Pan Am Brands ready for prime-time takeoff

The company manufactures Pan Am bags, watches, T-shirts, cufflinks, and other items, including re-creations of the airline’s once-ubiquitous blue and white flight bag. The warehouse is packed with merchandise sporting the Pan Am logo, ready to be shipped to customers around the world.

There is keen awareness here that a hit network show could mean a boom in Pan Am business. “Our hope is that everybody out there understands Pan Am in the way we do, and understands why it’s so much more than an airline,’’ said Stacy Beck, director of brand development at Pan Am Brands.

The ABC series will feature the fictional adventures of a group of glamorous pilots and stewardesses as they jet around the world in the 1960s. People who have seen the pilot episode describe it as a stylized airline version of “Mad Men,’’ the critically acclaimed AMC cable network series that chronicles a New York ad agency in the 1960s. In fact, in one “Mad Men’’ episode, when main character Don Draper and his wife, Betty, traveled to Rome, they made the trip on a Pan Am Clipper.

Pan Am Brands and the producers of the forthcoming ABC show spent more than four years negotiating the licensing agreement that allows the show to use the Pan Am name and logo. Pan Am Brands will receive royalties, but declined to disclose the financial terms.

Beck said it took several years to finalize a deal because the company’s owners “have a strong passion for the name and they want to make sure that it is never damaged or used improperly. It’s Hollywood. We recognize that it is a drama, but we wanted to make sure that overall, the Pan Am story was being told properly.’’

Former Pan Am stewardesses fondly remember the glamour of air travel in the years when flying was a special occasion.

“It was a real event,’’ said Anne Sweeney, a 17-year veteran of Pan Am who handles public relations for World Wings International, a nonprofit charitable group composed of former airline employees. “Everyone dressed up.’’