SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to the Pan Am Podcast, brought to you by the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York. This podcast and our museum are dedicated to celebrating the legacy of the world's most iconic airline, Pan American World Airways. My name is Tom Betty, and I'm the host of this program. Thank you for joining us. The Pan Am Museum Foundation is a nonprofit organization. Our mission statement is to educate, celebrate, and inspire present and future generations by preserving historical and diverse personal stories of Pan American World Airways. Please visit our website for more information at the Pan Ammuseum.org. Again, our website is the Pan Ammuseum.org. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you are using Apple Podcasts, please consider leaving a review. It will help others discover this program. If you're not familiar with Pan Am, welcome. We are honored to have you here. And for you to learn about what we're all about. If you already know of Pan Am, worked for or flown on the airline, or just love our history, it's good to be with you again. So with that, let's get this episode in the air, so to speak. Welcome aboard your Pan American jet clipper. This is a special TWA edition of the Pan Am Podcast. In this episode, we'll be joined by Pam Blasham, the director of the TWA Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Then we will be joined by Tyler Morris, who developed the former TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport in New York City into today's TWA Hotel. But first, here's a little history of Trans World Airlines. It is important to point out that Pan Am history is not complete without TWA. And TWA history is not complete without Pan Am. These two airlines were pioneers for most of the 20th century and each achieved many firsts in aviation history. Not only did they lead the way in commercial aviation, but developed many of the systems, procedures, technology, and culture that are still evident today. The imprint that these two companies left on history cannot be ignored. And both companies share a direct link. And that common denominator is none other than Charles Limberg, who was instrumental in the early days of each airline and helped both with the development of air routes and aircraft development. Transcontinental and Western Air, also known as TNWA, was founded in 1930 with the primary merger of Transcontinental Air Transport, also known as TAT, and Western Air Express, along with three smaller airlines. Western Air Express was incorporated in 1925 and was awarded government mail contracts from Salt Lake City, Utah to Los Angeles, California. TAT was founded in 1928 and enlisted the help of Lindbergh to develop a transcontinental route system for the company to bid on government mail contracts at the same time he was doing work for Pan Am. The company would later be renamed Trans World Airlines. It is important to point out that TWA always measured the founding of their airline from the beginning of Western Air Express in 1925, not 1930, when the two primary companies merged. This is evidenced by the 75th anniversary celebration in 2000 and marketing materials at each milestone year. Here's another example of how Pan Am and TWA were interconnected. Throughout World War II, both Pan Am and TWA served the Allied Armed Forces. Both airlines were also part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first presidential flight to the 10-day Casablanca Conference in 1943. Pan Am was responsible for transporting the president down to South America and across the Atlantic to Africa in a Boeing 314 flying boat called the Dixie Clipper. TWA was responsible for the president's transportation from British Gambia to Casablanca, Morocco in a DC-4. After the conference, TWA flew FDR back to British Gambia for his return transatlantic trip with Pan Am. The two airlines almost became one company on several occasions. In fact, over a four-decade period, there were many times that Pan Am and TWA almost merged or acquired the other. We'll explore these proposed mergers and acquisitions of Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines in a future episode of this program. Both airlines were confronted with unspeakable tragedies that had a direct impact on their corporate futures and eventually resulted in both ceasing operations. Both airlines also share something else in common. In 2021, Pan Am marked the 30th anniversary of the airline ceasing operations on December 4, 1991, and went out of business. TWA marked the 20th anniversary in 2021 of the airline ceasing operations on December 1st, 2001, after being acquired by American Airlines. We encourage you to learn more about TWA by visiting the TWA Museum in Kansas City and staying at the TWA Hotel at JFK in New York. There are links to both websites in the episode description. Now on to our interview.

SPEAKER_07 6:45

This portion of TWA's Ambassador Theater has been produced by Trans Global Film. And for now, have a great flight!

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Pam Blasham joined Trans World Airlines in 1964 as a flight attendant and worked for the company for the next 37 years, flying all over the country and the world. In 2010, she became the director of the TWA Museum. Along with Pat Brinkman, Pam worked diligently to secure a new home for the museum in the original building that was built in 1931 to accommodate the newly formed TWA Corporate Headquarters in Kansas City. Their efforts were successful, and this building is now the home of the TWA Museum. For more information on the TWA Museum, please visit their website at tWamuseum.com. Like the Pan Am Museum, they are a 501c3 nonprofit and would appreciate your support. Welcome to the Pan Am Podcast TWA edition, Pam. Thank you. So let's start with the TWA Museum there in Kansas City. Can you tell us a little bit about how you guys got started?

SPEAKER_09 8:14

Well, the museum opened in 1985 at the TWA Overhaul Base in Kansas City. And it was founded by the enthusiasm of shop mechanic Tom Perry when he purchased a box of items, and in it he found a Transcontinental and Western Air Penn. The mechanics then started bringing him old items, built him a case, and that's when the museum was born.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

And why Kansas City?

SPEAKER_09 8:47

Because we were the hometown airline. The overhaul base was enormous. TWA was the largest employer in Kansas City back in the day. People said we should have a museum. Yeah, why not? And I think the museum got started because this Tom Perry was so excited. And the other mechanics and all the you know different departments at the overhaul base kind of followed suit. And before you knew it, he had all kinds of stuff. And they built him a big case, and we moved everything to Kansas to the downtown airport. But prior to our moving it, the museum went from the overhaul base to the TWA credit union to uh Kansas City Administrative Center and then ended up at Expo in Kansas City Expo Center at KCI. When the woman who took care of it for 20 years said, Would you do this? And I said, Sure. Yeah, I love my TWA. And I miss TWA. So I said, Yeah, let's go. And that's how I became involved.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

So tell us a little bit about your museum and some of your exhibits at the TWA museum.

SPEAKER_09 10:19

Well, we have two main galleries. Um, and it shows pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, you know, uniforms and information, a lot of photographs, a lot of models, and we have four very large floor models and items uh on display that were used during when the airplanes were regulated, and everything farewise was the same. And how do you get people to fly you as opposed to United American or Pan Am? And it's because of what we're gonna give you. And two of our very interesting displays, one is the blue chip service. It was we were in direct competition with United and American from Chicago to New York. And so we'll say United left on the hour and American left on the half hour, and TWA said, nope, we're gonna leave it at quarter two. And so their slogan was BTR, beat the rush. You didn't have to wait in line for your boarding pass, and you had all kinds of financial newspapers and magazines, and uh nice gourmet deli sandwiches and a little beer keg. We're gonna give you a nice ice-cold glass of beer from this these cute little kegs. However, when you think about it, the commissary guys very gently threw the keg into the galley, packed it in dry ice, and then we take off. And now we're in this pressurized cabin. And so, Thomas, would you like a beer? And you'd you know, pull the tapper and it's all over the place. Um, but we have a lot of items from that day. Uh, I mean, from that era.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

It sounded like a good idea, right?

