FLY WITH ME | Chapter 1 | American Experience | PBS 

I was a stewardess in the 1960's for Western Airlines so this was a blast from the past for me! Yes, we had to quit when we got married or at age 32, whichever came first. We had weight check, girdle check, make up check and nail polish check. I also had a pilots license but could not hold a job as a pilot even though I was trained by the same pilots as flew our flights. I could not have a credit card (so our local bank president backed me so I could have my own checking account.) As a stewardess I got in on flying on the DC6b, the Lockheed Electra (L188) and the Boeing 720 and all 3 very different aircraft had a big charm about them. I will say the pilots were excellent and very professional and only a few were sexist jerks! One of my favorite memories was flying on the DC6 at about 24,000 ft., dodging around the huge Midwest thunderstorms and letting my imagination wander through the layers of clouds that did indeed make me think strongly of heaven. My best friend got fired for secretly being married and having a son. She was part of the big lawsuits and continued to fly until he mid 60's. She's still with us today.

My mom started as a stewardess for UAL in 1962, in 67’, she got married and had to quit. In the 80’s she took part in a class action lawsuit to get her job back. They won and she flew as a flight attendant, retired in 2001. We lost her two weeks ago. She had wonderful stories and adventures that she shared with us, as well as being able to have our family travel around the world. I am so proud of her for being strong, independent and adventurous. She was so worldly, classy and amazing. I am sad that she won’t be here to watch this, but I can’t wait for this to come on so I can watch in for her. These ladies deserve recognition!

I just watched this documentary on PBS. It was excellent. So many brave women paved the way.

0:25 "Stewardesses were glamorous, they were beautiful, they were poised. It just looked like the world was theirs and I wanted that life."

My Aunt Jan flew with American Airlines. She was hired in 1962 when she was 21. She was a flight attendant for them her entire life, the only job she ever had. I always thought that was extraordinary.

Looks good!! Thank you to all the stewardesses and flight attendance for the great experiences. I had. For us as a kid and then as an adult though it’s so different. Thank you for taking care of me and other passengers. My first flight was with Pan Am. And since then, I’ve had a healthy respect for the men and women of this aviation occupation. And thank you for keeping us safe and secure. Love the beautiful blue skies, and the company that you give us. You matter. You really matter. Find a grateful past and future passenger.

Flight has had a profound impact on much of humankind.

Looking forward to the full documentary, but do not forgot to include Bessie Coleman, known to the world as "Brave Bessie" and the Nervy Lady," she was the first licensed African-American pilot. Her desire to enter flight school was denied in the United States based on her race and gender, so she was trained in France where she received her license in 1921. She received her International pilot's license a year later. On returning to the United States she planned to establish a flight school for blacks, and she performed aviation stunts to raise money for the venture. She bought three airplanes, and began touring the country, but tragically on April 30, 1926 Coleman's plane crashed and she was killed. At one of her flying exhibitions, she refused to perform unless blacks were allowed to use the same entrance to the show as whites" [Source: Pomegranate Publications]

When I was 7, I flew unaccompanied from New York City to Copenhagen on SAS Airlines and I was so well taken care of. I was so in awe of the air hostesses that I told my father I no longer wanted to be a diplomat like him, being an air hostess was my dream. He laughed and told me I had time before I had to decide.

Just saw a shortened clip of this documentary at the National Museum of American history in Washington DC and it was incredible! Highly recommend this film when it premieres on February 20th.

🙏 Thank You So Much for All the Flight Crew of Ladies & Gentlemen who had served their customers well beyond their call of duties during those pioneering days of Airlines & Airports from the 1940s to the present day! Time flies but the good memories will remained forever in our hearts! 🙏🌷🌿🌏✌💜🕊🍎🍊

My father flew for in the 1970s… he ended up meeting my mother on a lay over. Long story short- the met in a bar, and my mother was not a stewardess

These flight attendants experience on their first flight was how I felt. I fell in love with aviation at a young age. I remember loving to fly and the airport being one of my favorite places. Now I am training to become a pilot. I hope to fly for Hawaiian one day.

😊🙏 Travel by Air was like in a CasaBlanca or Roman Holidays movie in the 1950s to the 1980s ... With much higher class of service & appreciation! 🌷🌿🌏💜🕊

I flew on jets for one of the big airlines, then went to a small regional airline flying in the mountains. Great fun!

This looks fantastic! Will it be available in full outside the US?

My mom was a United stewardess.

In my day, late 60s early 70s, if a supervisor saw you walking through the airport, she would pay your fanny to make sure you were wearing a girdle. I refuse to wear nail polish to this day. Mine was usually scraped off during food service. It really was hard work being a stewardess and most of us only lasted a few years before we moved on to other things in life. We were trained to apply make-up; today flight attendants are trained in self-defense. Thank goodness there are so many men today. We had none when I was flying.

Will the whole film be on RU-vid?

lovely Documentary!

This film shows you how much " America has declined "

You'd think we'd be able to hold space for conventionally attractive women to be feminists that want to live an adventurous independent (of needing to rely on a man) successful (happy and financially stable) lives.

Then why become a stewardess? Lol Why do some young women work for Hooters? The wings?

I like how PBS and the rest of corporate media are on this division commentary in everything they do now. lol. It's important to "do the work" and divide people by race and gender constantly. Otherwise we can't create as much chaos as possible to bring about the "change" they want (i.e. the change is collectivism managed by some elites)

No young ladies have been interviewed so far.

Surprised that PBS opened the comment section. The rampant sexist bs is going to be gross.

Untill the debut of the 747, airtravel was designed to move either mail or the wealthy. Airtravel today just like all other forms of travel are essentially a commodity . FA's , like it or not were hired to promote the brand prior to the release of the 747 . PBS has done a massive dis-service to the airline industry. I spent 30 years in avations industrys frontline , enjoyed every second of it. The good the ugly and the grind, its part of the job.

I would like to know when flight attendants started pointing (waving) at the emergency exits with two fingers. They really aren't pointing at anything. Further, I would love to hear anyone say, "I had to find an emergency exit in a hurry and was really glad that the flight attendant pointed to them during the safety presentation or otherwise I wouldn't have found them."

Too chicken to call it "Fly Me"?

I watched this documentary in its entirety and I find it a disgrace that all of 45 seconds was dedicated to the fact that this career was invented by males who were then systematically discriminated against and barred from the career for the better part of half a century until it took a groundbreaking court case (filed and won by a Latinx man by the way) to essentially force airlines to discontinue their discrimination against qualified young men who dreamed of having this career. And not one mention of Heinrich Kubis, the industry’s first steward. I of course don’t expect these “historians” to know his name as they have a very different narrative to peddle with this docu, but it’s just sad to see an entire gender left out of the narrative. Where’s the inclusivity here one asks? And no mention of how males were hideously treated by their airline employers during the AIDS epidemic? A shame. A true shame.

Women really don't have any business in the cockpit area of the plane. They really had a smooth system in the 20's and 30's

they all have man hands