Alistair Gordon
speaker
62 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Alistair Gordon’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
But not only was that way out of the way, but it was just, they couldn't expand it enough to be a modern airport. So yeah, so then he said, my ticket says New York City. So they flew him to Floyd Bennett Field where someone picked him up and drove him to the mayor's mansion.
Yeah, I think he might have been the last in some ways to have that kind of clout. And that's how LaGuardia Airport came about, which now seems like, I don't know if you fly in there ever. I do. It's not a wonder of the world. No, no, no. But it was.
And even the Nazi regime, who were obsessed with airports and aviation, they came and studied it because it was, at the time, it was the biggest airport in the world.
LaGuardia Airport could handle so many, I can't remember exactly, but you know, 30 planes at a time. No one else could do that. And it was because of this, the central terminal was pretty conventional. I mean, it could have been a railroad station. But a bunch of unknown engineers, I was never able to find out who actually did it. They created this thing called the Skywalk Boarding Pier.
Very few people go to the airport anymore to watch planes come in. I mean, there are nerds who are sky watchers or whatever they call them. But most people go, you know, now just to meet people or travel themselves. But then it was a big deal. So they were trying to separate the gawkers from the actual passengers, and then passengers used the lower level.
So it was the first, in a way, you know, really thought out, engineered master plan for what an airport could be, how it could function more efficiently.
Post-war period, there was this huge, huge boom in air travel because all these GIs who had flown to Europe, you know, they were used to sitting in an air transport. That wasn't a big deal. So Suddenly after the war, there was this massive boom in air travel. And at that point, they realized, you know, it was more than just a self-contained building. You needed these things.
They called them skywalks. You know, these things extending out. Originally, they called them boarding docks or boarding piers. And again, as with the skywalk at LaGuardia, it was a way to get multiple planes near the terminal all at the same time.
Yeah, it's like a railroad station.
Yeah, this had a lot to do with that 1950s expansion of tourism. More Americans could afford to fly to the Bahamas, or fly to Jamaica, or fly to South America.
Well, becoming the jet.
So a lot of the promotional for new jet air travel was, you know, have breakfast in New York, you know, at the plaza and have dinner at the Savoy in London, you know, that same day. You know, you can get up in the morning, go to LaGuardia Airport, and you can be in the Bahamas or Jamaica or wherever.
Instead of a ship slowly poking through the Caribbean or, you know, the Mediterranean or wherever, you had these instant kind of arrivals. It changed everything. It changed the way hotels were run. It changed the way inner-city transportation was maintained. And it affected almost everything.
I mean, there was a huge spread in Life magazine about Friendship Airport Baltimore when it opened in the 50s. And they made a big deal about that there was a shoe shine shop. In fact, there was a shoe repair shop and there was beauty salons. There was a beauty salon and there was, you know, a bookstore and several restaurants and bar and everything.
I think it depends on the economic bracket you're talking about and, you know, what city you're talking about. I think for New Yorkers, they were very at home flying. The whole term jet setting came in in the 60s, right? I mean, that was about people who had money who would fly to Paris or London or New York or wherever, and it wasn't a big deal.
And they were jet setters because it was just part of their life. But it still was romantic and sexy and I remember we always dressed up. I mean, you know, I would wear, at the age of 10, I'd have a blazer and a tie and nice shoes. You didn't go to the airport wearing a sweatshirt and sneakers. When I was 16, my older cousin, who was English, was staying with us in the summer.
My father took us to, first, the World's Fair, you know, 1964 World's Fair in New York, in Flushing Meadow. And then he took us to a terminal at Kennedy. because my cousin was flying back to London. And that's when it seemed just like a miracle and all the stewardesses were beautiful. The pilots were handsome and the carpeting was fresh, bright red carpeting.
And this incredible space age shape that had been created by Saarinen, you know, to look like a bird in flight was just so sexy and so romantic.
Two and a half years later, when I was 18 and going to study in Paris myself, I traveled from TWA. It was already kind of falling apart, and it wasn't so cool anymore. And you could tell the difference in deterioration that fast? Yeah, well, I mean... I remember the impression. I was so excited to be flying from there.
But as soon as I got there, you know, the carpet was sort of turning up at the edges. It just wasn't, you know, that might have all been in my mind, I know. But no, I think that's how rapidly it happens. By that point, airports were getting really badly crowded. Once this 747 came in, it really changed the whole formula. Airports couldn't keep up.
Showing 21–40 of 62 · page 2 of 4
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