Before Amelia Earhart left California in 1937 to begin her ill-fated attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world she took part in a photo shoot in Burbank with her long-time friend and photographer Albert Bresnik.
As the late May photo shoot was taking place, another person recorded the event on film, most of which had remained unseen until now.
This rare footage is being released along with a new book titled “Amelia Earhart’s Last Photo Shoot” by The Paragon Agency publishing house.
The book features many of Bresnik’s photographs of Earhart and the plane she was flying when she disappeared.
The fateful trip had been Earhart’s second attempt to fly around the world. Her first try began in March of 1937 and came to an end after her plane was severely damaged in Hawaii.
The photo shoot took place after the plane was sent back to California for repairs.
“To begin her second attempt, Amelia flew across the United States east — starting from Oakland, California, back to Burbank, then Tucson, Arizona, New Orleans Louisiana and finally Miami, Florida,” according to the book.
Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, left Miami on June 1, 1937, and the flights went as scheduled for about a month, according to a National Women’s History Museum article describing the events.
Earhart lost radio contact on July 2 as she attempted to fly a 2,500-mile mid-Pacific stretch between New Guinea and a small island she intended to land on.
Despite immediate search efforts, Earhart’s plane was never found.
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