When the Fox Theater was built in 1929, it seemed as if there weren’t enough adjectives to describe the movie theater’s magnificence. The San Francisco Chronicle called the opening “a spectacle of such beauty and magnitude that it seemed rather a fancy of one’s mind rather than the inaugural night ... Read More »

When Ernie Byfield opened The Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel on October 1, 1938, he undoubtedly had little idea that he was beginning an enterprise that would still be thriving to this day. Today, The Pump Room remains highly acclaimed restaurant and Chicago landmark. Located in Chicago’s Gold ... Read More »

From 1914 to 1949 the RMS Aquitania crossed the pond between New York, Canada, and Europe carrying celebrities, tourists, businessmen, immigrants, and war brides. The RMS Aquitania was the longest-serving Cunard liner built in the 20th century and to survive service in both World Wars. ARRIVES IN NEW YORK AS WORLD ... Read More »

Sailing from New York on board a cruise ship was a fashion statement for many women in the 1950s. Appearance was very important when ladies always looked their best when they stepped outside their homes. Newsreel clip of fashions 1950 onboard the SS Homeric.  It didn’t matter whether they were going ... Read More »

  The American Harmony has arrived at the Port of New Orleans. The newest ship in American Cruise Lines’ groundbreaking series of 5 modern riverboats, will remain docked in its homeport of New Orleans until it departs on its inaugural Mississippi River cruise this August 17th. New Orleans is monumentally ... Read More »

The great German liner Bremen, which ran a British blockade, ended her career in a scrapyard. After docking in New York on August 28, 1939, only four days before the outbreak of World War II, Captain Adolf Ahrens of Germany’s North German Lloyd shipping line was faced with a decision. ... Read More »

Premiere Passenger Trains during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s  were the finest in the world. With excellent meals, suburb Pullman service, dinner in the diner, club lounges, train secretaries, barbershops, cocktail bars, observation cars… trains like the Super Chief, 20th Century Limited and the California Zypher were world-famous.   New ... Read More »

Six months after the Nazis celebrated Kristallnacht, the German transatlantic liner MS St. Louis sailed on May 13, 1939, from Hamburg Germany. The voyage became a symbol of American and Canadian heartlessness, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. CUBA PROFITED WITH HEAVY FEES FOR VISAS Flags were flapping in the wind and well-wishers ... Read More »

The Titanic didn’t just send hundreds of its passengers to the bottom of the ocean—it also took all the evidence of what life was like onboard for the ill-fated travelers. Or at least it would have, were it not for Father Francis Browne. Frank Browne’s mother died whilst he was ... Read More »

By the mid-1950s, with the postwar passenger boom at its peak, more than 50 passenger liners sailed the sea lanes between New York and America. Among the most splendid were two new ships of the Italian Line, the Cristoforo Colombo, and the Andrea Doria. Newsreel of the Andrea Doria They ... Read More »