What do you do with a life-like interior of a 747?

You have fun with it. Anthony Toth, a 46-year-old sales executive for United Airlines based in Los Angeles, loves his memories of the old Boeing 747 airliner with its wide body and upstairs first-class lounge. So he spent $100,000 re-creating the interior of a Pan Am 747 at a warehouse in City of Industry. Then he threw a party, including stewardesses. From the LANG papers, with video and online photo gallery:

When Toth's 11 guests arrived a bit later, they walked into his warehouse and past the ticket counter with the bright blue Pan Am logo. They saw a sign indicating Flight 21 to Tokyo would leave soon. Then they walked onto a short jet bridge, through a real aircraft door and turned left into first class.

On board, they took amenity kits tucked in plastic and filled with goodies like slippers and a damp "refresher towel." They picked up a real set of Pan Am headphones, ones they could plug into a jack on their seats to listen to music or watch the movie projected overhead. They grabbed vintage magazines protected by a Pan Am branded sleeve.

They took their plush seats - the cabin has 18 of them arranged in an alternating blue and red pattern - raised their leg rests and reclined. They looked around. Everything was accurate, from the distance between seats to the overhead bins to the aircraft's shell to the galley Gunther and her three colleagues used to ready drinks. Using his iPad and hidden speakers, Toth had even piped in the humming of jet engines.

It was so true to the real thing, it blurred the line between reality and fiction.

It was as if Pan Am was flying again.

Photo: Stephen Carr/ Los Angeles Newspaper Group