5/02/12 5/02/12

Vintage Photos of Flight Attendants

When Flight Attendants Glammed It Up

May 2, 2012 by Love and Sex

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When Flight Attendants Glammed It Up

Exactly 60 years ago today (May 2, 1952), the de Havilland DH 106 Comet was officially introduced as the world's first production commercial jet airliner with its inaugural flight from London to Johannesburg. Soon after that landmark flight came the flight attendants of the '60s, who have had a resurgence in popularity thanks to last year's big drama Pam Am. Some consider this era the glory years of air travel, when service was still good and passengers weren't herded like cattle. Some would also call it a time when stewardesses (the retro name for flight attendant) were treated as sex objects who were supposed to wait on you hand and foot and possibly hint at . . . other services. For a time, there was even a policy that only unmarried women could fill the job. Let's take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in this flight attendant flashback.

Pacific Southwest Airlines gives you a lift and a hug.

This is one pensive stewardess, I mean, flight attendant.
Source

This is what the real Pan Am ladies of the '60s looked like.
Source: Flickr User cheelah

In 1971, this sexist National Airlines ad angered a lot of women — and increased passengers by 23 percent. Due to the success of this ad campaign, TV spots soon followed with actresses whispering, "I'm going to fly you like you've never been flown before."
A San Francisco-based group called Stewardesses for Equal Rights complained to the Federal Communications Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but by then, the damage was done and the sexualization of women working in the air was complete.

Mmmmm! Don't let the creepy grin scare you out of an appetite!

No matter where your stewardess is from . . . we guarantee you she'll be hot.

This Pan Am stewardess looks like the Amazing Kreskin. I wonder if she reads minds, too.

These PSA stewardesses are not afraid of heights.

The girls are dressed to impress in the '60s, modeling Pucci's 1966 uniforms.

This isn't recommended for attempting during takeoff.

Why yes, that is a bubble on my head, thanks for inquiring! It was Pucci-designed to keep a stewardess's hair from flying everywhere in the days before the enclosed bridge.
Source

It's Jane Wyman for American Airlines! The future Mrs. Ronald Reagan in a red, white, and blue ad.

Stewardesses all in a row, looking very orange.

"In 1973 Southwest Airlines threw caution to the winds with its stewardess uniform. 'The girls must be able to wear kinky leather boots and hot pants or they don't get the job,' said the airline's male bosses."

The '60s uniform for British European Airways was crisp and clean.

Here she comes, Miss Congeniality.
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Assistant-Community-Manager 5 years

This is hysterical.

Love-and-Sex 8 years

mguy — that's an adorable story. It does sound like it was a great opportunity for women back in the day. Perhaps now, too, but I've heard about how hard and unglamorous the job is now...

bleached 8 years

@ mguy... that is the greatest story.

mguy414 8 years

My great-grandmother was a stewardess for Northwest and she absolutely loved it. At the time she was divorced and had a young daughter, and all the stewardesses were supposed to be unmarried, no kids, etc. So she was the first divorced mom stewardess. But she got to travel all OVER the world. She met my great-grandfather, who was a pilot, and they went to Japan and met a family with a gravely sick daughter and I think they paid for medical treatment for her, or something of that sort. Well they came back a year or so later and the daughter was still alive and well and they gave her this gigantic pearl, as a token of their thanks. She always had the best stories to tell. One time some snooty actor guy (famous in his own time, no one I knew) was flying with them and her friend was waiting on him and his agent. And back then they carried these super duper heavy metal trays with all the teas, coffees, etc on them and the friend had weak wrists and the snooty actor guy wouldn't even acknowledge the girl for the *longest* time. Finally his agent was all "he wants coffee" or something, so she snuck some laxatives into the drink and she said "the last time I saw him he was holding his butt, running down the terminal!" I want to be a flight attendant so bad!!!