Flight Attendants, Then and Now

One marker of how times have changed can be seen in the current television program Pan-Am. Obviously, the airframes have changed, and the pilots as well. However, since the program centers around a number of young, beautiful, sexily-dressed flight attendants, the nature of these service personnel is the topic here.

Apparently, this was at one time regarded as a glamorous occupation in which an attractive young woman could work in for several years before marrying, settling down, and having children. And at one time it was. The original flight attendants (called "stewardesses" at that time were selected to be young, and were usually terminated by the time they were in their early thirties. Frankly, they were selected because they hot!

However, things changed. Some of it was due to women's liberation. Some of it was due to the loss of glamor previously associated with this job: it was, all patina and romanticism aside, simply hard work and dealing sometimes with not-so-nice people. (Let's simply call them assholes.) Some have suggested that sexily-dressed attendants as inducements became less important as people more strongly responded to lower fares. And airline travel, once the province of the "jet setters," became more open to the proletariat.

Hot stewardesses from the 1960's showing as much leg as the law allows.

However, one airline, Trans-Am is trying mightily to fill in the gap with sexy flight attendants to fill the nostalgia market for the stewardesses of yore. Here's a group of Trans-Am attendants in training for their roles of houris of the air:

Trans-Am attendants in training.

So, gentle male readers: Happier days will soon be here again!