" AN INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGHT " 1950s KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES PROMO FILM XD86845

[@bardo0007]

That was a wonderful video from 1957. Oh I wish I could be on that plane! And it was all so luxurious back then, a flight of a life time!

[@MrPhilippeBrun]

Very interesting DC-7C all First class ‘’Royal Dutchman Service’’ configured aircraft (Standard First and Sleeper First) ride over the pond. Low First-class trolley service for cocktails and after meal spirits and interesting ‘’service à l’Escoffier’’ for main courses. When DC-8s took over, the mixed class configuration, First and Tourist class (Economy) redesigned the catering service altogether, leaving spils from frequent turbulences at 15,000 feet, for a more seamless and sophisticated service for Tourist class passengers and an extraordinary opulent in-flight service for their ‘’Royal Class’’ privileged ‘’guests’’. Very fine piece of archive here. Thank-you so much for the post!

[@youconstube]

How much time did this flight take?

[@collectionneur111]

​@@youconstube 11h35 annoncé, altitude 15000 ft.

[@keithwaites9991]

15,000 ft? Just think of the turbulence!!!! 11 hours to enjoy it, too!

[@Heres_Johnny.]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@castlegate2015]

Think of all the lovely meals. 😂

[@keithwaites9991]

@@castlegate2015 being puked all over the cabin floor

[@bardo0007]

Turbulence was not as bad as you think. 15000 feet can be just as nice as 30000

[@barryvincentredmond3973]

What a classic movie reel.!.Cigarettes on a tray, cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, drinks flowing with dinner and very attentive service.Reclining seats to sleep and breakfast in the morning pre arrival.Another world away in service.!.

[@Sorayako62]

In those days flying was very expensive, only a few could afford it.

[@simonf8902]

So much better then.

[@tnwhiskey68]

Ah how those days have returned!

[@Sennmut]

More and faster planes democratized air travel.

[@dfirth224]

@@Sennmut Larger planes with 300 passengers allow lower ticket prices. Operating cost is spread over more passengers. Smaller planes had to be government subsidized.

[@힐만94]

imagine a plane with all first class service & passangers... that's how it went back then..

[@charlesmclaughlin4444]

Nice editing by the film crew for KLM. Plane/cabin on the ground or in a studio/soundstage with actors, intercut with real footage of the plane taking off, in the air, and then landing.

[@venetia6296]

The people were dressed so nicely & decorous.

[@lookoutforchris]

Western society had yet to be decimated by ✡️

[@RafWu]

I think these flights cost the equivalent of $20,000 in today's dollars, so why wouldn't they be?

[@ozgirl45]

I first travelled in the late 60s when it was normal to dress up for air travel. And I was still a student so it couldn’t have been so expensive. Now most passengers seem to be wearing pyjamas - at best 🤷🏻‍♀️.

[@timdelvillar8063]

What service! My, how the times have changed.

[@rfrover]

The whole thing plays like the setup for a ‘70s disaster film. A fine collection of “characters”, but where’s the nun or priest?

[@dfirth224]

The first flying disaster movie was "The High and the Mighty" with John Wayne, 1954. Airlines had a clause in their advertising contract that said no airline commercials could be run whenever there was an airline crash, which were not uncommon.

[@MalachiWhite-tw7hl]

Great comment. This footage should have been used in 1980s "Airplane!"

[@MalachiWhite-tw7hl]

​@@dfirth224We forget how (relatively) common airliner crashes were in the mid-twentieth century. More in the US die on horseback each year than on airliners.

[@ABa-os6wm]

Nuns ans priests were not part of the class of people flying in 1950.

[@mehmetokay7073]

Guitar playing nun on an intercontinental flight.

[@danareynolds1786]

I kept waiting for Alfred Hitchcock's cameo!

[@Ctrl-XYZ]

The uncut version is 11 hours long.

[@costernocht]

LOL!

[@madame-rosalitaduchesse7636]

11 hours dc-7??? Je voudrais acheter et restaurer une dc-....3...4...6...7....si j'avais l'argent et les ingenieurs autour moi....

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

WOW that food looks GOOOOOD!