SPEAKER_09 12:10

Well, it was, you know, it's very clever, but the best of the best is our paper dresses. It was called a taste of Europe in the United States. So this was to get people interested in flying TWA coast to coast. It was only on long haul flights, uh, to have a taste of Europe while you're in the United States. And we had paper dresses, and one outfit was the Manhattan penthouse. It was like black lounging pajamas or something. And then we had the French, I'm not going to tell you what I called it, this gold paper dress that was for French. And then we had the English winch and the Italian toga. And it was really clever because if it was French theme, you'd get all French food, French menus, French literature. But it didn't always work that way, you know, because it would be, oh, it's French, you're wearing that silly-looking gold dress, and but all we have is Italian food and English newspapers. Uh, it only lasted about six months, but it was pretty clever.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

That sounded like a good idea to begin with, too.

SPEAKER_09 13:21

Yeah, everything was a good idea at the time, you know. And then we in our second gallery, we have a Connie simulator, an 800 memorial room, and the alpha project. I don't know if you know about it, but TWA TWA restored an alpha, and they found bits and pieces of it in an old hanger. And TWA people said, well, we'll restore it, and they kind of laughed at them. And they brought the the hole to Kansas City to the overhaul base, and they completely restored it. We have a piece of the original metal, and the finished product is beautiful, and now it's hanging in the Smithsonian. Uh, but a lot of information about the Alpha project, and we have a founder's room and a gift shop. Then we go out in the hangar, and we have what we call Ellie. It's a Lockheed Electra 12A Junior, and we have that and a link trainer, an education center, a scout room, ambassador club, library, conference room, and the cabin trainer.

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Very impressive. So you have a replica of an ambassador's club?

SPEAKER_09 14:35

We built it to the best of our ability. We have the actual twin globe glass, etched glass, uh, that was in the ambassador club in St. Louis. A couple of years ago, I told these uh Czech airmen they would come in once a year for a get together. And I said, Hey, we're building an ambassador club. Well, they passed that on to this Czech captain who was a really nice guy, and he called me and he said, I have the twin globe glass. I said, You do not. And he said, Yeah. He came home from a flight and the glass was laying on the floor. And he asked this agent who was not TWA, what are you doing with that? And they said, We're putting it in the dumpster. And he said, No, you're not. And he hired a company to come out and crate it. And but he said, I don't live in St. Louis anymore, I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. So one of the Czech airmen took it upon himself to fly to Charlotte and rent a truck and bring it back to us. So that's really cool. And I believe it was just a luck of the draw that I mentioned it in the newsletter, and that's when this Captain Tom Irwin uh wrote and told me he had it. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah, that's that's a great story. Great story.

SPEAKER_09 15:59

The mission statement of the museum is to provide information to the public, emphasizing the story, history, and importance of the major role TWA played in pioneering commercial aviation. From the birth of air mail to the inception of passenger air travel to post-World War II era of global route expansion, TWA led the way for 75 years. That's our mission statement. And I can tell you why TWA is special because of all the first. TWA had the first air hostesses in 1935, the first with in-flight audio entertainment in 1940, fresh brewed coffee in 1957, and first to go all jet in 1967. It's a lot of firsts.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

So, what is different about TWA than some other airlines?

SPEAKER_09 16:50

It's that family type of atmosphere, and I found it interesting that Pan Am had basically the same attitude. They were just family, we were just family. And it's really hard to explain. I asked Wayne, our blogger, I said, How do you explain it? And he said, I can't, I just really can't. And I think it stands out with the Pan Am people and the TWA people. They seem to have so much loyalty and so thankful that they had the opportunity to work for Pan Am, to work for TWA.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

You know, you're you're absolutely right. In all of the Pan Am people that I'm fortunate enough to meet, there is this unmistakable and unbreakable bond between them. And and it's it's really hard to explain. And I'm in awe of it, but you you know, you're you're right, in the sense that not many airlines can can have that kind of family bond that these two airlines, which were both giants in the airline industry of the 20th century, you really can't say that about some of the other airlines.

SPEAKER_09 18:06

And I don't know why that is. Is it because we were kind of mid-sized? Uh whereas some of the others are so humongous now that you know they don't have time to be family, you know. Um, I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine, but it's uh it's a really nice feeling to say I'm proud that I worked for TWA for 40 years. Oh, wait a minute, 38.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Well, who's counting?

SPEAKER_09 18:38

You know, the last two were with somebody else.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Let's let's start there. Let's go into your story. So you joined the company in 1964. Why did you want to become a flight attendant?

SPEAKER_09 18:53

I just thought that sounds so cool. Um, a neighbor down the street had a daughter that flew for Branmouth, and I thought, wow, I wonder what she does. And I'd look up and I'd say, My goodness, there's little people in that big airplane. Um, I just thought it sounded very exciting. I had kind of a weird childhood, and it was like, man, I can escape and get on an airplane and fly somewhere where I've never been. And I think that was the excitement of it. And training was difficult. Um, it was six weeks of intensive training, and you better get all the questions right or you're out of there. Um, it was a it was intense, but it was joyful at the same time because you were meeting people from all over the country. And then all of a sudden, you graduate, you're a flight attendant. Well, back then we were hostesses, and off you go into the wild blue yonder. Where am I going tomorrow? I don't know. And I do recall uh later in my career, um, someone in my family said, Where are you going? And I said, Oh, to Istanbul, and they said, Where's that? And I said, Oh, it's far away. Uh, it turned out to be one of my very favorite layovers, Istanbul, Paris. Um, you know, it's just how many people get to go to Hawaii every week, and then the next day you're in Hong Kong, and then the next day you're in Bangkok, and then the next day you go backwards and go back home. And when you were traveling to Europe, you know, you just get off the airplane, go through customs. There's uh your travel company is there to pick you up. They take you to the hotel, you have your and it was free. So I'm getting paid to do this. And somebody said, Well, it's not very much fun when you're just there overnight. I said, I'm there for 24 to 32 hours once a week. Why do I need to pay to go on vacation? It is vacation.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Do you have a favorite place that you liked to travel to?

SPEAKER_09 21:13

I liked Honolulu and Istanbul and Paris. Kind of in that order.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

One of the things that comes up when I talk to Pan Am flight attendants, and Pan Am flight attendants are notorious for being global bargain hunters.

SPEAKER_09 21:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

So was that the same at TWA?

SPEAKER_09 21:40

Oh, yeah. Uh, the other day, two women came in and I said, Uh, I guess you're a flight attendant. And she said, How'd you know? I said, Because of that cartouche you have hanging around your neck. I mean, these gals that flew to Cairo all the time, they knew all the gold people, and they were buying. Puzzle rings and they were buying cartouches and jewelry. And then in Honolulu, the airline people would go to these certain places and they'd be buying knockoffs, you know, say um Rolex watches and Louis Vuitton bags and stuff. But you better not be caught with them because the steamrollers come along and crush everything. So I wasn't too much into buying the fake stuff, but it really was. It was just amazing. Istanbul was fabulous.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

I'd like to go back to what you said a bit ago about flight attendants being called hostesses. At Pan Am, I'm told that the service culture was based on a luxury ocean liner. And it and I wanted to go back and ask you uh what was behind hostesses and what was TWA's culture?

