British Pathe

M/S of a group of Chinese and Japanese girls in traditional costume watching Cynthia Arpthorp, Senior Air Stewardess at the BOAC School in Heston, London, fit out a girl (could be Shirley Dee) in the BOAC Air Stewardess uniform. C/U as Cynthia adjusts the girl's hat and turns her around to show how...

M/S of a group of Chinese and Japanese girls in traditional costume watching Cynthia Arpthorp, Senior Air Stewardess at the BOAC School in Heston, London, fit out a girl (could be Shirley Dee) in the BOAC Air Stewardess uniform. C/U as Cynthia adjusts the girl's hat and turns her around to show how the hat should be worn; C/U of a Japanese girl, Nachiko Sagawa, in the group who also wears the uniform; she adjusts her hat too and smiles.

C/Us of Chinese girls, (Grace Eva Chang, Rosa Wou and Jenny Wang) watching; tilt down to show their satin dresses with split skirts ('cheong sams'); C/U of a Japanese girl looking at a book; tilt down to show her traditional kimono, and the split-skirted cheong sam of Ruby Huang beside her. C/U of two pairs of feet belonging to Chinese girls wearing court shoes; panning left to show two pairs of Japanese girls' feet in traditional Japanese shoes (wedge-soled flip-flops - Kiri-clogs?)

High angle M/S as the girl in the usual BOAC uniform walks off and another girl walks into the centre of the group dressed in the new BOAC uniform made for the oriental girls in a cheong sam style (with a rather demure split compared to the real thing!). The girl walks round the group so they can examine the tropical lightweight material used in the dress and jacket.

M/Ss on a mock-up of the interior of an aeroplane as male stewards (including Chief Instructor Mr Lawrence) place food (it's real!) on a trolley and serve drinks, snacks and meals to the trainee girls who are sitting in the plane seats; this is so they can learn what the service means to the passengers. Commentator tells us when the training is over they will become assistant stewardesses, working with English girls on Far East routes. C/Us of the girls eating and being attended to. C/Us as Kazue Tokorota watches Mr Lawrence trying to eat with chopsticks in the aeroplane seat beside her; they both laugh; she shows the way to do it.

Note: there is a small news article on file (mainly about cheong sams again) and some nice b/w 7x5 photos of the girls from the BOAC press office.