Wednesday, October 05, 2011

VERY FRIENDLY SKIES by Jan Kendrick (Warner 1976)

That new Pan Am teevee show doesn't seem to be getting very good reviews from you Groovy Agers, so I thought I'd slap up some real vintage stewardess grooviness.  Justin Marriott of Paperback Fanatic actually brought this one to my attention (as he's done so many other groovy titles), for which I'm grateful, because besides having fun, gorgeous cover art (by M. Kane--anyone familiar with him?), it's a pretty good entry in the genre.

It follows the three pictured stewardesses on several legs of a South American jaunt--from getting hijacked to Cuba, to scheduled stops in Bogota, Buenos Aires, and finally Rio for Carnival.  They get mixed up in various political and black market intrigues, have flings with various married men, and when the men don't thrill them they just have hot lesbian sex with each other.

Given the complaints about lack of smoking in Pan Am, I paid close attention to see how often it might be mentioned here, and I have to say, it hardly receives any mention at all.

Fortunately, there's at least one sequel, and I hope to have a review of it up within the next few days.  Stay tuned, and stay groovy!

3 comments:

Kelly Robinson said...

I'm reminded of the non-fiction book about hanky-panky in the skies in the '60s, as reported by real stewardesses. I believe it was called "Coffe, Tea or Me?"

Curt Purcell said...

Exactly, Kelly--but beyond that, there's a whole genre about naughty stewardesses that predates that particular title. It began with the "paperback original" flowering in the fifties, and really caught on in the sixties in both the "sleaze" market and the more permissive mainstream one as well.

t-hom said...

i wasn't a huge fan of PAN AM. I dig MAD MEN much more as a period dramatic series.

if you dig on horror stuff still, you should check out this short film in the ABC's of Death competition hosted by the Alamo Drafthouse!

http://26th.theabcsofdeath.com/t-is-for-teddy/