It was a golden age of flying – glamorized by first class passengers being fed from silver service food trolleys and celebrities posing next to planes before jetting off around the world. Or in the case of Playboy‘s Hugh Hefner, posing on a rug with a girlfriend inside his luxurious customized aircraft ‘The Big Bunny’.
These remarkable photographs capture air travel in all its glory between the 1930s and 1970s. They include Marilyn Monroe posing for photographers at New York LaGuardia Airport and legendary British rock band Led Zeppelin lined up on the tarmac next to their plane The Starship.
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| The president of Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner, with girlfriend, Barbi Benton in his luxury DC-9 aircraft ‘The Big Bunny’ at Heathrow. |
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| Two bartenders prepare drinks for guests at the bar on board the British rock band Led Zeppelin’s private jet, July 30, 1973. |
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| Interior view of a commercial passenger plane shows a woman as she contemplates a move in a checkers game she is losing to a young girl, while a man with a cigarette watches them. It was taken some time in the 1950s. |
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| A Pan American (Pan Am) air hostess serving champagne in the first class cabin of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet (date unknown). |
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| Interior view of the first class compartment of a commercial passenger plane (a Boeing) shows, in the foreground, a well-dressed couple as they smile and enjoy their meal, while behind them a flight attendant in a bow tie serves another happy couple. Taken in the 1950s. |
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| A young woman watches a video on board a private Boeing 720B airliner known as ‘The Starship’, which was used by Led Zeppelin on their North American tour in 1973. |
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| British rock band Led Zeppelin (left to right): John Paul Jones, John Bonham, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, pose in front of their private airliner The Starship in 1973. |
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| American actress Marilyn Monroe poses in 1959 for photographers at LaGuardia Airport before to flying to Chicago for the presentation of her film Some Like It Hot. |
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| British born American actress Liz Taylor arrives in New York International Airport with fellow actresses Grace Kelly and Lorraine Day. |
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| A line-up of some of the air stewardesses who attended to passengers on board Concorde, each one from a different airline. They are standing in front of a scale model of the aircraft. |
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| A couple enjoy cocktails in the smoking lounge of an Imperial Airways Empire flying boat passenger plane in, London, England, in the mid 1930s. |
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| The atmosphere on board passenger planes of the past were a lot more relaxed than you may find today. |
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| Passengers relaxing on the sleeper seats in the new Comet 4 during a demonstration flight at Hatfield in 1958. |
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| A BOAC air hostess greets a passenger in front of a spiral staircase which leads to the upper deck lounge in a Boeing 747 Monarch. Taken in 1970. |
(via Daily Mail)