Author Alan Renga received a master's of arts in history from San Diego State University and is the associate archivist at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. Mark Mentges holds a master's of library science from the University of California at Berkeley, where he headed the Reference Department at the Education-Psychology Library and was a research specialist at the Business Library. He currently volunteers at the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives. In this unique volume, together they document the history of the airline using the museum's extensive PSA photograph collection.
Title: BOOK REVIEW: PSA history captures airlines's sense of fun
Author: Jim Trageser Publisher: North County Times Date:
11/28/2010
Hawaii and Alaska have their namesake airlines, and Hawaii also had
Aloha Airlines for a good run.
But San Diego may be the only city that was associated with an
airline.
A new book from Arcadia Publishing, and written by two staff
members from the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park, will
remind locals of how much the long-gone Pacific Southwest Airlines
personified Southern California in the 1960s and '70s.
Largely a photo history drawing on the museum's extensive archive,
"Pacific Southwest Airlines" reminds us of how influential the
regional airline was. A trend-setter in both business practices and
pop culture, PSA's influence was felt far from its relatively small
service area.
Photo after photo makes two points very well: The smiley faces
painted on the front of all the PSA jets remain a potent symbol of
a very smart corporate branding effort, and no airline contributed
more to the stereotype of stewardesses in that era.
In fact, it was PSA that was first to dress its female flight
attendants in miniskirts, the first to adopt hot pants as a uniform
item, the first to issue go-go boots.
Looking at some of the vintage photographs in the book will leave
you wondering if you're reading a history book or looking at
outtakes from a lost "Austin Powers" movie.
The book begins with the roots of PSA as a flight school founded
after World War II to provide civilian flight instruction to former
military pilots hoping to get jobs in the booming post-war airline
industry. From small prop jobs up through the latest jetliners of
the 1970s and early '80s, the history of PSA is also the history of
the modern airline.
The accompanying text does a nice job of providing context to the
photos. For instance, the section on the crash of Flight 182 in
September 1978 not only provides information on each photograph,
but also explains how the crash spurred safety improvements
throughout the industry.
The story, of course, ends with PSA being bought by USAir in
1988.
But the book also points out how PSA's innovations live on, if not
its sexist approach to flight attendants.
Today, the very successful Southwest Airlines continues to employ
many of PSA's business practices, with a particular emphasis on
friendly service that Southwest's founders openly adopted from PSA
when they began Southwest as a regional Texas airline in the late
1960s.
A large company that is remembered for its friendliness?
There's a reason San Diegans still take pride in their association
with PSA.
"Pacific Southwest Airlines" Authors: Alan Renga and Mark E.
Mentges Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Binding: Softcover Pages: 128
(mostly photographs) Price: $21.99
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