“ AIRLINE GLAMOUR GIRLS ” 1949 FLIGHT ATTENDANT TRAINING FILM 71702
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
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This black-and-white RKO Pathe training film shows an 8-week flight attendant training course at the McConnell Hostess School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. McConnell was featured in a 1947 Life Magazine article that detailed how the school trained young women to serve as stewardesses and deal with (among other things) "drunks, diapers and double-chins." The film follows Mary Elizabeth Drake, a Manhattan secretary, filling out an application to be an airline hostess (1:00). She describes her qualifications, including height, weight, education, and a snapshot. Mary and the chief hostess discuss her application while sitting across from each other at a desk. Mary stands in front of a sign for McConnell Air Hostess Air Stewardess School (1:26), then walks the halls looking at photos of.what are presumably hostess alumnae. At 2:00, a montage of Mary being interviewed, unpacking a suitcase on her dorm bed, filling out forms, undergoing a medical examination, getting her photograph taken, getting a haircut, and getting measured for a new uniform. An instructor points to a diagram of a plane on a chalkboard in front of a class of students (2:18). Mary points to and names aircraft parts on a model. Students study flight schedules and point to locations on a globe (2:36). Students walk in a circle and squat with books on their heads during “comportment classes,” a series of exercises designed to “improve the students before photos.” They perform balance exercises, joust, and do the conga (3:20). They go to makeup courses; narration says that “half of the 8,000 US hostesses leave aviation for marriage each year” (3:32). Pretend passengers board a model of a TWA (Trans World Airlines) aircraft during training (3:34); an instructor comments on Mary’s actions while counting passengers, and checking seatbelts. At 4:45, Mary informs the passengers that they may smoke if they wish. Mary corrects a man in a suit with a cigar, saying, “Cigarettes only” (4:52). The instructor demonstrates how to handle a tipsy passenger (make him comfortable and call the captain if he gets rambunctious). Mary serves food at meal time (5:25); the food is kept hot in casseroles and trays are to be carried sideways. Mary confiscates a bottle of liquor from the tipsy passenger’s suit pocket (6:20). Mary and her roommates study on their beds at night (6:32). During the fifth week of the course, Mary interviews with airline representatives for a job. The interviewer asks to see her hands and lift her skirt slightly. Hostess students collect mail from a school employee who stands in front of a TWA logo. Mary receives a letter informing her that she got the job (7:21). On graduation day, the class receives diplomas. During another ceremony at LaGuardia Field in New York, an instructor pins Mary’s flight wings to her stewardess hat (7:47). Mary boards her first flight as a hostess on a TWA Constellation West plane (8:03); the crew includes Bill Edwards, Jimmy Duke, Bob Donovan, and Laura Draper. Credits: Narrated by Andre Baruch, produced by Burton Benjamin, directed and photographed by Howard Winner, edited by Isaac Kleinerman, music by Nathaniel Shilkret, recorded by Harold R. Vivian.
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"Mary Drake" in the film is actually my dad's cousin Joan with her voice dubbed. Aunt Joan, as we call her, was a real stewardess at the time the film was made. She later had a long and happy marriage and raised three children. She is still alive and active and still lives in her own home in southern California. One of Aunt Joan's daughters recently found this video by chance on UA-cam. Aunt Joan had long since forgotten all about it. When her daughter said, "Mom, that looks like you," Aunt Joan looked at it and said "Why that is me!" What a great find.
+3historybuff Fascinating! Who knew?
+3historybuff She's famous!
Thank you for sharing!
How wonderful! She's lovely. Thank you for sharing! :)
*+3historybuff*
I'm responding to a rather old comment so apologies but I'm pleasantly surprised by your comment. If this movie was made say 1945, and your Aunt Joan was a minimum of 21 years old, then she'd have been in her early 90s when you spoke to her about this. No wonder she'd forgotten about it. I hope she's doing well. What a wonderful discovery for your Aunt and your family.
My mom was one of United’s first stewardesses in the 40s. They recruited her directly out of nursing school. She appeared in several of the airline’s print advertisements. She met my dad on the job - he was a flight dispatch manager and retired after 42 years.
Congratulations to your Mom and Dad, too.
