by Julia Cooke
Required to have a college education, 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 of the correct height, weight, and age. This is the intimate story 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, as they embraced the liberation of their new jet-set life. From the glamour of world capitals to Saigon during the last days of the Vietnam War, the book’s special stewardesses unite to play an extraordinary role on the world stage.
by Charlie Imbriani
By the late 1930s, Pan American Airways had established air-service across the Atlantic, the Pacific, through South and Central America, and the Caribbean. They pioneered the routes, designed the aircraft, and built the infrastructure along the way–and positioning the airline directly in the sights of the opposing forces in World War II. Pan Am would play a critical role in major events of 20th century U. S. history: WW II, the Cold War, and Vietnam. In war and in peace, the airline and its people were always there when called upon. These volunteers were real heroes, and this is their story.by Betty Stettinius Trippe
This is a vivid chronology of how Juan Trippe, the visionary founder and president of Pan Am, started with a ninety-mile route and ultimately fashioned the airline’s global network. It is also a portrait of two people: Juan, an industry leader, and Betty, his wife, companion, and confidante.
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by Robert Daly
Juan Trippe, the first and last aviation tycoon in history, learned to fly in the rickety machines of World War I, when he sky appealed only to daredevils, and his life expectancy could have been counted, probably, in days. He was as star struck as any of the other young aviators of the day, but he was also a Yale educated banker’s son who believed the world was crying out for air travel but didn’t yet know it. In 1927 Pan American had only one route, 90 miles from Key West to Havana. Within eight years—at great risk and against fantastic odds—Pan Am had crossed the Pacific, and after that Trippe thrust his tentacles into all of Latin America, into Europe, Africa, Australia–even into China. He was a nerveless, sometimes vicious competitor who bought up or drove out of business anyone who got in his way—President Roosevelt once referred to him as a “Yale educated gangster” until he had built Pan Am into the mightiest airline in the world.
by Selig Altschul and Marylin Bender
A meticulously researched reference, this biography details the man behind the iconic airline Pan Am: Juan Trippe.
by Teresa Webber and Jamie Dodson
Take your seats, and by all means, fasten your seat belts! Come on a journey back in time to aviation’s most daring and innovative era. Travel back nine decades, when for the first time, airplanes determined the victors of global wars—a time that altered the course of the world. Hear never-before-told true stories penned by still-living flight crew members and passengers. Learn about the remarkable men, women, and aircraft builders who launched an aviation phenomenon. Thrill to the romance, adventure, and danger air travelers encountered flying to far-flung, exotic lands. Marvel at art deco air terminals, the world’s only flying-boat museum, and onboard luxuries rivaling five-star hotels. Like mythical Camelot, it was a brief, shining moment. But this was no myth. It was an extraordinary point in global history when Pan American’s quintessentially magnificent flying boats ruled the skies.
by Bryce Evans
The story of Pan Am is the story of US-led globalization and imperial expansion in the twentieth century, with the airline achieving the vast majority of ‘firsts’ in aviation history, pioneering transoceanic travel and new technologies, and all but creating the glitz, style and ambience in what has come to be known as the “golden age of air travel.”
Bryce Evans investigates an aspect of the airline service that was central to the company’s success: its food. Modelled on the elite dining experience of the great ocean liners, the first transoceanic flights featured formal thirteen course dinners served in art deco cabins—and served by waiters in white waist-length jackets. As flight times got faster and altitudes higher, Pan Am pioneered the design of hot food galleys and commissioned research into how altitude and pressure affected taste buds. A tale of collaboration with chefs from the best Parisian restaurants and the wining and dining of politicians and film stars, the book also documents what food service was like for flight attendants, exploring how the golden age was underpinned by a racist and sexist culture.
by Ed Dover
The story of how a Pan American Airways B-314 flying boat, caught in the South Pacific, made an unplanned flight around the world following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Flying in total secrecy and radio blackout, Captain Ford and his 10 man crew flew over 31,500 miles in six weeks, avoiding enemy action in their effort to return safely to the United States. An astounding feat in 1941!
by Charlie Embriani, PhD
By the mid to the late 1930s, Pan American Airways (Pan Am) had established air-service across the Atlantic, the Pacific, through South and Central America, and Caribbean. They pioneered the routes, designed the aircraft, and built the infrastructure along the way, including air and land facilities on Wake and Midway islands. This positioned Pan Am directly in the sights of the Japanese Imperial forces in the Pacific, and Wehrmacht in the Atlantic and Europe. Pan Am and its people were forged in WW II. By the war’s end, through the 1950s, Pan Am was well established in Berlin, Cuba, and Vietnam, just as the Cold War was heating up. By the 1960s, the Cold War was ablaze, and Pan Am was caught in the middle. Pan Am would play a critical role in all of these major events of 20th century U. S. history. In war and peace, Pan Am has been called upon to evacuate victims of war, revolution, acts of terrorism, oppressive regimes, and natural disasters. The airline and its people were always there when call-on; there was never a shortage of volunteers. These volunteers were real heroes, and this is their story.
by Mark Cotta Vaz and John H. Hill
Pan Am at War chronicles the airline’s historic role in advancing aviation and serving America’s national interest before and during World War II. From its inception, Pan American Airways operated as the “wings of democracy,” spanning six continents and placing the country at the leading edge of international aviation.
At the same time, it was clandestinely helping to fight America’s wars.
From government documents, declassified Freedom of Information Act material, and company documents, this book reveals Pan Am’s stunning role as an instrument of American might. For anyone interested in aviation, business, or military history, this is an astonishing story filled with big ideas and the leaders who made them a reality.
by Betty Stettinius Trippe
This is a vivid chronology of how Juan Trippe, the visionary founder and president of Pan Am, started with a ninety-mile route and ultimately fashioned the airline’s global network. It is also a portrait of two people: Juan, an industry leader, and Betty, his wife, companion, and confidante.
Available from the Pan Am Historical Foundation – Click here
by Harry Frahm
Harry Frahm, born in Germany, took a lifetime-opportunity to work and travel “above and below the clouds” – it was the early 1950s, and going to America to work as a flight attendant for the biggest airline in the world, Pan Am, first was considered only to be a “girl’s job”. But he already knew, he once would have unnumbered funny and exciting stories to tell.
After 33 years of working for Pan Am in the skies and visiting the most exotic places in the world, he reviews his impressions and experiences he had the chance to make – and tells us one charming and funny story after another. Let him take you on a journey to times when aviation was young and layover trips always an adventure! Of course, names are changed – but he swears, each and every world is true.
by Christine R. Yano
In 1955 Pan American World Airways began recruiting Japanese American women to work as stewardesses on its round-the-world and Tokyo-bound flights. Based in Honolulu, these women were informally known as Pan Am’s “Nisei”—second-generation Japanese Americans—even though not all of them were Japanese American or second-generation and few spoke Japanese fluently.
This absorbing account of Pan Am’s “Nisei” stewardess program suggests that the Japanese American stewardesses were meant to enhance the airline’s image of exotic cosmopolitanism and worldliness. Pan Am marketed itself as an iconic American company pioneering new frontiers of race, language, and culture. The book juxtaposes the airline’s strategies and practices with the recollections of former “Nisei” flight attendants who proudly recall their experiences as young women who left home to travel the globe with Pan American World Airways, forging their own cosmopolitan identities in the process.
by Julia Cooke
Required to have a college education, 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.Cooke’s intimate storytelling 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, as they embraced the liberation of their new jet-set life. 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, 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.
by Wendy Sue Knecht
Life, Love, and a Hijacking: My Pan Am Memoir is an insightful, hilarious, sometimes seat-gripping look at the adventures of an ebullient flight attendant, who flew for the world’s most iconic airline, Pan Am. With the world at her fingertips, anything was possible…even the improbable.
Travel with Wendy as she transforms from naive, frizzy-haired college student into a wined-and-dined, weight-checked woman of the world. After rigorous, eye-opening training and an aerodynamics lesson called PFM, she progresses to rich experiences around the globe. Fly along as she tells stories about a cockpit swimsuit competition, working the world’s longest flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, and all the perks, discoveries, and personal growth that came along the way. It wasn’t just a party, and world politics were always part of the Pan Am experience. An interview by the Secret Service details a threat on President Reagan’s life, and an assignment in India leads to personal involvement in the shattering, deadly 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73.
by James Baldwin and Jeff Kriendler
“… a tribute to the legacy of one of the world’s great airlines and the men and women who for six decades were the soul of the Company. James Baldwin and Jeff Kriendler have created a compelling book, which through the words of its contributors captures much of the joy, adventure and spirit which was Pan Am.
– Edward S. Trippe, Chairman, Pan Am Historical Foundation
“Fathered by the legendary Juan Trippe, Pan American was the leader in international aviation exploration and development. A relentless risk-taker, Trippe was an innovator and ultimate entrepreneur……………and this book captures many of Pan Am’s most memorable events from personal accounts of the employees who were there.”