[@florentmagen5993]

Golden age of commercial airline.. ❤. When it's was a little adventure.. 😊

[@arnoldpalthe3915]

In the late fifties, early sixties I made the trip from Amsterdam to Curaçao for eight years. Always on the Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation, the most beautiful plane KLM ever had. The longest stretch over the ocean was from Santa Maria on the Azores to Curaçao, a whopping 17 hours. Some 3 to 4 hours into the flight, you could visit the cockpit and talk to the pilots. The only 'barrier' between the cockpit and the cabin was a curtain in KLM blue of course with the text Crew Only. The only drawback, the Connie was equipped with very unreliable engines. Out of a total of 16 flights - out and back - none of them passed without engine trouble; sometimes so severe we had to return or divert to another airport in order to have an engine changed. That's where the Connie got its nickname: the fastest triple engined airliner.

[@hardyboy1959]

What a great video! Flying, so familiar... Flying in the '50s, so strange!

[@WAL_DC-6B]

OK folks, for those of you commenting on the price of flying when this was filmed, here's a breakdown of the KLM airfares between Amsterdam and New York according to the September 1956 addition of the "Official Airline Guide." Tourist class was $310.00 one way and $558.00 round trip. 1st class was $446.00 one way and $802.00 round trip. Now you know why people were so well-behaved flying back then.

[@bardo0007]

That would have been 3 months wages for a normal worker back then.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@bardo0007 Indeed!

[@LMays-cu2hp]

Thank you for sharing your Aviation History.😊

[@WAL_DC-6B]

I have a nice, vintage, travel agency model of a KLM Douglas DC-7C from the 1950s. It says, "The Flying Dutchman" across the fuselage on the left side and "De Vliegende Hollander" on the right side. It's all cast metal, quite heavy for its size and was actually made in the Netherlands by a company named, "Raise Up."

[@tsf5-productions]

"You're right on the button, madam. 58 it is...Here's your prize." That's pretty cool! Yeah...this film is like some kind of air flying movies. But...the lavish foods and drinks, and cigarettes! ("Cough Cough!" "Let me out a here! I'm dying!") All-in-all...a cute movie...and I bet some were fairly good "extras" in movies of the 1950s.

[@josemiguelmarquescampo4902]

Happier times from a more civilised age...

[@miguelsuarez8010]

More civilized age? WW2 just ended after 50 million dead....

[@jerrywood4508]

Let's see, business suits, cigarettes and room to stretch out. Yes, it was definitely the 1950s. The Texan was a nice touch. KLM started flying Houston to Amsterdam via Montreal in 1957.

[@TFinSF]

I'll bet that route was established primarily to meet the needs of Shell Oil employees.

[@halitosis75]

❤❤❤❤this video. ❤❤❤

[@timmotel5804]

Good Day. I remember those days well. Born in 1952. My Father worked for American Airlines. DC6 & DC7 airliners. People were decent and the food was Excellent! Later flying on Lockheed Electra II and 707 jets. Many good changes today, and some Not So Good Today. Thank You & Best Regards.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

Back in the day when you paid accordingly for those "decent" seats and "excellent" food.

[@timmotel5804]

@@WAL_DC-6B Today, those costs equal the cost of a new car or house. And people used to act properly.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@timmotel5804 I was curious as to the airfares at the approximate time of this film between Amsterdam and New York, N.Y. So, I referred to a September 1956 addition of the "Official Airline Guide" I have in my collection of vintage airline memorabilia (This is like having all the period timetables condensed into one book complete with illustrations and system maps). Anyway, tourist airfare between the two cities was $310.00 one way and $558.00 round trip. First class was $446.00 one way and $802.00 round trip. I don't think you could purchase a typical home or car in the U.S. for $802.00 in the mid 1950s but that was still really expensive if you consider that you could probably fly coach on KLM today for about the same airfare between the New York and Amsterdam. Well, there you have it and as they used to say in the piston propeller era, "Happy Landings!"

[@vladilenkalatschev4915]

Yes, flying was more social that time

[@bar10ml44]

It was good in 2024. How things have changed 😎

[@Sennmut]

Where do you find these gems????? Keep it up!

[@boristrofimenko5772]

Much more sole and friendship vs modern capsules at 350-s

[@OzBlackHat]

Ah the good old days, when in-flight entertainment consisted of guessing how many toothpicks were in the orange.

[@nigelh4617]

There's a chef!

[@scottcantrell7348]

These people are exactly why noise cancelling headphones were invented.

[@Tallguy020]

‘Cigaret mam?’. Those were the days ! 💨

[@tjittekamminga5170]

I do remember (I am from end 1945)as a young boy those endless flights towards South America from Europe (Ams - Santiago de Chile - Ams) with the Super Constellation

[@rightwired]

I thought it said " AN INTERCONTINENTAL FIGHT " Imagine my disappoint

[@carlmontney7916]

11 hours on a plane with propeller driven engines at 15,000 ft going to be a pretty rough flight.

