January 25, 2021
Journalist Cooke (The Other Side of Paradise) recounts in this dramatic history the surprising role Pan Am stewardesses played in the Vietnam War. In the 1960s, Cooke writes, the “cabin of an international airplane was a sought-after workplace for young, unmarried, mostly white women,” with uniforms created by fashion designers including Oleg Cassini and Don Loper helping to burnish the stewardess image. As America’s only exclusively international airline, Pan Am sent its recruits (who had to be single and no older than 26) to a six-week training course where they were given lessons “in everything from deftly carving a rack of lamb to asserting authority during emergency procedures.” In 1966, Pan Am began flying thousands of military personnel every month on “R&R shuttles” back and forth between Vietnam, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Tokyo, and other destinations. Cooke follows the careers of a handful of Pan Am stewardesses during the war years, culminating in their recruitment for Operation Babylift, a 1975 mission to evacuate thousands of orphans, many of them the biracial children of U.S. servicemen, from South Vietnam before it fell to the communists. Skillfully intertwining jet-age excitement with the tumultuous politics of the era, this is a unique and compassionate portrait of barrier-breaking women in the 1960s and ’70s.
Starred review from February 1, 2021
Pan Am once represented the gold standard for jetsetters, largely due to the women that worked for it. In order to meet the requirements for the seemingly glamorous job, hopeful applicants were willing to endure strict height and weight requirements. In this latest work, Cooke (The Other Side of Paradise) chronicles the rise, and eventual downfall, of Pan Am through the personal stories of the women who were the face of the company: stewardesses. This account is also an engaging work of cultural history. Cooke notes how the job of stewardess, though still rooted in sexism, paradoxically allowed women to find freedom, as they made their own money, lived independently, traveled abroad, and explored countries on their own. The author documents Pan Am's involvement in various U.S. military zones, bringing soldiers to and from the frontlines, and how air travel became political during times of diplomatic crisis. Cooke also uncovers how former stewardesses have stayed in touch throughout the years, effectively bringing all the aspects of their careers, personal lives, and lasting friendships to life. VERDICT This engrossing account, which reads like a novel, offers a combination of riveting personal stories and little-known history, and will draw in readers from the first page. A must-read.--Stacy Shaw, Denver
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Starred review from January 1, 2021
A breezy account of Pan American World Airways in its glory days is smoothly interwoven with the engagingly complex stories of several longtime flight attendants. Journalist and travel writer Cooke, the daughter of a former Pan Am executive, explores the global role of the airline in the 1960s and '70s, before the company's decline and bankruptcy declaration in 1991. In this limber, well-researched book, the author touches on a handful of relevant characters, concentrating on three stewardesses, as they were then known, whose lives intersected during Operation Babylift at the end of the Vietnam War. Lynne was a biology major from upstate New York, Karen a former manager at a military service club in Germany, and Tori a young Norwegian woman with a gift for languages. All three were looking for adventure and a chance to see the world in an era when career options for women were severely limited, and they were selected for Pan Am during a period when only 3% to 5% of applicants were hired. Their lives in the air coincided with a time in which feminist impact in and out of the workplace was accelerating, and Cooke excels at placing their individual stories within this context without turning them into object lessons. She also examines, clearly but without a heavy hand, the close relationship between Pan Am and the U.S. government, particularly in regard to Pan Am's role in transporting military personnel to and from Vietnam and to various cities for rest and relaxation trips. Readers will be delighted with the author's inclusion of many behind-the-scenes details, from the instructions stewardesses received to refrain from serving hijackers--remarkably common during this period--caffeinated beverages to a dress code that required girdles, white gloves, and slips ("grooming lessons took nearly as much time as first-aid training"). An entertaining, insightful look into a gritty and glamorous era in air travel.
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