Tag: Vintage Travel

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The Way We Once Traveled: Helicopter Transfers to the 1964 World's Fair

January 19, 2012 at 2:40 PM | by | Comments (0)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

The 1960s were a great time to hop a helicopter ride in New York. These were the days when buying a First Class ticket on Pan Am or TWA meant the inclusion of a chopper transfer to the airport, and helicopters weren't yet clogging the skyways above the rivers, causing the accidents and concerns that exist today. In 1964 specifically, families keen on spending a day at the 1964-1965 World's Fair could take a scenic ride on New York Airways' helicopters from Manhattan out to the fair at Corona Park in Queens.

Landing was the fun part, actually; the choppers set down atop the first completed structure for the fair, the Port Authority Exhibit Building, which counted the helipad, a restaurant ("Top of the Fair"), cocktail bar and 360-film feature theater as attractions. Coincidentally, the 360-degree film shown was also shot by helicopter, as the cameras dangled and captured the beauty and geography of the New York region.

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The Way We Once Traveled: 'Orchestral Selections' on the Queen Elizabeth

January 18, 2012 at 9:50 AM | by | Comments (0)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

Water Aerobics. Mixology. A lecture on wildlife photography. Hairiest Chest Contest. These are just a few standard daily activities you'll likely find listed on the schedule of a modern cruise ship. However, it was back when passenger ships were called "liners" that schedules focused on the social, rather than the active and educational, advantages of the journey.

It's within this schedule for the old Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth—her third day of a crossing from New York to Cherbourg/Southampton—that we see this for sure. Where iPad classes would be listed on a 2011 cruise shop activity list, the 1949 version favors watching horse racing or listening to the news broadcast.

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The Way We Once Traveled: American Airlines' Astrojet

January 16, 2012 at 1:49 PM | by | Comments (0)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

In the 1960s, when the World's Fair was taking over New York City, American Airlines had nice little pamphlets printed to attempt to entice people who didn't live in New York into taking their planes to visit the event. What planes, exactly? Oh, just the newest Boeing dressed up in a shiny silver paintjob complete with red lightning bolt, a look called the Astrojet.

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Last-Minute Gift Idea: Wonderful, Out of Date Travel Advice

December 23, 2011 at 11:59 AM | by | Comments (0)

Still scrambling for a last-minute gift for your sister/baby-sitter/party hostess/globe-trotting cousin/self? If the person in question loves to travel, pop down to your local bookshop (you know, if you still have one) and ask for a copy of this little gem: Hints to Lady Travellers At Home and Abroad.

Never mind that this all-encompassing travel 'how to' was published in 1889; the advice dispensed by Ms. Lillias Campbell Davidson within proves to be surprisingly prescient. Not to mention entertaining.

The book—reissued this year—is perfectly sized to stuff a stocking or slide into a side pocket of your carry-on. Its bite-sized chapters are organized alphabetically, like so: "Accidents, Apartments, Baths, Boarding-houses, Booking-offices, cabs, cab fares, Cushions..."

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Buy This: Retro Road Maps

December 13, 2011 at 3:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

While we're extolling the virtues of Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood, we can't neglect to drop a holiday gift suggestion that's both cheap and easy. Yes, cheap and easy can actually be good.

Browsing at Brimfield, we came across a tin brimming with vintage road maps and hotel ads, the sort once handed out by gas stations to motorists on road trips or who were just frequent patrons. This is the 1960s of modernist design and good highways, so the flimsy pamphlets are both gorgeous and entertaining.

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GM's XP-21 Firebird: The 1954 Idea of a Hybrid Car

December 8, 2011 at 10:10 AM | by | Comments (0)

Sometimes, as lame as it may sound, it's worth it to "go antiquing" because then, while digging through a drawer full of vintage US state postcards, a gem like this emerges from the muck of history. It's a 1954 pamphlet extolling the virtues of GM's XP-21 Firebird car, the first gas turbine auto ever built.

The design of the car is heavily jet-influenced; in addition to the little wings, vertical stabilizer and single cockpit driver's seat, the Firebird even has flaps in the rear to aid in braking after the car would hopefully hit high speeds. Unfortunately the thing has never been driven beyond 100mph because it was just too darn unsafe to do so.