SPEAKER_09 22:54

TWA wanted us to be hostesses because there were no men except for the pursers, uh, but they wanted to be us to be hostesses to treat the passengers like they're guests in our home.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Can you tell us a little bit about the TWA in flight service?

SPEAKER_09 23:13

I thought it was superior to others, but of course I never had the opportunity to fly on Pan Am. Uh, but we offered a choice of entrees and first class and coach on long haul flights and lunches on short haul and snacks in between. But our Royal Ambassador service was awesome. It was served on Rosenthal, China with crystal glassware. And I know that Pan Am did, you know, the in-isle service carving of the roast, and we did that as well. We served Chateau, and it was it was interesting listening to their type of service, which seemed to exactly parallel ours. And yes, we had very expensive Russian caviar and expensive champagne with all the you know the iced vodka and stuff like that. It it was really a beautiful service, and the food was delicious, it really was.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Can you tell us a little bit more about the Royal Ambassador class?

SPEAKER_09 24:15

The first class section of the airplane, you know, just a lovely service, and everything was um hand-carried except for the roast, you know, where you would carve the roast at the seat, but the other entrees, the lamb and the fish and what have you, they were set up on the plates in the galley, and then you take them out, constantly serving, you know, different wines and having first of all the cocktails and appetizers, and then the salads. The salads were served from the cart because we had different dressings and different toppings, and then uh the main course, and then after that, you had cordials, uh cheese plate, and then dessert, and then coffee, and then you're fat. You can't eat anymore. But it was really it really was a lovely service.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Pam, because you told me before the interview what your favorite plane was, we're going to take a short break with a TWA commercial from the early 1970s just for you.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

TWA 747. In 1970, by being the first to fly it across the country, we opened up a whole new era in big, wide cross-country travel. It was the most comfortable, most advanced plane in the air. Now, only a few years later, we have a plane that's even more comfortable, even more advanced. TWA's 10 minutes. It's the culmination of every improvement, every comfort we've ever seen. We've made the first seats dining room. Big, comfortable swivel seats. You can even make reservations if you wouldn't restroom in the big spacious coach. We put in unique two by two seating. So you'll never be more than one seat from the east. But what's most important isn't that it's big and comfortable, it's that it's the most advanced plane ever built. In fact, it uses some of the same technology that landed men on the moon. If you liked I 747, you'll love our 1011. It's what an airplane should be, and that's what makes TWA what travel should be.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Welcome back to our interview with the director of the TWA Museum, Pam Blasham. Tell us why the L1011 is your favorite aircraft.

SPEAKER_09 26:31

Because it was just smooth, it was just so smooth. And it um it had backups for its backups, and it was just, I mean, it was incredible. And we had this multiplex system on the airplane, and you know, a lot of it, you know, was under the seats. And if somebody said, I don't have any music, I don't have any sound, you'd have to get on the floor and crawl around under the seats. Because, you know, with passengers' bags being under the seat, a lot of times they'd unplug the thing. Uh, but aside from that little glitch, it was great. The passengers loved it, it was really smooth, it was very quiet. And then, you know, the 7.4. That was equally as nice. The polar flight was a little long, but then we flew it to Honolulu from St. Louis. We flew uh St. Louis, Honolulu on the 7.4 and London, and then Paris and Frankfurt. We used 7.6's. Yeah, they were okay. I like the big ones better. We would have some medium hall flights from Kansas City to LA on a 1011, and this the seats were one, two in first class, one, two, four, and five, eight and nine. So seats four and five were in the center, and because it was two aisles, and that the seats swiveled, and there was like a small coffee table, like in between the two seats. So if you had people in consecutive rows and they knew each other, you they could swivel their seats, and we would have to pop up that coffee table, and then we had to go in the closet and get this giant eight-foot tabletop and haul it over and set it on top of that small table, and then get this giant linen out, and we had um, you know, cocktails and appetizers, and then we had our beautiful uh Rosenthal China and Crystal, and we would serve a five-course meal on the way to LA, and they loved every minute of the passengers they could communicate, or even sometimes if it wasn't that long of a flight, they'd just swivel around and play cards, you know, a lot of passenger diversion on those airplanes.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

So it was like, you know, a dining room and a restaurant on the L Twitter.

SPEAKER_09 29:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

And that's really neat.

SPEAKER_09 29:09

The 7-4 was nice, but I mean, you know, you were either two or two or two, you know, there was none of that swishing around. Uh, I'd be amazed if we were still in business to see what kind of uh lie flat seats we would have. You know, we didn't have all that, of course. The 1011 and the 7-4 were just awesome, they were just my favorite. The 1011 was just so ahead of its time, it was just so automatic and automatic landings, and uh just everything on the airplane was awesome. It was just really special because we had you know three galleys and people felt good to get up and walk around. And uh the 7.4 was cool because of the upper deck, and originally the 747, the upper deck was for first-class passengers as a lounge, and then afterwards they took the seats out. I mean, the the um the bar stuff out, and then they put upper deck seats, and people used to fight over those, they wanted to sit in the upper deck, and it was just I don't know, it was just really cool. I just love the 1011. And when we did the Pope charters, one of them was a 7.6, and I do believe they did a 1011 at one time, but most of the times I think it was 767, and the name of the airplane was Shepherd One, and we flew uh the Pope several times.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

It's interesting. So, why was TWA the airline of choice for the Vatican?

SPEAKER_09 30:59

I have no idea why didn't he fly all Italia? But I don't know, they must have made it um to his liking, uh, maybe because he was going to the United States, so he decided to fly on a U.S. carrier.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

A lot of people are very focused on flight attendant uniforms and pilot uniforms.

SPEAKER_09 31:20

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

Tell us a little bit about the TWA uniforms.

SPEAKER_09 31:24

First of all, we have all of the former pilot uniforms, but the 50s uniform for the pilots, it was a gray. But what was really cool about it, their wings and their hat badges were Transcott Mill and Western Air Express, and they're worth a lot of money. And it was an Indian head. Um, and it was the same Indian head, by the way, that was the tale of Western Airlines back in the day. Uh, beautiful, beautiful wings and hat badges. And then we have um a large case for flight attendant uniforms, and I have a really funny story about that. But our designers for the uniform were Stan Herman, Olay Cassini, Don Loper, which was what I graduated in, and then Pierre Balmain, another uh uh Dalton, Valentino, and another Dalton, and the last one was Ralph Lauren, which set an industry standard. You know, it gave you more of a regimented military look. When we got the Ralph Lauren uniforms, I mean, we were hot stuff. I'm here to tell you, we were hot stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:37

So your favorite aircraft was the L1011, and what was your favorite uniform?

SPEAKER_09 32:43

Ralph Lauren. So the last one, yeah, it was really cool. Um, the one before that, um, we had three different colors. Uh, we had kind of a yellowy gold, uh uh not quite red, and a royal blue. And you had skirt and jacket to match, but you had sweaters that matched too, three different colors of sweaters. And we had short sleeve, long sleeve, crew neck, v-neck. We had a blouse, and then we had stripity pants, and nobody ever knew who you were. You know, it's just like, oh, do you work here? Well, yeah, maybe I do. It's like, I mean, it was just bizarre. The the uniforms were nice, they were really nice, but everybody looked different, you know. There was there was no uniformity, but I want I do want to tell you about one thing that I think is really cool. Have you ever heard of the petty girl?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

I have not.

