User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
In 1979 I became a flight attendant for Pan Am, The ten years that I spent traveling the world were perhaps the most exciting of my life, and by far the greatest learning experience I have every had. The airline's demise was devastating for us and many of us remain connected through Facebook pages. A number of books have been written by flight attendants, (including Pan Am flight attendants), and most of these have been on the frivolous side.
When I saw Come Fly the World on NetGalley, I immediately wanted to read it, as belonging to Pan Am is to belong to a family. The book chronicles the lives of several Pan Am flight attendants as they joined the airline and journeyed around the world. What is different about these women is that their experiences are narrated with the backdrop of American history and the manner in which Pan Am was involved. For instance, Pan Am transported Vietnam Vets to and from their R&Rs in Hong Kong, and also airlifted children out of the country. Pan Am also was on the ground during coups, major conflicts, and other historical events. It was amazing to read about the experiences of these women, and to remember the places that I also traveled to and loved.
Most interesting and meaningful to me was that Tori, my primary flight attendant instructor in my initial training in Honolulu, is one of the women whose lives are chronicled in this book. I had not expected that.
If you are interested in learning more about the history of aviation juxtaposed with historical events over the past 50 years as well as the manner in which the career of flight attendants evolved in its initial years, then I highly recommend this book.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 When I was a young girl, my friend had an older sister who was a stewardess. She kept a room in her family home that she returned to sporadically. I remember loving her outfit and all the stories she told us about her travels. That was it! When I grew up I wanted to fly. Life of course, had other plans.
We follow the flying lives of four girls who wanted the same. As did many others, but standards were high and one needed to meet certain height, weight, age and language requirements. Still many applied, wanting a life that included excitement and travel. Their lives though we're not all glamour though and sometimes outright dangerous. Pan Am for years had a contract with the government to fly and return young soldiers to and from Vietnam. African countries were the of danger because of constant could and in Moscow, at the height of the cold war, the women were often followed by spies for the government.
There is also the changing faces, and rising needs of women. They wanted more than the airlines wanted to give. Not having to leave when one married, promotions that only men received, being able to return after having a child and a change of image. This book actually covered quite a bit.
Never realized as my mom always worked how narrow women's roles were defined in the sixties. I'm glad I wasn't adulting at that time.
Rating: really liked it
"Stewardesses were always one step ahead, anticipating movements, making them happen, creating a force felt on the ground below." -- page 216
Harkening back to the days - meaning between 1966 and 1975 - when U.S. stewardesses (as they were not yet referred to as 'flight attendants,' and it was then-unthinkable that males would work in such an assignment) had to adhere to certain job requirements (such as strict height and weight limits, single marital status, and a college degree), Cooke's
Come Fly the World tells the abbreviated career stories of five women in that industry. Far from being an updated version of
Coffee, Tea, or Me? (which is mentioned a handful of times in the text, and NOT in a flattering way), the book presents these women as a dedicated, hard-working group that took pride in their multifaceted job.
At the time Pan-Am was one of the few truly 'global' airlines, flying to 100+ locales on six continents via hubs like New York City and Los Angeles. The book's featured stewardesses were uniformly an intelligent and curious group, usually from small or quiet hometowns, and they saw international air travel as an exciting opportunity to see foreign lands, experience new cultures, and meet different people. And, in those waning days before affordable flights became mainstream, or even the much later debut of the Internet, the position actually
was a chance of a lifetime to see the world on the company's dime, so to speak. Thankfully, the narrative is not one lecherous and tipsy businessman after another harassing these ladies, as that would grow tiresome very quickly. (Although I'm sure it did happen to them on occasion, unfortunately.) The powerfully happy or sad moments in
Come Fly the World are when the stewardesses were serving on routes, under a special arrangement by Pan-Am and the U.S. military, to ferry the young and often-drafted servicemen to and from the Vietnam War during the especially worst years of the conflict. And just when it seems like the book is getting sort of directionless three of these women voluntarily serve on a special mission flight that was an unforgettable and unique assignment, which resulted in the saving of hundreds of young lives.