[@DanknDerpyGamer]

There were commercial p[rop planes that were pressurized - IIRCthe Lockheed Constellation, DC-7, Vickers Viscount 700 are 3 examples. Surprised they choose to fly an aircraft that low especially since it was possible that KLM had propliners that were pressurized.

[@dfirth224]

@@DanknDerpyGamer Depended on the weather.

[@foxxster3565]

My mother and father had some pretty interesting stories about flying in these type of aircraft around this time. Right in the turbulent zone. People having to sit in their meals which had hit the ceiling and bounced back again landing on them or their seat. People hitting the ceiling. They were living in Singapore for a while. Tropical zone. Strap in.. tight.

[@Thesmellofrain-h6o]

So much food! Would you like a cigarette with that?

[@pjt-h5f]

When the world was civilized. I was waiting for William Shatner to open the drapes and see the wing monster staring back at him

[@briangriffin4937]

The golden age of airline travel. If we can’t return to that era, we can experience it through magic of the movies 🎦

[@DjRay1967]

@11:16 Wilson!!!!! Thats Wilson's granddaddy

[@chrism1102]

That flight must have had at least 2 refueling stops. I'm guessing Shannon and Gander?

[@Bacchusmbt]

Correct, in the early to mid 1950s KLM flights to and from Amsterdam to Montreal or NYC had stops in Gander and Shannon (or Glasgow).

[@viscount757]

The long range DC-7C (the model in the video) in the late 1950s could do nonstop flights of at least 15 hours which eliminated many of the fuel stops.

[@purrple.shadows]

It's a DC-7, not a Viscount. The window shape and the engine sounds are different.

[@DjRay1967]

Who said it was a Viscount? I'm looking all over in comments and I didn't see anyone say it was a Viscount.

[@purrple.shadows]

@@DjRay1967 The video description.

[@DjRay1967]

Oh ok. I thought someone in the comments were saying that it was a Viscount. It's most definitely a DC 7

[@peterparker9286]

​@@DjRay1967You One of those. Huh

[@timmotel5804]

I've flown on both

[@robgrear1142]

There are some really strange people in that plane.

[@cmalberts]

10:18 "Here little lady, let a *man* unwrap your cheese!"

[@bazza945]

This is true, it took brute strength to prise loose the cheese. 😅

[@peterwilles7227]

Times when fresh cooked food was standing on the table when you come home aftwr work

[@peterwilles7227]

And when mom was the real mom

[@jimaccornero3688]

I believe the DC-7 could do 25,000'' a much smoother ride. This must be a DC-6. Good luck with all that meal service at 15,000'.

[@gerritkirchner8710]

If you compare it with today's flights it makes you feel a bit sad ..

[@cmalberts]

Imagine what Joel and the Bots would have done with this short film.

[@necrophadian]

Wish the mst3k team did these documentaries from the 50s

[@SumOfSeveralEquations]

So from the 50s to the 90s they had big advances in airplanes, but from the 90s to now it seems to stand still, what do you all think?

[@petercermak1910]

As a Pan American Clipper club kid, I agree. I started flying in 1961. NY to London to visit family. We flew all the time around Europe, N. Africa, the US and down to Cozumel in 1976. Each year I noticed improvements, mostly in the engines and the cabin size. The food service was great up until the nineties. Then everything went Swanson frozen dinner platters. The other thing was the seat space. Before 1970, you had serious room. The last trip I took on British Airways, I felt like a sardine. I do have to say that the tech entertainment has greatly improved. Having your own tv, music control, and more is great. It sure beats the in-flight movie with air driven headphones of the day. All they need to do is bring back a few inches please!

[@JackF99]

The Boeing 707 started flying in the late 1950s. 70+ years later todays single-aisle jetliners are not much different from it. Twin aisle jets starting with the Boeing 747 in 1969 are obviously larger but that's about the only big change since the late 50's as far as the passenger experience is concerned. The biggger change in the US was the deregulation act of 1978. Massive cost cutting followed. Today flights are much cheaper but less enjoyable than they were before 1978. Probably the final change in the passenger experience was after 9/11 TSA came to be.

[@dfirth224]

Blame it on deregulation around 1980. No more government subsidy.

[@Cousin.]