Your dad is Frank Abagnale?
Today would have been my grandma's 97th birthday, so beautiful to watch her memory live on from one of the best times of her life! happy Heavenly Birthday "Mary Drake"
I'm honored to say Zell McConnell was my grandmother. She is in the video along with my Mom (another Zell)
i've been a travel agent for 35 yrs and went to through this program in the 80's.
I was just talking to a Delta/AirFrance/KLM agent in MSP and she mentioned several of the staff were familiar or had gone through the program there. Such a heartfelt memory 🙂
I went to McConnell for the fall session in 1987 and lived at the Pillsbury Club room 702.
Times sure changed for McConnell School, but the one thing that remains is all of the wonderful memories we all took with us.
It was intense training then and it's intense training today. The job of F/A still has to be earned.
This was HILARIOUS!
I went to McConnell School of Travel in downtown MSP fall semester 1987. After we graduated we were qualified to work in travel agency, airline, hotel front desk and so on.
We never had classes like that! We had courses for geography, typing, SABRE, coding daily. Once a week was a class on various subjects. ..dressing and makeup, packing luggage, sometimes a guest speaker ect. And if I remember right to be a stewardess you had to be hired by the airline and the airline trained their own attendants.
And...the cost of my four month course was over 4,000$! Not the 325$ of the 1940's.
Last but not least...no more conga line.
PS...if anyone who was in the 1987 fall semester McConnell graduating class and stayed at the Pillsbury Club should see this, let me know!
Oops...325$ not 350$.
Auntie, I graduated from there in spring 1987. I only remember SABRE, coding, navigating through the OAG, and the Lyon's Pub😉 Hilton and Budget Rent A Car reservations came up from Carrollton, TX and recruited many of us (basically working in a call center). Some stayed in MSP
and got on with Northwest Orient Airlines (long gone now). Pillsbury dorms sounds like where I stayed, but not for sure.
@chickenlips605 OMG! How could have forgotten that! I actually still have my OAG.
Me and my friends actually got into FIRST AVENUE twice.
Both times were shoulder to shoulder. But the second time, we were about to leave when Prince came on stage and did When Doves Cry... MY FAVE!
But most of the time we went to the Jukebox and always had a BLAST!
I never enjoyed going to school so much. And even though I was only there a short time, I have a lifetime of wonderful memories.❤
BTW... if you stayed at the Pillsbury Club, it was two doors east of McConnell.
I looked it up on Google Earth and where McConnell WAS is now a small Bua stop/park. After seeing that, I just wanted to cry.
4:24 "This is _murder_ , kiddies! But we're going to try and *fly* this contraption!" - Damn, I'd give a fat tip to any cabin crew said that today!
I'LL SECOND THAT!!!
The last scene of the Connie taking-off was most assuredly KBUR, circa 1949. My Jr. High School-aged parents lived just blocks away. ( I wonder what they were doing that very moment...) Thanks for the video.
I know what they were doing 😉
The producer of this film, Burton Benjamin, later worked at CBS News, and was executive producer of the documentary series "The Twentieth Century" and eventually, CBS's television evening newscast (both hosted by Walter Cronkite who became a close friend of Benjamin's).
My aunt was a stewardess with BOAC on the first crossing from London to New York on a Constellation in 1946. I wish that I could get more information
Wow, that's cool.
"will you lift your skirt, please?" I'm doing a couple interviews this week. I think I'll try that out. Let ya'll know how it goes.
How long did the Judge give you,and when will you be released?
_Law&Order Theme starts playing_
not long ago they asked women to turn around, to see the back end. Absolutely necessary if you ask me. To be honest when you are bored to death in long inter-continental flight and see a happy spirited and sensibly curvy hostess at the right places, it can do a lot to improve your flight and yes i'll admit i've turned head to catch it and in admiration.
meanwhile.. j.... hollywood's version:
"let's move to the couch to continue this interview..."
6:13
The first airline stewardess had to be Registered Nurses.
Fabulous. Time capsule.
A much more civilized era.
More openly sexist too though. also no people of color you notice.
@@packingten Hmm....Hell, I can't even argue with what you wrote. 100% bruh.
