SEATTLE, Jan. 25, 2024—On Feb. 10 the Museum will offer a preview screening and filmmaker discussion of Fly With Me, a new documentary premiering on the PBS American Experience series. The film looks back to the 1960s and the times that followed when flight attendants were maligned as feminist sellouts, yet they were on the frontlines of a battle to assert gender equality and transform the workplace. A panel discussion after the screening will include the film’s writer and co-director Sarah Colt, author and former airline attendant Ann Hood, and Mary Pat Laffey Inman, the airline purser whose 1970 class-action lawsuit demanding equal pay for women pursers helped change workplace equality. The 3 p.m. event is free with Museum membership and included with general admission. Space is limited and pre-registration is suggested.

Watch the Fly With Me trailer.

Fly With Me Panelists

Sarah Colt (Fly With Me Director, Writer) has directed and produced multiple documentaries for American Experience, including the Emmy-nominated Walt Disney, The Gilded Age, Henry Ford, The Polio Crusade, and, most recently, Billy Graham, which premiered in 2021. She founded Sarah Colt Productions in 2008 and has earned several awards for her work, including an Emmy and a Peabody nomination.

Mary Pat Laffey Inman became the first woman hired as a purser by Northwest Airlines. In 1970, she filed a class-action lawsuit to demand equal pay for women as pursers, beginning a legal journey taking 14 years until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor.

Ann Hood was a TWA flight attendant for eight years beginning in 1978. She published her first novel in 1987 and has written more than a dozen award-winning books including Fly Girl, her recently published memoir about her career as a flight attendant.

Emmy Award winning Executive Producer of American Experience, Cameo George will moderate the panel discussion. George is a producer, writer and journalist with more than 20 years of experience in documentary, broadcast television and digital content production.

 

Images: Photo from Fly With Me, stewardesses circa 1970. Credit: San Diego Air & Space Museum. Fly With Me logo art courtesy PBS American Experience.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:

Ted Huetter/Senior Public Relations Manager
T: 206.768.7105 C: 206.455.5360 Email: thuetter@museumofflight.org