By Sandy Wells KABC News
Nowadays, air travel is not unlike bus travel, cheap, abundant, cramped and often degrading. An exhibit in Pacoima is offering visitors a taste of the elegance and grace associated with travel before deregulation in the 1980s transformed the industry. Anthony Toth is the program director for The Pan Am Experience of Air Hollywood.
“It was so different back then. Our experience on board the airplane actually starts outside the aircraft in what we call the ‘First-in-Class Clipper Check-in Desk.’ It’s a replica of how you used to check in at an airport. And there’ll you’ll pick a seat, be issued a boarding pass and then be invited into our Clipper Lounge, which is filled with lots of Pan Am memorabilia from a collection that started when I was about five-years-old.”
On board the aircraft – which is a complete Boeing 747 aircraft – guests are served by ten flight attendants dressed in the original Pan Am uniforms.
“Everything inside the aircraft is authentic – the china, the glassware, the silverware, the linen. And you will feel just like you are flying aboard that airline.”
The Pan Am Experience offers special programs designed specifically for autistic children, bringing in psychologists and specialists to the studio. The experience is designed to acclimate the kids to the process of going through security, getting on the plane and taking a trip, all of which is often a terrifying ordeal for an autistic child.
“We recreate the sound effects, we experience the sound of flying. So these families can then go on trips with these children.”
Toth was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show.
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