April Virtual Luncheon with Julia Cooke

COME FLY THE WORLD
The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am

Required to have a college degree, 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 the right height (between 5′3″ and 5′9″), the right weight (between 105 and 140 pounds), and the right age (under 26 years old at the time of hire). Cooke 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. 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, and their participation in Operation Babylift—the dramatic evacuation of 2,000 children.