Not sure, they just came out of a brutal conflict that killed 50 million. Also the US was still segregated.
I mean, to each era its plagues.
Obviously not for women, who are being openly judged for their looks in order to get a job. Just unreal.
Originally released in August 1949. Burton "Bud" Benjamin and Isaac Kleinerman later collaborated with Walter Cronkite on "THE TWENTIETH CENTURY" and "THE 21st CENTURY" for CBS News- and Benjamin eventually became Cronkite's executive producer on "THE CBS EVENING NEWS".
Kleinerman was also credited in the series "Victory at Sea."
The editor of this epic certainly went on to bigger things. Three years later, Isaac Kleinerman was editor of the legendary Victory at Sea series, television's first great documentary series. And, in 1960, he became producer of CBS' "The Twentieth Century," a Sunday evening documentary series hosted by Walter Cronkite.
Of course, this was in a day when the clientele who flew had better manners overall. I quit flying as a passenger when the fights on the plane caused TSA to meet the flight and kept the miscreants in their seats until everyone else was off the plane. I saw passengers be rude to the flight attendants as well as their fellow passengers. No one needs to deal with that nonsense. I'll stay home and skype my family.
In those days flying was expensive and very exclusive, the average person could not afford it, so the stewardesses didn't have to put up with the lower rung of society.
Why I drive everywhere possible.... Later! OL J R :)
I was a f/a for AA in the 90's. Even back then, there weren't any fights on board. A far cry from flying now. I LOVED MY JOB! And yes, training was 6 weeks. It was intense!
I certainly hope Mary Drake had a wonderful life
"...and if they enroll with a few excess pounds, they graduate light enough to fly." WOW!!!
Hey, when you're operating planes, each pound counts !
@ Yes! In the 1930s they used to weigh the passengers, not only the luggage. If there was a heavy passenger on one side, they’d move a couple of people to the other side to balance things out!! There’s a photo of the passenger weigh-in desk on the historiccroydonairport.org.uk site.
@ see my above former stew comment. I am hearing that they have resorted to removing 1 olive from each salad. Is this for weight or $$$ .? And where do you fly on ANY airline to get a cold salad ( on china lol) ?
Thank you for posting this. Read Kathleen barry "femininity in flight" and christine yano's "airborne dreams."
Now that’s when I called taking classes.
The lady handing out the diplomas is dressed so chic and all the passengers are wearing their very best. No one is screaming, making a scene, acting like a Karen 9:08 or being beligerent, even Mr. Tipsy. Passengers have ample room to be comfortable. It was a great way to travel way back then.
Andre Baruch is a notable narrator and a voiceover artiste.
wow times have changed. That conga class was hysterical. I mena the freaking conga to get a job????/
Biggest difference today?
No need for especially trained passengers to be difficult.
Back in the golden days of air travel when air hostesses had elegance & class .The good days have come & well gone .
I would like to be trained to be a difficult passenger....where's the school for that?
Any Ryanair flight to Ibiza
No class for that, just go ANYwhere these days. 😢
@@eloisecoppler8228 That’s sad but true.
I remember back in 2000 when I was 13 and flying South West, I was drinking a V8, I wiped with my sleeve and the hot stuartist yelled at me. She threw a napkin at me and shouted DON'T USE YOUR SLEEVE!!! YOU ARE JUST LIKE MY SON!!! My mother thanked her.
that is quite interesting they had basic instruction on things like troposphere, basic airplane working. Is that still in the current curriculum?
I started flying in 1982 and was forced to retire in 2003 due to an injury. In all those years I was never once taught any of the troposphere curriculum. We did get very basic info on how a plane flies but it was eight weeks of safety safety safety.... And then more safety
Spirit airlines flight attendants would never pass that test....they look like they were hired from Labor Finders.
