Interviewed on August 11, 2020
The interview describes Marilyn Porto’s career as a stewardess/flight attendant, purser, and in-flight director for Pan American World Airways from 1957 until her retirement in 1991; her childhood and her early interest in becoming a stewardess; the hiring process and her work in Pan American’s customer relations office; transition to becoming a stewardess, the hiring process, the interviews, and how her office experience assisted her in the process; training in Queens, New York; her fellow trainees; and the subjects she learned, including emergency training, food service, and follow-up training; her first flight from New York to Lisbon, Paris, and Beirut in 1958 during an American military intervention; flights from New York to Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a detailed description of the route through Accra, Ghana to Johannesburg, South Africa; description of a plane with engine trouble grounded in Accra, the process to deliver new engines to the aircraft; detailed description of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, 707 and 747.; transfer to San Francisco base; flights to the South Pacific and Asia; R&R (rest and recuperation) flights for the US Military Airlift Command (MAC); promotion from flight attendant to purser and in-flight director, the work those roles encompassed; meeting Ralph Nader, her appreciation for his advocacy against smoking on aircraft; uniforms she wore; bidding process for routes and its relationship with seniority; benefits the union won for flight attendants and pursers; her love of Pan American, the company’s last days, and her decision to leave rather than work for another airline; World Wings; changes in the flight experience over the years.
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