Skygirls: A Photographic History of the Airline Stewardess
by Bruce McAllister and Stephan Wilkinson, Roundup Press, Boulder, Colo., 2012, $49.95.
You won’t like this book unless you like airplanes, period photos, history or women. For admirers of all four, especially those old enough to recall when flying was fun, Skygirls is a visual feast, a slow journey through our past, when airline travel was glamorous.
Promotional material for Skygirls acknowledges that stewardesses in the airlines’ glory days coped with “low pay, long hours and leering passengers,” and that theirs was “one of the most sexist careers a young woman could pursue.” The photos begin in the 1920s, when a stewardess had to be a registered nurse. They continue through the hedonistic, swinging “Coffee, tea or me?” 1960s, when I briefly worked for Pacific Southwest Airlines, whose stewardesses are prominently featured in this volume.
Some of the asides add spice to the main course. Who knew stewardesses appeared in ads for “the world’s bigger air liner,” the Soviet Union’s Tupolev Tu-114 of the Cold War era? Who remembers that because stewardesses get headaches too, several posed in advertisements for aspirin? A segment about the flight crew on a biplane Curtiss Condor of the 1930s is hugely interesting.
The authors tell us up front that the book is a celebration of those who helped expand air travel while filling “the most exotic, romantic and rewarding job a young woman could hold.” It’s about women in commercial aviation, not flight attendants, so distaff pilots have only a cameo role here. Nothing in this book would offend anyone today. The photo selections are fascinating but always in good taste. Women and young readers are as likely to enjoy this book as grown-up guys.
Skygirls has a high cover price in line with its high production values, but it’s available online for less. This book is—as air travel itself once was—something to enjoy.
Originally published in the January 2013 issue of Aviation History. To subscribe, click here.