I think that Clinton was elected, and it’s all gone downhill from there. Carter destroyed a lot of things, which are STILL a problem today, but the 8 years of Reagan helped a lot.

[@ClausB252]

High bypass efficient engines, avionics, GPS, ADS-B, in-flight video and Wi-Fi, better crew training, improved safety, many innovations. And way more affordable.

[@BobGeogeo]

"All drinks are on the house," seems like a coping strategy for the crew.

[@cmalberts]

Notice at 6:38 it was like the crew couldn't break out the booze fast enough. "This load of passengers are insufferable when sober...for God's sake get some liquor in them!"

[@keithwaites9991]

@@BobGeogeo and for the passengers...

[@fujifrontier]

I don’t think they were bad except for the fat guy with all the matches and smoking

[@jamesschrom317]

It is a DC-7C

[@Cousin.]

LOL Absolutely hilarious! I don’t know if it was supposed to be, but absolutely hilarious.

[@pedrojuliancereceda8301]

The wonder years when every single passanger was neatly dressed wearing smart clothes!

[@alifloydtv]

I'll take today's safety stats, turbofans at 40,000 feet, and cabin not stinking of stale cigarettes, thanks. I would much rather survive and see a few folks in jammies than put up with the torture of the imagined 'golden age'🤪

[@pedrojuliancereceda8301]

@@alifloydtv I did not experience that (people smoking in the cabin). What I have, though is passangers stinking with bad corporal odor...

[@alifloydtv]

@@pedrojuliancereceda8301I'll take a bit of BO and magnitudes of safety and lack of vibration any day. And as someone who had cruised the Atlantic (for work) I can assure you both ways of crossing were rough, bumpy, and sickness-inducing 🤢

[@m.jeanlorsbach6464]

Well the booze flowed freely along with the auderbs and it looked more like a cocktail party. Compare that with flights today where the passengers are crammed in like cattle and assholes are trying to open the airlock and fight with each other! Send me back to the 1950s!!!

[@anthonyblue100]

Yes and they had hors d’oeuvres too.

[@DjRay1967]

@7:35 Amstel? I wanted a Heineken. Im getting off this flight.

[@berteisenbraun7415]

I would have definitely been tore up from the floor up if I were on that flight. 😂 probably passed out and snoring 😴.

[@tsnovak20]

The time when the western world was peaceful and people didn’t have to fear of getting stabbed

[@Kabong-d9e]

GibsMe all dat............BOOZE!

[@berendharmsen]

The spectacularly corny script and acting makes this a time capsule masterpiece. It's quite clearly not shot in the air, although they did shoot out of a window on a real flight of course.

[@oscare.quiros6349]

I do remember when people dressed up and all food was served in plates and all drinks were free.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

And more than likely those were plastic plates in order to save on weight.

[@oscare.quiros6349]

@@WAL_DC-6B All I remember from the 1960s were regular ceramic plates. Maybe some airlines used plastics but I do not think they were available at that time. Only ceramics.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

@@oscare.quiros6349 TWA begin using a plastic called "Beatleware" (I'm not too sure on the spelling) in the mid to late 1930s. I believe with the propeller airliners such as the Douglas DC-7C weight was more an issue than with jetliners (especially when the jets were equipped with the later, more powerful, fanjet engines). I have several complete meal services with compartmentalized plastic trays from the 1950s. One is a TWA circa 1958, and all the meal items were made out of plastic (except the silverware). I have an early 1950s Eastern Airlines meal service that does have a green tinted glass dish that was for the main entree but everything else was plastic. In the 1960s indeed many airlines used ceramic dishes. In fact, I have a complete United Airlines, 1st class meal service from 1970 that's all ceramic which includes a bread plate, coffee cup, coffee saucer, main entree plate and salad bowl. All marked with the UAL shield logo from this period (backstamped Syracuse China). And speaking of Syracuse, I do have a complete American Airlines china set from about 1950, and this was Syracuse China's "Airflyte" brand that was a very light ceramic material used for a main entree dish, salad bowl and coffee cup. The salad bowl is the one that's hard to find. I suspect AA went to plastic a little later due to how easy it was to chip or break an Airflyte item.

[@NA-me6sh]

Shah of Iran laying low

[@davidgold5961]

When I heard the stewardess say it was an 11 hour and 35 minute flight with these people, I would most likely force open the door and jump out after about 3 hours tops.

[@jlacob]

I’d be right behind you

[@jeffk19]

@@jlacob and that annoying boy reading the brochure would be right behind you!