SPEAKER_09 33:45

Okay. The petty girl uh was well, first of all, George Petty did the nose art on the military airplanes back in the day, and he saw a TWA hostess in uniform, and he approached her and asked her to salute, which she did, and he enhanced her a little bit. And she became well, first of all, she was always in front of either a DC3, a Connie, or what was the other one? Uh the Stratoliner. She was always standing in front of that saluting, and she became the poster girl for Armed Forces Recruiting back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

Interesting. I did not know that.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Yeah, that is a great story. Are there any stories that are very memorable to you in the 38 years that you were flying for TWA?

SPEAKER_09 34:44

I mean, we had a lot of celebrities, uh, because we were at the airline to the stars. Thank you, Howard Hughes. My favorite person ever was William Holden, he was just such a nice, kind gentleman. And uh, we had the entire Osman family that uh took up the whole first class section on a 747. And uh, we had the Jackson family. Kansas City was the first stop on their victory tour, and they were all there except for Michael. He took a private jet to go ahead of everyone. Uh, but one of my favorites, yeah, one of my favorite stories, besides having the baby in flight, was on a particular flight, we had just taken off from Tampa. And as we're on the climb, I see this lady flailing her arms around, and you know, and we're on climb. Uh, and I pulled myself up there, and she and her this, oh, the flight was completely full, and it was a 727 stretch. So I went up and she said, My husband, my husband, and I looked, and her husband was clearly having a heart attack. And I said, Everybody get out. Well, first of all, wouldn't you know they were sitting at the emergency exit row? I'm sorry, sir, you're not allowed to have a heart attack when you're in the emergency exit. Anyway, I got the wife to move and the man by the window to move, and now they're standing up. And so we communicated with the cockpit. We have this man on oxygen now laying across the three seats at the emergency exit row. The lady across the aisle and back of row had a 10-year-old. She had to hold her 10-year-old on her lap while the wife of the man having the heart attack sat down in the child's seat. The man who was standing up had to go sit on the flight attendant jump seat, another no-no. And the flight attendant went and sat in the cockpit, which how many rules have we broken today? Anyway, we made an emergency landing. They took the man off. And because we made an overweight landing, then the airplane had to be inspected. Okay, so we were delayed, blah, blah, blah. Finally, we take off and we're going to go to St. Louis and then on to Kansas City. And this was before all this security stuff. And so my flying partner and I were tidying up the airplane, and I looked up and I saw this young man standing in the middle of the airplane. And I said to my flying partner, Who is that? She said, I don't know. He wasn't on here before. So I went up and asked him if I could help him. He said, No, I came out to tell you thank you for saving my father's life. And I was so touched by that. And the guy lived in Chesterfield, Missouri, which is like, you know, 45-minute drive to the airport. And he had to come and thank us for saving her his dad's life. I that was just totally awesome.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

It was, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 37:56

One of my favorite stories.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

So you mentioned a baby. So you delivered a baby on an aircraft?

SPEAKER_09 38:03

Not me personally. We were on a uh 767 and we're headed to St. Louis from Frankfurt. And we're flying along, and I'm working on the right aisle, and my friend from Kansas City is working on the left aisle. And she made a couple of comments. She said, You know that pregnant lady and her husband. Uh no, because I'm I haven't been over on that side. But anyway, I said yeah. And she said, Well, I think they're having a big fight because they don't talk. And I went, Okay, well, don't worry about it. So then during the movie, um, my fine partner and I went up to ambassador to get something to eat. And my friend that was working on the left side came running up and she said, You know that pregnant lady? Uh yeah? And she said, Well, her water broke. And I said, Well, give her another glass. I don't, she said, Pam, we're having a baby. And I said, I know nothing about birthing no babies. Uh we'll just get her another glass. So I went to the car and I said, Where are we? And they said, nowhere. And I said, Well, one of our flight attendants was a surgical nurse, and we paid for a doctor, but there was another nurse uh as a passenger, and they got the lady out of her seat, and she's laying on the filthy galley floor on the back of a 767. I mean, we put we did give her some blankets, and so the captain said, We're going to Montreal. Well, at the time we didn't fly to Montreal, so when we landed, they came in through the back door. I opened the back door, and this Air Canada agent said, Um, we need to get her off. And I said, Well, who's that man that just got on? And she said, Oh, is that as Dr. Faron? And we're holding his flight for him. He's going to cut the cord. I said, Okay. So then the late the agent said, I need her passport. And I went up to her husband. And I thought, isn't he nice? He's just sitting here while she's having a baby. And I said, Where's her passport? Uh, hello, he didn't speak English, he was not her husband, so we got her passport and got no wonder they weren't speaking to each other.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

It wasn't the husband.

SPEAKER_09 40:18

It's like, you know, you assume so much just because there's a man and a woman sitting side by side. But that what was really funny about it is uh we would fly the same rotation, you know, every week, or you know, you could trade or whatever. But so I was flying Frankfurt every week. So the following the next trip, we're going from St. Louis back to Frankfurt, and there was that guy, and I said, Hey, remember when we thought you were the husband and we had the baby? And he just looked at me and put his head down, like, leave me alone. I was like, Okay, all right, sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

So now the baby has dual citizenship because I guess so.

SPEAKER_09 40:55

Somebody said Carl Icon's gonna charge her for that baby, an extra ticket. So, anyway, that was fun, it was interesting, it was a great career.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Looking back, what makes you proud to be a TWA veteran?

SPEAKER_09 41:14

I'm proud of the job I did, I'm proud of the people that I knew and worked with for all those years, and I'm just proud of the legacy of TWA, what TWA did with their first and the first to discover this, and the first to have brewed coffee, and the first to be all jet. I mean, I it was just awesome. And we were not always the biggest, and we were always in competition, but we were always, you know, the smallest, I guess. And um, it was just I don't know, I loved every minute of it. I really did.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

What is it about TWA and Pan Am that still captures the imagination of the public? TWA is marking its 20th anniversary since the airline ceased operations. And the same month, December of 2021, Pan Am is marking 30 years since that airline ceased operations. Yeah, but uh Pan Am and TWA is still very much has the public's attention. What is it about these two airlines that have endured all of these years?

