I saw “The Spirit of St. Louis” (1957) when it came out and it was so convincing, that I thought that the “right guy” had to look like Jimmy Stewart even though he was really too old for the part. It’s said that Lindbergh liked Stewart in the role, in part because Stewart was a B-24 combat pilot from WWII.

Among other things, Stewart went on a crash diet before filming, one that was so extreme his health began to suffer. Stewart’s hair was dyed blond to make him look more like Lindbergh. The production company made several replicas of the original Spirit of St. Louis, one modified under Lindbergh’s supervision.

Time Magazine’s review of the film said, “Stewart, for all his professional, 48-year-old boyishness, succeeds almost continuously in suggesting what all the world sensed at the time: that Lindbergh’s flight was not the mere physical adventure of a rash young ‘flying fool’ but rather a journey of the spirit, in which, as in the pattern of all progress, one brave man proved himself for all mankind as the paraclete of a new possibility.”

Lindbergh, who was 25, recounted his experience in his biography WE, which was published a few months after the historic New York to Paris flight and served as the film’s basis. Of course, a lot happened to Lindbergh between the time of his flight and the release of the film, including the 1932 kidnapping of his son and his widely publicized neutrality stance in discussions about the U.S. entering WWII. He apparently changed his mind after Japan’s Pearl Harbor attack.

Lindbergh died in 1974 at 72. Stewart died in 1997 at 89. I have often thought that in addition to Billy Wilder who directed the film, fate brought the two men together,

Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St Louis around the country to promote aviation before donating it to the Smithsonian (Air and Space Museum) where I saw it on display several years ago, still thinking that a giant photo of Jimmy Stewart needed to be posted next to it.

–Malcolm