Nas Asas da Panair is how the 1974 song by Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant, which had the titles Missing Panair planes e chatting at the bar, played by Elis Regina.
"The beer I drink today is // Just in memory of the times at Panair // The first Coca-Cola was // I it well now, on the wings of Panair // The greatest of wonders was // Flying over the world on the wings of Panair".
On the Wings of Panair is also the title of the exhibition that the Museu Histórico Nacional [MHN], in Rio de Janeiro, opens on July 11, at 11:30 am, curated by historian Mariza Soares.
The exhibition features items from the collection created in 2017 as a result of a partnership between the company Panair do Brasil and the Panair Family, an association that brings together former employees of the company. Over the course of a year, nearly 700 pieces were collected, including objects and printed promotional material.
On February 10, 1965, Panair do Brasil had all its flight concessions suspended, by order of the President of the Republic Marechal Castello Branco. The allegation, which proved to be untrue, was that the company's financial situation was irrecoverable. Unable to operate, the company dismissed the employees, but the company's financial health allowed everyone to be compensated.
In the following year, still under the shock of the dismantling of the company, the Panair family. Since 1966, the group has met once a year to preserve the company's memory and the friendship between them.
The idea of creating a collection with items that each one kept from the times of the flights came up in 2016, in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Panair family.
Almost all contributed with leaflets, commemorative medals, uniforms, ornaments, crockery, handbags, gifts, photographs, tapes and CDs with interviews, other types of documents and small luxuries, such as a fountain pen protector, linen napkin and silver cutlery from the “Panair times”. Some objects were purchased at the company's liquidation auctions.
About the auctions, Carlos Drummond de Andrade wrote a chronicle, published in the Jornal do Brasil in October 1969:
[…] And no one there felt anything special in front of the defeated body on the Panair, with its intestines on display. Almost everyone would have used their lines, eaten their dinners, read their Brazilian newspapers in Paris, but the time was for sales, not homesickness. […]
Since its initial conception, the donation of the collection to the National Historical Museum was foreseen. For two years, Rodolfo da Rocha Miranda, CEO of Panair do Brasil, coordinated the collection of memorabilia, which was simultaneously organized by historians and museologists.
All employees had their donated items ed and photographed. Panair do Brasil financed the construction of the collection and this exhibition as a tribute to its employees, their families and all those who, over the last fifty years, have contributed to keeping alive the memory of the company and those who contributed to it.
Exhibition
Historian Mariza Soares explains her curatorship: “For this show, items were selected that attest to the company's modernity and its high standard of operation, then known as the 'Panair standard'. But more than that, the collection attests to the determination of Panair family to fill the void that the closure of the company left in their lives”.
“The donors, former employees and their families, did so in the certainty that by donating their personal relics to an institution such as the National Historical Museum, they will give them up to create a collective collection that will outlive everyone and prolong the memory of the company and of your employees”, argues Mariza Soares.
The exhibition set illustrates the curatorial concept of modernity and high quality with around 300 items: crew clothing – uniform and props, on-board service – tableware [Rosenthal porcelain], silver cutlery [Eberle and Fracalanza], gifts – keychain, ashtray, playing cards, pen, toiletry, sewing and correspondence kits, personal photos and documents found at the National Library and at the National Archives, and newspaper articles, mainly from the time of Panair's closure. There is a wide selection of promotional graphic pieces of national and international itineraries, brochures, on-board menus, booklet for tickets and other brochure materials.
About Panair
Exactly 90 years ago, in 1929, a subsidiary of the American company Nyrba [New York–Rio-Buenos Aires] appeared in Brazil, which, the following year, was incorporated by Pan American, and was renamed Panair. It was the main airline in the country.
In 1961, with the entry of entrepreneurs Celso da Rocha Miranda [1917-1986] and Mario Wallace Simonsen [1909-1965] Panair had its long process of nationalization concluded.
Rocha Miranda, from Rio de Janeiro, had the largest insurance brokerage in South America; Simonsen, from São Paulo, was the biggest coffee exporter in the country, owner of TV Excelsior and dozens of other companies.
