The Friendly Skies: Career Girl Romances 24 - "My Love Had Wings"

The June 1964 issue of Charlton's Career Girl Romances (#24) actually starts out with a stereotype - "an airline hostess leads an adventurous and romance-filled life" - and that is certainly the underlying theme of this and other air hostess romance stories from the 50s and 60s. In the 1960s romance comics particularly, career women don't abandon their job the second some guy proposes. As we'll see with this story, Marie Willard wanted to milk the excitement of commercial aviation first before she thought of settling down at some as yet to be determined future point in her life. But I'm jumping ahead. The story begins with a review of how Marie came to be interested in becoming an air hostess in the first place. It looks like she lost her mother when she was young, and was traveling with her father when she encountered Della Reeves, a friendly airline hostess. Marie was inspired by Della's kindness, and on that journey Della became the female role model that the young girl lacked. There and then Marie's ambition to follow Della into the friendly skies was born, and with her father's encouragement she did just that when she grew up, coincidentally having an older and higher ranking Della as her trainer years later.

Marie's training finished, she's off on her adventurous life as an air hostess. From the last panel on page 3 of the story, it looks as though air hostesses are to pilots as nurses are to doctors.One of the pilots on Marie's plane doesn't hang about when it comes to making a play for Marie, but Della had warned her not to think of romance during her first year, and the new air hostess is determined not to blow her new career. She puts Nick right in his place, and he has to be content with just being friends. That way, though, they do end up spending their leisure hours together. Then Marie goes to meet her father while she has a bit of time off, and wow guess who he's with - Della! It must be difficult to move on from the untimely loss of a spouse, but Della had been like a mother figure to Marie, maybe she's what Marie's dad needs now. Della and Marie's dad are dancing, and then Nick invites Marie to twist (this could be the beginning of her moral decline, if you believe what you read in romance comics!). It seems that patience has worked in Nick's favor - Marie has developed some attachment for him.

 

The point of the story, though, is that Marie isn't going to sacrifice her career for romance. But all that globe trotting puts her in contact with a variety of men, and some of them are bound to be attracted to a shapely blond air hostess. Hamil for instance, a desert prince by the look of him, who wants Marie for his bride - she sets his blood on fire! Luckily Nick sees what's going down and comes to her rescue. By now Marie knows she loves Nick, but she still loves her job more. They arrange to meet in different places on different forthcoming occasions and it looks like that's how it will continue until Marie's had enough and wants to settle down. Will Nick wait for her? We'll never know!

 

Quite a clear message to young women that if they wanted this career and all its romance in the 1960s, it meant foregoing marriage and motherhood.