November 26, 2025
Temple University Libraries/Special Collections Research Center
In this photo from August 1970, Miss America, Pamela Anne Eldred, shares a bag of cherries she brought from Atlantic City for the trip with other pageant contestants, just before boarding their flight.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched considerable chatter when he suggested that air travel would improve if people put on a smile and dressed up for their flights. Civility and "class," he said in a release and subsequent interviews, were the solution to the reported 400% increase in in-flight outbursts since 2019.
To hammer home the point, the Transportation Department released a PSA scored to Frank Sinatra's classic "Come Fly With Me" with vintage footage of travelers in suits and dresses walking through airport terminals. The music turns ominous when the video pivots to more recent clips of flyers settling into their seats with bare feet.
"I think — again, I call this — just maybe dressing with some respect, you know, whether it’s a pair of jeans and a decent shirt," Duffy said at a Monday news conference. "And I would encourage people, maybe dress a little better, which encourages us to maybe behave all a little better."
Many have been quick to counter that frequent flight cancellations, the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers and disappearing consumer protections might be bigger hurdles to smooth travel. But just how different was airport fashion decades ago? We combed the special collections at Temple University for images of people on the tarmac and terminals of Philadelphia International Airport from the 1950s through the 1970s. The pictures reveal a lot more heels, ties and skirts, but some sneakers and bell bottoms, too.
Fans greet the Vesper Boat Club, returning from their win at the 1964 Olympics.
Trevor Smith, a member of the Philadelphia Music Academy's boys' choir, shows his parents Welsh currency after returning from a 1969 trip abroad.
A group of women receive a navigation lesson at the Philadelphia International Airport in 1955.
Wilt Chamberlain, then a center for the 76ers, greets fans at the airport in 1967.
Phillies fans wait for their flight to Los Angeles in the Philadelphia International Airport terminal in 1977.
Eleven nurses from the Philippines arrive at the airport to start a one-year training program at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in 1965.
Myrna Hurwitch, center, a Russian exchange student at the University of Pennsylvania, meets with fellow students at the Philadelphia International Airport in 1959.
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