Fly With Me is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 2024.
It is an episode of the long-running program American Experience (S36E02).
The topic of this film is the early history of American commercial airlines, more specifically the lives and experiences of the numerous women who were working on American airplanes.
At the time, they were known as stewardesses. If a man had the same job, he was known as a steward.
The job description marked the gender. Just like a waitress or an actress is a woman, while a waiter or an actor is a man. These days, they are known as flight attendants. These days, the job description is gender-neutral.
This film about American stewardesses covers five decades of American airline history, beginning around 1930 and ending around 1980.
In the old days, there were not many options for a young woman in the US. A young woman was supposed to get married and have children. The role of a woman was to be a wife and a mother.
If a young woman was working before getting married, she might be a nurse or a secretary or perhaps a school teacher for a few years. But a woman was not supposed to have a career. This option was traditionally reserved for men.
The life of a stewardess seemed to be a dream job, because a stewardess could travel and see the world.
If she worked on domestic flights, she could visit all the famous American cities.
If she worked on international flights, she could visit European cities like London or Paris or Rome.
And she would be paid, while she was travelling to these new and exciting destinations.
Being a stewardess was regarded as a glamorous job. It was almost like being a movie star. A stewardess could go out on her own. She was not controlled by her parents or her brothers. She had a degree of freedom which was very unusual for those days.
When a young woman got the coveted job, she would soon realise that it was not always a dream job. This job also had some negative aspects.
The stewardesses were not treated in the same way as male members of staff. The owners and the managers of the airlines treated them as second-class citizens.
The stewardesses did not like this. They wanted equality. They wanted justice. This film is about the stewardesses and their struggle for equality and justice.
Here is some basic information about this film
** Directors: Sarah Colt and Helen Dubrowski
** Writer: Sarah Colt
** Producer: Helen Dubrowski
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Run time: 112 minutes
Many persons are interviewed in this film. Some are former flight attendants, while others are professional historians and writers.
A few of them are former flight attendants who became writers later in life.
Two of them are lawyers who worked on the legal cases which were conducted in order to secure equality and justice for the stewardesses.
Here are the names of the participants
(listed in alphabetical order):
Kathleen Barry - historian
Mia Bay - historian
Keisha Blain - historian
Celeste Lansdale Brodigan - FA
Dorothy Sue Cobble - historian
Julia Cooke - writer
Pat Noisette Banks Emiston - FA
Sonia Pressman Fuentes - lawyer
Michael Gottesman - lawyer
Casey Grant – FA and writer
Kathleen Heenan - FA
Ann Hood – FA and writer
Patricia Ireland - writer
Mary Pat Laffey Inman - FA
Undra Mays - FA
Jean Montague - FA
Barbara “Dusty” Roads (1928-2023) - FA
Elaine Rock - writer
Phil Tiemeyer – historian
Victoria Vantoch - FA and writer
Here are some of the problems which stewardesses faced while working for the American airlines:
(1) Gender discrimination – male members of staff made more money and had more rights than female members of staff, even when they were doing the same job
(2) Stewardesses had to be single – male members of staff were allowed to marry
(3) Stewardesses had to leave the job at a very young age – for instance 32 or 35 – but there was no such rule for male members of staff
(4) The weight of a stewardess was checked with short intervals. If a stewardess was one pound over the limit, she was not allowed to work – there was no such rule for male members of staff.
(5) A stewardess was supposed to be obedient and submissive. She was not supposed to have opinions about anything.
Especially if she had a negative opinion about the rules and regulations which the owners and the managers of the airlines had established. The owners and managers of the airlines were always men.
(6) The airlines wanted stewardesses who were young and who would work for a few years. When they retired, they would be replaced by other young women who would follow the same routine.
When a stewardess only worked for a short time, she would never build up a long experience. A long experience might build up confidence. A confident stewardess was likely to be less obedient and less submissive. More difficult to control. Less likely to accept the rules and regulations.
(7) A stewardess who only worked for a few years would always be paid a low salary. She could not work long enough to claim a better salary. She could not work long enough to build up a pension for life after she retired.
(8) When members of staff were checked into hotels at a foreign destination, a male member of staff was given a single room, but stewardesses were placed in double rooms.
