By Brad Dison
Flying commercially in 1970 was a much more relaxed experience than it is today. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s is fondly considered “the golden age of travel.” Flying was more glamorous and luxurious. Many people dressed up to fly. Men often wore suits and women wore dresses. Their children were also dressed to impress. Smoking tobacco during flights was perfectly acceptable. Cocktails and other alcoholic beverages were often complimentary to passengers during flight. The food was comparable to that served in fine restaurants, often with multiple courses. The distance between the seats, the legroom, was normally between 36 to 40 inches. Today, legroom averages about 28 inches. There were no electronic devices, so airlines provided all sorts of entertainment to help passengers pass the time. At one point, American Airlines held in-flight fashion shows down the aisles. Airport security at the time was almost non-existent when compared to what it is today. There were no metal detectors, no scanners, and no drug-sniffing or bomb-sniffing dogs.
On Monday, September 21, 1970, William James drove to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on what was his 20th birthday. He bought a ticket to fly to Denver, Colorado, and waited to board his plane. He passed the time by chatting with another passenger. William was jovial because he had left his teenage years behind and had entered his twenties. While William was waiting to board the airplane, he jokingly told another traveler that he had two bombs in his luggage. Even in the relaxed atmosphere of commercial flying in 1970, claiming to have a bomb on an airplane was nothing to joke about. The other passenger passed the information to the ticket agent who immediately called a nearby United States marshal.
Shortly thereafter, a marshal pulled William aside for questioning. William tried to explain that he was just joking, but the marshal found no humor in his claim. About that time, Chicago vice detectives stepped in though the airline had not called for outside police assistance. The detectives had been waiting to arrest William based on a different tip they had received about his luggage. The marshal and Chicago detectives carefully searched William’s luggage. The marshal was relieved that they found no bombs, but the detectives were delighted because they found what they were looking for. Inside William’s luggage, they found five bricks of marijuana which weighed two pounds each and had a street value of about $20,000. Adjusted for inflation, that would be just over $163,000 in today’s money. The detectives arrested William and transported him to jail.
On the following day, the judge in Chicago’s narcotics court saw no humor in William’s bomb claim but was lenient in his sentencing. Rather than jail time, William was sentenced to probation. In this incident, many people surely told William that he was not funny and to take life seriously. Luckily for us, William did not listen because he is known around the world for his humor. The man who was arrested for carrying 10 pounds of marijuana in his luggage after he jokingly claimed that he had two bombs on an airplane appeared in many films including “Caddyshack,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Groundhog Day.” The world knows William James Murray as Bill Murray.
Sources:
1. Jacopo Prisco, “What the ‘golden age’ of flying was really like,” CNN, August 5, 2022, accessed May 18, 2025, cnn.com/travel/article/golden-age-flying-really-like.
2. Chicago Tribune, September 22, 1970, p.3.
