When Sex Sold Seats--Southwest's Saucy Origins

[Jude Bradley 659]

"when sex was safe and flying was dangerous" brings to mind both the PSA 727 mid-air collision accident, and the National Airlines DC-10 where a passenger was sucked out of the aircraft due to the bored pilots testing the auto-throttle system. 

[Tim_Capps 474]

And from 1967, a semi-fictitious "memoir" stitched together from various stories by an American Airlines PR man. It was on the bestseller list. The publisher even hired two Easter flight attendants to pose as the "authors." The topic is a cultural barometer, I suppose. I'm not against pretty girls or fun. I do think making it the job of flight attendants made for an uneasy combination with their more serious duties as part of the crew. Chock's right that sex is used to sell everything (and I still say including ham sandwiches) but a high school touting "the sexiest English teachers in America" would seem a little weird, and for sort of the same reason. It is not completely unrelated to the MGM scandal where they pretty much handed out six-month contract actresses as party favors to a bunch of drunken theater owners. It's just not going to work out well. (Not to endorse any current swing in the opposite direction, either.)

[W2DR 1,859]

3 hours ago, Mike A said:

Southwest literally copied PSA:

"Southwest Airlines copied PSA so completely that you could almost call it a photocopy."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Southwest_Airlines

 

 

Well, it was "almost a photocopy. The key word is "almost". From the same article: 

"A committee including the same person who had selected hostesses for Hugh Hefner's Playboy jet selected the first flight attendants, females described as long-legged dancers, majorettes and cheerleaders with "unique personalities." Southwest Airlines and Herb Kelleher dressed them in hot pants and go-go boots.^[8]".

^{Indeed, PSA hired the same "unique personalities" but they dumped the hot pants and go-go boots in favor of miniskirts.. A really good move IMNSHO.}

Edited June 13, 2021 by W2DR
kant spel

[Tim_Capps 474]

12 minutes ago, Jude Bradley said:

"when sex was safe and flying was dangerous" brings to mind both the PSA 727 mid-air collision accident, and the National Airlines DC-10 where a passenger was sucked out of the aircraft due to the bored pilots testing the auto-throttle system. 

Note: Court Line never crashed (technically never had any passenger fatalities). The safest Airline today? Still Qantas 🙂 But Southwest's 737 have proven remarkably safe. despite a fleet that has showed its age on occasion.

[G-YMML1 582]

8 hours ago, Paul Deluca said:

Sure was Christopher. I remember the days of Pan Am in the late 60's. These girls were dressed with such finesse without all this hoopla. Class a all the way . . I miss you Pan Am.

…with tickets' prices affordable to roughly 10% of the households (not counting business travel)

[Patco Lch 1,464]

Aw the world through the eyes of a child. I recall boarding back in the DC6 days and those lovely gracious sky goddesses, radiating self confidence seasoned with gracious hospitality. They were called hostesses back then. They wore crisp military style uniforms yet a warm smiling femininity complemented their official garb.  On our trips to Central and South America I thought it was so cool the way they would give cabin announcements in English and Spanish so fluently smooth either could have been their first language.  No canned announcements back then. Plane trips were a big deal then and most everyone dressed nice and behaved very civilly. In my young eyes the only ones worthy of being consort to these sky angles was the blue suited supermen in the front office who had the rare skills and powers to bring this huge metal dragon to vibrating life with roars and smoke and could manipulate this monstrous machine through the skies to the desired destination, subduing many hazards and dangers along the way. 

The world through the eyes of a child.   

[Dominique_K 10,133]

33 minutes ago, PATCO LCH said:

They were called hostesses back then.    

We still call them hostesses in French : les hôtesses de l’air 🙂

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

10 hours ago, PATCO LCH said:

Plane trips were a big deal then and most everyone dressed nice and behaved very civilly. 

Yep, what a difference between now and then. Just over the past few weeks we’ve seen a few fights break out on planes and flight attendant get a few teeth knocked out. Not to mention how people dress these days in general and the common lack of respect people show towards each other. I guess that’s to be expected when we keep lowering standards in most aspects of life. 

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

When I signed up for Flight School back in 1994 because I thought I wanted to be a pilot? what I quickly realized was I wanted to be a pilot back in the late 60s early 70s and those days were LONG GONE 🤣

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

20 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

what I quickly realized was I wanted to be a pilot back in the late 60s early 70s and those days were LONG GONE 🤣

That sound just about right 😂😂 The glamorous days of those years are long gone.

Btw, speaking of unruly passengers these days, the FAA has nearly 3000 reports of unruly passengers just this year and we’re only in June. I think the average is about 400 reports a year. People are going nuts in the sky apparently.

[flyingleaf 31]

On 6/13/2021 at 2:09 AM, Christopher Low said:

This is why they call it "the good old days"

Sure miss'em.😉

[W2DR 1,859]

The top definition of "The Good Old Days" from the Urban Dictionary is "a phrase used by old people as a signal to young people to get the WNA out." Sounds about right to me.

[JHaas 27]

I remember Continental's slogan of "We really move our tails for you" during the 70's.

[Tim_Capps 474]

On 6/15/2021 at 12:29 AM, Matthew Kane said:

When I signed up for Flight School back in 1994 because I thought I wanted to be a pilot? what I quickly realized was I wanted to be a pilot back in the late 60s early 70s and those days were LONG GONE 🤣

You wanted to be THIS guy!

https://youtu.be/FYQHDadIDxk

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

12 minutes ago, Tim_Capps said:

You wanted to be THIS guy!

https://youtu.be/FYQHDadIDxk

Nah that's not far enough back, more like Dean Martin flying a 707, that's more my style: