[inaudible conversations] good evening everybody i am the events director here and thank you to all of you for coming out this evening. it means so much that you will spend your money at community community brick-and-mortar community owned businesses that have the culture that it is. speeseventeen i would like you to silent yourself on if you enjoy tonight reading you can follow us on mine.

go to facebook or instagram or twitter. up to date with these events looking at that fall schedule. also on that you can buy tonight book fly girls. there is some swag to be raffled at the in of the reading if you got a book already and did not get a ticket get one before you go. don't leave you might miss the swag. so i will to you about tonight events a former reporter for the boston globe and frequent contributor to npr. and from new york times magazine the author of fly girls.

we are so lucky to dive into history i was not even aware of and then i picture a grizzled motorcycle and the leather jacket with that archetype is conjured out. i hate to admit this but a a mother never would have crossed my mind even though those that risked their lives that does not terrify you imagine in a race and then think about home it will -- how many hope that they crash and burn and then imagine

so please put your hands together for keith o'brien speeseventeen. >> thank you so much. i am so humbled. so with those visions of the archetypes i would like to make a confession i don't like turbulent or the sound that the plane made for the inexplicable reason and i don't like take off when you are barreling down the runway 100-mile leaping up into the air so fast you can feel the weight of the plane and the air on your chest as you further away from the ground from safety. i don't like that at all. i have to fly for work so not

flying is not an option so you will find me in coach as i alonw of coach as i alone am i alone am holding up the plane. so flying from new orleans to chicago when the pilot comes on beforehand to tell you will be a bad flight. if it was hot or stormy and dark and he was right to bounce around in the sky and trying to be in a tiny little ball but then she totally noticed and finally took pity on me and turned to me and say i think it can help you i have annexed

one -- then i -- t8 t8. [laughter] why they would research and write at a time when air travel was exponentially more dangerous than it is more -- than it is today. why would. why would i do that? it has nothing to do with airplane. with this story that would become fly girls it was an epic west populated by characters who are willing to risk everything to sacrifice everything to do with a love who would fly through adversity and entrenched discrimination with the death of their friends and then triumph

in the end that is a the story i hope anyone would want to tell. it is a real honor to be here tonight to share this story with you especially here. as a a former reporter for the boston globe. [applause] my first child was born in the city and i used to i used to come to this bookstore to think how will i get a book here? everybody please just take pictures of me. [laughter] i can prove i was actually here. so whenever i tell a i tell a story whether for the glover magazines i like to think of it

in terms of themes and moment and build around those. i want to begin with a moment in chicago labor day weekend the city was struggling in the grip of the great depression with record unemployment and flop houses that the thieves would steal everything even your shoes. but then that would be different in chicago 400,000 people streaming into the city for an exciting event so forget about

what you know about the modern that was a real sp3 what you know about the modern day airshows. that was a real sport with winners and losers and a jackpot 's crowds one of the most popular sports of the time when definitely the most dangerous pilots flying the single propeller cop hit planes at a high rate of speed would crash and they would often die right there in front of the grandstand. with dangers like these many men believed it was no place for a women. it is it is sexist and demeaning and clearly wrong. but in the late 1920s it is

important to remember there are laws on the books that forbade women who like -- to do also something in rhode island and in virginia only the father was considered the sole legal guardian of a child only a father a father could determine the general welfare for education and the mother had no say. and in georgia and maryland a father who died could his children to be raised other than his wife for other than the mother of the children. and the wife could do nothing to stop it. in iowa women cannot run for the state legislature in new york they cannot work the night shift no waiting tables after 10:00 10:00 o'clock p.m. no taxicabs anytime of day in any major american city.

they forbade women from working in these professions and denied other basic right around this time the theater roof collapsed in washington d.c. killing a small a small boy. the mother went to sue the theater company for negligence case she likely would have won one but the law denied her that right only a father could collect damages in the wrongful death of a minor. and this boy's father was already dead. so the mother had no husband, no child and no recourse. women wishing to fly face similar challenges so in 1927 or 1928. from women with the white right

to vote 30 million adult women in this country there are fewer than a dozen in 1828. and with the department of commerce so that means a few women that did fly and in chicago one of these women was to do the most radical of all and then to put on the ground. at a high rate of speed to be 29 years old, divorced and her plane was so fast it was known to be dangerous and built right here in massachusetts.

