Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly.

I happened to miss the radio airing of Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac the other morning (November 14th, 2014).
The classical-music station out of Rochester (NY) I listen to, WXXI, airs it at 8:20, and I turned on my radio at 8:20.
So Garrison was already on. I had missed his treatment of Nellie Bly. I would have to Google “Writer’s Almanac” to see what he said. I would also Google “Nellie Bly.”
The morning host at WXXI, Brenda Tremblay (“trom-BLAY;” as in “trombone”), who I occasionally e-mail, mostly because unlike some she responds immediately, told me she thought the world of Nellie Bly.
Nellie Bly was actually Elizabeth Cochrane (May 5, 1864 - January 27, 1922), an intrepid female reporter for various newspapers, mainly the New York World.
She was an adventurer, and would try anything.
“Nellie Bly” was her pen-name.
She had various adventures, time living in Mexico, her insanity-asylum exposé where she feigned insanity, and circumnavigation of the globe alone in 1889.
She began November 14, 1889, and finished January 25, 1890; 72 days.
Tremblay’s veneration of Nellie Bly reminded me of my childhood fascination with Amelia Earhart.
Earhart was the first women to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean flying solo, a repeat of Charles Lindbergh’s flight in the “Spirit of St. Louis” in 1927. She did it in 1932.
And I’ve seen video of Lindbergh’s takeoff from Roosevelt Field in Long Island. He barely got it airborne; his plane was heavy with gasoline.
Earhart also disappeared attempting an around-the-world flight in 1937. She was never found.
Nellie Bly became so famous the Pennsylvania Railroad named a train after her; New York City to Atlantic City.
And I think it was still in Jersey when I was born (1944), which meant it ran the old Camden & Amboy between Philadelphia and New York City, although there were ferries at each end.
The Camden & Amboy later become Pennsy’s Bordentown Branch.
The Camden & Amboy was the first railroad in New Jersey.
Not too long after, the Nellie Bly was switched to partially in PA south of Trenton. In Philadelphia it headed toward Atlantic City.
That’s a dog-leg, but via the Camden & Amboy was also a dog-leg.
There was no direct railroad from New York to Atlantic City. Central of New Jersey was fairly close; it went down the center of the state, and New Jersey is narrow. But CNJ wasn’t Pennsy.
I think the Nellie Bly was still running in the ‘60s when I got married (1967).
But now of course it’s gone.
And I doubt many people know who Nellie Bly was.
She was the first investigative reporter.
Has anything been named after Dr. Phil or Oprah?