They were pretty cramped width wise (737 is the same fuselage isnt it) but they definately had far more leg room pitch 32-34 being very common. And they were so so noisy especially the 400 series coneway powered and the non fan P&W 300s .
I prefered the DC 8 so long as you got a window seat by a window and of course neither came close to the VC10, which prompts me to anwer the question why did the 707s have turbo compressors and not the VC10. As I recall the DC 8 had them under the cockpit giving the airfcraft a sort of odd toothy look
Maybe they were right about the cabin contamination though