not far from here. and then to have any air races even though it chilled many men before. she knew what she was doing and how to fly and labor day in chicago the crowd knew it to. she reached the pylon in front of the grandstand to fly 75 feet off the deck at 200 miles per hour she ran her plane so hard perfectly it stood up on one wing. look look at that girl the announcer said. just look at that girl. have you ever seen such a beautiful race? she was vying for third place. right there and then on the eighth lap there was a problem. the right wing began to buckle

under the strain and pieces began to rip away like so much confetti and now the wind was whistling through the wing and she did what she was supposed to do, she went off course and flew away from her competitors and the crowd and flew south toward chicago over glenview road and lake avenue trying to save the people on the ground and trying to gain altitude to save herself. everybody is watching the little red plane in the sky knowing one of two things is about to happen. she will bailout to a dangerously low altitude or she will crash. either way it will not end well. that woman's name was florence.

you probably have not heard of her. most people haven't that when we talk about women in aviation in the 20s and 30s we tend to think about one women mom -- one woman, -- one woman, and millionaire heart as if she was all alone flying solo. at the time ehrhardt flew other women were flying with her with a small scrappy squadron just as bold and just as brave some are even more skilled but today we have forgotten with their battles and losses with her friendships and rivalries we

even forgot their impossible victory. with this book i hope to change that. reminding readers of these women who stood up from themselves and each other again and again. defiant in the face of rules intended to keep them in their place. ruth elder the flashy alabama housewife working at a a dentist office in lakeland florida. and in 1927.

she decided she read the first woman to ever fly across the ocean. and then to pay in full price. amelia ehrhardt a social worker from boston right here from tyler street downtown. she came next. in our mythology of amelia we forget that she did not begin as a a solo champion flying across the ocean. but to be plucked from obscurity 1928 by wealthy businessman including new york publisher putnam emplaced, plane and ruth nichols on the every side of new york in westchester county and

for the depression for the stock market crash they had money and options those would dwindle and the farmer's daughter across the red river tearing be reckless as a child and then to parlay into the career that she wanted and finally really the most unusual the rarest aviator. and racing planes and flying plane to have her first child in 1930 and second team 33 at a

time when men and husband believed a woman should stay home and raise those children. and to do something very unusual at the time and with those personal dreams and ambitions and then to sacrifice those needs for her children she also would be forgotten. and one of the questions and how are they the same or how are they different? it is a difficult question to answer. some came from money, somewhat

educated, and wall street traders and lawyers and bus drivers and laborers. and then to identify early on. and then3 and then to identify early on. and then thought it would help to understand them better and then from a young age we knew they were different they did not want to wear those dresses that the southern mother wanted her to wear around town she wanted to wear pants and overalls and play sports. millionaire heart was cutting her hair chartres one -- -- short trying to hide the fact from her mother 1 inch at a time they were all daring so they rode motorcycles atey

rode motorcycles at a time when young women did not ride motorcycles and that is even more surprising and the town of moorehead minnesota she chose not to ride but to playing to the cow catcher up front across the rails. to the horror of the high school classmates. and with those early adopters at a time when it was still very dangerous when men did not want to fly. and to predict early on that this was the future not just a sport or the sport or what i want to do right now but this is the future that everybody would fly the other interesting thing

or how they were raised i mentioned but you have one thing in common was at a time when a father could tell his daughter what was expected of him or her what kind of job he or she would get they certainly could have told their daughters no and they struggled with the paths that they chose spent the father's either approve tacitly by turning the other way or actively encouraging their daughters to fly if they wanted to and follow their own dreams and as a parent myself it is

relevant advice. let your child wear his or her hair short if they want to. let them follow their own path if they want to because you never know where this will lead. so briefly to read from the book , just briefly with any questions you might have so we are in early september 1927 charles lindbergh has just successfully flowed in flown the atlantic four months earlier. he has not done it just for the pioneering period of it all that he was flying for the jackpot.

