Since the teleprompter was the major communication tool, it never stopped hammering message after message, day and night. Sending text was done by typing the document on a punched hole ticker tape, then transferred to a sending apparatus which enabled the message to be send in seconds much faster than anyone could type. It intrigued Herbert, and he was using this device any time the teletypist was busy doing something else. After a few months he was offered to become the operator for this communication appliance, which he took gladly. To him it was a promotion. Since it was not a constant busy task, he was helping out with: FARES & TARIFS. This is a complete science in itself. Fares had to be constructed with the help of large volumes of books, not easy when it was a fare to be constructed from place A to B and C with a side trip to D. Even journeys around the world were different depending what city it started and where it ended. A client who planned such a trip went from travel agent to travel agent to get the best price, because they were different each time he asked for it. All airline offices and travel agents, in the same city, had a system to ask each other for answers to a complicated fare construction. Herbert was getting good at it and soon his coworkers, who had to construct a difficult price tag for a ticket, consulted him. Once in a while, he went to the ticket counter to help out when there were a lot of customers present. Tickets were handwritten documents and made out on the spot for easy ones, meaning tickets from A to B and return. They had well known tariffs. A more complicated ticket had to be requested by a potential passenger and made out at a later time, for reasons mentioned before.
Not long and Herbert was promoted to be at the ticket counter. He liked it with a passion, since he enjoyed being in contact with people.
He was sent to England to attend a course in FARES & TARIFFS. This class was held at the White Hart hotel across from the Queen’s other residence, the famous Windsor Castle. When Herbert arrived at London Heathrow airport he was met by a limousine driver and addressed as “Sir”. It sounded so strange to him being spoken to in this form by an Englishman. Thinking back when he was a driver for the British Forces in Hamburg and talked this way to his English bosses. He enjoyed the fourteen days there and came home with a diploma for a successful completed mission.
One day a newspaper article announced: Pan American World Airways is hiring girls to become stewardesses to be flying out of the United States.
Hell broke loose after that!
Herbert at the ticket counter was selected to hand out applications to those aspirants and file these forms after completion. The majority of these papers were filed by him in the waste basket. Following given comprehensive instruction, of course.
Amazed by the willingness by so many young women to leave their country and venture out into a world of uncertainty.
The goal was to select about thirty to forty females, who would be informed by mail, about their status and when to report for a final interview.
A five persons committee was expected to arrive from the States, to make the final selection.
When the time for those interviews had arrived, the same office in the basement was selected, where Herbert received his first impression of this industry, two years ago.
A large table was placed with five chairs behind it. Another chair was positioned, at some distance, in the middle of this arrangement, facing the interviewers.
One by one were summoned to come down, by means of telephoning Herbert at the ticket counter. The last person to be interviewed was Herbert. He had approved himself to be a finalist. When he showed up, the surprise was theirs. He sat down in the torture chair, wearing already the uniform of this airline; he thought it would give those people an inspiration of what he would look like as a steward.
“We don’t hire any guys!” was the opening statement of this quintet!
“I know, but I like to be in contact with people, and I can see myself doing it on airplanes,” was his response.
So the interview took place and ended, like all the others, with the usual statement:
“You will be notified!”
Meaning: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you!”
Herbert considered it as case closed and was more than surprised when a cable arrived; few days later, with the question:
“When is he available to come to the US of A?”
His superior congratulated him and agreed to help him in any way possible.
Now a big problem was to tell his wife.
He had mentioned it to her with the true explanation that only girls were able to get this job and both had taken that fact as a final consequence.
But now Herbert had to come clean to explain the circumstances of his next to no time departure to the new world. His better half and his new born daughter had to follow, naturally. That was a huge concern to him of how to tell his wife.
Many times, in the past, she had stated: “Not even ten horses will be able to haul me out of Hamburg!” And that troubled Herbert a lot.
On his way home, in a rattling streetcar, he tried to imagine the scene confronting his spouse, balancing, one approach after another, of how to bring the news across in a smooth way. He finally decided to give her a choice, to go to America for ONLY two years or to stay.
And so it was.
Thirty three years later he retired from Pan Am and is still living in Miami.
Pan Am sponsored the chosen ones, a very important arrangement and absolutely necessary to immigrate to America.
When the selected ones showed up at the office with the letter of acceptance, they received their instructions to report for a physical examination to a designated doctor and to a throat, nose and ear specialist. Afterwards X-rays and a visit to the American embassy were necessary to obtain a training visa. Mandatory vaccine shots for smallpox, tetanus, cholera and yellow-fever had to be taken, and voluntary inoculations were suggested for polio and influenza. A large amount of cash was required to be able to pay for food and drink, hotel and transportation. After all this, they finally got their FREE one-way ticket to New York with the guarantee for a return ticket in case of failure to successfully complete the training.
Herbert had the pleasure to make out his own ticket, how many immigrants could do that?
The first uniform was paid for, but later deducted from the paychecks. All in all, it was a very expensive and risky venture, without guarantees. A six month probation period was also stipulated in the contract. It could mean a dismissal without explanation, leaving that individual in the cold. A return ticket was not provided, after the completed training, neither a refund for the uniform. The starting monthly salary was $ 231.50, even in 1957 not enough to jump for joy, or to write home about it.
Chapter 2 Training
When Herbert arrived at Idlewild (now JFK) airport, a supervisor of Pan Am met him, and drove him to a small hotel, in Kew Gardens. There he found some girls of the same class he was assigned to, and who had arrived earlier, either from England or Germany, no other country.
There were a total of 25 hopefuls to become flight attendants and Herbert was the only male. He was called, later, the boy with his harem.