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Now that The Playboy Club has gone to that great after-hours nightclub in the sky, while Don Draper and the rest of his Mad Men won't be back until March, we have to rely on ABC's Pan Am to provide us with weekly lessons in 1960s history. Last night's episode proved to be an especially relevant one, as it took place during JFK's famous 1963 trip to Berlin, where he delivered his iconic "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. But we already covered that in our high school history class. Here's what we didn't know, but do now, thanks to the show:
In the '60s, the best place for a spy meeting was the 1 train
And here we thought it was the invention of cell phones that encouraged people to New York's public transit system for their private business! According to Pan Am, CIA handlers made a point of meeting their novice undercover couriers on the MTA's South Ferry line. Sure, Kate's exchange with the fedora-sporting agent sounded innocuous enough, but c'mon... it's like they were begging to be overheard by some overly curious commuter. (Actually, as veterans of the NYC subways, the fact that their fellow passengers completely ignored them rang very true.)
In the '60s, the Village Voice was considered a big enough outlet to be flown to Berlin on a charter flight as part of the press corps.
Though its stature has diminished in recent years, the Voice is absolutely a New York institution with a storied history of breaking big stories the political elite didn't want you to read. Still, we wonder if the Pan Am writers took some historical liberties here; launched in 1955, the Voice kept its focus strictly local for the first few years of existence and struggled to turn a profit up until 1962. While it's possible they would have been invited on the junket to witness the president's speech, for the record, a quick Google search doesn't turn up a copy of a Voice dispatch from Berlin and Mike Ruskin is almost certainly an invention. Most likely, they were on the plane to remind us that Maggie is hip to the changing times and coming counter-culture.
In the '60s, all you had to do to crash a presidential soiree at a U.S. Embassy on foreign soil was to show up dressed as a Pan Am stewardess
Who needs a printed invitation when you're clad in that royal blue uniform? Not only did their outfits get them past the front gate, the gals were waved through by the bouncer as well... after their pilot pal Dean vouched for them, natch.
In the '60s, people still watched Casablanca an awful lot
The scene where Colette sings the German national anthem in front of a roomful of West Germany's upper crust is an obvious reference to the famous moment in the 1943 classic when Paul Henreid bravely sings the French anthem "La Marseillaise" in a bar filled with Nazi soldiers. Only in this case, her act of defiance is meant to be more sad than inspiring, especially since nobody else joins in and sings along. Still, Humphrey Bogart would no doubt have appreciated the hat-tip.
In the '60s, a box of Cuban cigars could nab you a wave from JFK
These days, if a strange woman runs up to a secret service officer and hands him a box of "cigars" accompanied by a long, rambling story about how much she wants to meet the president and almost did one time but missed her chance due to a two-minute bathroom break, that lady will likely be taken aside and subjected to some severe questioning. But back then, the secret service apparently took such encounters in stride, not even bothering to open the mysterious box before passing it along to the commander-in-chief. But it was nice to see that JFK was enough of a gentleman to wave at the potentially crazy lady that brought him his favorite kind of cigar -- Cubans, of course.
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This is JFK we're talking about. His secret service probably had standing orders to let hot girls through. I know he had chippies the secret service nicknamed "Bim" and "Bam."
Dean did have an actual invite... he was saying something about how he had to go represent Pan Am, and how he never understood why rich people cared to make small talk with people they would never see again.
No one else joined in an sang with Colette because apparently what she was singing is banned. If it wasn't for the informed posters on the forum, that would have gone over my head. I was confused by their reaction until I found out that that particular verse is well associated with the Nazi party.
Is it just me, or are the Pan Am flight attendants so clueless that they have absolutely no idea that the new flight attendant joining them at the Embassy never flew on a Pan Am flight before? Don't these girls fly with other flight attendants throughout Pan Am's fleet? Do those blue outfits and pillbox Pan Am hats make people invisible when it comes to recognizing other employees of Pan Am?
I feel like such a traitor, but I watched Monk last night, and only saw part of Pan Am. I guessed that the Cubans weren't illegal as of that time in history, and I also wondered why the SS guy couldn't get our heroine on board and into JFK's personal space. C'mon! A mere wave from a backlit silouhette? gigi wolf, author of the Pan Am Airlines Pages and A Woman's Guide To Everything on ChezGigi.com-
When I flew with Pan Am from 1977-1991, there was no way we knew every flight attendant. In fact, KGB spies could probably fly with us, and we'd have no clue. There were six thousand of us, then. I don't know about the sixties, but I imagine it was probably still true. Although, they shared rooms then, and had longer layovers, so presumably got to know a lot more about each other, and others in the system.
My first airplane experience was when PAN AM was the only trans atlantic airline. I was a toddler. It was a BIG plane and you clmbe stirs to get in.
PAN AM puddle jumped my famiy departing from San Francisco, on to Hawaii, final destination Australia.
Being born into a family of succssful operating engineers,PAN AM was the primary means of travel then.
The few decades of the airlines' exisistence represented a safe and trustworthy factor in enablng my family to fulfill an intrical position in the development and building primary infrastructure in various form and function throughout the world.
Hopefully the new series will be successful as MAD MEN has been in delivering authentic content in time period focus, asthetics and overall accuracy to that era.
MAD MEN is a hard act to follow. My viewng of both will continue unless PAN AM writers loose their grip on the most important era for technological, continental transportation advancement ever experienced in American history.
Shortly thereafter, we landed on the moon.
Late Night thesis done. Ha!
Wonderful post, stick with it!
no way this team makes the post without a solid freak.and even if they do, its one and out
Pan Am fails in every aspect that makes Mad Men work. Mad Men gives us a glimpse of a past time, warts and all. Pan Am gives us modern people with modern sensibilities playing dress up against 60s set designs. Pan Am is a failure. Which is sad. I wanted this show to work.
Shoot, so that's that one suppsoes.
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