JULY 19th - Mile-High Movies



On this day in 1961, TWA became the first airline to show an in-flight movie. On a flight from New York to Los Angeles, TWA’s first-class passengers were shown By Love Possessed starring Lana Turner. As far as I can tell from the synopsis, the movie was a human drama focusing on love affairs, simplified from a critically acclaimed, best-selling book by James Gould Cozzens. Sounds like some Fifty Shades stuff, except that the author could, you know, write. Apparently, the book caused a bit of ruckus nationwide. I’m not saying people just started cheating on their spouses. But it did come out in 61, and free love and swingers and all that came not too long after that. Could be a correlation. My point being, was this really the best movie to show to a bunch of rich people on a cross-country flight? Was this the first instance of the mile-high club? I mean you get all your passengers all revved up watching a sexy movie, what do you expect? Only thing worse would be showing a movie involving a plane crash or a hijacking. I mean do they show 50 Shades in-flight? They shouldn’t. Not because people would start humping uncontrollably, but because I’m pretty sure it’s a shite movie and people shouldn’t be subjected to it. In any case, hoo-ray for TWA, for forward thinking. Movie choice notwithstanding, because of TWA, instead of listening to the guy sitting next to you with the halitosis and no regard for personal space, you can simply ignore him and watch a movie. Be it a crappy love story that has swept across America giving them the desire to find their "inner goddess" or something that is actually good, it’s always better to have options.

This Day has been Marked.

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