And before collagen!
Dark Roasted Blend: The Glamour of Flight
Reader Mark Grady suggested this nice collection of photos of flight attendants, then called stewardesses, from the golden age of air travel — the 1960’s and 1970’s.
It also allows me to mention my still classic essay on the decline of Alaskan Airlines and the days of PSA and AirCal linked here.
related link:
PSA Uniforms
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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Ah the good old days. When even college educated women were willing to be treated like servants and sex objects.
“And before collagen”
And photoshopping. 😉
What exactly is wrong with the term stewardess? I call the men who bring me meals on a flight stewards, and I call the women stewardesses… because that is what they are.
Looks like you’ve struck gold there, John C.. Crikey!©
#1 – Jerk-face
Yes, their obvious enslavement is visible for all to see in these photos from that horrible time before women found out from their “liberators” that they really didn’t want to do or enjoy so many of the things that they only thought they wanted to do and enjoy. Being “servants” for pay! What an outrage! The glamour, the attention, the free travel to exotic places – no more of that nonsense. Even though they, foolish creatures, thought differently, (and still do, according to a quite liberated old GF of mine who stewed for Eastern in the ’70s – and loved it), we now have self-appointed “experts” who know how they were were tortured and exploited. Ya.
How about bite my PC crank?
4. “How about bite my PC crank?”
I think you misunderstand, I’m not politically correct. I genuinely think that women should be servants and sex objects.
“Being “servants” for pay! What an outrage! “
I think you’re confusing servitude and slavery. Servitude is for pay. There’s no question about that. I’m not entirely sure why you mention something so utterly obvious.
“we now have self-appointed “experts” who know how they were were tortured and exploited.”
I never said they were “tortured or exploited,” but it sounds kinda fun and kinky! And it’d make a really cool porn website. Do you happen to have a url?!
Oh, you were praising the good ol’ days, not doing cheap irony…
In that case, nem’mind, carry on…
Ah memories. 😉 of those cuties in their oh so hot outfits on old PSA, (Poor Sailor Airlines). Super nice girls that treated us well both in and out of uniform. Thanks Ladies. You were dolls in both looks and personality. 🙂
6. “Oh, you were praising the good ol’ days, not doing cheap irony…”
What’s irony?!
#8
“What’s irony?!”
The thing I just beat you at… 🙂
9. “The thing I just beat you at…”
Ooh, you’re so naughty!
Get a room you two.
Cripes, it’s the boss…
I remember my sister and I flying as kids from LAX to DC on a United DC-10, some time in the mid ’70s. There were only about a dozen passengers on the flight, so the stewardesses let all of us sit in first class. Then they set out all the food buffet-style on a big fold-down table up front. Ah, those were the days!
The older sister of my closest high school pal just died of breast cancer. She spent, dunno, 25 or 30 years as a stewardess, traveled all over the world, was frequently photographed with the rich and famous in exotic locales, and one of the last things she said before she died was that she wouldn’t have missed a minute of it. Doesn’t sound like slavery or servitude to me, and I deeply support the feminist view on such issues as equal pay for equal work and, you know, women’s suffrage and all that kind of stuff.
I think the PC name change to “attendants,” like most “PC” terms, is more about common courtesy than stupid politics.
With a tip of the hat to JerkFace the Unrepentant and Lauren the Ironic.
This site about PSA is well-worth visiting:
http://www.psa-history.org/
The TV commercials are priceless.