This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Pan American World Airways, or Pan Am, was an international airline that was in business from 1927 through 1991, when it ceased its operations after over a decade of mounting financial losses and having to declare for bankruptcy.

The company, despite being defunct for seventeen years, is still well remembered in pop culture. The blue circular logo has made such an impression that it is put on designer travel bags to signify traveling in luxury today.

Beyond that, Pan Am will always be remembered as the airline that brought the Beatles to New York City in 1964, as well as the airline that con man Frank Abagnale, Jr., passed himself off as a pilot for, which was later immortalized in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can.

Pan Am was featured prominently in a number of other films. One of the most notable appearances was the Pan Am "space clipper" in Stanley Kubrick's science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Pan Am brand was also displayed in the movie Blade Runner, and the company is said to be one of many, along with Atari, Cuisinart, and others, that suffered from the "Blade Runner curse" -- companies whose logos were featured in the movie experienced disasters and have since gone defunct.

Continue reading Companies that vanished: Pan Am, cultural icon

Companies that vanished: Pan Am, cultural icon originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.