Rating: really liked it
Describing the evolution of the Pan Am stewardesses primarily in the 1960s and 1970s and of their transformation from a single, educated, uniformity of image and dress stewardess to a liberated, married flight attendant. They loved to travel and to experience the world, to shop, to eat, to meet and learn about people and cultures, and to have fun. They faced chauvinism, image control, weight restrictions, and wardrobe requirements while advocating for fair wages and better labor requirements. They flew into war, social unrest, unruly passengers, hijacking, crashes, and bad weather. They provided a smile and empathy for the U.S. soldiers arriving and leaving Viet Nam. This is not written in a vacuum but in the context of the ever changing times - the Vietnam War, feminism, and equal rights. We learn of how and why Lynne Rawling, Karen Walker Ryan, and Tori Werner became stewardesses and their lives. Operation Babylift to get children, whom many may not have been orphans, out of the waning days of the Vietnam War, was inspirational and controversial. It was heartwarming to learn of a U.S. soldier smuggling twin preemies in a boot box after their mother had died. “Pan Am’s last flight landed in Miami on December 4, 1991." I loved the cover. Well researched. I would have preferred more in depth or connecting stories of Lynne, Karen, and Tori. It felt more of reporting the facts and less of the emotions of the times and the people. The author is part of the Pan Am family. 3.5 stars.
Rating: really liked it
Stewardess Wanted.
Must Want the World.
This book not only takes an interesting look at the lives and lifestyles of Pan Am stewardesses in the 60s and 70s but also at the world at large during that time.
The Vietnam War and the fight for equal female rights are most prominently covered. And, perhaps a little surprisingly, the three stewardesses through whose eyes we mainly see this story unfold had been largely involved in both.
The author, over the span of five years, has conducted several interviews with five Pan Am stewardesses and we get an account of their time working at the company. However, three of them get a lot more coverage than the remaining two and the book almost reads like a biography of Lynne Rawling, Karen Walker and Tori Werner at times. Almost. Cooke chose to tell the history of Pan American World Airways mostly through their stories. Through the stories of three women that wanted to see the world and experience a feeling of independence that was not available to many women at the time. A time when acceptably feminine roles where pretty much limited to nurse, teacher, librarian, secretary.
On the one hand airlines offered them the chance to live a life that was not available to other women, but the flipside of course were the questionable hiring policies.
”Attractive appearance will be foremost in importance,” read a 1963 American Airlines supervisor handbook, the sentence underlined for emphasis and elaborated on in excruciating detail: “We can sometimes pretend a person is attractive, if we admire them for some other reason. [Hiring such people] should be avoided.”
And don’t get me started on regular weigh-ins and the fact that these women actually had to quit their jobs if they got married or reached the age of 32 or 35 (depending on the airline).
But these were confident and educated women (10 percent of Pan Am stewardesses had attended graduate school at a time when only 6 to 8 percent of American women had graduated from college). The public image of stewardesses (created in no small part by the advertising campaigns of the airlines) might have been one of glorified Playboy Bunnies, but they were anything but. And change was about to come. Although it needed hard work to make it happen. And change was needed in more ways than one.
Delta put on a comprehensive defense in one of the first suits, filed by a stewardess who was terminated when her marriage was discovered. In another suit, United submitted an eighty-page brief detailing the reasons why only young, attractive women could address the “legitimate” business of meeting the social and psychological needs of its passengers: “Men can carry trays, and hang up coats and assist in the rare event of an emergency — they cannot convey the charm, the tact, the grace, the liveliness that young girls can — particularly to men, who comprise the vast majority of airline passengers … [men cannot] add to the pleasure of the trip, the loveliness of the environment or the ego of the male passenger.”
However, even though it touches on it, this book is not about the discrimination of men in the profession of flight attendant. It is (amongst other things) about the discrimination of women in nearly all walks of life and how the women of Pan Am also stood for that change that was about to come.
And of course the job of a stewardess was about far more than carrying trays and hanging up coats. It was a life of responsibility and excitement. And also danger, as is shown by several chapters about the Vietnam War and the conditions under which Pan Am flew soldiers in and out of warzones. The developments around the war are as extensively covered here as is the battle for equal female rights and those two themes are perhaps even more prominent in this book than the development of the airline industry and of Pan Am in particular.
Sometimes it feels like Cooke couldn’t quite make up her mind about what she wanted to write exactly. All the themes she covers are interesting, but she’s jumping around a lot, sometimes making it hard for the reader to keep up. I also wish she had given a little more room to the one Black stewardess among the five women she is telling us about. Her chapters were interesting and sometimes infuriating:
Airline executives openly admitted that they feared losing their market share if the women who served mostly white passengers were Black. They were also concerned, as one New York Times article explained, that “existing and potential ranks of white stewardesses would dwindle fast if the ‘glamor’ of the job were ‘down-graded’ by the employment of Negro girls.”
