Love Is in the Air

By Dan Hagen

Hollywood could not have scripted a better romance for Charles Lindbergh.

Anne Morrow, the daughter of a respected banker who was U.S. ambassador to Mexico, once wrote that her life's ambition was to “marry a hero,” according to a classmate at Chapin School.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Self-effacing, she was somewhat paradoxically accomplished — captain of the field hockey team, as well as student council president and the star of the literary magazine.

Pretty and more than smart, this Lois Lane fell instantly in love with the Lone Eagle, the man who could fly.

Tall and handsome, Lindbergh displayed a catlike self-possession that concealed his marked shyness around girls. At 26, the most famous man in the world was presumably still a virgin. But Anne was quietly tortured by the thought that Lindbergh was only interested in her older sister, the vivacious star of the family, Elisabeth. The press suggested that he and Elisabeth were secretly engaged.

So imagine Anne’s reaction when he called to ask her, and not Elisabeth, to go flying. Anne’s quiet ways put Lindbergh at ease.

Between the couple and happily ever after would fall the shadow. Fame would offer this first superstar and his bride anything they wished to reach for, at the price of the life of their infant son.

Lindbergh’s love is one of those biographical stories that cry out for a 21^st century screen treatment. The three others that always spring to mind are Nellie Bly, Ida B. Wells and Mata Hari, almost preternaturally strong and adventurous women in an era that did not welcome those qualities in their sex.
Incidental intelligence: Over a What’s Cookin’ breakfast today with Matt Mattingly and stage and screen actor Jack Milo, I brought up my idea of a Charles Lindbergh love story biopic. Milo helped us refine it into a high concept fit for Hollywood 2013: “Charles Lindbergh Vs. Mothra.” Those tiny Japanese fairy girls could fly along with the Lone Eagle in the Spirit of St. Louis.

Source: ‘Lindbergh’ by A. Scott Berg

The first couple of the sky