Yep this was from back in the day when the airlines remotely even cared about their passengers... in fact back then air travel was glamorous and basically a "special event" and was treated as such. Nowadays the airlines could really care less about the customer and planes are basically flying cattle cars... it starts in the airports and doesn't get much better any of the way through. Most flight attendants today act about like bored prison camp guards and are about as attractive as prison guards too. I passed a flight attendant in the airport the other day gal was a 4x4-- four feet tall and four feet wide LOL:) She must've been about 250 pounds! About as attractive as a bag of rocks, too. Back then, stewardesses (before that became a verboten term) had to be slender and attractive and well comported, exude charm and charisma, probably second only to models in the looks department, but capable of learning what they needed to know and doing the job with a smile as well. Airlines forbid their stewardesses from being married so if a girl found a guy and wanted to get hitched, she either had to keep it a secret or quit, or if the company found out they got fired. Don't agree with that, but back then it was just the way it was... they wanted the stewardesses to not only be eye candy but be seen as "available" (meaning single). Part of marketing and corporate image back then. Shockingly outdated by today's standards and highly illegal now, but that's how it was back then (again, not defending it, it was stupid and wrong, but it was a different time).
It's a shame flying has fallen so far from what it used to be... I remember even as a kid in the 70's when we went to the airport to either get my aunt or put her on the plane back to South Carolina when she flew in to visit on the Delta jets, even back then there was still something of the mystique and sparkle still present in flying... there was NO doubt in your mind who were stewardesses because they looked like fashion models for the most part and were very well dressed and graceful. Not so anymore, that's for sure!!! Later! OL J R :)
The ghetto airlines
@@lukestrawwalker It was also the time when passengers had the choice of the expensive seats (coach) and the REALLY expensive seats (1st class). Deregulation in the 1970s is what brought down the price of airfares thus making it easier for the common individual to fly somewhere.
My old friend said you could take a gun on the plane back then. But it was proper to let the stewardess know about it.
I don't know about guns, but back in the 80's when Boom Boxes were popular, I walked right onto the plane with one, luckily the seat next to me was empty and I just put it on there, the whole flight. The good old days were truly good!
Why everything in the old days seem so classy and fancy ❤
2:22 "Propeller , Aileron , Rudder , Elevator , Stabilizers" this Blonde can teach me Alot !
1940’s and the industry still uses the same seatbelts
1 - goes through all this BS to get a job and become a financially independent modern woman
2 - meets some random guy on an airplane
3 - marries this guy
4 - guy complains that she's never home and always traveling for work, though that's the same place where he met her
5 - girl quits her job and gives up her financial independence
6 - girl is now 24-25 years old and full of energy and life, but stays at home all day watching life pass her by
7 - girl becomes Shirley Jackson
8 - repeat ad nauseam
Why don't we have this program anymore?
I love it
That eas a beautiful desk
Now they got 4 headed freaks LoL
Joe Guzman ok boomer
Ryan Airlines' attendants are doing you a big favor by letting you on board their planes! Nothing but a big sales pitch for food and gifts the entire trip too.
This is the most horrifying and incredulous snippet of comedy gold I've ever watched. So much "they did NOT just say/show that" followed by hyperventilating laughter at the absurdity.
Looking very nice.
First assignment to Star of the Adriatic Constellation, wow!
How did he even manage to hide that bottle ??
How things have changed ... for the worse.
Yes, because such flagrant sexism was better
Flying is actually safer now than ever before. Airlines recognize the need to place safety above service and train flight attendants to be capable of handing any emergency situation they may be faced with.
@@heinkle1 that's exactly why some of these guys dream about these decades
U have got 2 be kidding me ! This is OLD- School. Back in the days when they would walk by and sweetly ask "refill on the coffee sir?"
Now we have "non gender specific" trolley dolly's😂
Gag... that's for sure. Most act (and look about as attractive as) bored prison camp guards fresh from the gulag. Yuck...
Back then when flying was still special and the airlines gave a sh!t about their customers, they only hired *attractive* SINGLE stewardesses. Basically they had to be no more than about 1 step down from a fashion model to even be considered. If you were fat or ugly or old or MARRIED, you could have a PhD in aeronautical engineering and they wouldn't hire you for a stewardess... back then the stewardesses were the face of the airline and the company and they wanted the very best looking they could get. They also HAD to be and remain single as a term of employment... if a stewardess roped her a guy and wanted to get hitched, she had to quit... or try to keep it a secret and if she got found out got fired, and the airlines did check up on them... I remember reading in Gene Cernan's book "Last Man on the Moon" he told how he and his wife (who was a stewardess) had to keep their marriage secret until she was ready to quit, because they'd have fired her if they found out she had gotten married.
