Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Reel Life: Stowaway at O'Hare Similar to Movie Character

By DNAinfo Staff | February 18, 2016 10:52am | Updated on February 18, 2016 2:04pm
 Marilyn Hartman (l.) is accused of being a
Marilyn Hartman (l.) is accused of being a "serial stowaway" and was arrested at O'Hare Airport. Actress Helen Hayes (r.) won an Oscar for portraying a serial stowaway in the film "Airport."
View Full Caption
Chicago Police Department; Universal Pictures

CHICAGO — It's life imitating art: police have arrested a 64-year-old woman at O'Hare Airport who authorities say is a "serial stowaway."

Meanwhile, 45 years ago, an actress won an Oscar for portraying an elderly woman who was caught at a Chicago airport and charged with being a serial stowaway.

Chicago police say they took Marilyn Hartman into custody Wednesday after spotting her at O'Hare. Hartman has been caught trying to sneak on airplanes before, including in July at Midway, reportedly less than 24 hours after being released from jail. She has spent at least 145 days in Cook County Jail and was treated at a mental health facility on the city's West Side.

Her bail was set Thursday at $150,000, court records show.

In the most recent incident, an electronic monitoring device she wears as part of her probation alerted authorities, NBC5 reported. In an interview last year, Hartman told NBC5 that she has snuck onto flights perhaps eight times. Authorities have said she has tried to board aircraft without a ticket nearly 20 times.

NBC5 said she tries to blend in with families when boarding. "It looks easy, but I would be sweating!" Hartman told NBC5's Phil Rogers.

The case is reminiscent of the 1970 film "Airport," which depicted a snowstorm at Chicago's Lincoln International Airport. Based on a 1968 novel by Arthur Hailey, "Airport" included an elderly character Ada Quonsett, whose outward sweetness belies her duplicities.

The general manager of the airport tells her she's dishonest and defrauding the airlines. "Don't you realize they could prosecute you?" he asks her.

Replies the woman: "But they wouldn't, would they? I don't think it would be very good public relations for a big airline to prosecute a little old lady just because she wanted to visit her daughter!"

She later explains that her late husband was a geometry teacher. "He always said: 'You must consider every angle.' "

Helen Hayes won the Best Actress in a Supporting Role Academy Award for her portrayal of the stowaway.

In a 40-year retrospect of the blockbuster film posted by IFC, Matt Singer writes that today "it would be hard to play Helen Hayes’ stowaway character as the comic relief. "

"Everything she does is illegal and immoral, but she’s a little old lady and she’s having a lot of fun being bad ... In 1970, people sneaking onto airplanes with forged documents could be kind of charming (talk about being naive)."

Today, Singer writes, "people sneaking on airplanes with forged documents, even little old lady types, not so charming."

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: