PAN AM

 

On BBC2 Tonight I watched the first 2 episodes of PAN AM starring Christina Ricci

The new series follows the American airline pan am during the early 60s. Unmarried women under a certain age could enter the air hostess industry

There is something so alluring about the Chic high life of the pan am Air hostesses.

Unitedly, they parade through the airport, radiating elegance, class and an all-American glow. The fact that these women had such high standards of perfection to withhold to (With daily weigh-ins and compulsory girdles) seems insignificant in contrast to the Exotic countries they would experience.

These women in their sharp blue uniforms (like the sky ahead) represented the PAN AM dream, the American brand and the possibilities

Rifling through one of those blue signature pan am handbags belonging to a hostess, one could find a number of souvenirs collected from various destinations, amongst them a snow globe (not so commonplace in those times). For in the 60s, a trip on an aeroplane was really a prestigious enthralling event.

With this new mode of transport available to the middle-class public the world was available to be conquered, and it was with the pan am women that you would make this special journey.

Not everyone had passports! How different that is today

 Its funny how the air hostesses nowadays are so much more like the Matt Lucas version in ‘come fly with me’ than Christina Ricci’s. But today ‘glamour’ means something very different so Im not surprised. 

After the show I drew a picture of Christina in her uniform. Its quite rough and didnt take me long but christina is fun to draw with her big bug eyes