Notable Residents

A number of notable people are natives of or have lived in Burbank, including:

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart had ties to Burbank. George P. Putnam reportedly had proposed marriage to Earhart on several occasions. When Putnam proposed a sixth time at the Lockheed Co. in Burbank, she consented, and were married in 1931. In 1932, determined to prove herself a true pilot, not just a “sack of potatoes” as she had described her role in the flight four years before-Earhart took off eastward from New Jersey in her Burbank-built Lockheed Vega and became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.

From 1935 to 1937, Earhart made many more flights, many from Burbank Airport. It was there that she pored over blueprints with Lockheed engineers, who built the Electra she was flying at the time of her disappearance. Earhart’s damaged plane was sent to Burbank after she crashed on the runway at Pearl Harbor on her first around-the-world attempt in 1937. At the time of her disappearance, Earhart lived in nearby North Hollywood with Putnam.

James Jeffries

In 1904, James Jeffries, then heavyweight boxing champion of the world, purchased 107 acres (0.43 km2) of land at Victory Boulevard and Buena Vista Street. He started an alfalfa business and later developed a successful business supplying bulls to Mexico and South America. The site, now the location of a Ralph’s supermarket, had a large barn. Gradually, Jeffries sold parts of his ranch, and in his later years turned the barn into a boxing arena. He died in 1953.