the first man to fly successfully from paris to new york or new york to paris to do a jackpot of $25,000. that is a lot of money in 1927. whitney made the flight he was not only rich from the jackpot and famous but then put on a goodwill to her of america where he was paid an additional $50,000 to ride in a parade and move on to the next place. in the summer of 1927 a young woman in lakeland florida decides she wants in and will fly across the ocean for free. her name is ruth elder. she leaves in long island leaving roosevelt field. her sweaters were tight and brown hair in the latest i'll

almost never eating appear without a rainbow scarf around her head. and the single engine was a brilliant shade of foreign less to do with flair and practicality of a gray blue ocean and it was easier to find the wreckage of the large plane then a silver one and the copilot had no intention of putting her plane in the water it was too beautifully into perfect beautiful and too perfect all the way down to the name painted on the fuselage american girl. runway ready she told reporters always commanding their attention with her distinctive high pitched voice give us the

weather break we will take off then what is your hurry one reporter asked? i have been planning this ever since i first learned to fly then lindbergh did and i was more determined i want to be the first girl i will do it you only want to fly to paris because you're a girl a reporter asked? they have pretty evening gowns i hear. then she said never been to europe i might as well go this way come back and then take it easy no flying back for me. the reporters were noting everything about her was she married or engaged? no and no especially to the last question. was older afraid her when she back out at the end? be honest. would her family talk her out of it? no. no.

she was in new york for half an hour had not even left the airfield and already the new york press was picking her apart reporters described her nose as perfectly powdered they called her vein criticizing her purse and her knickers forcing her to admit she was not truly serious what is this you are doing? advertising a movie or just getting to be known? she said no i really flying to paris did you not understand? i'm here to fly. quickly looking out at the reporters with the runway where and birkhead prevailed she must have felt she flew to an altogether different world and from alabama one of seven children raised from downtown on noble street the house there was

the latest in a string of modest homes with the farm labor or the pipefitting shot all of which was not good enough for ruth. the third oldest child. she left so shortly after her 18th birthday to move west of birmingham. she wanted around and a boarding house her parents thought she would be back soon but instead he began to make a life that a life that she kept secret and now desperately hoped to hide from the new york reporters. she got a job selling lingerie in a department store. she got a husband but it didn't take and was divorced in 1925 been married again this time to electric sign man then moved to lakeland florida living and ordinary life east of tampa she got a a job in a dentist office

and helped to introduce his young wife to flying and also those businessmen. chasing fame install an opportunity the floridians wanted to put elder into the ocean and well-known local pilot to do flying and someone else to do happy these men saw value in the plan as financial backers. they would get rich by shooting footage. and to say she has never been married. they were marketing a product that could not be labeled misses wild womack. and agreed to put up $35,000 and

to point out the most beautiful pilot they had ever seen so pretty it doesn't seem right. the fairest of the brave and the bravest of the fair. and then lived to tell the tale or would die either way get the story that west virginians were insured and either way better to work in a dentist office in florida to make dinner for her husband. and then and getting him to go with her. he hated instructing women. and then with dogged determination. and then to do something to make

people notice me. is it worth risking your life? yes it is. and there is only way one way to screw up the deal dreams and money and a plate of her own. that woman was staring out 300 miles north. speeseventeen i am happy to take any questions you might have. >> i can resonate with your comments because i truly have experienced the same thing. probably not going to do what i did.

and then flew for ten years. so that is what got me here today. >> thank you so much for coming. what they have been through over the years to communicate so that's why i'm interested in your book. and this is a good way to portray it. when you did your research how many are there and how many are women? >> the question is what is the percentage?

