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Men are everywhere.
Sometimes they’re in the mirror, sometimes they’re at work, sometimes they’re in
black, sometimes they’re mad, sometimes there’s two and a half of them, sometimes
there’s no country for them, sometimes it’s raining them, and sometimes they’re all
crammed onto an airplane as passengers on one of United Airlines’ men-only “Executive
flights.”
You see, back in 1953, United Airlines decided that between getting paid more and being allowed
to wear pants, men had gone through enough hardship, and so they decided to help ease
their struggle with the “Chicago Executive”—a special men-only air experience for high-powered
male executives who love flying but hate gender equality.
The Chicago Executive was a 3 hour and 15 minute flight that ran once a day at 5pm,
6 days a week, between New York and Chicago.
The flights were originally done on piston-powered Douglas DC-6Bs, operating between LaGuardia
and Midway airports, until 1961 when they transitioned to Sud Aviation Caravelles, leading
to an airport switch from from Midway to O’Hare, because of its more ample runway space, and
from LaGuardia to Idlewood, which is now known as JFK, and also known as hell.
In later years, the New York destination was moved again, from JFK to Newark because hey,
why go to an airport that loses some luggage when you could go to an airport that loses
all the luggage?
But now to answer the real question: what sort of testosterone-packed features were
offered on these manly flights?
Well, according to this somehow real ad from the 60s, there were plenty.
For starters, there was the obvious: no women, and no children—but with one key exception:
two stewardesses, who served food and drinks and I’m sure had their boundaries and rights
fully respected by the passengers.
Among the food and drinks they’d serve was a “full-course steak dinner,” because
if you’re going to get food poisoning on a plane, you may as well do it in style.
In addition, passengers could smoke cigars or pipes on the plane, because planes and
fire go super well together, and all of this could be done in the comfort of a pair of
complimentary slippers, in either your seat, or alongside promised “congenial company
in the lounge.”
But the Chicago Executive wasn’t all fun and airplane steaks—it was also built for
these 50s businessmen to practice what they did best: alcoholism… sorry, I meant, business.
That’s why the planes were outfitted with personal workspaces, in which you could even
get live stock quotes thanks to a partnership with The Wall Street Journal, the top newspaper
of America’s dentist offices.
Plus, if one of the busy businessmen forget to tell one of the busy business boys who
works for them some busy business information, United offered a special “last-minute message
service,” courtesy of an on-plane telephone.
And believe it or not, the Chicago Executive was not the only flight that, like Saturdays,
was just for the boys—in 1960, the now defunct Mohawk Airlines launched the “Gaslight Service,”
a somewhat bizarre, Victorian-themed flight that ran on select regional flights mainly
from New York, and saw small propeller-driven DC-3s decorated with red velvet curtains,
gold tassels, carriage lamps, and special vintage lithographs, just in case you want
to fly in a plane that looks like the scene of a murder in a poorly written mystery novel.
Their reasoning for making it men-only was, and this is a real quote, that, “women would
find the atmosphere cloudy because of the five-cent cigars and free beer.”
While on the gaslight service planes, passengers were served by flight attendants who wore
sequined costumes accentuated with ostrich feathers, who offered those free beers and
five-cent cigars, because what better thing to add to a fire and plane combination than
free alcohol.
The gaslight flights proved surprisingly popular, so much so that after a while Mohawk kept
the back reserved for men, but added a family section in the front so that the kids, wife,
and even grandma could all could get in on the creepy, Victorian fun.
Ultimately, 23,000 people flew on gaslight flights, drinking over 31,000 cans of free
beer and smoking over 17,000 cigars before the flights were discontinued in 1962, only
two years after they began.
United’s Chicago Executive flights, on the other hand, may not have had ostrich feathers,
but they did have longevity, lasting all the way from 1953 until 1970, when they were ultimately
discontinued as the result of protests by the National Organization for Women.
These days, if a businessman wants to get between New York and Chicago without seeing
any women, his best bet is just to take a cab while keeping his eyes laser-focused on
a list of US presidents.
Or, if that list gets boring, and you decide that women don’t terrify you, you could
check out this series with Jane Goodall called Catalyst, which is available right now on
Curiosity Stream.
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