Took my daughter to the airport the other day for a redeye flight and there wasn't anybody around but I did see a couple gals in some kind of uniform shirt and asked where something was, they said, "Dunno, we're flight attendants" and kept right on walking, could care less. They were both 4x4 gals-- four feet tall and FOUR FEET WIDE... about 250 lbs and about as attractive as the back end of a dump truck, and with a personality to match. Ugh... oh to see some of those stewardesses I used to see walking through the airport when I was a kid back in the 70's... WOW... absolute night and day difference! Course now flying is about like going through a prison camp and flying cattle car... back in the 70's we slid through the metal detectors and could sit all day and watch the jets from the terminal waiting on my aunt from South Carolina to fly in or fly out, and watch the pilots and stewardesses come and go and all that... there was real professionalism and pride in their job and appearance and how they treated the public and customers back then, not like that at all now... Later! OL J R :)
And long nasty nails and fake hair..ugh.
So interesting
@2:09... what the stewardess' uniforms would resemble in 25 years.
She took dictation then "the last thing she had to do before ..."
So she didn't type the letter and was fired.
Can we please go back to this era?
This would be considered sexist today, and never be produced.
duh captain obvious
@@highimadam "Duh," yourself, "Captain" dummy.
I wonder how many of these joined the mile high club
Wow Greg, how's living in your parents basement going..................????? Have some more cheese curds.
Zero.
Smoke em if you got them.
Any one of them still lives today?
It was all about class class class not like today its all about the Victim bullshit
A hostess does a lot of knee bends!
Especially with the pilot.
Tea, coffee or me?
Even the title of the movie would be considered patronising and sexist!
BTW PATRONIZING HAS A... Z ACCORDING TO WEBSTERS SMART ASS
Hey Packingten smartass, 'patronising' is also spelled with an 's'. It's called British spelling.
Back when it was still okay to be a sexy female and be attractive, and it was okay for men to notice (and most didn't behave like jackasses...) and before everybody became so damn sensitive butthurt victims offended by everything LOL:) Ah, the good old days! OL J R :)
Coffee, Tea, or Me? 😂
Awesome book
It seems to me anyone thinking of getting into an airplane
job first & foremost should determine if you are comfortable
on a long flight. You might find you are terrified of flying
or claustrophobic. I would take an international flight to
see how you dig it BEFORE investing time energy & $ into training.
!
Back then, if you were a stewardess, you couldn't keep your job if you got married.
The idea was that a stewardess was single and available.
You now need Alyssa Milano's permission to attend.
"Pan Am" was a GOOD show about a decade ago. Had Margo Robbie and Kelli Garner. Actually-I really MISS Kelli! There was a French Fox in it, too and Christine Ricci. Some of the plots were soapy and dumb, so they didn't make it.
They are History...
Back when women wanted to be women
this story almost same like mine 😁
+Gracezelda Ellen cool!
Knee bends in the cockpit too.
8:51 - Watch your head, Mary.
Ohhh yes...
This is crazy to watch .. how wildly we have changed & honestly .. women have had an uphill battle if this was the baseline
The simple days
This is how my self absorbed sister has always seen herself. Why teach high school when she can dress up and fly for a living? Loves herself so much.
I bet your name is Cinderella! Don't worry Cinders' it will be your turn in the limelight soon and your sister will be a char woman 'cos her looks will have faded! ( I do not mean any derogatory thoughts about people who clean for a living as it is just a bit of humour inspired by the above post.My own mother was a cleaner and she was a noble fine woman.......come to think of it she did like the Gin! )
8:43 - slečna se pořádně nakrucuje, aby jí něco neprovedl pilot, víme, jak vyváděl Abagnale.
you HAD to be a Reg. Nurse....where's that requirement????
ua-cam.com/video/nmFFeEVED2s/v-deo.html
Does Mary remember when she 1st got "spanked" in that new uniform? 🤣
8 weeks to learn how to serve coffee and peanuts
Now flight attendants in USA are all 50-65 yrs old and weigh 175 lbs.
