We’ve all seen the photographs. Cocktail lounges in the sky, five course meals being enjoyed by well-dressed passengers, caviar served from ice sculptures and a seemingly endless flow of premium champagne with truffles, foie gras, and lobster being the order of the day. Sounds wonderful. Life onboard airplanes in First Class during the “golden age” of travel, the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, was something special and is fondly remembered for its unabashed glamour and luxury. The period coincided with the dawn of the jet age ushered in by aircraft like the de Havilland Comet, the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8, which were used at the time for the first scheduled transatlantic services. So, what was it actually like to be among the chosen few? “Air travel at that time was something special" explains Graham Simons, an aviation historian and author. With passenger numbers just a fraction of what they are today and fares too expensive for anyone but the wealthy, airlines weren't worried about installing more seats, but only wanted to include more amenities.
“The airlines were marketing their flights as luxurious means of transport, because in the early 1950s they were up against the cruise liners,” adds Simons. “So there were lounge areas, and the possibility of four, five, even six-course meals.” Olympic Airways had gold-plated cutlery in their First Class cabins. Some American Airlines flights had fashion shows down the aisle to help the passengers pass the time. At one time, before the advent of the Boeing 747 and in-flight entertainment, there was talk of putting baby grand pianos on the aircraft.” The likes of Christian Dior, Chanel and Pierre Balmain were working with Air France, Olympic Airways and Singapore Airlines respectively to design crew uniforms. In fact, being a flight attendant - or a stewardess as they were known until the 1970s - was a dream job. “Flight crews looked like movie stars when they walked through the terminal, carrying their bags, almost in slow motion,” according to Keith Lovegrove, author of the book Airline Style at 30,000 Feet (remember Leonardo DiCaprio and his flight crew at the Miami Airport in the motion picture titled Catch Me If You Can). “They were very stylish and everyone was either handsome or beautiful,” he adds.
Most passengers tried to follow suit. “It was like going to a cocktail party. We had a shirt and tie and a jacket, which sounds ridiculous now, but was expected then,” adds Lovegrove, who began flying in the 1960s as a child with his family, often getting First Class seats as his father worked in the airline industry. He fondly recalls his experience on the Boeing 747 after its introduction in 1970. “When we flew on the jumbo jet, the first thing my brother and I would do was go up the spiral staircase to the top deck, and sit in the cocktail lounge,” he relates.“There was an incredible sense of freedom, despite the fact that you were stuck in this fuselage for a few hours.”
The airline most associated with the “golden age” of travel is Pan American World Airways, the first operator of the Boeing 707 and 747 and the industry leader on transoceanic routes at the time. “My job with Pan Am was an adventure from the very day I started,” says Joan Policastro, a former flight attendant who worked with the airline from 1968 until it ceased operations in 1991.“There was no comparison between flying for Pan Am and any other airline. They all looked up to it. The food was spectacular and service was impeccable. We had ice swans in First Class that we’d serve the caviar from, and Maxim’s of Paris, the renowned French restaurant, catered our food.” Policastro also recalls how passengers would come to a lounge in front of First Class “to sit and chat” after the meal service.“A lot of times, that’s where we sat too, chatting with our passengers. Today, passengers don’t even pay attention to who’s on the airplane, but back then, it was a much more social and polite experience,” says Policastro, who also worked as a flight attendant with Delta Air Lines before retiring in 2019. Suzy Smith, another flight attendant with Pan Am starting in 1967, also remembers sharing moments with passengers in the lounge, including celebrities like actors Vincent Price and Raquel Welch, CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite and even Princess Grace of Monaco.
The upstairs lounge on the Boeing 747 was later replaced by a dining room. “We set the tables with tablecloths. It was quite fabulous,” says Smith. “People could not sit up there for takeoff and landing, but went up to have dinner. After a while, they did away with the dining room too, and they put First Class seats up there.” The First Class service was worthy of a restaurant.“We started with canapés, then we came out with an appetizer cart, which included beluga caviar and foie gras,” she explains. “After that we had a cart with a large salad bowl and we mixed it ourselves before serving it. Then there always was some kind of roast, like a chateaubriand or rack of lamb or roast beef,” Smith recounts. “We took it out on another cart and we carved it in the aisle. But, in addition to that, we had at least five other entrées, a cheese and fruit cart, and a dessert cart. And we served Cristal or Dom Perignon Champagne.”
It wasn’t all perfect, however. Smoking was permitted on board in those days, filling up the cabin much to the dismay of the non-smokers. In fact, smoking was widely accepted then when an estimated 42% of Americans were regular smokers compared with only 11.5% today. And, many airlines had strict physical requirements for hiring flight attendants, who had to maintain a slim figure or risk getting fired. Hijackings were common as well, with over 50 in 1969 alone. Fares were also much higher. In the 1960s, air travel was very much seen as a luxury experience reserved for those who could afford it. For example, a round-trip flight from New York to London cost about $550 back then, which equates to over $4,000 in today’s currency. Ticket affordability was therefore not as widespread as now, with only a select few having the means to travel by air. The high cost of flying limited many people’s ability to explore new places and cultures Technological advancements resulting in more efficient aircraft have greatly contributed towards reducing airfares and democratizing access to air travel. The later wave of deregulation and airline mergers also resulted in increased competition and lower prices.
During the 1950s and 1960s, in-flight entertainment or IFE was in its infancy and rudimentary. Although the first film was shown on an aircraft in 1921, it wasn’t until the 1960s that movies became mainstream in flight, thanks to David Flexer of Inflight Motion Pictures who developed the 16mm film system for commercial aircraft. TWA introduced the world's first scheduled in-flight movie on a flight between New York and Los Angelos in 1961. The movie By Love Possessed, which starred Lana Turner, was shown to First Class passengers on board the Boeing 707 aircraft. Later, everyone aboard the aircraft in both classes of service watched the same movie at the same time. When it was over, the most popular form of in-flight entertainment was reading since the iPod, iPhone, iPad and the Internet had not yet been invented.
Compared with flying today, the “Golden Age” had its positives and its negatives. Nevertheless, nostalgia for the period abounds.
Until next time…safe travels.
Whoa! You’re a born photographer as well.
George, you would have fitted right in [apart from the smoking!] Ah, nostalgia, ... it's not what it used to be ...