city on his itinerary, with 14 more to go. Even before he arrived, local businesses hopped on the Lindbergh bandwagon. His photo and name were dropped into all sorts of advertisements for such diverse products as fountain pens, candy, furniture, automobiles, and things like the card shown above, printed above for the Memphis Engraving Company, and now in the Lauderdale Library. (This is a neat little piece. According to the instructions, you stare at the image for 30-40 seconds, and then look at the sky or a blank wall, and a perfect image of Lindbergh will appear. Try it for yourself. It works!)

Copywriters, it seemed, worked overtime to come up with ways (often bizarre) to link his name with products. “Just as Lindbergh won the heart of the world with his daring deed,” proclaimed an ad in The Commercial Appeal, “so has White Rose Laundry won the approval of all Memphis with their scientific method of dry cleaning.” Oh, sure. And A.R. Taylor ran an ad that said, “Two Winners: Charles Lindbergh and Our Genuine Walnut Desks.”