Pacific Southwest Airlines flight attendant photograph album
Scope and Contents
A photograph album compiled by a flight attendant working for Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) in the 1970s. The photographs are uncaptioned but some feature the year and month in the negative: October through December of 1973. The woman, who is unnamed, is repeatedly shown alongside a consistent group of fellow attendants, each clad in period uniforms comprising short, bright pink and orange miniskirts, sometimes accompanied by pink hotpants and paired with red go-go boots. PSA was known for their vivid, eye-catching uniforms, this iteration of which was created by Barbara Owens, a San Diego based uniform designer. Most of the photographs in the album show the cabin crew during off hours, traveling on empty aircrafts and having a good time -- when taking such pictures would have been permitted. Other photographs show the women at hotels and restaurants during layovers, still uniformed, and a few portray the PSA hostesses servicing the cabin, particularly during a costumed flight for Halloween.
Dates
- Creation: 1973
Conditions Governing Access
Advance notice required for access.
Conditions Governing Use
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Biographical / Historical
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), founded in 1949 by Kenneth Friedkin with a single leased DC-3, became known as the "World's Friendliest Airline," and became one of the first American budget airlines. PSA's fare prices--which undercut competitors by as much as 50 percent--along with their customer service, quickly gave the company a foothold in the golden age of air travel. In the 1960s, large smiles were painted on the noses of the fleet, and airline employees were encouraged to engage and joke with customers and coworkers alike. PSA had a policy of only hiring traditionally attractive women, and deemed the practice an integral part of the company's image. In 1969, PSA's director of stewardesses Nancy Marchand said that they hired "so many pretty girls locally... that San Diego's 'supply'... was becoming depleted." In 1971 the National Organization for Women (NOW) picketed against PSA and other airlines for the use of "stewardesses as sex objects."
This note was adapted from documentation from the immediate source of this acquisition: Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc.
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet (1 box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
A photograph album compiled by a flight attendant working for Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) in the 1970s. The photographs are uncaptioned but some feature the year and month in the negative: October through December of 1973. The woman, who is unnamed, is repeatedly shown alongside a consistent group of fellow attendants, each clad in period uniforms comprising short, bright pink and orange miniskirts, sometimes accompanied by pink hotpants and paired with red go-go boots. PSA was known for their vivid, eye-catching uniforms, this iteration of which was created by Barbara Owens, a San Diego based uniform designer. Most of the photographs in the album show the cabin crew during off hours, traveling on empty aircrafts and having a good time -- when taking such pictures would have been permitted. Other photographs show the women at hotels and restaurants during layovers, still uniformed, and a few portray the PSA hostesses servicing the cabin, particularly during a costumed flight for Halloween.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc., March 22, 2022.
Subject
- Pacific Southwest Airlines -- Photographs (Organization)
- Title
- Finding aid for the Pacific Southwest Airlines flight attendant photograph album
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Bo Doub -- with many of the collection's notes adapted from the seller: Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc.
- Date
- 2022 April
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States
specol@usc.edu