One of the many branches of the "swinging sixties" pop culture was the glorification of stewardesses. This was probably result of mixtures of the glamour of travel and the sexual revolution that was kicked into over drive thanks to the mainstream success of Playboy magazine.
All of this was the result of the publication of 'Coffee Tea or Me', a book detailing the adventures of two stewardess for an unnamed domestic airline. It was semi-written by a couple of actual stewardess who ended up using the pen names of Trudy Baker & Rachel Jones for occupational protection. A unknown third member of this production was ghostwriter Donald Bain.
The original book was a big hit and would go on to sell 3 million copies. Even though talks of bringing it to the Broadway stage fell through, there was a TV-movie staring Karen Valentine. As with any success, there were sequels; the second book was called 'Round The World Diary' in 1970 (where our gals go the international route after being "found out" by their old employer) followed in 1972 with 'Lay It On The Line' (the gals talk about sex in the 70's) and ending in 1974 with 'Get Away From It All'.
Also followed there many titles cashing in like 'Fly Me' and 'How to Make A Good Airline Stewardess'. Oddly enough, these above titles were also ghost written by Bain and used the same artist who illustrated the 'Coffee' books, Bill Wenzel.
Soon, there were gal books in other professions that followed the same 'sexy' formula as the 'Coffee' books; 'Tender Loving Care' (nurses), 'Girlpower' (office temps) and 'We Gave At The Office' (sectaries). Also as with the 'Coffee' books, Bain & Wenzel had his hand in many of them.
To this very day, only the publishers know the real names of the two female "authors" and Bain has gone on to quite an interesting and successful writing/ghost writing career which includes a large series of 'Murder She Wrote' books that continues well into 2006. Thanks to the recent publication of an anniversary edition of 'Coffee' in 2003, there more talk of a retro-styled production for Broadway.
The 1978 TV series 'Flying High' was also a result of this "swinging" era (though belatedly) and the giggle fad in TV thanks to the success ABC network had with T & A shows like 'Three's Company' and, the biggest jiggle of them all, 'Charles Angles'. The series only lasted six episodes. |