250 lbs
Jeez, that’s my goal weight.
Beautiful. When American women looked and acted like women. Today..............., where's the vomit bag????
Yep that's for sure!!! Later! OL J R :)
I find it humiliating when she said "would u lift your skirt please" loool.. even if its said politely.
I think that today's budget airline stewardesses are being trained and hired directly off of the back row of The Crack City Truck Stop...
I would swear that I've even seen a few with their Pimp or Pusher's initials tattooed on them...
Aaa ....i am struck with medical examination 2:06
u can see before .. u have to be single, tall, and u must not be exceeding from age 30 .. the discrimination before was immense .. now it's like really opened
music201035 and u mustn't be gay
They were the "Good Ol' Days".
No one wanted to hire, a middle aged hag, with 5 children for a physically demanding job that required you to be away for several days at a time. It's not discrimination, it was the requirements for the job. Not everyone is going to fit the description of every job, that's just life, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.
@@josmith9120 They didn't take men back then gay or straight. Stewardesses were all ATTRACTIVE *SINGLE* young females. Now they'll take any tatted up train wreck fugly fatso that walks through the door, and most act like bored prison camp guards and are about as attractive. Later! OL J R :)
4:48 - snad jim to tam sir nechtěl zasmradit tím tabákovým zlořádem? Na to musí být pořádná drzost a drsný egoismus. Hulit v takto omezeném prostoru, kde je plno nekuřáků a ještě v letadle s rizikem požáru může jedině totální samolibý omezenec.
When are you guys going to remove the obscene vandalism to these archive videos, re-encode, and upload the unadulterated originals?
We're going to launch a TV channel in the near term.
BTW these are hardly vandalized. Every single film on our channel is preserved in 2K and 4K, clean and unadulterated.
This film is EXACTLY as movie patrons viewed it in 1949 (without the time code on the bottom, of course).
Bare feet at 6:30. Nice.
3:38
Yeah Mary what's wrong Whit you
Excess pounds on the "girls"? Did they charge xtra for that then? I'd like my martini shaken not stirred Miss.
they didn't take no 4x4 chicks then... four feet tall and four feet WIDE... had to be slim and trim and ATTRACTIVE or you didn't get the job, period. If you got old or got fat or got ugly you were gone... heck back then they even required the stewardesses to remain SINGLE as a condition of employment-- there was a line to this effect in the video-- "each year 8,000(?) air hostesses leave the industry for marriage". If a gal roped a guy and decided to tie the knot and get married, she either had to quit or keep it secret, and risk getting fired. If she got found out she was fired, and they did check up and keep an eye on their employees too. I read astronaut Gene Cernan's book, "Last Man on the Moon" and he told the story how he met and fell in love with a stewardess on a flight and they got married, but had to keep it a secret til she was ready to quit; at the time IIRC he was still in the military and they needed the money!
They didn't take no guys or folks that couldn't decide which pronoun or gender they belonged to, either, not back then. They wanted women who were slender and attractive and were basically one step removed from a fashion model...
Later! OL J R :)
Someone call Ric Flair.
No twerking in the aisle like Alaska airlines?
Smoking in flight was disgusting.
Yep different age... OL J R :)
Yes mary keep them happy
Lizzo would never ever have a chance
She should've farted @ 5:47.
Verguenza;😂nenhuma mulher Negrita😣
1940s girl: I'm 5'4 and weigh 115 pounds.
2020s girl: I'm 5'4 and weigh 175 pounds.
,
Wow. Half of all stewardesses got married every year. Apparently that was the thing for a girl to do if she wanted to find a husband.
Airlines used to treat their passengers with respect. Now they treat them like livestock.
Flying was in no way the airfare bargain it is today. If you think seats are expensive now, you should see what they were like in the late 1940s.
It's a shame women don't go through that these days.
@@charlietu wow yall need to learn to spread love not hate...
@Jo Smith I think you'd be amazed what flight attendants go through nowadays, both men and women. Training is intensive with safety taking priority over superficial elements like outward appearance. Because at the end of the day, "pretty" doesn't matter if it can't evacuate 50-853 passengers in under 90 seconds.