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40 And Proud of It
With this, our 686th issue, American Way celebrates 40 years of history. Here’s to 40 more.
— Anna Fialho and Haley Shapley
February 20
Cindy Crawford is born in DeKalb, Illinois, to John Crawford and
Jennifer Moluf, whom nobody knew from Adam. Twenty years later,
everybody in the world knew their daughter, one of the most successful
supermodels to be produced on American shores in the history of
beautiful people. The facial mole would never be the same.
March 4
In
what is one of the earliest examples of British Band Foot-in-Mouth
disease, the Beatles’ John Lennon utters the infamous “We’re more
popular than Jesus now” to an interviewer from England’s Evening Standard. Folks on this side of the pond are none too pleased.
March 19
The Texas Western Miners basketball team, with
five African-American starters, defeats the Kentucky Wildcats, with
five white starters, to win the NCAA Championship, breaking the
segregation barrier in college basketball for the first time.
 May 16
The
Beach Boys unleash Pet Sounds, which would become one of the most
legendary and cutting-edge albums in history. Songs like “Wouldn’t It
Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” “Caroline No,” and “Sloop John B” own the
airwaves the rest of the summer.
June 13
The
United States Supreme Court rules 5–4 in the landmark decision Miranda
v. Arizona, protecting rights of the accused and giving us all the
right to remain silent. Until the invention of the cell phone, that is.
July 30
England defeats West Germany at London’s Wembley
Stadium to take home their first — and thus far only — World Cup. The
Americans, oddly enough, do not qualify.
August 11
At
a press conference in Chicago, John Lennon apologizes for suggesting
that his band was more popular than Jesus, saying, “I never meant it to
be a lousy antireligious thing.” Years later, fellow British rock group
Oasis, however, has yet to apologize for saying the band is bigger than
both God and the Beatles.
September 8
NBC airs “The Man Trap,” the first episode of the science-fiction television series Star Trek (though there remains a debate as to whether or not this was the actual first episode in the series). Star Trek was canceled after only three seasons, which is strange, considering it’s still on.
October 5
Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Moe Drabowsky
enters Game 1 of the 1966 World Series in the third inning and strikes
out 11 Los Angeles Dodgers — the most ever by a relief pitcher in a
World Series game. The Orioles go on to sweep the series.
December 15
Walt
Disney dies of lung cancer at age 65. Though urban legend says Disney
remains cryogenically frozen in a capsule somewhere, his remains were
actually cremated at the celeb-heavy Forest Lawn Memorial Park and
Mortuary in Glendale, California.
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 Stop and Look
Graphically speaking, after flipping through all of our old issues, we were impressed with the number of cool covers that we’ve had (as well as a little amused at the handful of not-so-great, what-were-we-thinking ones that we found). We also came across a few interesting design and story similarities that have occurred over the years — like an obscure reference to a highway sign pointing out the direction to Hell. Past and present, good and bad, here are some of the pages that caught our eye.
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Marking the Moment
From the landmark (you know, like the debut of The Oprah Winfrey Show) to the obscure (International Year of Deserts, anyone?), a lot has happened in the past 40 years. Here’s a look back at some of the highlights. — H.S
In 1967, the first ATM for public use was installed in a bank. Usage fees would come later, in the 1980s — a rather unfortunate addition, if you ask us.
The first personal computer, the Xerox Alto, was invented in 1972. Although it was not a commercial product, it was used on a number of college campuses.
The Rubik’s Cube was released in May 1980, stumping the masses with its 43 quintillion possible permutations. To date, 300 million of the cubes have sold worldwide.
The Oprah Winfrey Show hit national airwaves in September 1986. In 2003, VH1 named Winfrey the greatest pop-culture icon of all time, and today, she is widely considered one of the most influential people in the country.
In 1988, Michael Jordan made the first of his 18 Wheaties-box appearances. He currently holds the record for the most Wheaties-box covers ever — as well as for the most high-profile, false-alarm retirements (two).
DVD players first became available in Japan in November 1996; they hit U.S. shelves four months later. In just a decade, DVD has pushed VHS to the brink of extinction.
2006 was named the official International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Is desertification really a word?
Remember When?
Still reminiscing about the good old days when gas was less than a buck per gallon? So are we. But look on the bright side: Buying microwaves and calculators no longer puts a dent in your wallet. And that’s a good thing, since you’ll need those extra dollars for gas. — H.S.
And Now for the Most Random…
(How could we not share them with you?)
— Jack Boulware
-In 1968, comedian and Bewitched regular Paul Lynde debuted as the center square on the game show Hollywood Squares. Among his legendary wisecracks: To the question “Why would you throw a lemon down a garbage disposal?” Lynde replied, “Because it was very, very naughty.”
 -In 1972, a new electronic “video game” called Pong was installed in Andy Capp’s Tavern, a bar in Sunnyvale, California. Within one day, people were lining up outside, waiting for the pub to open. Today, the video-game industry is a $7 billion business worldwide.
-The documentary film Koyaanisqatsi (“life out of balance”) was released in 1982 and became a cult hit for its sequences of humans struggling with technology. It was chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2000 for its cultural significance.
-All U.S. presidents elected after January 1, 1997, along with their spouses, will receive only 10 years of protection from the Secret Service. President Clinton was the last president to qualify for lifelong protection.
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The Way We Were
BORN: Winter 1966/1967
Debuting as The American Way, the first issue was 20 pages (not counting covers) and had eight
articles, three of which were travel-related (New York, Phoenix, and
California). The other stories were mostly about aviation and flight
service. Basically, it was a brochure made to look like a magazine.
The earliest issues of American Way
claim that the magazine was “The American Airlines In-Flight Magazine
for America’s Most Important Air Travellers.” Though it doesn’t say
that on the magazine now, it still holds true today — except, of
course, now we’re the magazine for the world’s most important air travelers.
Prompted by a letter from a reader, in May/June 1969, the magazine gets a table of contents and page numbers — as well as a Letters to the Editor page.
When it was first published, The American Way was designed with a wrap cover. This practice was abandoned in 1970.
In May 1975, The was dropped from the magazine’s title.American Way’s first CEO note ran on March 1, 1991. Called Vantage Point, it was written by Robert L. Crandall.
The three largest issues of American Way (thus far) ran 210 pages each, and they were the November 1, 1999; November 15, 1999; and November 1, 2000, issues.
Figures That Matter
-In 1967, the quarterly circulation of American Way
was 600,000 (200,000 per month), with four million readers (1.3 million
per month). Today, we’re distributed twice a month, and the circulation
is nearly four times that at 350,900 (701,800 per month), with three
times the number of readers — 1,627,000 (3,254,000 per month).
-Although it started out as a quarterly publication, The American Way went bimonthly in 1968, and then monthly in September 1969.
-The median household income of the American Way reader was $31,400 in fall 1979. Today, it’s $100,026.
-In 1969, a subscription for the quarterly The American Way
was $3 per year, and a single issue cost a mere 50 cents. By 1976, as a
monthly publication, it cost $10 yearly or $1 by the issue. Today, for
24 issues a year, it costs $72, and a single copy is $5.
-By 1975, the readership of the magazine had reached 2.7 million each month. However, American Way had yet to be profitable.
-During the late ’70s, advertisers began to take notice of the airline magazine industry as a whole, and ad revenue for American Way
began exceeding its expenses — we were finally turning a profit. AW
continues to bring in the green (and operate in the black) to this day.
-By the mid-1980s, AW’s large (and heavy) issues made the cost
of fuel burn extremely expensive, thus it was decided in January 1985
for American Way to go from a monthly publication schedule to
fortnightly (every two weeks) — translating to smaller, lighter issues
every other Tuesday, or 26 times a year.
-On October 1, 1986, American Way’s
publication schedule changed to twice a month (on the first and the
15th), or 24 times a year. We currently remain the only airline
magazine to be published this often.
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And Now Starring...
Before it was called Celebrated Weekend, our signature column featuring a celebrity talking about a particular city was known as Celebrated Places. With Mark Seal at the helm as the celebs writer, it debuted on December 1, 1990, and featured “Jackie Collins’s Hollywood.” The name was changed to Celebrated Weekend in September 1996.
With our April 15, 1999, issue, we began consistently putting celebrities on the cover as part of this feature.