[@robertdaniels1269]

Hence the free drinks and real food.

[@Chris_at_Home]

Today people fly on flights that are longer than that. Hong Kong to JFK is almost 16 hours. I used to fly long flights in military patrol aircraft.

[@MalachiWhite-tw7hl]

Hey, you should try ONE hour with today's passenger behavior--you'll take the leap after taxiing.

[@CountryFenderBass]

11.5 hours at 15000 feet……😢did they pick the most annoying passengers possible.

[@JeronimoReyes]

Just like Ryainair!

[@tertommy]

Bells & Circles Song by Iggy Pop and Underworld.

[@creepingjesus5106]

@12:50 Bloody Mary for breakfast? Don't mind if i do...

[@Sennmut]

Anyone know what make/model the camera is @ 4:36?

[@billyyoung2946]

Jeez...I would have been climbing the walls with so many obnoxious passengers.

[@bazza945]

Karen's were in the future.

[@timmotel5804]

@@bazza945 Yup

[@skranz2732]

Flying at 15,000 feet… fascinating… today’s planes fly at twice the altitude.

[@purrple.shadows]

Even three times.

[@bardo0007]

It would have been safer too, a lot easier if you needed to land the plane due to an emergency situation. Engines could suddenly fail.

[@ATLcentury334]

Well, number one the stewardess can shut that kid up, he’s annoying.

[@WAL_DC-6B]

I actually have that exact, same KLM booklet that annoying kid in the beginning is reading from (and no, I was not he on this flight).

[@raymondpeterson952]

Maybe it's just me but...there was an awful lot of commotion in that little plane...

[@castlegate2015]

Not sure what the point of the film is, however its a nice insight to the glory days of flying.

[@robertgedzelman380]

If anything, it was to "show off" what the wealthy did in the mid-'50s when only the wealthy could afford to fly. Airfares then were well over $600 - $700 round trip NYC to Europe...in today's money, that's about $10,000 to $11,000. It depicts the good life... champagne, fancy cheeses and fruit, steak dinners, pastries. The planes flew under 23,000 feet..thus the need for paper airsick bags. My dad flew to Germany a few times (paid for by his client) and he felt like a king. Idlewild airport (now JF Kennedy) was tiny then...and EMPTY. Flying was for millionaires and movie stars. Everyone else: drove or took buses or trains. European or Caribbean vacations were for the wealthiest 1-2% of Americans back then. So this film was to entice rich people to consider flying, or make everyone else a little envious...kind of like that 80's TV show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous".

[@timmotel5804]

@@robertgedzelman380 It was wonderful. My father worked for American Airlines.

[@Kaniela6759]

Cigarettes......lots and LOTS of cigarettes... 🚬

[@PeterCox-k1w]

Are there any complementary sexual encounters

[@jonwebb2300]

People acted just as stupid back then as they do today.

[@philboydstudge]

Loved the food. 11 hours at 15,000 feet not so much. No exterior shots of the plane, a DC-4 perhaps?

[@bazza945]

Not a DC4, perhaps DC6, DC7 or Connie.

[@viscount757]

​@@bazza945It's a DC-7C, the final long range version that went into service in 1956. It had quite a short period in passenger service with the early 707 and DC-8 jets only 2 or 3 years from going into service which cut flight times almost in half.

[@lisablack2389]

11 hours in THAT???

[@SumOfSeveralEquations]

Drinking and smoking, in a pane with allot of europeans and 1 german 5 years after the world war, so many things could have gone wrong xD

[@zekharye1]

Anyone got a match?

[@dakinila3966]

And only one Dutch speaker on the flight. Even now, KLM is more expensive than other lines for the Nederlanders to fly.

[@telekommandant]

Air travelling was going down the drain, when they invent economy class.

[@BR-bj3ot]

How far mankind has fallen from God’s grace and moral decency

[@timmotel5804]

I don't know about any God, but the rest is TRUE.

[@dieselfan7406]

Why is there a clock running in the lower screen? Very disruptive and unnecessary

[@NathanDudani]

Buy the license

[@PeriscopeFilm]

It's absolutely necessary. Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, so that they can identify the material they need to license, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes. In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous KZbin users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do. Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.

[@roncoburn7771]

that is service these days are gone.

[@ATLcentury334]

And not one fist fight broke out, it must have been so boring to fly then.

[@chrisvaughn5960]

Back when you could smoke on a plane!

[@stevodakine1]

Guelpito