Alistair Gordon
Appearances
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
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.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
The fascinating moment is 60s, early 70s, you have a really pretty intense series of hijackings, you know, mainly Cuban exiles who were hijacking planes to go back to Cuba. Also, you know, that famous bombing in Jordan where terrorists blew up three airplanes on the runway at the same time. It was kind of extraordinary.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
So to your first question about, you know, why do you buy a suitcase in an airport? Suddenly you had this incredible group of people who had ready cash, or at least sparkling credit cards, and you've got them trapped for three hours, you know? I mean, like the ideal capital situation, right?
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
It began with just simple shops, certain kind of newsstands and snack bars, and now it's huge luxury items, you know, that...
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I mean, do you ever go through security and then go back out through security to have a smoke or something? No. Once you're through that nightmare, do you really want to go through it again? Yeah. You know, whereas before 9-11, it wasn't that big a deal. So, yeah, you really have them stuck there.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
And of course, that concourse, what the engineers called the sterile concourse, you know, you've been stripped of any possible dangerous weapon, but you also can't leave. So you're the ideal target for marketing.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Yeah, yeah. It's no great secret, you know, and that new airport that opened in Dubai or the new terminal, it's only got like, you know, the highest level of luxury goods for sale in this place. And people apparently now go there who want to get Louboutin shoes and they don't want to go all the way to Paris. They go to the airport to buy their shoes. Yeah.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I think the people who go to the shop, they don't just go in and buy a shoe and then leave. I think they're going somewhere. But, you know, they don't wait to go to Paris. They get it there because it's just accessible. I mean, I do it too. We're all kind of sluts for, you know, commercials. Shopping is a kind of an addictive habit.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I always look, you know, occasionally buy a piece of clothing at a good airport. But there's a moment of, I think there's this sort of intoxication, you know, when you go into a place and it gets your mind out of the realities of what's happening around you.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Oh, totally. Yeah. And it could change so quickly. I mean, if I'd done that thing I did in Singapore whenever it was, you know, pre-9-11... If you did that now, you would be a terrorist. I mean, I've seen even people at those security checkpoints, you know, just someone who's haggard and tired and angry and hasn't had a meal, you know, whatever. And they say something rude to the security guys.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
And they're practically arrested on the spot. The other reaction that I find fascinating, and I've been tracking this a little bit, is airport designers attempt to address that high level of angst, right? San Francisco built in one of their terminals, they have a yoga and a meditation center, which I've used and actually is wonderful.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Yeah, you just go in and do a lotus position an hour before your flight. It's very nice. You go through the horrors of security and then you go... They also have a beautiful bamboo grove. I mean, that's That to me is almost more important than any of the economic stuff. The idea of addressing just the horrors of the anxiety of travel.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Getting them out of that headset of like you're just cattle being prodded through a horrible cattle gate.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
You want me to be an expert in who's buying baggage at a fucking airport? Who do you think I am? Jesus Christ. Oh, let me just call up my friend in the luggage department. I have no idea. I think I do know one thing. Occasionally I go to this, you know, this Woodbury Commons. It's upstate. It's this incredible discount place. But it's super luxury goods.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I mean, you go there and the line outside Gucci shop is like about a mile long because you have these Japanese, Germans, Italians. I see all of them are their families from China and they get there. And this is true. This is not an airport, but they buy huge wheelies. You know, not the wheelie that you and I use when we go on a weekend job interview or something.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
these giant things and they filled them with all this luxury goods because it's half the price of what they'd pay in Tokyo or Paris or whatever.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I'm not saying that's the only reason. No, I mean, I think some of it must be that. But some of it's also when you're traveling, you know, it's not a bad time to push the sale of a suitcase, you know, to someone who's traveling. I mean, I've bought a few suitcases at airports. You have? Yeah, I mean, I bought a new one at Istanbul Airport because it was really nice.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Istanbul has an amazing airport. I bought myself a new suitcase there because it was the best thing I'd ever seen. My wife or someone had taken the bag I usually took on long trips, and I needed a new one. And I was sitting there for three hours, and I went, well, I'll just buy this now. It seems kind of overpriced, but it's really nice. I don't know. This is, again, anecdotal. I have no idea.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Yeah. Yes, you know, to get into my personal life. I remember taking the suitcase, the brand new one, which is way too expensive. I would never normally buy a suitcase that expensive. Transferring all my stuff from the old suitcase into the new suitcase, zipping it back up, going to the bathroom, coming back and having a new suitcase that I had to then go and check in and throwing out the old one.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Where did you throw it out? Oh, my God.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I thought I would never find the person I was looking for when he was in front of me the whole time. I went over to a garbage receptacle that was large enough to, you know, was not a hard case suitcase. It was sort of a, you know, crappy duffel bag type thing.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Yeah. Yeah, but you can crumple it up into a ball and put it into a garbage can. I mean, now I feel like I'm being cross-examined by the district attorney or something. I swear, Your Honor, I swear, I swear.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I can write a whole book about it, actually.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I was writing for the New York Times for about 20 years, and then I was with the Wall Street Journal and traveling a lot, in airports a lot. And I think it was in Singapore. It was four in the morning, some connecting flight back to L.A. or something was canceled. And I just had one of those airport freakouts completely melt down. Yeah.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I had to get to another plane and I missed it and it was four in the morning and my bag went into some, you know, labyrinth of doom. And I kind of went nuts and tried to go down, you know, the belt that brings the baggage up from below. Wait, you tried to go down the luggage conveyor belt? Yeah, this is pre-9-11, so they didn't shoot me. Nowadays, you'd be dead before you got near it.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
You know, I'd been drinking 40 gallons of coffee and writing on a deadline and everything. So at that moment, I thought, well, who the fuck made this? How did this happen?
