Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola
One of my colleagues, the archivist at Delta Airlines, posted a story earlier this week about how Coke was first served on Delta flights. Attached is a link to that story:
http://blog.delta.com/2009/05/22/delta-stories-1940s-in-flight-service/
Unfortunately, for the flight attendants, those small buckets did not last long. By 1941, stainless steel carriers were placed on all flights. Loaded with filled bottles, packed in ice, those carriers must have proven to be quite a challenge for women whose height could not excedd five foot, five inches and whose weight could not exceed 120 pounds. According to an article in one of our internal publications, the women needed to have the following qualities:"Complexion must be clear, teeth good, and physical condition perfect.
My name is Phil Mooney, and I've served as the historian/archivist for 
Wow! Never seen one of those buckets. Does Coca-Cola have one in archive? Does Delta have one? Have you ever seen one Phil?
Posted by: Ray | June 01, 2009 at 04:11 PM
Neither Coca-Cola or Delta has one of those buckets in their collection. I have never seen an actual one, just photos of them. It would certainly be a very hot collectible if one were to hit the marketplace.
Posted by: Phil | June 01, 2009 at 05:34 PM
Enjoying this Coca-Cola/Delta history! We only have a few photos of the bucket in the Delta Archives from about 1940-1941. Most of our early Coca-Cola service photos show the stainless steel carrier.
As Phil notes, being a flight attendant, or "stewardess" as they were called in those days, was glamous, exciting but hard work, especially working flights through the South in the summer with no air conditioning. You can see air vents in the photo above pulled to open position. That let in some fresh air from the outside. The plane is a 21-passenger Douglas DC-3. If you would like to tour one, and see our other restored planes, go to www.deltamuseum.org for tour times. Unfortunately, we do not have a stainless steel carrier on display in the DC-3 - still looking for one for our collections.
Marie Force
Posted by: Marie | June 02, 2009 at 02:08 PM
Delta Air Lines used to have a less-than-stellar reputation for customer service. But thanks to a shift in management attitudes (and encouraged, perhaps, but its huge financial losses) Delta now seems much closer to “getting it.” A new program, internally referred to as “First Point of Contact” is allowing customer service agents and reservationists to provide better service, to the benefit of all the airline’s passengers.
Posted by: Deltalina | August 03, 2009 at 01:28 AM
Those buckets are really rare. They were probably only used for a year or so. By 1941, stainless steel chests had replaced the buckets on most flights. These new chests were not lightweight, and loaded with Cokes and ice, they must have been a real challenge for the flight attendants to manage.
Posted by: compact flash | November 09, 2009 at 06:19 AM