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Blast from the Past: Real Photo Postcards

November 10, 2011 at 1:35 PM | by | Comments (0)

Walk through Times Square and at almost any of the cheapie souvenir shops in the area, you'll be able to score 10 postcards for $1. A steal for sure, but a closer look at the cards reveals that they're often outdated, faded or—worst of all—boring.

Travelers from the 1900s through the 1960s would have had a heart attack over this, since back then sending a postcard meant something. It was almost required of you to mail postcards from your destinations to your family, friends and neighbors, and the quality of the card was important.

Real Photo Postcards were popular for this reason. Printing on photo paper meant the picture would be solid, with no printing dots or gradients; it was as close to actually being there (except it was black & white). We were recently presented with this photo postcard from the heyday of the first Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth. At 724 feet long and 85,000 gross tons, she was the largest ship in the world and sailing on her meant you'd be sending a slew of photo postcards.

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Blast from the Past: United's Convairs of the 1950s

November 9, 2011 at 1:50 PM | by | Comments (0)

If there's one great thing the ABC show Pan Am has done, it's get people wondering why air travel these days isn't as chic and easy as it was back then. Along with the obvious answer of need for greater security, attitudes in general have changed. Travelers now base flight decisions mainly on ticket price, whereas way back when—even before the jet age—airlines would sell passengers on the airplane type itself, plus in-flight service "just like on the ground."

Case in point: this United souvenir/commemorative sheet from 1952, showing their Mainliner Convair and its cabin. Most of the boasting focuses on tech aspects:

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Up Close with the Vintage Cars of ABC's 'Pan Am'

October 31, 2011 at 6:15 PM | by | Comments (0)

In case you can't get enough of the retro appeal of ABC's show "Pan Am," we did a little friendly spying on the NYC set recently and returned with some great photos. Sure, the wardrobe is great and the sets are unbelievable (literally, since they're mostly green screen), but the cars are something else entirely. They're real! They're registered historic vehicles and everything!

Although we didn't spy any of the cast shooting outdoors, we did manage to capture some nice angles of the cars that co-star in the TV series.

Enjoy:

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The Demolition of Terminal 6 at JFK is Happening NOW

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York, NY, United States
October 18, 2011 at 11:37 AM | by | Comments (0)

While this last weekend was spent at New York's JFK Airport fondly remembering the glamor days of the jet age and seeking to further preserve them through the TWA Flight Center/Terminal 5, the complete opposite was going on next door.

The old "Sundrome" Terminal 6 designed by architect I.M. Pei is in the process of being completely demolished. Don't say we didn't warn you! The modernist building was constructed in the 1960s very much like the TWA Flight Center, but unlike the Center, it does not have a coveted spot on the National Register of Historic Places. BOOM goes the wrecking ball.

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Inside the Historic TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK Airport

Where: JFK International Airport [map], New York, NY, United States
October 17, 2011 at 12:24 PM | by | Comments (3)

For years, the old TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK International Airport has taunted us. Situated right in front of the new-ish JetBlue Terminal 5, the Eero Saarinen-designed masterpiece was so close and yet, so far.

Opened in 1962 and closed in 2001 after TWA went bust and was taken into American Airlines, Terminal 5 is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and undergoing slow renovations (that's what happens when you've got asbestos and close proximity to functioning flights). It's not been open to the public since, save for a few short months in 2004 for an art exhibition. This weekend, however, the Open House New York event flung open the doors for four hours and half the city showed up to check out this historical gem.

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Real 'Pan Amigos' Will Reunite in Miami Next Month

Where: Miami, FL
September 29, 2011 at 10:18 AM | by | Comment (1)

Pan Am is back in on the air and the real-life pilots and flight attendants who inspired the ABC show are coming out of the woodwork... er, retirement.

In this Miami Herald rundown of the airline's ties to the city, we learn that there is a group of former Pan Am-ers who stay in touch via the Pan Amigo newsletter. And it's not restricted to former employees either—'industry friends' who'd like to stay in touch can also become Pan Amigos.

The group of old-timers are having a 'Worldwide Family Reunion' October 20-23 in Coconut Grove—to celebrate Pan Am and the centennial of aviation in Miami. According to the Herald, they're expecting members to come from Norway, London, Australia and Germany. (Reckon they'll spend the first hour comparing notes on the abysmal state of flying today? Or will it be all: "I'm Christina Ricci," "No, I am!"?)

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