Aviatrix's life put on silver screen


* From the Shawnee News-Star, October 11, 2008

Befriended by famous aviator Wiley Post in the late 1920s, Pearl was performing as a barnstormer and commercial pilot by age 14.

Produced by the Chickasaw Nation, the feature-length film is based in part on Dr. Paul Lambert's biography "Never Give Up!: The Life of Pearl Carter Scott" published by the Chickasaw Press in 2007.

"Pearl was a dynamic Chickasaw woman who is a legendary figure in the history of Oklahoma, the world of aviation and in the Chickasaw Nation," said Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby. "She was a unique individual who had a profoundly positive impact on everyone she met. Bringing her life story to the screen will help preserve that impact for generations to come."

Pearl was the daughter of a successful businessman in Marlow Oklahoma who witnessed the world around her change from prosperity in the late 1920s into the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. These social and economic changes serve as a backdrop for the passion, celebrity status, romance and internal conflict which marked Pearl's teen years.

A film about the late Pearl Carter Scott, an Oklahoman who is well known as the youngest licensed pilot in America, is the first to qualify for the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program.

The Chickasaw Nation is producing the movie through a contract with Media 13, a production company based in Oklahoma City. Media 13 applied for the rebate through the Oklahoma Film and Music Commission. The application met all requirements for prequalification.

"I can't think of a more worthy project for the state to get behind than "Pearl," a project honoring an Oklahoma pioneer like Pearl Carter," said Jill Simpson, Director of the Oklahoma Film & Music Office. "We hope this is the beginning of a long and successful working relationship with the Chickasaw Nation," said Simpson.

The movie was filmed on various locations in the state of Oklahoma, including the historic Harn Homestead, the El Reno Municipal Airport, the Jude and Jody Airport and several locations in and near Guthrie.

Scott was one-half Chickasaw and served her tribe faithfully until her death in 2005.