The women who changed the world while flying it | FLY WITH ME | American Experience

The women who changed the world while flying it | FLY WITH ME | American Experience | PBS

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Күн бұрын

At a time when single women were unable to order a drink or eat alone in a restaurant, own a credit card or get a prescription for birth control, becoming a stewardess offered unheard-of opportunity and adventure. Maligned as feminist sellouts, “stewardesses,” as they were called, knew different: they were on the frontlines of a battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace.
Featuring firsthand accounts, personal stories and a rich archive, FLY WITH ME tells a lively, fun and important but neglected history of the women who changed the world while flying it.
FLY WITH ME premieres Tuesday, February 20th at 9/8c on PBS, PBS.org and the free PBS App.
#FlyWithMePBS

Пікірлер: 37

@b.a.d.2086 7 ай бұрын

I was a stewardess in the 1960's for Western Airlines so this was a blast from the past for me! Yes, we had to quit when we got married or at age 32, whichever came first. We had weight check, girdle check, make up check and nail polish check. I also had a pilots license but could not hold a job as a pilot even though I was trained by the same pilots as flew our flights. I could not have a credit card (so our local bank president backed me so I could have my own checking account.) As a stewardess I got in on flying on the DC6b, the Lockheed Electra (L188) and the Boeing 720 and all 3 very different aircraft had a big charm about them. I will say the pilots were excellent and very professional and only a few were sexist jerks! One of my favorite memories was flying on the DC6 at about 24,000 ft., dodging around the huge Midwest thunderstorms and letting my imagination wander through the layers of clouds that did indeed make me think strongly of heaven. My best friend got fired for secretly being married and having a son. She was part of the big lawsuits and continued to fly until about 2001. She's still with us today.

@lindapellerito8059 7 ай бұрын

Was once one of them. Now I'm a geezer who still misses that time, that experience even though I was pulled in for weight check at 114 lbs, was reprimanded big time for shouting out "Dino!" to Dean Martin and Arnold Palmer at the airport in Monterey - at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Was reported by airport staff to my airline. My supervisor was there waiting when I arrived back at my home base. Also got in trouble for no nail polish, slip showing, and non-regulation hair length.

@b.a.d.2086 7 ай бұрын

Yep! I got put on weight check at 116.

@coldsamon 7 ай бұрын

@@b.a.d.2086The days when society had standards. Now look at us 🤮

@lynnmelso9413 6 ай бұрын

Couldn't be engaged or married back then

@lohphat 8 ай бұрын

Even today it's a broken profession. Cabin attendants aren't paid until the last door closes. They may be at the airport for hours due to delays after original departure but they're not "on the clock" until door close. On duty for 13 hours. Paid for 5.

@BobbyGeneric145 7 ай бұрын

False. Thats changing beginning with delta.

@lohphat 7 ай бұрын

@@BobbyGeneric145 They're paid HALF their rate during boarding. They're STILL not paid while having to be at the airport during delays.

@b.a.d.2086 6 ай бұрын

Yikes you guys! Back in the day we were paid from the time we arrived at the airport to the time we left the plane. We got paid a modest but adequate expense check on top of salary. The Capt. had cab vouchers etc. for all of us.

@pamsabo4551 8 ай бұрын

I never realized how the change happened. It seemed like one day I was aware I could never make the cut ("fat" at size 14) and then somehow in the 70s there was grumbling and magically all those draconian rules disappeared. Amazing how self-centered and unaware we can be growing up!

@coldsamon 7 ай бұрын

And now we have obese people everywhere. Thanks!

@JimiBurleigh 8 ай бұрын

It's interesting how things that seem to be completely independent events can turn out to be connected. Just one example of this would be the introduction of Boeing's "Dash 80" aircraft that would enter service as the Boeing 707 in 1958. This was the aircraft that made transcontinental air travel affordable enough to create all those "stewardess" jobs. I remember when we called them that.

@williamhoward2731 8 ай бұрын

I wish to thank you for sharing this Historical video with me . Amen

@b.a.d.2086 6 ай бұрын

Thanks! I suspect you were one of us.

@lynnmelso9413 6 ай бұрын

Remember giving out the 4 pack cigarettes. lighting them for passengers

@Jen-c6u 8 ай бұрын

When I was a young girl, I thought they were the it girls. I wanted to be one of them.

@FuHackers-wx9lq 8 ай бұрын

Recognize! ❤ Now they fly those damn planes! Thank you ladies! ✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️🛫

@lindapellerito8059 7 ай бұрын

Adding - when I was flying all of us to be a Pan Am stewardess because of their saucy, beautiful powder blue uniforms and that amazing head gear.

@b.a.d.2086 7 ай бұрын

Then there was Braniff and those plastic goldfish bowls and Easter egg planes...

@VILJL 7 ай бұрын

I remember, back in my days, that stewardess were like super models, turning heads as they walked in the airports with their beauty and poise and great uniforms and make-up. Those were the days, but of course, as the documentary shows, it was terrible for them on many issues (retirement age, the marital issue, for example) but beneficial on others. Something similar happened to the early Playboy bunnies.

@b.a.d.2086 6 ай бұрын

It wasn't terrible! It got to be easy. I kept thin by riding my horses at home. It was all quite handy actually! We got the best seats everywhere, dinners on the house and I was the happy scandal of my hometown. (Which didn't take much!) The male flight crews were gentlemen on the whole and I could travel around the world for almost nothing.

@VILJL 6 ай бұрын

@@b.a.d.2086 Thanks, I amended my comment a little. To me, stewardesses were great, and there were so many different quality airlines at that time.

@igorschmidlapp6987 8 ай бұрын

Remember when bus lines had stewardesses?

@brianmagee6595 7 ай бұрын

Wait they did?

@phillipsmom6252 6 ай бұрын

@@brianmagee6595no

@shaggybreeks 7 ай бұрын

I cried.

@jaggg.3821 8 ай бұрын

Pan Am went into bankruptcy at some point can't remember the year however it came up when I watched the Gwenth Paltrow 2003 movie The View from The Top.

@b.a.d.2086 6 ай бұрын

I wanted to be on Pan Am. Everyone did!

@jaggg.3821 6 ай бұрын

@@b.a.d.2086 here are 3 Air-plane's I once flew on American Airline's/Alaskan Airline's/& Delta Airline's. Only 2 of those airplanes were involved in Crashes within A Week of having been on Them. I was in shock watching Air-crash investigations/May-Day on Discovery Channel. Delta Airline's so far I noticed did not have as many crashes as American Airline's and Alaskan Airline's had until sad too say after 9/11. Remember A Delta Plane hit the South Tower at 9:02? 03? It was at that point after 9/11 I noticed a few Delta Airline's crashing I hadn't noticed it before.

@arthouston7361 7 ай бұрын

Isn't it telling that todays flight crew are nothing like them at all....

@b.a.d.2086 6 ай бұрын

A little, They'd like to be though. However the reason I quit when I got married in 1969 was that I could clearly see the mess that was coming. I should have renewed my pilots license and pushed for the big bucks!

@lynnmelso9413 6 ай бұрын

I never forgot the interview when the man interviewing said "we like our girls to be shaped like coca cola bottles not pears. I never had that problem and was hired

@arthouston7361 6 ай бұрын

@@lynnmelso9413 I like it. I flew on a Convair, operated by Eastern airlines in 1967. One look from the girl in that uniform and I melted like butter. That's started a period of about 10 years of beautiful older women for me. "Fly me." Indeed.