He earned the curious moniker "Lucky Lindy" because he managed to survive a head-on, mid-air crash and parachute out to safety below. But Charles A. Lindbergh was lucky in another fashion, as well. He came along at just the right time when three new technologies - the aircraft, the motion picture camera, and the radio - were becoming part of daily life in America. The convergence of these innovations made him not only the most famous man in the world in 1927, but the first celebrity in the modern sense of the word.

My fascination with Charles A. Lindbergh and the Long Island of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (both of which I detailed in the Winter 2000 issue of The Long Island Forum) extends from more than simply my interest in early 20th Century history. Lindbergh was a member of, and frequent visitor to, the Long Island Aviation Country Club, an upscale hang-out for early aviators in what would become the Levittown area.

Today in the mail I received a clear 8x10 photograph of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh taken at this bygone rural airfield in May of 1931. It is a donation to the Levittown Historical Society by one Richard E. Sloan, of Seaford. Mr. Sloan is an enthusiast of Charles Lindbergh and his life and times and has a special interest in the infamous "Lindbergh Baby Case"; the kidnapping and murder of the aviator's infant son and subsequent arrest and trial of Bruno Hauptmann for the crime. Like "Lucky Lindy's" celebrity, the case became a national craze unequaled even by the O.J. Simpson case of the 1990's.

Mr. Sloan conducts tours of the Bronx locations that were instrumental to solving the murder of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. His next tour is in May and anyone interested in revisiting this fascinating chapter in the history of crime and punishment in America should contact him at 3588 Arthur Avenue, Seaford, NY 11783.

Maps and photographs of the Long Island Aviation Country Club and other airfields that operated in the Levittown area in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s can be seen at the Levittown Historical Society's museum at the Levittown Memorial Education Center on the corner of Ranch and Abby Lanes. Hours are Wednesdays 2:30-4:30 p.m. and Fridays 7-9 p.m.

Paul Manton

Vice President, Levittown Historical Society