STAFFING ISSUES
American Way’s editorial staff was brought in-house in 1972, making it the first — and to this day, the only — airline magazine to be produced within an airline. Led by Glen Walker, this staff would lay the blueprint for the magazine you read today.
In 1973, Walker brought author Granville Hicks and chef James Beard onboard as regular contributors. In 1974, he added Isaac Asimov to the list.
Sam Greengard holds the record for being the writer who has been with American Way the longest. He began writing for AW in 1985 and has stayed with us ever since. (In fact, you can read one of his stories in this issue, on page 44.)
In 1986, American Way’s production, advertising/sales, finance, and art departments were all brought in-house, and an American Airlines publishing company was formed. It was called AA Magazine Publications.
In March 1996, AA Magazine Publications was renamed American Airlines Inflight Media. In May 1997, it became American Airlines Publishing, which it remains today.
The six employees who have worked at American Airlines Publishing the longest have given American a combined total of 103 years of service. They are Janice Dickerson (20 years), John Depew (20 years), Jona Cherry (18 years), Marilyn Calley (18 years), Eva Wojnar (17 years), and David Moreno (16 years). They continue on a daily basis to share their enormous wealth of knowledge with the rest of us.
Entertaining the Masses
1-American Airlines’ earliest form of Inflight Entertainment (IFE) was a 1953 radio program called Music Till Dawn, which aired on stations along our transcontinental routes. Aircraft cockpits received the AM broadcasts and piped them into the cabins.
2-In the early 1960s, American officially entered the IFE arena when it began showing in-flight movies. American was the first airline to offer movies on domestic routes.
3-In 1967, American, in collaboration with Bell & Howell, introduced the Astrocolor film system — widely regarded as the most unusual IFE system ever devised. It consisted of a reel of 16 mm film that began at a station behind the last coach seat on the starboard side of the plane, continued through seven rearview projectors on that side, did a U-turn forward, and returned through seven more projectors on the port side to the take-up reel. Needless to say, it was a very short-lived system.
4-AA began showing weekly CBS News programs in-flight in 1982. Daily CNN programming was added in March 1990. The current CBS Eye on American (with news, sports, and entertainment segments) launched in 1998.
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The Plane Truth
In 1927, when Charles Lindbergh flew his solo trip across the Atlantic in his famous Spirit of Saint Louis, he flew nonstop from Long Island, New York, to Paris — 3,600 miles — in 33 hours and 30 minutes. Today, thankfully, the same trip only takes about eight hours.
Until the 1940s, stewardesses had to be registered nurses — and they were also required to be single. It would be another 20 years before the job requirements changed, allowing them to keep their jobs after marriage.
American Airlines stewardess Patty Poulsen was named the first “Queen of the World’s Stewardesses” — the profession’s highest honor — on February 25, 1967. Poulsen competed in Uruguay with 19 stewardesses from 16 countries.
American Airlines’ current logo was introduced to the public in 1969, in celebration of the airline’s 35th anniversary.
American Airlines debuted piano bars on all 15 of its 747 Luxury Liners in 1971. The specially designed 64-key electronic Wurlitzer pianos were built into the stand-up bars at the rear of the Coach Class lounges. Frank Sinatra performed live on one during the premier flight (between Los Angeles and New York) on August 21, 1971.
In 1986, 47.5 million people flew on American Airlines. Ten years later, the number had grown to 93 million. Today, it’s 130 million and counting.
The two longest nonstop routes in the American Airlines global network are between Chicago and Delhi, India, and Chicago and Shanghai, China. Flights from Chicago to these destinations are about 14 hours long, and return trips last about 16 hours.
The Last Word
Over the years, American Way has used a variety of back-page concepts to close the magazine. Some of our favorites:
 -Gallery, January 1, 1987, to April 15, 1988. First launched under the name American Gallery, this page featured assorted photos. By late 1987, though, the majority of the images shown were from a museum exhibit taking place during that two-week period.
-Telescope: A Journey into the Future, September 1, 1991, to December 15, 1992. Predictions of what the world might be like in the future. (For the record, most of them have yet to come true.)
 -Tips/Tales from the Road, January 1, 2003, to May 15, 2003. This page included advice and funny stories from you — our seasoned road warriors.
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