One Summer: America, 1927 (70 page)

Charles Lindbergh instantly became the most famous person on the planet when he landed his plane, the
Spirit of St. Louis,
in Le Bourget airfield in Paris on May 21, 1927. But as this typical deadpan expression suggests, the experience of fame brought him little joy
. (
photo credit 3
)

A less-than-jubilant Lindbergh with the obviously ecstatic British aviator Sir Alan Cobham and the American ambassador Myron Herrick greet a crowd outside the French Aéro Club in Paris
. (
photo credit 4
)

Wherever he landed, Lindbergh attracted a huge crowd. Here his plane is dangerously mobbed at Croydon Aerodrome in London, England
. (
photo credit 5
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His appearance on the National Mall on June 11, 1927, attracted the largest crowd to date in the city’s history. Virtually every radio in America coast to coast was tuned in to the broadcast event
. (
photo credit 6
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His ticker tape parade up Broadway in New York City attracted between four and five million enraptured viewers on June 13, 1927. Eighteen hundred tons of debris had to be cleaned up after
. (
photo credit 7
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Among other intrepid aviators attempting to cross the Atlantic that summer were the French aces Charles Nungesser and François Coli. They took off from Paris in
L’Oiseau Blanc
on May 8 for New York City and were never seen again
. (
photo credit 8
)

The famed (and vainglorious) explorer Richard Byrd (second from left) with his crew (from the left) Bert Acosta, George Noville, and Bernt Balchen in front of their huge trimotor plane
, The America.
They took off from Roosevelt Field for Paris on June 29 …
(
photo credit 9
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 … but forty-three hours later were forced to ditch the plane in the waters off Ver-sur-Mer, France. All survived
. (
photo credit 10
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Clarence Chamberlin, right, the pilot of the
Columbia,
and its owner, the businessman and publicity hound Charles Levine, landed in a field near Eisleben, Germany, after a remarkable (if crooked) flight of 3,905 miles and forty-three hours duration. Their greeting in Berlin, when they finally arrived on June 8, rivaled that of Lindbergh’s in Paris
. (
photo credit 11
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Francesco de Pinedo (left), the barnstorming aviator and hero of Fascist Italy, with the Italian ambassador in Washington, D.C., on April 20, 1927. He crossed the Atlantic flying westward in a seaplane (although not nonstop) and then toured America on a victory lap that stirred up great political controversy
. (
photo credit 12
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The titanically talented slugger Babe Ruth, the greatest athlete of an age with no shortage of worthy contenders for that title. Everybody adored him. As a teammate later recalled, “God we loved that big son of a bitch. He was a constant source of joy.”
(
photo credit 13
)