Madeline

She wrote this herself about her career at Eastern Airlines: (circa 1995)

MADELINE MOON STERNBERG
A brief history of my Eastern Air Transport career:

In January, 1931, my sister, Marion Moon Aldrin, and I flew to Washington on Eastern Air Transport as a guest of family friend, Bill Pawley, then president of Companie de Cuba, a subsidiary of North American Aviation, as was Eastern at that time. For this action, he must receive much of the credit for introducing us to an idea which would lead me to flying as a career. Pawley took us to Washington with the understanding that we would give him our feelings about the hostess service which was on probation at that time. I became interested immediately and asked him who I should see to apply for a hostess position. I started flying after a short briefing with no real indoctrination. The briefing consisted of riding in a plane to see how well I could tolerate flight. The feeling at the administrative/promotional level was that having hostesses rather than stewards would persuade more women to fly so that they would be more comfortable about seeing their husbands fly on business, and that was to be one of the main focuses of our job. We were asked to report their reactions to flying. It was more of a PR job in those days. We were invited to go to various womens organizations and speak as well as appear on radio programs and television to promote interest in flying. (Yes, there were the first rudiments of television in 1931, though no one had a TV set as we know it today) I appeared on television in Brooklyn, W2XAB on Monday, Dec. 17, 1931, to discuss my experiences with air travelers.

On my first unsupervised trip, the plane became stuck in the mud in Baltimore, so that's where we spent the night. We returned the next day.

We had numerous interesting passengers, among them, Helen Keller, Will Rogers and Ernie Pyle.

The New York office had phoned me in Richmond to say that Rogers was coming up from South America on our Kingbird to board our plane and would I take the opportunity to talk to him. He was an advocate of parachutes for passengers and had written about this in his daily news articles. I did have the opportunity when he was sitting alone in the back of the plane, and when I tried to explain why parachutes were not practical in commercial transportation, he said in typical Will Rogers fashion, "Well, I guess it would be like asking a passenger for his name and address and where he wanted the body sent."

Helen Keller, the famous blind and deaf welfare worker and author, flew with us, remarking on the feel of the powerful engine vibration. When the pilot landed in Baltimore, it gave Miss Keller a chance to walk around the plane to experience the size of it.

Ernie Pyle once wrote about the publication, Sky Lines - Air Travel Guide, as follows: "The magazine has an imitation of Vanity Fair's page, 'We recommend for the Hall of Fame.' It is entitled, 'For further useful life, we recommend .... ' Under one of three pictures on the page, it says: 'Madeline Moon, because she left an interesting job as head of the creative art department of a large metropolitan store to take a more interesting job as hostess on an Eastern Air Transport plane, because she has been around a good deal of the world and lived in the Philippines, because she is a member of the junior branch of the Women's Club, and finally, because she makes an ornamental addition to this page.' Madeline flies through here every day on one of Eastern Air's big condors."

In those days, flying was not much like it is today. Hostesses served G. Washington instant coffee, distributed newspapers, and often had time to sit down and play cards with passengers. On one flight, I helped hostess an airborne birthday party at 3,000 feet for the wife of a New Jersey public official. When I flew aboard the old Ford trimotor, the pilot would turn around to try to determine what was causing the plane to become unstable. He had to adjust the stabilizer whenever I walked up or down the aisle. A newspaper article at the time commented that mine was "the world's most popular job" for women. The airline reported receiving 10,000 letters from young women seeking the position.

Until Hurricane Andrew wreaked its devastation on South Florida, I was living in a townhouse near Kendall Drive and 137th Avenue. The roof blew off and extensive water damage followed. I am currently residing in Miami Springs with my oldest daughter, Gretel, my grandson, Walter (a prosecutor for the Broward State Attorney's office), a golden retriever named Ben, a dachshund named Heidi, and two beautiful cats.