…
There are still some battles to be fought.
The thing this book does best is to show how these women, regardless of the color of their skin, were striving for something greater, for a life of more opportunities, for excitement and adventure.
It made me long to get onto an airplane and visit other countries again. But it also made me better understand what challenges these women were facing.
A very few of the stewardesses, especially those who crewed the more dramatic and dangerous flights, self-identify as veterans of war. Relatively few place their work in historical context or speak openly with civilians about the job’s more difficult moments. It is too much effort to address the disconnect between the perception of the job as all glamour and access amid optimistic globalism of the 1960s and its actual context, which also entailed objectification and misunderstanding, war and danger — the dark side of that globalist vision.
3.5 starsOverall this is a surprisingly deep and educational book that is a little rough around the edges, which is likely down to it being a review copy that was still under review by the author and publisher. Therefore, I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt and round up. The content is certainly worthy of a four-star rating. I hope the final product will also include some pictures. My review copy didn’t. If you bought this one, let me know.
Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by the aforementioned.
Rating: really liked it
Focusing on the Pan Am Airline, Julia Cooke takes a deep dive into the back stories, dreams, and experiences of a handful of their flight attendants. All were hired just before or early in the Vietnam era and the rise of the iconic 747. I loved reading their stories and the ways they dealt with discrimination while also doing their jobs well. The three most heavily covered were also a part of the Vietnam flights for soldiers and the Babylift project. Seeing that time from their perspective is a reminder that there is so rarely a single solution to the problems of the world. As we continue to connect globally, we share more than just a plane ride. It was a treat to see the world with these women and view the 60's and 70's through their eyes. The story of the African American stewardess (Hazel Bowie) and her Moscow flights was a revelation. Loved this cover, but wished there were some photos in the book. I had a roommate who was a flight attendant for Braniff in the late 80's. In fact she was working for them when they went bankrupt and she no longer had a job. I have not logged as many flight miles as she did, but another memorable airline story is being booked for a return flight from Chicago on Midway Airlines when they stopped operations. My husband and I were given first class seats on another airline to get us back home -- my one and only first class experience. If you are fascinated by the ways women assisted in Vietnam, I also recommend to you 'Vietnam Nurse: Mending and Remembering' by Lou Eisenbrandt.
Thank you to Houghton Mifflin and Edelweiss+ for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
I found the cover of this book misleading in what was between the covers. I thought it was going to be a light, gossipy read. A Coffee, Tea, or Me kind of book.
Boy, was I wrong. This is a fascinating dissertation of the real lives of Pan Am stewardesses in a time that was very different for women. I lived during those times so I know them well.
I couldnt get enough of this book. Because I remember those years so vividly, the boys getting their draft notices, dropping them off at the induction center, I found the Vietnam stories hard to read. The stewardess played a big part in our soldiers lives both going but especially their coming back.
I really recommend this book. It is truly fascinating.
Rating: really liked it
This might be the most boring book I have ever read. The subject in itself isn't very naturally interesting, so it's up to the author to make it so for the reader, and she just plain failed. The author kept steering away from the actual subject of the book to talk about random topics, and I get the feeling that it's because she was unable to actually find enough information to fill a real book (and even with all the erroneous tangents it's a short book).
Rating: really liked it
Very interesting account of three Pan American stewardesses and their life while employed with Pan Am. This book drew me in as my husband worked for the airline until it went bankrupt.
I really like how the author brought to life historical events of what was happening at the time.
We think of stewardess as a glamorous job, but these women were very brave and lived in danger while flying in and out of war zones. They brought back orphaned children, some sick with disease.
Well written book about the jet age and the history and demise of an airline.
Rating: really liked it
Honestly, I never read any reviews until after reading the book (and studying the photos too). So I have been absolutely flummoxed by the majority of the high ratings. Having lived through this period and having VERY good (1 best friend) become stewardesses, I don't see this as others. For sure.
The book consistently loses its focus as it goes into 100 other tangents to Pan Am and the industry. And the times, and the war (Vietnam) and the baby rescuing operations etc. etc. etc. It IS the title in one sense but whose story. At 4 or 5 individuals? Not necessarily average either. I knew many stewardesses and none of them had any college degrees and VERY few had 1 semester.