SPEAKER_09 42:29

I think they just set the standard, uh the innovations and stuff, and uh being, you know, flying to Europe and with us, you know, flying to Europe and the United States, and then Pan Am later after the national thing. Um, but I just think people thought of TWA and Pan Am as luxury. I mean, I did, but then I didn't know any better. I, you know, I didn't fly on these other carriers. I was always, you know, bound on TWA working, but I mean, even as a passenger, and I never had the pleasure of flying Pan Am, especially in first class, going to Europe would have been lovely. And I often would look over, you know, from our terminal to theirs at Kennedy and think, I wonder what that's like. I wonder what they do over there.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Both of these airlines are very much rooted in popular culture. You have young people in airports carrying around TWA bags and pan bags. What do you think about that? I think it's how does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_09 43:40

I yeah, it makes me proud. One day I was uh as a passenger on, I don't know, South Wales, and I had on a TWA polo. And this man said, That's a very old shirt. And I said, I'm a very old person. He said, Okay. But uh, and I really did used to look over, you know. From our terminal at Kennedy to the Pan Am terminal.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

Let's talk about the TWA Flight Center designed by Arrow Sarinen in JFK. Now it's a hotel. The next guest on this program is Tyler Morris, one of the developers of that hotel. Let's talk about because I just love that place. I have been there twice, and every time I walk in there, it's breathtaking. But take us back to when it was TWA's terminal and you were working out of it.

SPEAKER_09 44:40

It was really cool. First of all, the building itself, you know, going into the front is just awesome. But there were two uh tunnels, two flight wings, and you would go, uh, depending on where your gate was, you'd either go to the left or the right, and you'd go through these long tunnels that were carpeted in TWA chili pepper red, and you'd go out, and then the gates would be out there. And you know, you'd board your flight. I don't know, it was glamorous, I guess. And but in today's world, they still have those tunnels, but they have two hotel pods at the end of each, and you're kind of on an active runway, is absolutely beautiful, as you well know. But there was just something special about prancing around that terminal, uh, because there was a point where we had the terminal adjacent to it, not on the Pan Am side, the other side, and it was British Airways terminal. And that then, because we had so many international flights, that was our domestic terminal. So we had two terminals at Kennedy. Uh so we had that British Airways terminal, and that was, you know, like I say, 99% domestic, and the Aero Sarinin building was uh just for international.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

Let's talk about TWA aircraft liveries. Uh, one of my favorites favorite designs is the last one for TWA with the globe. Um what what are what are some of your favorites? And uh can you tell us a little bit about when they were introduced?

SPEAKER_09 46:25

Well, uh are you talking about the very last one of the 747 that was red and blue? And um is that the one you're talking about, or are you just talking about the red and white one?

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Uh no, I was talking about the 1996 uh change. Uh it was kind of like uh gold white, um, a little bit of red.

SPEAKER_09 46:48

Yeah. And the bottom was blue.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_09 46:52

Yeah. Um, yeah. And actually, that's gonna be uh the featured airplane on our two-story sign on the building. It'll be uh that 7-4 landing, and uh below it will be the Connie. So it'll be kind of like the early days and the last days. Um, it's really a cool sign. I wish they'd bring it and put it up. Um but my favorite was the very last one. A lot of people didn't like it because they were so tuned into the twin globe. And when we, you know, all of our airplanes, you know, were white with a red stripe with the twin globe on the tail. But then when they introduced the wide bodies, then they started making it a little different and they just put TWA and block letters on the tail. People didn't like that either. They wanted the twin globe. Um, so we all had our own opinions about it, and most people, you know, from my era, they didn't like the last livery because it just wasn't right. It's like I thought it was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

It's interesting you say that because it's we have the same debates with Pan Am people. Um, there are some people that feel that the 1960s, 1970s with the blue stripe all white. Yeah, yeah um, and it says either says Pan American across the side, or when the 747 was introduced, it uh had a shortened black letters that said pan. And then in the mid-80s, they refreshed the brand and they had the giant billboard letters that said pan.

SPEAKER_09 48:30

I know. Somebody said, Why did they make those so big? I don't know, maybe they couldn't read. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

And we have the same debates with all of the Pan Am family because people some people love the billboard letters and some people are very traditionalist, and and they said, Well, why did you change this? Just you know, keep keep what we've been using all this time. So it's interesting you say that because there's there's similarities.

SPEAKER_09 48:57

Yeah, because we don't like change. We don't like change. Um, one of the pictures that's gonna be on our sign is this con. It's uh 749 because it's got round windows. And back in the day, it would say trans world airline, but they added the S in 1950. I just thought that was so funny. Such a big deal about adding the S. So it became Trans World Airlines instead of airline.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Interesting. Well, the same thing with you know, Pan Am. Pan Am was Pan American Airways, and then they added Pan American World Airways, and and then Delta is still Delta Air Lines three separate words, which oh I you know it's always I always scratched my head with that one, but um so many of our listeners are all over the world. They need to come to Kansas City to visit your museum. What else is there to do in Kansas City?

SPEAKER_09 49:59

Oh my goodness. Besides our museum, which we think is awesome. Uh, there's the Truman Library and really cool, the World War I Museum. That's the only one in the United States. Uh, the Nelson Atkins Museum, the Miniature Toy Museum, fascinating. And the Negro League Baseball Museum, the Arabia Steamship, the Money Museum. There's a lot to see in Kansas City, as far as museums go.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

Excellent. So, to our listeners, lots to do in Kansas City, but TWA is top of the list.

SPEAKER_09 50:39

Yes, very much so. Come and visit us, please. We have a lot to offer, a lot to show, and then we'll tell you where to go eat barbecue.

SPEAKER_00 50:50

Oh, that sounds great. Well, you know, to our listeners, I am planning a trip to Kansas City to go meet Pam and to visit the TWA Museum and also to see the new renovations at the Harry Truman Library.

SPEAKER_09 51:05

That'd be great. I'll be looking forward to seeing you. Then you can teach me some skills on Zoom, okay?

SPEAKER_00 51:12

Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time and uh thank you for what you do to preserve TWA history. And uh, we can't thank you enough for coming on the Panam podcast.

SPEAKER_09 51:25

And thank you for willing to share us with your listeners.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Anytime.

SPEAKER_09 51:31

All right. Thank you, Thomas.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_09 51:34

Uh-huh. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_07 52:28

It's enough to put a smile on anyone's face.

SPEAKER_00 52:38

Tyler Morris is chairman and CEO of MCR, which comprises three discretionary funds, and is the fourth largest hotel owner operator in the United States. With over $4 billion of assets under management, MCR owns and operates 110 hotels, which is over 15,000 guest rooms, across 33 states and has developed landmark properties such as the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Prior to founding MCR in 2006, Tyler was the president of Bliss, an upscale spa and beauty products company. He previously served as assistant to the chairman and CEO of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and contributed to Starwood's overall corporate investment and development initiatives. Tyler earned his CPA while working at Ernst ⁇ Young. He also worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and its financial sponsors, mergers, and acquisitions group. And one of Tyler's first jobs was naturally in aviation, as a baggage handler for Delta Airlines at LAX. For more information on the TWA Hotel or to book your stay, or for dinner reservations, please visit their website at www.twahotel.com. Welcome to the TWA edition of the Panam Podcast, Tyler. Great to be here.

SPEAKER_08 54:04

Thanks for having me, Tom.

SPEAKER_00 54:06

So tell us about the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport in New York City.

