THE PAST AND NOW Travel and Social Media – News

We proudly feature a creative video from Oceanliner Designs & Illustration. About the Titanic video: In April 1912 the RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage – but what if it didn’t? In this episode I present a likely alternative history drawing from real-life events and the career of other ships ... Read More »

Raymond Lowey’s basic design philosophy was behind the creation of the interiors for Matson’s luxury liner Lurline and modern ticket office in downtown Los Angeles. These were the ultimate in mid-century design for California’s famous steamship line. Raymond Loewy, whose modern concept of everything from fountain pens to airplanes, ships, ... Read More »

EARLY CRUISING The earliest ocean-going vessels were not primarily concerned with passengers, but rather with the cargo that they could carry. Black Ball Line in New York, in 1818, was the first shipping company to offer regularly scheduled service from the United States to England and to be concerned with ... Read More »

In the mid-1800s, the Irish-born Gracmid-1800ss, William Russell, and Michael established a commercial and shipping business in Callao, the port of Lima, Peru. They prospered, especially in the exporting of guano from the Chincha Islands to the United States, where this fertilizer was in considerable demand. Excellent 16mm Silent home ... Read More »

Larry Driscoll’s book “The Last Great Race”  fascination with ships started as a 7-year-old, when he, his mother and two siblings boarded the S.S. America to cross the Atlantic to join his father in Paris, who worked for the Voice of America. Driscoll recalls how the ship — in the ... Read More »

Known as the “Queen of Sea,” the Merchants and Miners Transportation Company Steamship Line operated one of the finest fleets of passenger steamers on the Atlantic Coast and ranked foremost as one of America’s top tourist routes. It was said to be the only line plying between Baltimore, Savannah, and ... Read More »

Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr.’s twin interests in baseball and Catalina Island – he bought Catalina in 1919 and gained a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs in 1921 – dovetailed nicely when he made the decision to have the Cubs train on Catalina starting in 1921.  In doing ... Read More »

Along with the Daily Kos, I was involved in the 2007 decision by the FEC that blogs were media just like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. The 2007 U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) found that political blogs and bloggers are media for the purposes of ... Read More »

When stars traveled across country via train in the 1940s and 1950s, they would have a 10-hour layover in Chicago. Between trains, like the Super Chief from Hollywood and the 20th Century Limited heading to New York, they would have eight hour layover. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, ... Read More »