After spending more than two decades anchored in Philadelphia, a retired ocean liner is preparing to make waves once again. The SS United States, which holds the record for the fastest maritime journey across the Atlantic Ocean, has been docked at Philadelphia’s Pier 82 on the Delaware River since 1996. Since then, several plans to revitalize the cruise liner have sputtered. But ... Read More »
More than a 250 stars attended the September 1954 Pantages Theatre gala premiere. Many predicting an Oscar sweep for the films with top acting awards going to Judy Garland and James Mason. More than 20,000 fans were spectators at the Pantages premiere demanding Warner Bros and the Los Angeles Police Department to organize traffic pans for the premiere. VIDEO OF THE NBC COVERAGE ... Read More »
The MV AUREOL of 1951 was a hard working, much-loved liner that linked Liverpool (and later Southampton) with West Africa in the waning days of the British Empire. She was operated by Elder Dempster Lines, one of the UK’s largest shipping companies, and during its 150-year history, it operated more than 500 ships. Based in the historic port of Liverpool ... Read More »
The Canadian Pacific Line’s 6,000-ton Princess Kathleen, queen of Alaskan liners, was 18 miles from Juneau on the last trip of the season from Vancouver, B.C. to Skagway, Alaska. It was 3:15 a.m. Most of the 425 passengers and crew, including Captain Graham Hughes, were sleeping. A light rain was falling, but the lookout reported fair visibility. The final moments of ... Read More »
Chasen’s was a glamorous world – “Celebrity chefs” will never replace stylish hosts and personalities such as Dave Chasen or Vincent Sardi or Mike Romanoff. The “chefs” were in the kitchen. Not greeting you at the front door! Now the once famous eatery is a supermarket catering to the newly rich and what Dave Chasen would call the déclassé. No ... Read More »
In July 1956, the SS Andrea Doria sank on the last night of its voyage from Italy to New York City. With over 1,134 passengers aboard, including Hollywood movie stars Ruth Roman and Betsy Drake, barely 100 short of her passenger capacity of 1,241. There were 190 first class passengers, 267 cabin class passengers and 677 tourist class passengers, which ... Read More »
This is the first in a series of blogs on the Mexican railway service. These are scenes of Buena Vista Terminal in Mexico City and school children visiting on a morning sometime in the early 1970s. Buena Vista was built in 1961, replacing the older terminal. It was vast and modern. When I could, in the early 1970s, I traveled ... Read More »
The floating palace for the rich and famous: Vintage photos reveal glamor on board the Queen Mary during her early voyages sailing from New York to Europe – Across the Pond! The Art Deco liner was the largest and fastest passenger ship in the world when it launched. The Queen Mary hosted the wealthy and elite, including Winston Churchill, John F ... Read More »
Judy Garland is on the passenger list and its the Captain’s Dinner Night on the SS United States… And it is the one night that Judy Garland left her stateroom. Pictured: Sid Luff and his wife Judy Garland with a friend John Carlyle at right. 1956 1st Class Dining Room – the SS UNITED STATES… Cunard Line Passenger Lists Cruise History: ... Read More »
Eastern Steamship Lines operated coastwise overnight passenger services along the Long Island Sound between New York and Boston and to other Northeast Coast ports including Portland, Maine, along with services to Canada and cruises. VIDEO OF EASTERN STEAMSHIP LINE CRUISE 1937 CRUISE – NEW YORK TO NOVA SCOTIA ABOARD EASTERN STEAMSHIP COMPANY The vessel at the beginning of the movie ... Read More »
Southern Pacific’s deluxe streamliner Lark was the premiere overnight passenger between San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Los Angeles. A favorite of businessmen and movie stars. The Lark rivaled such famed overnight all-Pullman trains as the 20th Century Limited, Broadway Limited, Capital Limited and Panama Limited. Premiering on March 2, 1941, the Lark was a streamlined train with cars in ... Read More »
The Queen’s Christmas broadcast is a traditional feature of the festive season where the head of state can express her thoughts about the past year. Here is the first speech and today’s speech. 1957 Christmas Broadcast The Queen wrote her first speech with the assistance of advisors. The monarch made her first Christmas broadcast live on the radio in 1952 ... Read More »
During her 24 years of service, the Orcades (1948 to 1972) sailed more than 2 million miles on cruises and liner voyages from the UK to Australia/New Zealand along with cruises in the South Pacific and from the West Coast of the USA and Canada (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver) to Australia, the Orient, and Europe. CW: The Orcades; Davis ... Read More »
Matson Lines SS Lurline was half way from Honolulu to San Francisco on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The SS Lurline missed the Pearl Harbor attack and made her destination safely, cruising at maximum speed, and soon returned to Hawaii with her Matson sisters SS Mariposa and SS Monterey in a convoy laden with troops and ... Read More »
Benjamin Gaines, 93, worked as a Pullman porter from 1945 to 1954. “The porters, believe it or not, we had a celebrity status,” he said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. (Cover Photo: CW: Janet Leigh, star of Hitchcock’s PSYCHO boarding the Super Chief in fashion layout; Porter during the 1960s looking out at the Kansas prairie: Pullman Porter’s ... Read More »
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