SPEAKER_08 54:12

So, Tom, the TWA Hotel is a rebirthing of one of the greatest buildings ever built in America, the TWA Flight Center, which opened in 1962. Arrow Sernan was the architect of the project. Howard Hughes owned TWA at the time. An incredible building like this would never have been built without Howard Hughes' vision and direction, and frankly, his wallet. The building was never value engineered. It was never put through the ringer with the accountants. And that is how you get this building, which is really a piece of art more so than a functional building. And I think if you talk to any of the amazing TWA team members who were around in 62 when it opened, there were incredible frustrations with the functionality of the building. And that's why I describe it as a piece of art a little more than a functional building. Nobody really knew where the jet age was going to take aviation in 1962. And the building was actually conceived in 1956. That's when Arosaren first was engaged on the project and started to design the building. And at that in 1956, the jet age was not upon us. So that happened during construction. So that was, you know, nobody knew what the future of aviation was going to be. And they built this incredible building that was really functionally obsolete the day that it opened.

SPEAKER_00 55:45

Interesting. And it's interesting you say it's a piece of art. I love Aerosarinen's designs, and I I've read that people have called your building the Cathedral to Aviation because of its shape.

SPEAKER_06 55:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:58

And there's no right angles in the whole place. I very much agree that it's a work of art. So tell us about how you decided to turn this into a modern day hotel.

SPEAKER_08 56:10

Well, along your cathedral lines, I always love Arosarinen's tagline for the building throughout the design process. It was to express the excitement of travel. That was the basis for design for the entire building, to express the excitement of travel. And I think the building accomplished that in spades. You know, it it the undercurrent is it looks like a bird in flight with the two wings and then the beak coming off of the front of the building. So, Tom, I used to be a baggage handler at Delta for Delta Airlines at LAX. Yes, I read that. In the early 90s. And I love aviation. And I'm a part-time AV geek. And uh professionally, I'm a hotel developer and a real estate developer. So the opportunity to get involved with the TWA Flight Center and bring it back to life was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My wife calls this project our third child. And, you know, the detail and the nuance and the tiny little aspects of this building are what make it incredibly joyous for me and for our customers and our patrons and our guests, anybody who enters this cathedral to aviation. So I was excited about it. I've been reading about it for years and years. I used to fly with my dad on TWA, sometimes in the L1011s and the old 7-4s, when the upper deck uh was still a cocktail bar. And I was too young to be drinking cocktails at the time, but I remember landing at JFK and walking through this building as a child and remember how amazing it was. So, you know, the opportunity to bring it back to life for many, many generations to come was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 57:59

And I would be remiss not to mention that it is a huge historic preservation success story.

SPEAKER_08 58:06

It is. We dealt with 22 government agencies on this project. We had 174 consulting firms work on the project, including nine law firms. But the building is on the National Register of Historic Places, the State Register, and the New York City Landmarks Register, and is one of the most important buildings in America. It was actually called up or summoned by the Secretary of the Interior along with the Golden Gate Bridge, Wrigley Park, Fenway Park, the Washington Monument, as one of the most important buildings in America. So that created another kind of layer of bureaucracy on the project, but well worth it in terms of doing things that were historically accurate in bringing this building back to life.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

Let's talk about that. So what you could not restore, you replicated as close as possible to the original designs, correct?

SPEAKER_08 59:06

Correct. Actually, step one was bringing the building back to the way it was in 1962. In the 70s and 80s, uh a lot of additions had been bolted on to the building. Obviously, the hold areas had been uh destroyed along the way, just leaving the swooping tubes. But a bunch of junk had found its way uh into the building. So step one was restoring Arosarinen's masterpiece to exactly as it was when it opened in 1962 with what they call the two flight wings and the two tubes, and then the bat wings that that flank the frontage of the building.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

Walk us through some of the other challenges that you had uh redeveloping this project.

SPEAKER_08 59:55

Well, the building had been dark for 20 years, and when we first got there, it was filled with asbestos, filled with lead paint. The iconic soaring windows uh were made of non-tempered glass with no low E coating or no thermal characteristics at all. If you talk to a lot of the old TWA team members, they'll tell you how hot the building was and how cold it was. It was never properly air conditioned. Tom, you mentioned how the building has no right angles, which is accurate. It also has no visible supply and return air conditioning ducts. Now, that makes it more beautiful, but people like to be uh 72 degrees. And if the building is hotter or colder than that, it creates problems. So they're they monkeyed around for years with coatings on the glass, etc. So we added about 200 tons of chilling capacity to the building, but we had to do it in such a way that you couldn't see it. From a historic perspective, we couldn't just add new air handling units. Um, so that was successfully accomplished. Uh, and the building, you know, really does operate in a 21st century way now, uh, in terms of the temperature control. So that was one aspect, but uh, you know, we had to remove a lot of asbestos uh and the lead paint. Every single one of those windows, the iconic windows, there are 186 different panes of glass. Every single pane of glass is a different size than every other one.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Interesting.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:24

And we had to replace all of those. Luckily, the fabricator that made the glass in 1962 is still alive, 92 years old, and he still had the forms for those. The gentleman did a terrific job uh of replacing those windows with tempered glass, but we were not able to put, for example, an integrated glass unit on those windows, which would be two panes of glass with some thermal characteristics, because the beautiful bow trusses that hold those windows up can only hold quarter-inch single pane glass. And if you view the building from a distance, that glass has uh an incredibly green hue to it, uh, which is a part of its historic fabric. So we had to match that green hue exactly, and that has to do with the iron content uh of the glass. Uh so we had to make specially uh we had to do specially made glass to get that green hue uh of the glass from a distance exactly right in a variety uh of light conditions. So if you layer all of that on top of an active airport with 60 million passengers a year, all of the traffic that comes along with that, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and their requirements, you know, and they sit on a land lease from the city of New York. So that created another uh complexity here in the project. We have a 700-page lease with the Port Authority and a 750-page springing lease with the City of New York, if and only if the Port Authority is not running the airport in 2051. Uh, so that created another set of challenges. So there's there's not just the physical challenges, but there's the uh legal and um uh entitlement challenges uh of the project. And none of this really speaks to bringing back the magic of the building and infusing it with the TWA spirit, the up up and away with TWA. And our intent was that when you walked into the building, uh, you felt like you walked into 1962. Totally. And with all of the joy of travel.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

Yeah, totally. Like I've been to your hotel on a couple different occasions. First of all, I love it, and all of our listeners should come to New York and stay at the TWA Hotel. It is certainly a destination that you need to come and visit and see for yourself. But secondly, I tell everybody the way I describe it is you're walking into a time machine and you're going back to 1962.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:00

