Rare footage emerges showing Amelia Earhart before her doomed flight

Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan.
(Image credit: Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

It sat in a box for nearly 80 years, but with the release of a newly discovered short film featuring Amelia Earhart, the world is now getting a glimpse at the aviatrix's last photo shoot before she disappeared during her 1937 flight around the world.

The film, shot on 16mm acetate film and clocking in at under 3 minutes, was shot by the brother of Earhart's photographer at the Burbank Airport in either March or May of 1937, The Associated Press reports. It took 20 years after the man's death for his son to give the film, which shows Earhart being photographed outside of her plane, to publisher Douglas Westfall.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.