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I'd gone to the New York Public Library and to the Air and Space Archives in Washington, just looking for sort of cultural background in airports. There was a ton of technical stuff, you know. There virtually was nothing that was just taking the airport as a cultural phenomenon or an artifact, whatever you want to call it.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
So anyway, I started to just pull things together, did a bunch of articles, and then... an editor I was working with said, you know, there's a famous book on railroad stations, but I've never seen anything on airports. So that's kind of how it started. Then literally 10 years later, it took me that long to gather material. I interviewed hundreds of characters from around the world.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
So it was sort of an attempt to humanize a place that seemed so inhuman to me.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
What's the beginning of the story? That took a long time to figure out. It was Lindbergh, Charles Lindbergh, flying into Paris.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Lindbergh was literally a barnstormer, right? So he's this guy who's an incredibly youthful, athletic, handsome American taking off from Long Island where he barely got over the trees.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
And he comes in, and when he's trying to land, it's at night, and he couldn't believe that Bourget, Le Bourget, which was the first big urban airport in Paris, he couldn't believe that it was an airport because it looked too big. He thought it was a factory. He thought he was about to land at a factory or something. And it was this huge, you know, incredibly well-designed airport.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
In terms of history of airport evolution, the Europeans were way ahead of Americans. In Europe, there was this sort of tradition of beautiful urbanistic railroad stations, and they kind of adapted that for their first airports. Most American airports were barns, you know, or hangars with nothing. Maybe there was a little room put aside in one of the hangars for passengers to sit and wait.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
But the Ford Airport in Dearborn, Michigan, was the first that I could find. Comprehensively designed American airport. Had a terminal that was just for passengers. So you weren't in danger of being, you know, chopped in half by propellers and stuff. Was that happening? Were people getting chopped in half by propellers? Yeah, it was dangerous. Also, you know, there were so many crashes.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I mean, it was pretty horrible. You know, there was a good chance the plane was going to crash and you were dead. So people were very, very... nervous about flying.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I mean, basically, the first commercial air travel in America was the mail service because you could make money from the government carrying air mail. And passengers were almost like a second thought. Most of them in the beginning were salesmen, you know, who could beat out the guy taking the train to Detroit by flying there, but at a risk, at a huge risk, right?
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
I don't think many people, if they didn't have to fly, they didn't.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Congress was mainly Republican at that point. They didn't want anything to do with aviation. They thought it was dangerous, thought it was stupid.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
Yeah, they felt it was a crazy thing that would go away. It was like a fad. They really didn't believe it. That's so funny. Yeah. It's so funny that like flying would be like a new progressive idea. Yeah, I know, I know.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
He needed to rebuild the North Beach Airport, which is where LaGuardia is now. Most of that was from the federal government, but he, you know, pushed it through. I mean, he was very good at that. He was very bullheaded and just did it. There's a famous story of him. I think he bought a ticket on Pan Am to New York, and it said New York City.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
And of course, New York City's main airport then was Newark Airport. Newark Airport's very old. And it was in those kind of wetlands in New Jersey, so they had a lot of room to spread out. So he arrives in Newark, New Jersey. with a ticket that said New York City. And he said, look, I'm the mayor of New York City. This is not New York City. Everybody knew it was obviously a publicity stunt.
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Who buys luggage at the airport luggage store?
So they flew him to Floyd Bennett Field, which was at the time New York City's main airport. And it was a disaster. I mean, Newark was the main airport, but in terms of New York City in New York State, the main airport was Floyd Bennett Field. It's still there. You can go out and see the you know, the hangars and everything's really cool.