Lindbergh.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Shanachie Entertainment /60 minutes / $19.95

Seventy years after Charles Lindbergh electrified the world by becoming the first aviator to fly nonstop from New York to Paris, his place in history remains a turbulent one. Was he a great American hero or a traitor? Was he a visionary or an anti-Semitic bigot? Was he persecuted by the press or a tool of fascist dictators? Through family reminiscences, archival films, and historians' analyses, this video reveals that the most accurate answer very well might be "all of the above."

After an indifferent academic record in a number of schools, Lindbergh became a pilot, barnstorming in air shows and flying the mail. In 1927, in the Spint of St. Louis, a plane stripped of all "non-essential" equipment--including a parachute--to conserve weight, he took off from Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island. When he touched down in Paris 33-1/2 hours later, Lindbergh was mobbed by Frenchmen, dubbed the "Lone Eagle," and returned to the U.S. and a hero's welcome.

Ironically, the fame his feat earned him was anathema to Lindbergh, a private person doomed to spend his life pinned in the spotlight of celebrity. His loathing for the press was compounded in 1932, when his two-year-old son was kidnapped. The media frenzy over the crime, the discovery 72 days later of the child's body, and the arrest, conviction, and execution of Bruno Hauptman was a forerunner of the hyperactive coverage of the O.J. Simpson case and the death of England's Princess Diana.

The public acclaim and sympathy Lindbergh received began to fade as World War II loomed. His obvious admiration for the Nazi regime, combined with his often-expressed views that democracy was dying, caused extensive criticism. Convinced that a German victory in Europe was inevitable, Lindbergh spearheaded the isolationist America First Committee, determined to keep the U.S. out of the war...