The Golden Age of Air Travel — And the Women Who Sold It

In 1930, a nurse named Ellen Church became the world's first airline stewardess. The rules: no taller than 5 ft 4, no heavier than 115 pounds, and single. Forty years later, stewardesses wore Pucci, poured free champagne at 35,000 feet and starred in airline ads under their own first names. At some airlines, they could also be fired for getting married or for turning 32. So was the golden age of air travel a dream, or a very well-dressed trap? This documentary looks back at the glamour era of flying, from the 1930s to the 1970s: Pan Am's Boeing 707 and the jet set, piano bars on the first 747s, Braniff's "End of the Plain Plane", National Airlines' "I'm Cheryl. Fly me." and Southwest's hot pants. It also covers the weigh-ins, marriage bans and age limits behind the glamour, and the women who took them to court. The answer hides somewhere nobody thinks of as glamorous: the price of a ticket. Until the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, a federal board set fares and routes. Airlines couldn't compete on price, so they competed on service, style and the stewardess herself. Chapters: 00:00 May 15, 1930: the first stewardess 01:40 The Sky Girls 04:18 The jet age: Pan Am's Boeing 707 05:48 Fixed fares and the Civil Aeronautics Board 07:31 The Boeing 747 and the piano bar in the sky 08:38 The rules behind the glamour: weight, marriage, age 10:45 The stewardesses fight back 11:18 Braniff and "The End of the Plain Plane" 12:45 "Coffee, Tea or Me?" 13:18 "I'm Cheryl. Fly me." 13:59 Southwest, the "love airline" 14:40 Diaz v. Pan Am: the end of an era 15:58 Deregulation, 1978 17:56 Bette Nash: 67 years in the air If you enjoy stories about why aviation works the way it does, subscribe. There are plenty more coming. Sources and further reading: FAA history of Ellen Church; Diaz v. Pan American World Airways (5th Cir. 1971); Sprogis v. United Air Lines (7th Cir. 1971); Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on airline deregulation; Smithsonian Magazine on Bette Nash; Ms. Magazine on the 1965 stewardess hearing. Archive footage: public-domain films (Periscope Film / PeerTube, NARA, Wikimedia Commons, Anefo) and other credited sources. Full credits are below. #aviationhistory #stewardess #panam