"BRAINS, BEAUTY, AND BREECHES"

  


A 16 year old girl answered an add to join an expedition traveling the world in an automobile. "Brains, Beauty & Breeches" the ad said, "World Tour Offer For One Lucky Young Woman." Lucky indeed for Aloha Wanderwell, who became the "Amelia Earhart of the Automobile." Aloha worked as mechanic, driver, camera operator, translator, even seamstress. She became the first woman to drive an automobile around the world, yet is not widely known today.


Idris Galcia Welsh was born October 13, 1906 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Her father died in World War I. Her stepfather moved the family to Europe where Idris attended convent schools in Belgium and France. Never one to obey others' rules, Idris answered the world tour ad in 1922. Walter "Cap" Wanderwell created the expedition to promote world travel and the newly formed League of Nations post World War I. The aim was to visit as many countries as possible. Cap gave Idris the name Aloha Wanderwell, and a star was born.


In Aloha Cap had a beautiful, statuesque girl (who looked fetching in breeches) the press and audiences could adore. The expedition was funded by souvenir pamphlets and speaking engagements. Aloha would captivate audiences with tales of her travels while footage of her trips played on screen behind her. Aloha filmed people and places most of the rest of the world didn't know existed. During the seven year Wanderwell Expedition Aloha saw 43 countries on 4 continents.


Aloha and Cap married in 1925 after his first marriage ended. The couple had two children. Cap and Aloha continued to travel together until 1932 when Cap was shot by a mysterious assailant. In 1933 Aloha married Walter Baker, a cameraman from the expedition. She and Walter continued traveling but eventually settled down in Cincinnati, Ohio. Aloha continued to give lectures through the 1970s, but in the 1980s she focused more on collecting and curating travel footage. Her own travel films reside in the Smithsonian and the MPA archives. Aloha Wanderwell died at age 90 in 1996. Over her life she traveled to 80 countries on 6 continents. The "lucky young woman" who answered an ad in 1922 used her "brains, beauty & breeches" to educate the world.


SOURCES :

Aloha Wanderwell. Wikipedia.
Young, Lauren.  The First Woman to Drive Around the World Wore Men’s Breeches and Had a Pet Monkey. Atlas Obscura, 3 June 2016.

FURTHER MEDIA : 

PODCASTS :

Bowlin, Ben / Brown, Noel, hosts. "Around the World In a Model T : The Story of Aloha Wanderwell." Ridiculous History, iheartradio, 5 September 2019.


FURTHER INTEREST : 

Aloha Wanderwell.com





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