Letter 18 - She Was The First Woman To Drive Around The World!
Hello Bregdan Woman,
I can so relate to the woman I’m going to tell you about today.
Like her, I never quite fit into the world around me. I wasn’t interested in being like my friends. I scorned the idea of fitting into any kind of box, and I was certainly not impressed by rules that were meant to control my behavior and choices. I turned away from what was expected of me, and I searched for my own path.
When I discovered Aloha Wanderwell, I knew I had met a kindred soul!
She was born Idris Galcia Hall, in Canada, in 1906. Her father died when she was two. Her mother remarried the next year and moved the family to Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
As an aside, I’ve lived on Vancouver Island. It is spectacularly beautiful. If you ever get a chance to visit, do it! Now, back to Idris…
Free-spirited and independent, she was a natural born entertainer and leader. She was six feet tall and a talented athlete.
Idris chafed against societal norms for women for her whole life. She simply wanted to do things her way.
I laughed when I learned this about her. I’m six feet tall… I’m an athlete… and my favorite song is “I Did It My Way”! Understand now why I feel I’ve met a kindred soul?
Idris’ world changed when her stepfather joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in World War I. Her mother decided to follow him. Obviously, her mother was quite extraordinary, as well. She took 8-year-old Idris and her sister Margaret to Europe, where they traveled around England, Belgium, and France.
Idris was very close to her stepfather. She had devoured his beloved collection of boyhood books – books that filled her with dreams of travel, adventure, and intrigue in the far-flung corners of the globe.
Idris was also movie-crazy. Mary Pickford was her idol. For good reason! I’m sure I’ll write a letter about Mary in the future, but for now, I’ll just tell you that Pickford was one of the most popular actresses of the silent film era. Beginning her film career in 1909, Pickford became Hollywood’s first millionaire by 1916. At the height of her career, Mary had complete creative control of her films and was one of the most recognizable women in the world. Due to her popularity, unprecedented international fame, and success as an actress and businesswoman, she was known as the “Queen of the Movies”.
Idris dreamed of stardom as often as she dreamed of adventure. Mary Pickford was quite the role model and mentor for the young girl.
When her stepfather was killed in battle during the last year of the war, 11-year-old Idris was devastated. Her mother, stricken with grief, enrolled her daughter in a convent school in France. It was meant to be a safe place for her to be happy and receive her education.
As you can imagine, it didn’t go as planned…
Her superiors at the convent school tried in vain to transform the tall self-described tomboy into a proper young lady. Idris had zero interest in their expectations of her.
She craved freedom.
It arrived in the form of a newspaper ad in 1992.
Idris was sixteen.
Travel expedition searching for a good-looking, brainy young woman willing to forswear skirts and rough it in Asia and Africa. Be prepared to learn to work before and behind a movie camera.
Idris was hooked. Her mother, knowing how unhappy and restless her daughter was, granted permission for her to apply for the job.
The rest is history…
Idris met with Walter Wanderwell (known as the Captain) in Paris and secured the job as a mechanic and filmmaker. The Captain, captivated by her charisma and adventurous spirit, christened her with a new stage name: Aloha Wanderwell.
Aloha Wanderwell.
It has a ring to it, doesn’t it? Can’t you hear the star quality in the name?
Done with the convent and basking in her new freedom, Aloha cast any caution to the wind. This was her chance to make a name for herself.
Aloha joined the Million Dollar Wager – a round-the world endurance race between two teams racing Ford Model Ts to see which team could visit the most countries. Her job description expanded to the expedition’s translator and driver.
Like everyone, she dressed in a military jacket, jodhpurs and riding boots. It suited her perfectly.
The public was captivated by her youth, beauty, and spirit. She quickly became the face of the expedition – the camera capturing her adventures in a series of movie travelogues.
Aloha was the first woman to drive around the world. She clocked 380,000 miles in the 1920’s, and traversed six continents, often in places where paved roads were unknown.
Newspapers called her the Amelia Earhart of the open road.
The world loved her. Aloha radiated star quality onscreen and electrified lecture audiences with her tales of the road.
She directed and appeared in eleven films, which are now in the archives of the Library of Congress and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which happens to have been founded by her idol, Mary Pickford. Aloha was a true independent filmmaker. She created and distributed her own films. She presented them on the lecture circuit. Satisfied with nothing short of excellence, she continually re-edited them throughout her career.
Have you ever had the travel bug? I know I have!
On Aloha’s first trek, from 1922 to 1925, she drove from Nice, France, across Europe and then through Asia, from Mumbai to Kolkata on India’s broad shoulders, and then up to China. She entered the U.S.S.R, where the Soviet Army named her an honorary colonel for being the first woman to pilot a motorcar to Siberia.
Her life changed even more when she married Captain Wanderwell in 1926, at age 20. Since she had already claimed Aloha Wanderwell as her name, she didn’t even have to change it!
The adventures continued. During their next expedition from Cape Town to Cairo, she helped him improvise. They used kerosene for gasoline, crushed bananas to grease the gears, and water and elephant fat for engine oil. Who knew??
Creativity to create what was necessary was a key component to expedition success.
The adventures were endless through the years… The expedition journeyed through France and its battlefields… swept through Italy just as Mussolini and the Fascisti were consolidating their power…
Braved food riots and hostile mobs in Germany, a country then reeling from the harsh reparations demanded by the victorious allies of World War I…
They camped at the foot of the Great Sphinx in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings… drove into Palestine, where the Jews were attempting to build a new nation… across the arid lands of India, towing the Model T Ford’s across rivers by water buffalo…
Aloha traversed the highlands of Portuguese East Africa, and nearly died of thirst in the Sudanese desert… disguised herself as a man and prayed in Mecca…
She became a confidante of Chinese bandits and was even granted the title of “Honorary Colonel” in the Red Army of Siberia…
To top it all off, she hung out with her idol, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks during a visit to Hollywood.
Wow!
I’ve done my fair share of traveling and have lots of stories to go with my adventures, but I’ve never come close to what Aloha lived. At least not yet! I’m still breathing, so I have lots of adventures still to live.
Of course, she kinda raised the bar much higher when her and the Captain’s plane went down in the unexplored jungle of the Amazon basin.
But, that story is for Friday. You won’t want to miss it!
And, yes, I love dangling endings. I am a fiction author you know!
Look for Friday’s letter!
And in the meantime, ask yourself what you can do today to impact history!
I’m on this journey with you!
Ginny