Filmmaker/journalist Laurie Gwen Shapiro in Conversation with Ann Fisher!

Join award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist and learn more about , the riveting and cinematic story of a partnership that would change the world forever. Laurie will be in conversation with beloved journalist .

The purchase of The Aviator and the Showman waives the $10 registration fee.

DREXEL THEATRE is Gramercy’s Community Partner for this program.

In 1928, a young social worker and hobby pilot named Amelia Earhart arrived in the office of George Putnam, heir to the Putnam & Sons throne and hitmaker, on the hunt for the right woman for a secret flying mission across the Atlantic. A partnership—professional and soon otherwise—was born.

The Aviator and the Showman unveils the untold story of Amelia's decade-long marriage to George Putnam, offering an intimate exploration of their relationship and the pivotal role it played in her enduring legacy. Despite her outwardly modest and humble image, Amelia was fiercely driven and impossibly brave, a lifelong feminist and trailblazer in her personal and professional life. Putnam, the so-called “PT Barnum of publishing” was a bookselling visionary—but often pushed his authors to extreme lengths in the name of publicity, and no one bore that weight more than Amelia. Their ahead-of-its time partnership supported her grand ambitions—but also pressed her into more and more treacherous stunts to promote her books, influencing a certain recklessness up to and including her final flight.

Earhart is a captivating figure to many, but the truth about her life is often overshadowed by myth and legend. In this cinematic new account, Laurie Gwen Shapiro emphasizes Earhart’s human side, her struggles, and her authentic aspirations, the truths behind her brave pursuits and the compromises she made to fit into societal expectations. With a trove of new sources including undiscovered audio interviews from those closest to Amelia, The Aviator and the Showman presents her as a multifaceted woman—complete with flaws, desires, and competitive drive. It is a gripping and passionate tale of adventure, colorful characters, hubris, and a complex and a vivid portrait of a marriage that shaped the trajectory of an iconic life.

Laurie Gwen Shapiro is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York, The Daily Beast, Slate, and others. Shapiro is the 2021 winner of the Damn History Award for “The Improbable Journey of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes” for The New Yorker and gold medallion winner in the People Profiles category for the Silurian Press Club’s 77th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards. She is the author of The Stowaway a best seller and an Indie next selection. She is an adjunct professor of journalism at The NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute in the graduate program.

Ann Fisher is the former host and executive producer of All Sides with Ann Fisher. She joined WOSU Public Media in 2009 after nearly 30 years in the newspaper business, covering politics, public affairs, culture, media, and business over the course of her career at The Grand Rapids Press, The Blade in Toledo, and Columbus Dispatch. She retired last year from WOSU and is now hosting a podcast, Chefs in The City. A native of Michigan, Ann earned a B.S. in journalism at Michigan State University and lives in Worthington with her husband, Jeff Martin.

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