V&T Daily
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V&T Confidential - in detail
Skygirls: A photographic history of the airline stewardess
This new hardcover book (by Bruce McAllister and Stephan Wilkinson – both pilots) pays tribute to the great air hostesses of days gone by. In Skygirls, photos and stories recount the lives, careers and legacy of the women who once were a hugely admired and envied part of air travel, in the days before civil rights legislation and important changes in societal standards ended an era of what many will frankly admit was one of the most sexist careers a young woman could pursue.
Yet pursue it they did, despite low pay, long hours and leering passengers. Just as boys wanted to become cops and firemen, teenage girls dreamed of a career in the sky: travel, adventure, handsome pilots and marriageable passengers were only some of the attractions of the airline business. Stiff physical standards, a prohibition against marriage and unspoken but unconscionable demands that the women working the cabin be somewhere between flirty and available were the downside. “They were America's Vestal Virgins,” said one airline executive.
Featuring more than 250 colour and black-and-white photographs documenting the early days of airline travel (when stewardesses had to be registered nurses) as well as the glory days of the trans-ocean flying boats and the first Postwar intercontinental luxury airliners, the book also follows both American and foreign stewardesses through the jet-setting “Coffee, Tea or Me?” days of the Swinging Sixties and hedonistic seventies.
The job necessarily became as homogenized as its new title – “flight attendant” – but even today, there are foreign carriers who operate far from the enlightened social standards that have so changed the career, for better or worse, in the U.S. and Europe. The book visits some of the mammoth double-deck Airbus 380s and long-range versions of the Boeing 747 that still carry what can only be called stewardesses, cut from the classic cloth of femininity plus a frank flavouring of come-hither allure.
Authors Bruce McAllister and Stephan Wilkinson are both commercial-licensed pilots with more than 70 years of flying and 8,000 hours of flight time logged between them, both of them holding instrument and multi-engine ratings. McAllister has been a freelance photographer since 1962 and today lives in Boulder, Colorado, where he used to employ the same mountain-piloting skills he utilized as a photographer in the Yukon and Alaska. McAllister has also written and illustrated a series of photographic aviation-history books: DC-3, Wings Above the Arctic, Wings Over the Alaska Highway, Wings Over Denali, Wings Over the Yukon, Wings Across America and Vagabonds of the Sky.
For more V&T Confidential, click here.
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V&T Takeoff
Updates from our editors and writers
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The team from the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau were in town last week to update Australia on some of the BIG things happening in the Texan state. |
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V&T mag dropped into Bali last month and helped the W Retreat & Spa celebrate their 2nd anniversary and what a splash it was. With local and international fashion designers on display, the W Lounge was transformed into a catwalk party zone. 2500 people flowed through the resort late into the night, moving to NYC DJ Sandy Rivera. This was the biggest ticket in Bali for some time and the resorts pulling power is a testament to just how hot this property and international hotel brand actually is.www.vacationsandtravelmag.com/Mca/874/765/3/0/0/#takeoff1 How did we cope the next day? Poolside. Don’t wait until their 3rd anniversary as the vibe, sound and style of this resort makes for a very cool holiday. In the heart of Seminyak and right on the beach, Bali beckons. |
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Thanks to our friends at Air France we got out of the office for the day and enjoyed a great round of golf at the annual Financial Markets Charity Golf Day and Gala Dinner. Held annually in February, this event as well as the Financial and Media Markets Charity Sailing Regatta in October raises AU$1.2 million for a wide range of charities.The ASX Group and Thomson Reuters Australia (formerly Reuters) joined forces in 1999 to form a Charity Foundation with the objective of helping Australian-based children, disability and medical research charities by organising fundraising events in conjunction with the Financial Markets. Pictured here: Thomas Reeves Air France, Middle, Patrick Benhamou, Atout France; Anthony Gallagher Vacations & Travel magazine. |
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Vacations & Travel magazine rubbed shoulders with local and international buyers and sellers of travel from around the globe at 2013 AIME (Asia Pacific's Incentive Meeting Expo). This is the biggest event on the Australian travel industry calendar, where key decision makers congregate to network over a three-day event of hosted parties, trade and leisure travel meetings and press conferences. |
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The who's who of Sydney's entertainment industry turned up for the recent opening of the city's newest hotel to receive a makeover, The Parkroyal. Located in Darling Harbour, the property has just emerged from a milt million-dollar makeover to reveal striking rooms and seriously sexy public spaces. Speaking of sexy, some of the celebs on hand to celebrate the re-launch included Casey Burgess, Danielle Blakey and Amy Milne, not to mention Timomatic who entertained the crowds into the witching hours… |
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