(9) Stewardesses often faced sexism from male members of staff and from passengers.
(10) During the early years, the airlines only hired white women. The airlines refused to hire people who were brown or black.
Stewardesses were not feminists. Stewardesses were not members of the women’s liberation movement. But the conditions under which they worked turned many of them into feminists. Many of them became members of the women’s liberation movement.
The well-known activist Gloria Steinem supported the stewardesses and worked with them when they complained about discrimination in the workplace.
Stewardesses wanted equality and justice. When they asked for better conditions, the airlines refused to change the rules and regulations.
The stewardesses took the airlines to court. They decided to sue them, because the rules and regulations were unfair.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 became an important tool in the struggle for equality and justice. This law was not only about civil rights for African Americans. It was also about equality and justice in the labor market.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was a federal agency which was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against discrimination in the workplace.
Sonia Pressman Fuentes was a lawyer who worked for the EEOC. She worked with stewardesses who contacted the commission, because they were faced with discrimination in the workplace.
The airlines did not give up without a fight. When they were sued in court, they often lost. When this happened, they simply appealed, because they refused to give in.
Some cases lasted many years, because the airlines were stubborn. In the old days, the owners and the managers had the power to do whatever they wanted. It was not easy for them to understand that the times were changing.
The airlines hoped they could appeal and stall so much that their opponents would be tired and surrender. They were wrong. The stewardesses did not give up. In the end, the airlines had to surrender.
What about the title of the film – Fly With Me – where does it come from? The title is a variation of a slogan that was used by National Airlines in 1971:
I’m Cheryl. Fly Me.
There is more than one way to interpret this slogan.
An innocent interpretation says:
“Come with me. Fly with me.”
But many women were offended. They said this slogan was aimed at male passengers. They said it was an open invitation to have sex with the flight attendant.
The slogan was created by advertising executive F. William Free (1928-2003).
The slogan caused women’s right groups to organize a protest outside his office in New York.
While the slogan was controversial, it was successful. The airline sold more tickets when this slogan was launched.
What do reviewers say about this film?
On IMDb it has a rating of 78 percent which correspond to a rating of 3.9 stars on Amazon. If you ask me, this rating is too low.
The story of the American stewardesses and their struggle for equality and justice is important. It deserves to be told, and in this film, it is done very well.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Film and television series
Flying High
A television series
One season
1978-1979
Mile High
A television series
Two seasons
2003-2005
Pan Am
A television series
One season
2011-2012
Pan Am:
The Rise and Fall of an Aviation Icon
A documentary film
Run time: 53 minutes
2022
# 2. Items available online
“Meet the Women
Who Changed the World
While Flying It,”
Think.tv
15 February 2024
Rob Owen,
“Flight attendants break gender,
pay barriers on PBS Fly With Me,”
The Seattle Times
16 February 2024
Liza Weisstuch,
“Glamour, Travel, Sexism:
When Flight Attendants Fought Back,”
New York Times
19 February 2024
# 3. Books
Femininity in Flight:
A History of Flight Attendants
By Kathleen Barry
2007
The Jet-Sex: Airline Stewardesses and the Making of an American Icon
By Victoria Vantoch
2013
Plane Queer: Labor, Sexuality, and AIDS in the History of Male Flight Attendants
By Phil Tiemeyer
2013
Stars in the Sky: Stories of the First African American Flight Attendants
By Casey Grant
2018
Up in the Air: The Real Story of Life aboard the World’s Most Glamorous Airline
By Betty Riegel
2020
Come Fly the World:
The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am
By Julia Cooke
2021
Fly Girl – A Memoir
By Ann Hood
2022
The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Work Place Revolution at 30,000 Feet
By Nell McShane Wulfhart
2022
True Tales of TWA Flight Attendants:
Memoirs and Memories from the Golden Age of Flying
Compiled by Kathy Kompare and Stephanie Johnson
2022
Dusty Roads:
How the Women’s Movement Took Flight
By Elaine Rock
2023
*****
Pan Am
A television series
One season
2011-2012
*****
Dusty Roads:
How the Women's
Movement Took Flight
by Elaine Rock
(2023)
*****
I'm Cheryl.
Fly Me.
The controversial but successful poster
launched by National Airlines
in 1971
*****
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