The Grumpy Traveller raises a glass – and an eyebrow – to celebrate 75 years of the Smile High Club,

If you're getting on an aircraft this month you're in luck.

You can greet your hostess with a big cheesy grin, ask for a glass of champagne – which you won't get if you're flying on one of those cheapskate airlines - and then wish her happy anniversary.

This month is the 75^th anniversary of the air hostess. It's three quarters of a century since Ellen Church, the first air hostess, was flying with Boeing Air Transport, later to became United Airlines

Today, of course, US flight attendants (it's not politically correct to call them air hostesses any more, but we'll ignore that) are having a brawl with bankrupt United Airlines in an effort to preserve their hard-won pensions.

How times have changed. I am indebted to Porter Novelli Australia for providing me with the job specifications for air hostesses in the 1930s.

At that time, female cabin crew should be:

• no taller than 5ft 4in
• weigh around 115lbs or less
• be trained in home nursing and cooking
• have a good speaking voice and a "charming" manner
• and, most importantly, should not be '"the flapper type of girl".

Applicants matching these criteria could expect to earn US$125 a month for 100 hours of flying.

Let's examine these criteria in light of what we find on board our aircraft today.

On a recent Valuair flight from Singapore, I estimated the height of the air hostesses at around four feet in their white sneakers. And they probably weighed less than my cabin baggage.

One of the hostesses performed a song for the passengers when we landed, although this probably wasn't enough to qualify her as a "flapper type of girl" because she didn't dance as she sang.

Maybe I should have quizzed her about her home nursing and cooking skills to make sure she was qualified for the job. "Excuse me, miss, but should I add cinnamon or cloves to my apple pies?"

Airlines these days remain sensitive about their cabin crew revealing more than they should. Delta fired one of its hostesses for posting provocative photos of herself on her website, http://queenofsky.journalspace.com.

In one photograph, her skirt is hitched to mid-thigh as she perches along a seatback on an empty airliner. In another, she is leaning over the seats, her blouse unbuttoned, exposing part of her bra.

The lady in question, Ellen Simonetti from Austin, Texas, is suing Delta for unfair dismissal and has renamed her blog, Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant.

She says she was simply doing her best to project the image of a stewardess from a bygone era. "In the past people expected flight attendants to be young and attractive," said Ms Simonetti.

I'm sure United's Ellen Church and the first British air stewardess, Roseamond Gilmour, working for BOAC in 1943, met the criteria for youth and attractiveness.

The Grumpy Traveller has a suggestion for Ms Simonetti. When she has finished pursuing Delta through the courts, she should give Sir Richard Branson a call. She looks like Virgin's type of girl.



IAN JARRETT is based in Fremantle, Western Australia from where he travels frequently in Asia on assignments for travel magazines.

He is a member of the BamBoo Alliance, a group of leading travel writers in the region. He can be contacted at ianjarrett@mac.com