Did Amelia Earhart save Ruth Nichols' life?

[stepwilk]

Earhart finished third in the first Women's Transcontinental Air Race (the so-called Powder Puff Derby). Wikipedia claims that this happened because Ruth Nichols, taking off just before her, crashed on takeoff and that Earhart jumped out of her plane, ran to Nichols' overturned aircraft and dragged her out, thus "saving her life" but expending enough time to prevent her from finishing first in the race.

I can find no legitimate proof of this, though Wiki cites some obscure aviation book, Indeed, Earhart's husband/promoter George Putnam blamed her third-place finish on "Lockheed having poorly tuned" her Vega, and I'm sure this wily guy would have promoted a "heroic rescue" for everything it was worth if it ever happened.

Does anybody know if I'm right or wrong? (I'm doing an Aviation History magazine article on Earhart to coincide with the release this fall of the Hillary Swank/Richard Gere film, "Earhart.")

[Spooky 2]

Looking forward to seeing that movie and how it treats her disappearance. When do you expect it will be out?

[stepwilk]

I believe the release date is mid-October. You can do a Google search--lots of info out there on it.

[Curious Pax]

According to the usually authorative The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) the film is called 'Amelia', and is released in the US on 23rd October, and the UK on 13th November.

On the basis that the character 'Ruth Nichols' isn't listed under cast it sounds like the incident that started this thread isn't included.

[stepwilk]

You're absolutely right, my mistake: of course the film is called "Amelia." Been reading too much Earhart material, I guess.

[Brewster Buffalo]

If such a rescue took place then surely it would have been reported in the newspapers. If you can't find it there then it seems reasonable to say it never happened though it doesn't explain where the story came from..