'Amelia' gently hints at aviatrix's bisexuality

October 22, 10:54 PMBisexuality ExaminerMike Szymanski

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Hilary Swank (center) plays Amelia Earhart who may have enjoyed being in the middle

Fox Searchlight

The Hilary Swank film "Amelia" contains a few lines that gently hint about the female pioneer's bisexuality, which has long been speculated about in biographies. This is a film biopic of a different Amelia Earhart that the American public doesn't know about until now.

The Fox Searchlight film (which opens Friday, Oct. 23) has already generated early Oscar buzz for the two-time Academy award-winning actress who also produced this picture.

In a scene with a man who plays her lover, Gene Vidal, they are at dinner and she notices a very good-looking woman and mentions it. "You are the only woman I know who points out other beautiful women," says the character, portrayed by Ewan McGregor (who has played famous bisexuals in "The Pillow Book" and "Velvet Goldmine").

"Well, she has such lovely legs," says the Earhart character, played by Swank who won her first Oscar playing a real-life trans/bisexual role in "Boys Don't Cry."

She later says, "I'm not the marrying kind."

The film by Mira Nair delves into Earhart's love affair with Vidal, who ironically is the father of future author Gore Vidal, who is openly bisexual and is portrayed as a child in the movie. The movie also deals with Earhart's odd relationship with her publicist and eventual husband, George Putnam, whom historians have also labeled bisexual. That character is played by Richard Gere, another veteran of many bi roles, most notably in"American Gigolo."

And, the guy who plays Earhart's co-pilot who disappears in the Pacific Ocean with her is played by Christopher Eccleston, known for playing the ninth bisexual "Doctor Who" in the British TV series.

Now, Earhart expressed her polyamorous behavior, but never discussed bisexuality in public, however books have her linked to affairs with Nancy Cook and Lorena Hickok (see the "Bibliography of Queer History: Modern Lesbian History.")

The movie shows Earhart's close friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was also linked to journalist/secretary Lorena Hickok. Earhart went to an all-woman's school when she studied pre-medicine and became a nurse before flying into the hearts of America.

One of Earhart's actual letters to Hickock reads:
"Hick darling, All day I've thought of you & another birthday I will be with you, & yet tonite you sounded so far away & formal. Oh! I want to put my arms around you. I ache to hold you close. Your ring is a great comfort to me. I look at it and think she does love me, or I wouldn't be wearing it."

Most of the letters by Earhart were destroyed by the family, but some books discuss her same-sex relationships. In the pseudo-fictional "I Was Amelia Earhart" the book discusses "her cold marriage to the bisexual publisher George Putnam and her sense of having to play more and more to the public that branded her a heroine are well documented."

Before Earhart married her husband, financier and publicist, they both signed some odd contract that read:

"I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil [sic] code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly. .. . [We will avoid] any hard feelings should you or I become interested deeply (or in passing) in anyone else."


Director Nair says, "I wanted the film to be a living, pulsating portrait of this woman who dared to dream of things that no one had ever done before. Amelia lived life as fully as possible and didn’t put a lid on her emotions or her ambitions. She left behind a legend that I hope will continue to fuel a passion in people to accept no limits."

Whether or not she was bisexual, there is no doubt that Amelia Earhart was a groundbreaking feminist for her time. The movie has its slow points, but it has some awards-worthy portrayals.

(See a clip of the movie below, and a photo gallery of the movie and the real-life Amelia.)