Come Fly the World: the Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am by Julia Cooke

Glamour, danger, liberation: in a Mad Men–era of commercial flight, Pan Am World Airways attracted the kind of young woman who wanted out, and wanted up

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 between 5′3" and 5′9", between 105 and 140 pounds, and under 26 years of age at the time of hire. Julia Cooke’s intimate storytelling weaves together the real-life stories of a memorable cast of characters, from 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, as they embraced the liberation of their new jet-set life.

Cooke brings to life 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, who were off for five days of R&R, and then flown back to war. Finally, with Operation Babylift—the dramatic evacuation of 2,000 children during the fall of Saigon—the book’s special cast of stewardesses unites to play an extraordinary role on the world stage.

266 pages (March 2021)

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Julia Cooke | Come Fly the World | Virtual Book Talk (Georgetown University Alumni Career Services):

 

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Title Read-alikes: The Jet Sex: airline stewardesses and the making of an American icon by Victoria Vantoch; Fly Girl: a memoir by Ann Hood; The Great Stewardess Rebellion: how women launched a workplace rebellion at 30,000 feet by Nell McShane Wulfhart; The Good Girls Revolt: how the women of Newsweek sued their bosses and changed the workplace by Lynn Povich; Cockpit Confidential: everything you need to know about air travel : questions, answers, & reflections by Patrick Smith; The Great Air Race: glory, tragedy, and the dawn of American Aviation by John Lancaster; Inside Broadside: a decade of feminist journalism by Philindra Masters; Twelve Years of Turbulence: the inside story of American Airlines' battle for survival by Gary Kennedy; Confessions of a Qantas Flight Attendant: true tales and gossip from the galley by Owen Beddall; The Barbizon: the hotel that set women free by Paulina Bren; The Secret History of Home Economics: how trailblazing women harnessed the power of home and changed the way we live by Danielle Dreilinger; The Woman They Could Not Silence: one woman, her incredible fight for freedom and the men who tried to make her disappear by Kate Moore;  and West with the Night by Beryl Markham.