before i get into the numbers i will give history. in 1934 when my story takes place a woman named helen ritchie the first female commercial airline pilot. that does not go well the male pilots union refused to admit her in the government places restrictions as to when she incurred or could not fly. restrictions that others did not so to be forced out and i say that to say what i find is stunning but as i try to find out from myself when did the next pilot get hired the answer

is 1973. thirty-nine years later. frontier airlines and american airlines each higher pilot that year. i have been fortunate through the research in the book coming out she was 24 years old from florida when american airlines hired her. and at the time to say a a woman flies no differently than a man. as a great equalizer but yet still this woman face and as they did 45 years 45 years earlier to face those denied remarks that she leave america to get hired somewhere else.

and that they ran about this pilot in 1973 it is little feature and the headline was airline pilot flies by the seat of her panties. 1973. a major american newspaper. as you grow do you also know who remembers that headline? the captain herself ms. caputo who was a great heroine and pioneer in her own right. >> about 25 years ago in central california friend of mine inherited her mother's biplane

the first amelia air heart race i remember flying in that plane. from fresno. and to fly over the mountains and was flying from the back and then coming back she thought there was some trouble so landed on an open field and took care of it and got back backed up in the air. and it went very smoothly. >> in the back it was about flying a vintage biplane. but what i find i find interesting about that story is that kind of stuff happens all the time imagine if you were flying in adulthood says we will land in this field it looks pretty flat and i will fix this

issue then we get back up and on our way. when my narrative begins 1927 in dirt or pasture for the first modern air races. because this is year where it becomes a show or an event and in 1928 and los angeles at the time had little airstrips in the metro area. they were really small. i wanted something big and grand and then to purchase 1,000 acres of the green and barley field

and that is where they would hold these races 1928. and today we know this as lax. >> you said in the beginning by the department of commerce but there was no psa? so when did it become federal? with only a a commercial license at that point? when did that become a regulated industry that people had to become a license? those are all great questions but in 1926 by the end of the year everybody realizes that we

have a problem here a lot of people are flying and we are not regulating this at all. chicago. chicago tribune around this time has a story about what they call wildcat flight schools to identify three dozen wildcats in the chicagoland area one of the lines that sticks with me is how poorly trained they were and what little training they had and what little regulation there was that when you graduate from one of these schools to get your diploma to get a coupon a coupon for a coffin as well. the department of commerce that is the regulating agency and they start collecting licenses in the official manner.

but don't think suddenly that makes everything regulated in a a way that we expect. even after the department of commerce became the regulatory agency and then to figure out what happened they never could. they rarely could figure out what happened. and at times early airplane travel early airlines and in 1829 sto a horrific story to fly 1829 a horrific story to fly over the southwest over new mexico and arizona and it just disappeared. they could not find it for days. by the time they found it in the wasteland of the desert and everybody was dead.

>> there was an acrobatic association. >> even these women here. and on the very first page. the image of the daughter of wall street. to challenge amelia for the title with the most accomplished female pilot. and that's from her descendents and the signature on it is orville wright. >> where does -- fit in with the

fly girls? >> i was looking for one specific story with women and aviation. and in these races and then to triumph. and as a journalist i learned long ago know what your story is about. and if you can say what your story is about. and you know here characters are. and then through the time where the story and, there are hundreds of women flying. and to be accomplished and prominent female pilots. that's because they were friends in the heart and soul of the battle.

and if one wired crash another would come to visit and be there for her. but to burst onto the scene at the very end and then to fly the atlantic ocean flying from europe to north america. and then to crash land on the coast of canada. so she makes a daring flight at the very end of this narrative. to bump up those narrative strands. and the out of africa story.

>> when i read the globe sunday article about a millionaire heart. nobody knew she was a a social worker in boston. where did she live? where did she go but nobody ever talks about it all i ever hear about a millionaire heart tissue got lost in the ocean with a copilot. >> this also blew my mind. and to think i am curious and observant i don't know either. and a couple of things have happened here and in the quest

to remember one great woman, we have simplified her story to almost myth and legend. i know the real story is much more interesting and we have forgotten all the other women she was with i know she knew it was not her choice she was a bit of a bit of a nomad and landed here because her sister was a schoolteacher and her mother was divorcing her husband in california and going to movies and live here. and amelia was dragged along for the ride. she didn't have money did have money to go to college even that she was extremely bright to do

something in aeronautics at something she could have done because she went to fly 1921 to have no plane or street credit have no plane or street credit and then they place placed her at the settlement house. there is a plaque outside of the home % there is a plaque outside of the home that 76 brook street a relatively decent size modern home. nestled into a neighborhood.