Yep. Uh, we have 32 different zones for music, and those are all extraordinarily uh coordinated. So you hear different songs uh when you're in different areas of the building and there are millisecond delays because there's a lot of funky acoustics uh in the building. The shells are 66,000 square feet. Uh, it's an acre and a half uh of columnless space. It's the largest columnless volume in the world. The shells are held up with only four points of contact with the ground, and there's an underground system of grade beams that is pulling on those shells uh from under the building that pop them up. We actually met with uh Abator, uh, who is the structural engineer of the building. He also was 91 years old. We met with him in 2015, I think. Uh he has since uh passed away, but he still remembered the vector forces that hold up that shell and was rattling off all of the different calculations that they had to do to meet Arosarnen's exacting needs to the building. But because of those rounded shells, it creates funny acoustics. The music travels at different speeds as it runs over and above those shells. Uh, and so you render the sound differently depending on where you are in the building. So just adding audio to the building uh was an incredible engineering check. That's really cool. And then there's the lighting and uh doing the the faux runway uh outside with its uh sequential flashers and direction directional graphics, and bringing in the vintage constellation airplane. And you know, we we ordered 600 rotary dial phones on eBay, and so every guest room has its own rotary dial phone. That's so cool. And you know, most people don't know this, but uh it's Pretty interesting. The rotary dial phone uh was the best technology out there when the US area code system was invented. And it was all all of those things were invented by Bell Labs in Holmdale, New Jersey, in another Aero Sarinin design building uh at Bell Labs headquarters. But um when that came out in the mid-50s, the rotary dial phone it replaced Klondike 5, Butterfield 8, Elliott 7, Chelsea 7, that kind of thing with the uh branch exchange system. And uh the shortest number to dial on a rotary dial phone is 212. Uh the second shortest number to dial on a rotary dial phone is 213. Equally short to 213 is 312. So New York City is 212, is the old area code. Los Angeles is 213, Chicago is 312. Uh so it went by order of size of city. Interesting. And the worst number to dial on the phone, on a rotary dial phone, is the zero. Uh right, it's all the way at the end because you have to dial it and then wait for the um device to roll back around. Uh and everybody likes to turn the screws at the government. It's kind of a fun pastime for everybody. Uh so they made DC 202. Right? Uh New York City was uh New Jersey's place to go out, and they made it 212. So it's kind of a fun history of uh, you know, when there was only 20 area codes uh in the entirety of the United States. And you know, the reason why the United States is country code number one is because we invented the system. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:58

Makes sense. We're gonna take a quick break with a TWA commercial that was played during the 1985 Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:11

TWA presents the difference between getting your way and going and leading the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

Tell us about the customer experience at the TWA Hotel.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:24

So our objective uh is, as I said, that you you feel like you walked into 1962 when travel was magical. And it was people got dressed up to go traveling, and it was a real event, and it was not you know as frequent as people travel today. So we want you to start your trip and start your vacation while you're at the airport. Right? Airports have generally become a means to an end. I gotta go through the airport to get to my destination, to go on vacation, to see my loved ones, etc. And it's not part of the fun. We're trying to make the hotel experience part of the fun. Uh, right, and we have uh our vintage tab cola displays and our special drinks there. We have a uh scavenger hunt. Uh we created 12 different custom manholes all around the TWA site. There are 68 manholes on the campus, and one of the manholes is Aroseren, and another one is Florence Knoll, and another one is Howard Hughes, and uh we even have T Way, uh, who is the TWA mascot. Uh in the ultimate irony, uh TWA's mascot was a dodo bird. Um so I don't know, I don't know what to say about that. But he is an adorable, adorable bird, and we put him on one of our manholes. And if you find all 12 of the unique manholes, uh you get a free Shirley Temple uh at the bar.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:03

Uh something fun for the kids. And it's fun for adults too. I mean, this hotel is so much fun for adults. Um, so the kids love it, but also the adults love it too.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:14

Yeah, we've brought back uh uh we have an extensive collection of TWA uniforms, uh both flight attendants and pilots. Uh the reason that we've heard of a guy named Ralph Lipschitz uh is because of TWA. Most people now refer to him as Ralph Loren. Uh he had a small tie shop on Madison Avenue in New York City, and uh his friend Stan Herman uh gave him the TWA uniform contract, which gave him the balance sheet that he needed to expand his business. Uh in the Schmada business, you never know good season, bad season, it's very tough to finance against it, but you could finance against an airline contract because 10% of a lot is a lot. And allow him to grow his business. Uh, and you know, now he is polo Ralph Loren. Uh, and if you see the double-breasted uh flight attendant uh uniforms and pilot uniforms that Ralph created for TWA, they're they're you know right in fitting with uh Ralph's design ethos uh from the 80s. Uh but we have uh Dalton and Ball Main and Valentino did the TWA uniforms for a long time. We have the famous paper uniforms. Yes, we heard about that earlier in the program. Yeah, the foreign accents campaign, those are wild. Terrible, terrible idea to make uh uniforms out of paper, particularly when everybody smokes uh and the uniforms are flammable, and not the greatest idea TWA ever had.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Uh Pam Blancham told us about one of the other ideas where they had beer kegs, and that didn't last very long, compressurization.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:57

Yep, that's right. That's right. So um, and then we have our rooftop infinity edge pool, uh, which is a very unique feature uh of the project, and it's heated to 95 degrees uh 365 days a year. Uh so even in the wintertime, uh we just launched it last week, actually. Um we have the runway chalet up on the roof, and we have uh fondue and hot toddies and all kinds of things to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and then you can go swimming in the the overly heated pool uh with Infinity Edge. Uh it could be snowing outside, and you're watching planes take off and land from runway four left and twenty-two right, they're on the bay runway uh while drinking uh hot toddy in a in a pool koozie uh up on the roof.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:48

So much fun. It's so much fun. But we didn't talk about the food yet, and the food is fantastic. Tell us about the food.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:54

Thank you. Uh we uh our signature restaurant is our John George uh restaurant, which is called the Paris Cafe, which is the original name of the space in 1962. So we renovated the space to look just like it did in 62. Uh John George has done a terrific job uh at bringing back a lot of the TWA menu items. Uh they were in first class uh in the 60s and 70s. You know, it was a real culinary experience in first class in those uh traveling days. Uh and then we have a food hall down at the ground level uh with a variety of different food options, everything from paninis to Mr. Softy to Mexican food to uh Chinese food. We have uh Greek food coming soon and uh pizza coming soon. Uh we have an intelligentsia coffee outlet, we have uh the the sunken lounge, uh, we have food and beverages on the Constellation airplane and a full food offering up on the roof deck. Uh so while you're sipping your hot todds, uh you can get a snack up there as well, and uh other kind of fun food and beverage options coming soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:11

Interesting. And you do have space for conferences and weddings, correct?

SPEAKER_08 1:15:15

We do. Uh we have uh 45 different event spaces in a 50,000 square foot conference facility. Uh we have 500 uh guest rooms, over 500 guest rooms in the project. Uh, and the event space can hold up to 1,600 people. Uh it was a real point of pride to be able to host the Silver Wings uh conference uh about six months after we had opened the hotel. And I think we had over a thousand uh Silver Wings former flight attendants for TWA at their annual gathering, and people just loved the building, and there were a lot of tears uh shed about the love of TWA. You know, the TWA former employees were really a family, uh, more so than just employees. And their the heart of their family uh was the TWA Flight Center, was this building. Uh it was where all the action came, uh, started and ended uh on a lot of the European long haul flights, uh, some of the cross-country flights, and uh it was a uh a wonderful place to be. But uh we do, I think we've had about 80 weddings uh at TWA so far, and uh a lot of pilots and flight attendants, a lot of people met through the aviation industry uh and are getting married at TWA. We've done lots of bar mitzvahs and uh corporate events and jet blues big holiday party last year pre-COVID. So it's a terrific space to have a six or eight-person meeting uh because it's at the airport, and you know, all of the little benefits of meeting at an airport uh with the food and beverage options uh and all of the latest technology. And then we have space for giant events uh as well. So a lot of cocktail parties, a lot of holiday parties. So uh, you know, the point is to have fun at TWA.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:18

Yeah, and people certainly do. I I took some of my friends there, and it's so much fun. That's that's what I say all the time. It's just a fun place to go. Can you tell us a little bit about the Sunken Lounge and the Solari arrival and departure board?

