Screenland (Apr-Oct 1930)

for Jane 19 3 3 29 Looks at the Films! Miss Earhart was discussing the aviation film, that perennially important phase of modern motion pictures, in an exclusive interview for Screenland. Discussing it modestly^ diffidently, almost shyly, as though what she had to say about it were just one woman's — any woman's — viewpoint, rather than that of one who knows more about flying than almost any other person in the world. With pleasant informality and good humor, seated in the office of her husband, George Palmer Putnam, the well-known publisher, writer and adventurer, (who is Chairman of Paramount's Editorial Board in New York), she answered questions regarding sundry whys, wherefores and howevers of aviation in the American cinema. "Do I think the motion pictures have made the most of the dramatic possibilities that aviation holds?" She considered the question a moment, her frank, pleasant features made pleasanter still by a ready smile as replete with warmth as it is devoid of affectation. "No, I don't think they have. But that," she added quickly, "is speaking only from the viewpoint of a practical flyer. I'm not going to pass judgment on dramatic values from the standpoint of the motion picture, because it's a thing I don't know about."' Here she smiled across to where Mr. Putnam sat at his desk, as though to indicate that she felt perfectly safe in leaving considerations of motion picture technique to him. "Certainly I feel," she continued thoughtfully, "that there is a great deal of color, human interest and suspense in flying which the films have yet to discover. And I'm not speaking of the more sensational aspects of aviation such as military or stunt flying, but of regular transport flying. "I think it's too bad when aviation movies depend for their excitement upon plane wrecks, lost flyers, and all that sort of thing. Perhaps that's good drama, perhaps it isn't ; but it certainly isn't modern aviation. It's an unfortunate point of view, though understandable enough, that producers sometimes adopt toward pictures : they feel that they must drag in a few crack-ups to provide 'thrills.' There was a picture based on the air mail, not long ago, in which planes crashed right and left. But that's no more representative of the air mail service than Amelia Earhart goes over some reels of film with Gary Cooper in Hollywood. Gary, who plays a flight officer in "Today We Live," knows where to turn for expert judgment on flying scenes. a train wreck every half hour or so would be truly representative of rail transportion." I inquired as to whether war aviation pictures did not, in her opinion, throw the same type of melodramatic spotlight upon flying in general. "As an individual I'm opposed to war, anyway," she replied, "and naturally I think it's extremely unfortunate that war should be emphasized, and to some extent even glorified, in any kind of film. Then again, the destructive possibilities of aviation are its least important attribute from the standpoint of civilization. Therefore, to put chief emphasis upon the airplane as a weapon of war would be to distort its true place in the scheme of things. "Aviation has grown up, you know. It isn't a plaything any more. It has become a serious and useful industry, taking its place in modern life much the same as other forms of transportation — the railroad and the ocean liner, for example. And just as these things have their own inherent romance, so too has aviation — quite apart from the more obvious 'thrills' of dangerous flying. "Some day, let's hope, the films will do for the great epic of the airplane what they've already done for the prairie schooner in 'The Covered Wagon' and for the locomotive in 'The Iron Horse.' That's where the real