23. Amelia Earhart and George S. Putnam
Amelia Earhart was an American superhero of the 1920s and 1930s, based upon her notable achievements as an aviator, rather than her views as what today is known as a feminist. Amelia was a celebrity before she gained fame as a pilot (as the first woman to fly the Atlantic, although as a passenger). She was a teacher and lecturer, a consultant to aviation pioneers, politicians, and students of aviation and engineering, and was one of the most recognizable persons in the United States by 1935, if not the Western world. She is remembered for vanishing on her ill-fated around-the-world flight in company with Fred Noonan, her long-time navigator and companion.
Her husband was George S. Putnam, a famous and wealthy publisher and one of the partners involved in the marketing of her writing, as well as her aviation achievements. Together, Earhart and Putnam created a public image for her (today it would be called branding) and together they made her wealthy in her own right, as well as an international celebrity. Earhart, in private letters, made public decades after her death, referred to her marriage as a “dual control partnership”. The couple had no honeymoon, highly unusual for their day, and the marriage produced no children. They purchased a California home together after fire destroyed Putnam’s family seat, but delayed moving in for many years and spent little time there after they did. After Amelia was lost, the public quickly forgot her marriage to Putnam, as rescue efforts and journalistic speculation centered on the missing Fred Noonan.