– Sir Richard Branson, Chairman Virgin Group
by Ann Shelby Valentine and Ramona Fillman
Fasten your designer uniform buttons while Ms Valentine takes you on an exciting, true-life, Pan Am flight into the world of Iranian caviar and Dom Pérignon Champagne. Serving the rich and famous in first class or hosting planes full of military servicemen on R&R out of Vietnam, the unexpected was often on board. From her first step onto a 707 in 1969, right through the final days of Pan Am in 1991, Ms Valentine is spot-on with her descriptions of people, places and events. It is like taking a first-class roller-coaster ride around the world that will make you smile, laugh and cry.
She ramps up the pace in London, Frankfurt, New Delhi, Hong Kong, Beirut, Sydney, and ports between–taking you right there with her. Watch Ms Valentine mix hard work and jet lag with crew parties, romance, self-exploration, family, and “those dreaded weigh ins”. On one hand, she is like Bridget Jones–trying to succeed in a male-dominated culture where the scales are constantly in front of her! And, on the other, she is more like Hawk Eye–balancing the dichotomy of a privileged job within a hierarchical military model, at the front of a war zone.
by Robert Gandt
SKYGODS is the saga of America’s most glamorous airline, from its meteoric ascent to its plunge to extinction. Pan Am blazed the way across the world’s oceans with its magnificent Clipper ships, launched the first international jet service, was the first to fly the behemoth 747, was the lead customer for America’s SST and the Concorde, and was even taking reservations for the first commercial flights to the moon.
Told from multiple viewpoints–pilots, stewardesses, management executives–SKYGODS is the life story of an American icon.
by James E. Haynes and Andrew J. Haynes
June, 1941 A German agent in Japan observes planes practice for the attack that would ultimately target Pearl Harbor, and bring America into World War II. Top Nazi officials, oblivious to the danger of fighting the U.S.A., turn a blind eye while Hitler s greatest spymaster decides to send one of his most trusted young agents to Washington to thwart the Japanese plans by warning the United States! When the Nazi warning falls on deaf ears, German agent Rudi von Althorp and his American counterpart Alex Jordan embark on a race against time to carry their warning to those it will affect most. Aboard a Pan American Airways Clipper on the Day of Infamy, they find themselves on the other side of the globe, and on opposite sides of a world war. From New Zealand across the southwest Pacific and across Asia, Africa and the Americas, alongside the heroic Clipper crew, they are all on A Desperate Journey to get home in a world tearing itself apart.
by Paula Helfrich and Rebecca Sprecher
An unprecedented, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the airline world, Flying: A Novel traces the lives of two young women as they “fly the line” for Pan Am in the 1970s, where they learn that living-like flying-takes more courage than they ever imagined. Spanning locations around the globe, Flying takes the reader along for the ride, from decadent crew parties in Africa to intrigue at misty pagodas in Burma, a searing romance at an archaeological dig in Tahiti, and the heart-rending fall of Saigon. This is a story about the unsung heroes and the heartbreaks of the airline industry in its final glamour days, as well as addiction to living life on the razor’s edge. It is also about the nature of family, heroism and love, and what it really means to be a citizen of the world. But ultimately, it celebrates that exciting, terrifying moment when an airplane hits rotation speed and lifts off the runway. It’s called flying, and it will never be this way again.
by Donald McPhail
The Guest From Johannesburg is the much-anticipated sequel to The Millionaires Cruise, featuring adventurous travel executive Duff Malone. Set in Hawaii, Asia and South Africa, this epic tale of hope and resilience is also an anti-war novel — a sharp indictment of deceitful government leaders, and warlords throughout the world.
The Guest From Johannesburg is a coming of age story that carries Malone from energetic young cruise director to respected Pan Am executive, from violent pre-war Asia in the 1930s to America’s tumultuous Vietnam protest years of the 1970s. Set in Hawaii, it presents informed and affectionate insights about Hawaiian attitudes and cultures and brings to life painful experiences of Japanese-Americans imprisoned at Amache internment camp in Colorado, U.S. prisoners within Omori camp in Yokohama, and non-white South Africans within apartheid South Africa.
The book is a riveting examination of the horrors of war and the heroic resilience of individuals who fight for peace.
by Ken Follett
#1 New York Times bestselling author Ken Follett takes to the skies in this classic novel of international suspense. Set in the early days of World War II, Night over Water captures the daring and desperation of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances—in prose as compelling as history itself. . . .
September 1939. England is at war with Nazi Germany. In Southampton, the world’s most luxurious airliner—the legendary Pan Am Clipper—takes off for its final flight to neutral America. Aboard are the cream of society and the dregs of humanity, all fleeing the war for reasons of their own . . . shadowed by a danger they do not know exists . . . and heading straight into a storm of violence, intrigue, and betrayal.
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