Never an awkward moment: Before inflight movies and Wi-Fi, passengers passed the time by reading books or newspapers. Or by caressing their necklaces and gazing off into the middle distance.
Card games: Airlines often provided playing cards to help pass the time. There's clearly something other than cards going on here though. Why else would a young Dick Nixon be taking notes in the corner?
Chess: And then there was chess. We're not fooled by this guy's bow tie -- even the cabin crew is two moves ahead of him.
Checkers: Back then, it seems, everyone loved children on flights. Maybe when the only alternative was chess and cards, people genuinely enjoyed being around their offspring. Maybe the drinks trolley hadn't been by yet.
Pre-dinner drinks: Today's sky bars keep their booze safely stowed. If this flight hit turbulence, the bottles would've gotten just as smashed as the passengers.
Canapes and cocktails: In-flight canapes were regularly offered to the "pearl set." Uh-oh, it's the guy in the bow tie again. Let's hope he didn't take as long to choose his food as he did to make a chess move.
Pilot power: The plane's captain, often a rugged veteran of the skies, sometimes made the rounds. The visits were good PR and helped calm the nerves of nervous passengers -- if a seventh round of martinis wasn't doing the trick.
Kids meals: Fussy children weren't catered for with cartoon character fun meals back then. Nope, these kids got whopping steaks and they were happy about it.
Silver service: Dinner for adults came with white linen table cloths and full waiter service. Caviar, salad nicoise and a charcuterie platter for her. Cupcake for him.
Young fliers: Many children were members of young fliers clubs which provided them with log books to record their travels. Pilots would sometimes stop to chat to youngsters -- hopefully to inspire them into careers in aviation and not to ask for directions.
Sweet trolley: Afternoon tea with full silver service might seem old fashioned, but check out the woman in the window seat. That dress with built-in napkin is jet-age technology in action.
Smooth ride: This publicity photo was used to show how smooth the new jets were compared to older propeller aircraft. And how much more mom enjoys this game than her daughter.
Pre-jet age: This shot shows life on board a Douglas DC-7, a plane popular before passenger jets took over. The only thing smooth aboard this 1950s piston-powered aircraft was the guy with a tweed jacket and light for the ladies.
CNN  — 

Nowadays we can actually live tweet our own mid-air meltdowns, but how on earth did people entertain themselves on planes before the dawn of Wi-Fi and gadgets?

Movies have been shown in the air since 1921 – yes, really – but once upon a glamorous jet age we managed to get by without the in-flight entertainments we today take for granted.

The staff at AirlineRatings.com have gathered these vintage photos that recall a golden era of aviation, when to board a plane was to step into an exclusive world of luxury travel.

The images show that back in the 1950s and ’60s, planes apparently resembled exclusive clubs where the cast of “Mad Men” – or is it “Airplane!”? – swilled cocktails, chain smoked cigarettes and played chess while waiting for the cake trolley to arrive.

Newspapers, books, playing cards, chess and, Lord help us, even interacting with the kids helped pass the time, according to the photographic evidence.

Comparing yesteryear’s aviation experience with the often cramped and poorly catered conditions faced by many of today’s long haul fliers, it makes us wonder where it all went wrong.

Happier days?

Flying on fumes: Planes used to be smokers' paradises.

Geoffrey Thomas, editor of AirlineRatings.com, points out that while the images may appear to show happier days, few got to experience them.

“With the advent of jets, travel was far quicker, vibration-free and typically above the worst of the weather,” he points out.

“However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing because not even commercial jets could get over the highest thunderstorms and weather radar was rudimentary.”

Luxury didn’t come cheaply

Such luxury came at a price, not unlike today’s first-class offerings.

“These images reflect the dress of the day for the well to do who could afford to travel by air,” adds Thomas.

“London to Sydney and return cost 30 weeks’ average salary in 1960, whereas today it costs one week’s wage.

“Men wore suits and for ladies, pearls were mandatory.”

And, of course, spoiled as we are by today’s cigarette-free environments, no one wants to pay good money to passively smoke someone else’s Dunhill’s.

No matter how improbably engineered their brassiere is.