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Welcome to the inspirational, informational, and transparent aviation careers podcast. Today we answer the question: What was it like to be a flight attendant during the Golden Age Of Flying?
I have flown with many former TWA flight attendants and found them to be very professional and passionate about their jobs. I have always wondered why and today I hope to gain insight into the golden age of flying and possibly inspire you to consider a career as a flight attendant.
The authors of “True Tales of TWA Flight attendants: Memoirs and Memories from the Golden Age of Flying” are joining me today. Kathy Kompare and Stephanie Johnson. I am excited to listen to their perspective on the world of flying today compared to the Golden Age of Flight.
Talking Points:
What was it like that day?
What inspired you to write the book “True Tales of TWA Flight Attendants”?
How has the job changed?
How has the industry changed from a flight attendant’s perspective?
What has changed in the industry that you like?
What has changed you don’t like?
Would you still recommend this as a career?
Fun stories?
Where can we find out more about the book?
Links:
The golden age of air travel promised a life of glamour and adventure for beautiful, single, young women interested in exploring the world—and no airline offered more glamour or excitement than Trans World Airlines.
TWA provided an enviable jet-set lifestyle for flight attendants—and the opportunity to travel to exotic destinations like London, Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, and Bombay. Flight attendants appeared on TV and in movies, and rubbed elbows with the rich and famous, from Elizabeth Taylor and John F. Kennedy Jr., to presidents and Popes, all while decked out in designer uniforms from clothing designers like Oleg Cassini and Ralph Lauren.
In the 1960s and 1970s, TWA accepted fewer than 1% of applicants to be flight attendants—making it tougher to get into than Harvard. Plus, a flying career offered the best education money could ever buy.
TWA flight attendants could cook chateaubriand medium rare, deliver a baby at 35,000 feet, and survive a plane crash—all the while immaculately dressed from their never-a-strand-out-of-place hairstyles, all the way down to their mandatory high heeled shoes. But the glamorous lifestyle of a TWA flight attendant sometimes came at a cost.
True Tales of TWA Flight Attendants is a diary-style fly-girl memoir with stories from hundreds of TWA flight attendants, and filled with a fascinating behind-the-scenes, never-before-seen look at the glamour, excitement, and struggles faced by young women as they traveled the world with TWA during this exciting time in airline history—from the golden age of air travel through the great stewardess rebellion and beyond.
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