Pan Am as a Representation of Miami

Though one of the world leading's airlines failed after economic issues in 1991, Pan American captured travelers' imaginations in its enticing advertisements, promising the lure of an exotic in no time. Its ads represent important moments in United States history. World War II, the Cold War era, and the deregulation of the 1980s were reflected in each of Pan Am's ads. Each image caters to a different emotion from the justified patriotism in the '40s to the sensibility of the '50s. While the advertiser's intent is to create emotion, do these emotions connect to Pan Am's base in Miami? Did Pan Am's visual history open the world to its southern base? Did Miami's globalized future stem from an emotion that began in a magazine advertisement for Pan Am?

In the style of literary nonfiction, I hope to argue how a Pan Am advertisement describes an emotional history of the time and, subsequently, a representation of Miami. This ad will shape the personal portion of the essay in the same way Ayaz did for Kumar's "Flight." A close reading of an ad helps the various analyses for Pan Am and its ties to Miami. Having visited Special Collections in the University of Miami, I did not find many ads trying to get travelers to visit Miami specifically but Florida. Miami's present state must have started with the beginnings of the commercial airline industry. Its port and gateway to Latin/South America have roots in Pan Am. Pan Am's ads may explain Miami's uniqueness in its balance of reality versus spectacle, the predominance of foreign banks and markets, and its racial/class tensions. Does Pan Am's larger role as a world airline indirectly symbolize Miami?

William E. Brown Jr. states, "Pan Am would help take the world to Miami, and would do so on time." ("Pan Am: Wings to the World," 145). Is there any validity to this statement?