>> i am curious as a fellow journalist author what was your biggest research problem? not quite as difficult. so what were those challenges? they all present a a challenge even with amelia i was challenge because that is mostly what has been done with her life. but then looking at a different story of an ensemble cast and then where to pare that down. and those who did not live as long can i make ruth i make ruth

nichols come alive in three dimension. could i make florence come alive and we got a lot of lucky breaks along the way t3 and we got a lot of lucky breaks along the way to find records not only in these big archives but these historical societies tiny little places. there is a historical society quietly over the years, no attention and no bright lights. i called them almost last in a desperation called you have any idea where i can find this

stuff? the man on the phone and to say i have a i have a lot. [laughter] men to do oral histories and classmates before they died 30 years ago. but then to say to mark can you accommodate me? and ruth nichols coming from many and she knew her whole life she was someone. i knew her papers were somewhere but not harvard or aerospace. but i finally found i finally found the records in the backroom in a windowless cinderblock room at a regional

airport in cleveland. they told me they think what i i thought i was looking for i was looking for months. i did not believe them. i asked him to take a picture. so this archivist takes a picture for me. and here three file cabinets and alphabetized completely organized by year and suddenly bruce nichols was alive again. and those were the best moments knowing that they found her.

>> my question is answered but we are fortunate to have an advance copy of this book. it is incredibly and beautifully written. in comprehensively well reported i urge everyone to get a copy. >> but leave off at 1973 but if you take modern the vast majority of pilots remain men. and it seems like this disparity and stereotype but what are the percentages?

essentially roughly 7% are women and then with airline pilots it is five or 6%. that number has grown steadily over the years and is growing of all the branches of the military so the navy and air force and army have all seem scene market increases in the number of female pilots and there is interesting research out there there is decades of research now strictly on crash data that shows no difference a female pilot is just as good as a man statistically speaking and at

times the research shows been safer than a man. thank you for coming and i will close with one quick thought it has been a real thrill to share this story with you i appreciate your questions from all of you. and it was an honor to tell this story. as a reporter i always felt it was important to tell the untold stories of the underrepresented and we live in a time where that is more important now than ever so to pay my respects a little bit yesterday an ever before. so to pay my respects a little bit yesterday morning i i had a free couple of hours and an

opportunity to do something i wanted to do with the reporting of this book. yesterday in new york city for the book launch handbook event in the morning i had some free time i used it to take a train to the bronx to visit the grave of ruth nichols who was buried in woodlawn cemetery. a beautiful cemetery if you were important and famous in the 20th century chances are you are buried at woodlawn. i went and got my map they tried to directly where i was going good on the map they have little icons were the famous people are and ruth was not one of them. so using their app and some directions i found my way through the cemetery blazing hot

to find her grave and i found it wasn't a giant mausoleum or the kind of grave that she herself might have expected before the depression and before things changed but a simple tombstone. like many of us might have. it had her name, date of name, date of birth, date of death and at the bottom, obscured by the iv that said beloved by all. and she was once. all of them were. and i do hope that with this book they will be again. thank you very much 17. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

who can i find this to? what is your name? thank you. >> i am i am still trying to finish washington i started to read that simultaneously with his book on hamilton my son has read all of them washington and hamilton and grant so he said you have to finish washington before you finish hamilton then get to grant. and then i will read grant. i haven't had much time to read but i i highly recommend them to students as a very avid a very avid reader and an english major

. . . .microphone. yes, sir, sorry. >> can you hear me? change of focus. you described the hierarchy of the kennedy brothers. what was their relationship of john and bobby to teddy? >> so in the i want to thank you aor