SPEAKER_08 1:17:34

Sure. So the Sunken Lounge is the beating heart of the building. Uh it it is at Maine and Main, and it's where you go to relax and uh watch the planes take off and land uh and have cocktails uh with friends. It is flanked on either side by the vintage Solari boards. The Solari boards we replicated, uh they actually cost, I think, two million dollars to replicate these Solari boards that were the same ones that were there in 1962. Uh and we uh populated those flight boards. They're called a split flap board. Uh it was made uh in Udinae, Italy. The company is actually named Solari de Udinay, and uh wonderful group of Italian craftsmen that made those boards. So we populated those boards with all of the flights from 1962. So the vintage logos, the vintage carriers, and there's about a dozen Easter eggs uh on those flight boards. So we'll see if you can find them all. Uh, for example, uh, there's a flight to Havana uh that is flight 59. Uh so that is the year that Castro took over uh Cuba. And uh so that's one example of the little Easter eggs that are on the flight boards. Uh but they're on both sides. And uh I was actually out there the day they were being uh in their final install. Uh, and the Italian gentleman wearing a hard hat uh with the crane and installing the board, we got to talking, and he was he told me that his grandpappy installed the flight board in 1962 uh in the original building. Wow. So it's really very much a family business. We visited the shop in Udinay, Italy, and watched them manufacturing uh the uh Solari flight board. But the these things are very hard to come by these days. Um not exactly modern technology, uh, but there's a magical sound when the when the flaps turn over uh and it makes you just want to uh go traveling.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:50

So what is it about these iconic airlines, TWA and Pan Am that still captures the public's imagination for adventure and nostalgia?

SPEAKER_08 1:20:02

Well, I I think uh TWA and Pan Am, they were the the zeitgeist in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Other airlines came and went, but almost all of the innovations across the entire industry were either Pan Am or TWA. They were driven by two larger than life characters, Juan Tripp and Howard Hughes, and they were pushing the envelope, and they recognized and acknowledged that uh innovation is important in the business and it is how you compete. So uh autopilot was actually invented on a TWA aircraft, uh the Lockheed 1649A, the Super Connie, that is parked in our front yard. That is it was invented by Kelly Johnson, uh, the very famous and fabled aircraft engineer. And the first in-flight movie was on TWA. Pan Am had a lot of innovations back in the day as well, but these were two companies that were competing head to head and took it very personally to provide a better customer experience. And they both had global networks. You could fly really anywhere in the world on these two carriers. TWA was always fond of saying that it was the only domestic and international carrier. Most people don't realize that Pan Am was really just an international carrier. It flew from the east uh farther east, uh and from the west farther west, and from uh Miami and the south farther south. Uh, but TWA, you could fly from Kansas City to Rome. Uh and in fact, I was I had a fun conversation with uh Cardinal Dolan here in New York. He used to be St. Louis-based, so that obviously made him a TWA flyer. But he would fly from St. Louis to Rome and he would stop over at the TWA Flight Center. This is in the late 80s, early 90s, on his flight to Rome, and he would sit in the Pope's room at uh in the first class lounge in the ambassadors club. Uh, and the Pope's room was named that because the Pope always flew TWA. So that was it was Pope uh Paul VI and John Paul II, both exclusively flew TWA. And that was what these carriers were both doing in terms of innovating. They wanted to be the best, the best at everything they did, and that kind of spirit caused them to be the Coke and Pepsi of the aviation business.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:41

I want to ask you a personal question. So you led the way in restoring and saving this building. How does that make you feel that you were such an important part of preserving the legacy of this great airline?

SPEAKER_08 1:22:56

Uh well, it it's a I I take a lot of responsibility. Uh and there's a lot of people who came and went through this building. I I can't tell you how many folks I've met with over the years who got engaged uh in this building. And, you know, now at the TWA Hotel who are getting married in this building uh or met uh for the first time uh in this building. And it's it's an incredibly important building to a lot of families uh across America. Uh and it's a responsibility that I uh don't take lightly uh and I really frankly feel honored uh to be a part of. The the history of these two great carriers and their competition with one another and the impact that it had on thousands and thousands uh of lives uh is a big deal to America and to the world. And uh to be able to be a part of this uh you know makes it gives me a special feeling inside. And I hope that I'm doing right by uh the the people that came before me in this building.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:07

I'll tell you a quick story. So in late September, I was in the sunken lounge doing some pan Am work on my laptop. Gentleman walked up to me uh and said, Can you take some pictures? I'm going to propose to my girlfriend. And it was just it was just like, wow, this is so cool. Yeah. Right here.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:27

Yeah. Uh no, we we periodically we will uh change the Solari board uh to say, uh, hey Donna, will you marry me?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:38

Interesting.

SPEAKER_08 1:24:38

And uh it happens probably a couple times a month. Um and it just a testament to uh, you know, there's lots of hotels out there, there's lots of uh buildings out there, but there aren't that many really special ones that people uh intertwine their life uh into.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:58

Interesting. Well, thank you so much for joining the Panam Podcast TWA edition. Anything else you'd like to tell our listeners?

SPEAKER_08 1:25:05

Uh well, I just, as I say uh all the time, up up and away with TWA.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:10

And please come to JFK Airport and stay at the TWA Hotel. You will not be disappointed. Thank you so much for your time, Tyler.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:18

Thanks, Tom. Great talking to you.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:56

Pan Am was a pioneer in air travel and still stands as one of the most iconic and innovative airlines in aviation history. That legacy lives on at the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York, where you can explore the rich history of the aircrafts and individuals at the heart of the company known as the world's most experienced airline. For more information about the Pan Am Museum, check out our website at www.thepan Amuseum.org. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As was once a tagline in one of our commercials, we would greatly appreciate your support to help the Pan Am Museum continue making the going great. You can also support the museum by shopping on our online store for all things Pan Am accessories, apparel, jewelry, books, models, and posters. We want to hear from you. If you have a question for us or want to share your story, our email address is podcast at the Pan Am Museum.org. Yes, this is the Pan Am Podcast. However, since this is the TWA edition, we're going to close out this special episode with a TWA song from 1968 by the Fifth Dimension called Up Up and Away. As flight crews once said to passengers departing for their destinations around the world, thank you for flying, Pan Am.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:26

Wouldn't you like to fly up and away? Wouldn't you like to fly up and away?