Amelia Earhart - Move To California

Move To California

While Earhart was away on a speaking tour in late November 1934, a fire broke out at the Putnam residence in Rye destroying many family treasures and Earhart's personal mementos. As Putnam had already sold his interest in the New York based publishing company to his cousin, Palmer, following the fire the couple decided to move to the West Coast where Putnam took up his new position as head of the editorial board of Paramount Pictures in North Hollywood. While speaking in California in late 1934, Earhart had contacted Hollywood "stunt" pilot Paul Mantz in order to improve her flying focusing especially on long distance flying in her Vega and wanted to move closer to him.

At Earhart's urging, Putnam purchased a small house in June 1935 adjacent to the clubhouse of the Lakeside Golf Club in Toluca Lake, a San Fernando Valley celebrity enclave community nestled between the Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures studio complexes where they had earlier rented a temporary residence. Earhart and Putnam would not move in immediately, however, as they decided to very considerably remodel and enlarge the existing small structure to meet their needs thus delaying their occupation of their new home for some months.

In September 1935, Earhart and Mantz formally established a business partnership they had been considering since late 1934 by creating the short-lived Earhart-Mantz Flying School which Mantz controlled and operated through his aviation company, United Air Services, located at the Burbank Airport about five miles from Earhart's Toluca Lake home. Putnam handled publicity for the school which primarily taught instrument flying using Link Trainers.