Frenzied throng hails Lindbergh

Sept. 20, 1927: When Charles Lindbergh arrived on the Spirit of St. Louis as part of a nationwide tour, 200,000 people surrounded Vail Field to greet the young man who in May had become the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

“Since late in the afternoon of the day before, many had waited along the sidelines of the huge landing field, and his appearance in the distance over Los Angeles was a signal for them to let loose their long pent-up emotions in honor of America’s greatest aviation hero,” The Times reported.

The next day’s front page of The Times featured Lindbergh’s profile superimposed over a photo of the enormous crowd that gathered downtown to glimpse the aviator.

“Collective Throats Raise Vast Shout of Welcome,” the caption read.

Lindbergh was busy during his visit, speaking before 60,000 people -- most of them children -- at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and he was the guest of honor at a banquet at the Ambassador Hotel, where the chef produced special airplane cakes.

“For seven mad, memorable hours ... Los Angeles and her adjacent sister cities put on their greatest show. A slim, modest, blue-eyed youngster -- the stamp of illimitable distances and horizons on his face -- was the cause,” the newspaper said.