18. Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart gained worldwide celebrity for her feats in aviation, becoming an admired representative of women’s rights. She met with presidents, prime ministers and royalty. She was a popular speaker and lecturer, on the subjects of flying and on women’s roles in society, marriage, home, and the workplace. Earhart used her celebrity to raise money, endorsing products of all sorts. She became a spokesperson for aviation-related products and consumer products, largely to raise the money to support her flying. She endorsed cigarettes, which caused a considerable backlash at a time when women smoking in public was still frowned upon. It was also well-known that Earhart did not smoke, in part due to sinus trouble that plagued her in adulthood.
She also endorsed Beech-Nut chewing gum, tomato juice, malted milk tablets, clocks and watches, motor oil, and luggage. The luggage was her own line, manufactured by the Orenstein Trunk Company. Later she added her own line of women’s fashions, designing many of the clothes herself. Her celebrity was such that she was one of the most famous women in the world at the time she vanished over the Pacific. Her celebrity did not disappear with her. She has since been the subject of dozens of books, hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and several films and documentaries. Memorials, plaques, statues, and other honoraria dedicated to her memory are found across the world.
Also Read: Recent Discoveries End in Disappointment and More Mysteries in Earhart Disappearance.