Regardless, this gives a picture that is atypical, IMHO. And also holds dozens of the positives with quite few of the negatives. Health being #1. It was not a lifestyle that engendered health. Every one I knew was used up, got sick- or was thrown away for age or weight or some other hierarchy squabble. It covers somewhat of the struggle to change "the rules" but not much to the extent of how the women were used to depletion. Every one I heard the tale from 1st hand left the services worse off than when they started. While in business during this exact time, much less frou-frou of "dynamic" looks measures were so specified. Being fully adult through the last half of the '60's- I fully remember who earned, rose or established in careers and who didn't. Paid ones and unpaid ones, at that.
The pictures were posed for the most part, IMHO. The women of today of that same age group would not at all be subjected to the rigid indignities of norm. The trailer says Mad Men??? Believe me Joanie had it ALL OVER these women. She actually got to use her intelligence as much as her looks.
A much more even and organized novel could have been done. Hodgepodge at the most. 2.5 stars and never rounded up for the level of "user" connotated here. Or realistically how one sided the user feature worked out. It was much worse to psyches and health than this book implies.
Rating: really liked it
Disjointed and hard to follow. Leaps from one stweardess to the next and one setting to the next and the back again. Moves from business to politics to personal with no cohesiveness. Really frustrating. I couldn't finish though I thought the subject matter was worthy.
Rating: really liked it
eBook Giveaway Win!
Rating: really liked it
***thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book***
Wow! I was drawn to this book because of the cover and the title. I'm a 15-year flight attendant and have always loved to read stories of the days when the job was glamorous. I thought it would be a fun read for these horrible times, especially with all the mask policing I'm doing at work these days. I had absolutely no idea what I was in for with this book.
I am floored by how much education I've gained from this book. I had no idea how instrumental Pan Am was in the Vietnam war and what these women went through when they put on their uniforms and went to work. From RR flights carrying soldiers out of warzones to tropical islands in the South Pacific to Operation Babylift flights at the end of the war, these incredible women were doing what they knew how to do best, put on a brave face and smile through it all.
I loved the way the author told these heroic stories and painted their pictures as women fighting for a place in the world while they're also navigating war on foreign land, as well as the fight for female equality in the US. I have so much respect for the lives that these women lived and the way they carried themselves through their experiences.
My experiences as a flight attendant for a domestic, low-budget carrier are nothing like the experiences of these stewardesses of the jet age, but there is a thread of commonality in their love of their job and the lifestyle that it provided that made my heart swell. It reminded me of what has made me stick around for so long, which if I'm completely honest, has been difficult to remember as of late.
Here are a few quotes that stood out:
She wanted to know about people - how they lived, who they were, something beyond what a taxi driver with passable English could tell her. Passengers offered Lynne the best shot at constructing a scaffolding of knowledge around which her experiences on the ground could grow.
Every plane was a vessel filled with people and their stories.
Lynne taught them everything she knows about travel: how to move as a woman through the world with curiosity and confidence and deference for local perspectives and customers and how, whether she is near or far from home, that stance erases fear. "My mother," her elder girl says, "has no fear of the other."
Loved it!
Rating: really liked it
Not sure how to rank this? 3 stars? 4 stars?
It's good, and a really fascinating overview of the flight attendants of Pan Am during the 50s, 60s and 70s—the ups and downs, the struggles and the fun they had, and how their profession's reputation changed throughout the decades as society within the United States went through an enormous upheaval.
The anecdotes and following of several flight attendants and their various lives was fascinating, and I had no idea that flight attendants flying into Vietnam during the war were commissioned as 2ndLts and issued Geneva convention cards. I also liked that Cooke addressed not only the trials faced by the whyte women who dominated the profession, but the Black women and other people of color who tried to fly the skies, and who found freedom outside The Land of the Free (aka the United States, and yes that land of the free is sarcastic)...although it felt like more of an afterthought than the main focus.
While Cooke goes into great detail about the Vietnam War and the effects on soldiers and the people who lived there, and mentions the United States' colonialist motives for entering a war with that country, I don't know that her staying as objective as possible was a good choice? It felt very pro-servicemember and anti-war, while also being anti-protestor and not really mentioning the effects of war on the people of Vietnam. Does this critique seem off base? Out of context, yes. However, when she devoted as much page time to the war as she did, and how the flight attendants tried their absolute best to provide cheer, service and comfort to servicemembers entering and leaving the war zone, I do feel that some critique on colonialism needed to be mentioned—and outside the war, because of Pan Am's motto as a world-crossing airline. What was the impact of these strangers entering countries and using their resources for fun and fancy?
