Aloha Wanderwell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Aloha Wanderwell
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| Born |
Idris Galcia Welsh,
13 October 1906 |
| Died | 4 June 1996 (aged 89) Newport Beach, California, United States
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| Nationality | American/Canadian |
| Other names | Idris Welsh, Idris Galcia Hall, Gilvis Wanderwell, Aloha Wanderwell, Aloha W Baker |
| Occupation | World Automobile Traveler, Filmmaker, Aviator, Author, Explorer, Travel lecturer, editor, screenwriter, radio performer, spoke 11 languages |
| Known for | First Woman to Drive Around the World in an automobile, starting at 16. certified, Guinness World Records |
| Spouse(s) | Walter Wanderwell (m. 1925; died 1932) Walter Baker (m. 1933) |
| Children | Valri (b. 1925) Nile (b. 1927) |
Aloha Wanderwell (Idris Galcia Hall née Welsh, October 13, 1906 – June 4, 1996) was an American-Canadian explorer, author, filmmaker, and aviator. In the 1920s, while still a teenager, she traveled 380,000 miles across 80 countries, becoming the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in a Ford 1918 Model T. Beginning when she was just 16 years old, the journey took the five years 1922–1927 to complete.
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Early life
Idris Galcia Welsh was born on 13 October 1906 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Margaret Jane Hedley and Robert Welsh. When her mother married Herbert Hall in 1909, her name was changed to Idris Hall. Her step-father was a developer and rancher on Vancouver Island and the family lived in Parksville and Duncan. In 1914, at the start of the First World War, her step-father joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force and after arriving in England was transferred to the British Army and made a lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry. The family (Idris, her sister Margaret Verner "Miki" Hall, and their mother) followed him to Europe, where they traveled around England, Belgium, and France. In June 1917, Herbert Hall was killed in combat in Ypres, Belgium.
During this time, Idris attended boarding schools in Europe: Benedictine Soeurs du Saint-Sacrement in Courtrai, Belgium, and Chateau Neuf in Nice.
"First Woman to Drive Around the World", 1922–1927
Idris began her adventuring career when she met her traveling companion, Walter "Cap" Wanderwell, in 1922.
She became the first woman to drive around the world, beginning and ending her journey in Nice, France, between December 29, 1922, and January 1927. In a Model T Ford, Wanderwell made the journey as driver, translator and filmmaker.
Partially sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, the round-the-world tour also sustained itself through filming and travel lectures, from Africa through the Middle East and on to Asia. In Calcutta in 1924, their tour crossed paths with planes from the first aerial circumnavigation, and Idris filmed their meeting.
Encounter with Bororo people, Brazil
In 1930 and 1931, Aloha Wanderwell learned to fly a German seaplane, "Junker", that she would later land on an uncharted part of the Amazon River when the Wanderwells traveled to the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. They set up camp at the Descalvados Ranch in Cuiabá and were ostensibly searching for the lost explorer Colonel Percival Harrison Fawcett, who was looking for the legendary Lost City of Z (some speculate this to be either synonymous with or different from the legendary city of Eldorado). They made several flights with a seaplane, once running out of fuel on the Paraguay River and receiving help from the Bororo people. The crew's cameraman filmed a ceremonial dance, a first contact scenario with Boboré villagers. The 32-minute silent film called Last of the Bororos is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution's Human Studies Film Archives and includes Aloha Wanderwell's meeting with Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon.
Marriage to Walter Wanderwell
Arriving in the United States in 1925, Aloha married Walter Wanderwell on April 7 in Riverside, California.
She gave birth to a daughter, Valri, in December, 1925 and a son, Nile, in April, 1927. The Wanderwells continued their travels, sailing to Cuba and South Africa. The global tour included 43 countries.
The Wanderwells returned to the United States where they made a home in Miami in 1929. In 1932, her husband tragically died in Long Beach, California.
Later life
Wanderwell later married Walter Baker in Louisiana. The couple traveled to New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, India, Cambodia, Wyoming USA & Indochina, with Aloha later recounting being surrounded by five herds of elephants and having to shoot their way out. Her final films include To See the World by Car (1935–37), India Now, and Explorers of the Purple Sage, in Technicolor, which contains the only known footage of Desert Dust, the famous palomino wild horse.
The couple eventually settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, where Aloha worked in radio broadcasting, WlW Radio 1939, and print journalism. In 1947, she and Baker moved to Lido Isle community in Newport Beach, California. Aloha gave her final performance for 150 family members and guests, with Dr. Pete Lee, curator at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles in 1982. She died on June 4, 1996.
Archives
Footage by Aloha Wanderwell is held at the Academy Film Archive in the Aloha Wanderwell Baker Film Collection. The Academy Film Archive has preserved many of these films, from both 35mm nitrate and 16mm sources, including rare 1920s and 1930s footage.
Interesting facts about Aloha Wanderwell
- She took on the name "Aloha Wanderwell" after joining Walter "Cap" Wanderwell's round-the-world motoring tour.
- The first woman to circumnavigate the world in an automobile was Harriet White Fisher in 1909–1910, but she used a chauffeur and did not drive herself.
- Aside from dealing with poor roads, the Wanderwells also had difficulty finding gasoline for their vehicles. During their travels through Africa from 1926–1928, they used crushed bananas for grease and elephant fat for engine oil.
- Aloha visited over 80 countries and six continents, driving over 500,000 miles in Ford vehicles.
- The Wanderwells donated one of their Model Ts, known as Little Lizzie, to Henry Ford before the screening of the film, Car and Camera Around the World. In 1942, Henry Ford decided that Little Lizzie and 50 other autos would be scrapped for the war effort.
- Wanderwell wrote an autobiographical account of her travels, Call to Adventure!, which was published in 1939, and republished in 2012.
Works
Filmography
- Car and Camera Around the World
- To See the World by Car
- River of Death
- Cape to Cairo
- Last of the Bororos
- Flight to the Stone Age
- Australia Now
- Victory in the Pacific
- My Hawaii
- Magic of Mexico
- India Now
- Explorers of the Purple Sage
See also
In Spanish: Aloha Wanderwell para niños
