Nearly forgotten but glorious art, envisionings and historical oddments from the back corners of the internet
Mary Gordon, TWA advisor on women’s travel needs gets her own post. One of these photographs I used a few days ago. It had not occured to me that there had been such a job as hers as I think (as far as I know) my grandmothers packed their own bags. Maybe not! But not with Mary Gordon’s help whatever they did as none of them lived on the West Coast.
Travel testing of clothes is one of Miss Mary Gordon’s activities. As travel advisor for TWA, she must know all answers on how to pack travel wardrobe in one suitcase. Type of clothes and their place in suitcase are most common problems. Order number 00142462. Photograph caption dated April 9, 1955. Photographed somewhere in California’s San Fernando Valley. American. Photographer not given but it was shot for the Valley Times. Valley Times Photograph Collection, TESSA, Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. Fair use license. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/70850Answers given to travelers: Job of Miss Mary Gordon, above, TWA’s travel advisor, is to provide answers to numerous questions of women travelers. She has extensive experience in field of travel. Order number 00142461. Photograph caption dated April 9, 1955. Photographed somewhere in California’s San Fernando Valley. American. Photographer not given but it was shot for the Valley Times. Valley Times Photograph Collection, TESSA, Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. Fair use license. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/70849Tourists told how to pack for Europe: Attractive Mary Gordon, TWA advisor on women’s travel needs, in talk at May Company Valley, tells crowd of Valley Times-TWA registrants for May 9-June 1 Europe tour, what they will need and how to pack for the trip. Demonstration followed display of tour fashions by models before throng in May Company Tea Room. Tour is being handled by seven Valley travel agents. Photograph caption dated May 20, 1959. Photographed somewhere in California, probably at a May Company store in the San Fernando Valley. American. Photographer not given but it was shot for the Valley Times. Valley Times Photograph Collection, TESSA, Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library. Fair use license. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/56023/rec/3
Helen Day Stevenson Meyner (1928-1997) was born on March 5, 1928, in New York City to William Edwards and Eleanor Bumstead Stevenson. Helen Meyner was graduated from Rosemary Hall High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1946. She graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a B.A. in history in 1950. While at college, she was a member of the Gamma Phi Beta social sorority.
She joined Trans World Airlines (TWA) in September 1953, working out of New York, as TWA’s national Consumer Advisor, “Mary Gordon.” One reason Meyner took the job was that it allowed her to practice her knowledge of five foreign languages.
I don’t know whether this is Ms. Meyner posting as Mary Gordon or this lady was based out in California and also called herself Mary Gordon on professional occasions. TWA also published pamphlets with hints for traveling with children, basic travel wardrobes and other subjects. They are are of today available on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/157127080887 and a menu translator pamphlet here https://www.etsy.com/listing/1254018406/vintage-1960s-twa-airlines-menu and a pdf of one of her packing advice articles on page two here file:///C:/Users/owner/OneDrive/Desktop/twa_7369.pdf
On a voyage to see how much mileage I can get from the creative ability and eye for images that my family thought was useless. On line art curator, fiction writer and now blogger. Historian's daughter. Follow me . . .even I have no idea where I'm going next.
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