But I dunno. She did do a good job of indicating how women's lives in the United States changed, and how this was reflected within the airline industries, even though it was pretty whyte and middle class (flight attendants had to have certain qualifications in addition to their physical appearance)...and I kinda wanted more on the fatphobia and bodyshaming aspects that had to be inherent within the profession. There was a lot of focus on external pressures, but really no mention of any internal fraught within the flight attendant community (there is some mention of the racism Black flight attendants faced)—and I feel that the book suffered from this overly sympathetic approach.
Finally, I don't know that it landed the ending? It was good though, and I was entertained, although I was irked by the lack of analysis on Pan Am's influence on colonialism and the impact of tourism on marginalized cultures.
However, she only had 288 pages and it's written as an accessible, pop-history book meant to sell and provide a wavetop of information. Not an excuse for where the book was lacking, but an explanation.
Rating: really liked it
I love the cover! It has a really glam, yet retro look to it. It brings to mind all the great things you associate with air hostesses. This cover certainly attracts your eye to it and encouraged me to think that the book would be from the point of view or at least solely about air hostesses.
The book does follow a few women, Karen, Lynne and Tori being the ones that stay in my mind. All these women have to fit/fill certain expectations such as weight and looks which would most likely be frowned upon, in the era we live in now.
The uniforms, rules and expectations varied slightly depending on which Airline the women worked for. Though this book is centred more on the Pan Am Air Hostesses it does reference other airlines too. Pan Am ran “grooming classes” which one of the ladies featured in this book called Karen wrote home about to her mum saying the course would cost £500!! Karen also revealed to her mum in the same letter that she had never known that blue eyeshadow de-emphasized her blue eyes — she should choose a greenish hue — or that a hint of a bright white below the eyebrows would highlight the arch. One of the grooming supervisor’s had reshaped her eyebrows, and they now looked so much better. In 1969 the spring trainees were the very first ones to be allowed to keep their hair long but it was on the condition they should keep it clipped neatly at the nape of their neck. This new freedom didn’t bother Karen as she had her hair cut into a bob, the same style she has worn it in during her time working for the US Army.
The women were also given four pages of “packing tips” which contained gems like building a core wardrobe in drip dry fabrics as they are easier to manage and do not need a lot of extra work ironing. The tips also contained a note on wearing comfortable shoes!
The Pan Am Stewardess manual gave advice on things like lip shape, lipstick/make-up application, correct posture, skin care, and haircuts. It says in the book that these grooming lessons took nearly as much time as the first aid training!
For makeup, a natural look with red, rose red or coral for lips and nails. Pan Am wanted their hostesses to look pretty, feminine and sophisticated. They employed people to ensure the stewardesses were meeting their specific guideline. If a stewardess wanted to change her hair, she needed to have permission from the airline. Stewardesses were expected to have clear skin, be between 5’3 and 5’9, and be willing to follow the rules. The stewardess skirt had to be exactly one inch below the knee, so it doesn’t raise and be too revealing when the stewardesses were reaching over head lockers and doing their jobs on the plane.
The book also covered difficult journeys the Air Stewardesses had to cope with such as transporting young men from America over to fight the Vietnam war. Also, the evacuation effort made and how integral the Air Stewardess’ willingness and professionalism to come up with solutions as quickly and efficiently as possible. The conditions these air hostesses had to cope with in the air whilst helping ill, scared children was awful. I should imagine if this occurred in the present day the Air Stewardesses would be treat for a form of PTSD. Not in those days though they were expected to pick themselves up, put a fresh smile on their face and continue on.
The book also covers some Airline history and also the many lawsuits for women’s rights, for job progression etc, and men’s rights to become Air Stewards, sexism, racism etc. Some of the articles covered were ones that I honestly wouldn’t of necessarily thought of. I guess in the present day we take a lot for granted, as being our rights to have/do.
I’ll totally admit I really enjoyed all the Air Stewardess grooming and training details, it would have been great to have some photographs or illustrations too. I even found the military filled flights fascinating to read about, and the evacuation of orphans though harrowing it was something I wouldn’t necessarily of thought of the Air Stewardesses having to do. Some of the Airline history in places felt a tad long winded and I could feel myself losing interest, but luckily the different chapters are kind of mixed up a little with the more serious history, regulations interspersed with anecdotes from actual Air Stewardesses.
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were quite mixed, though I found parts of the book really interesting others seemed to drag on in minute detail on things I didn’t find particularly noteworthy.
To sum up I really enjoyed some parts of the book yet felt some parts were somewhat drawn out in my opinion. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting . . . but it was still an okay, fairly interesting read.
