Glamour, danger, liberation: in a Mad Men–era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up
Required to have a college education, speak two languages, and possess the political savvy of a Foreign Service officer, a jet-age
stewardess serving on iconic Pan Am between 1966 and 1975 also had to
be between 5′3" and 5′9", between 105 and 140 pounds, and under 26 years
of age at the time of hire.Cooke’s intimate storytelling weaves
together the real-life stories of a memorable cast of characters, from
small-town girl Lynne Totten, a science major who decided life in a lab
was not for her, to Hazel Bowie, one of the relatively few Black
stewardesses of the era, as they embraced the liberation of their new
jet-set life. Cooke brings to light the story of Pan Am stewardesses’
role in the Vietnam War, as the airline added runs from Saigon to Hong
Kong for planeloads of weary young soldiers straight
from the battlefields, who were off for five days of R&R, and then
flown back to war. Finally, with Operation Babylift—the dramatic
evacuation of 2,000 children during the fall of Saigon—the book’s
special cast of stewardesses unites to play an extraordinary role
on the world stage.
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