1950s

On April 13, 1962, America’s last night boat service ended as the Old Bay Line’s steamers made there final voyages on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay ending service between Baltimore and Norfolk. Known officially as the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, which had come to be known as the Old Bay Line, it had been doing its thing since the ... Read More »

Oscar-winning Bad Day at Black Rock was the first MGM film to be shot in Cinemascope. An American thriller film, directed by John Sturges and starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan, that combines elements of the western genre with that of film noir. The supporting cast includes Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, Lee Marvin, and Ernest Borgnine. Released in 1955, the movie was filmed in California. A town was built on location at Lone ... Read More »

In October 1959, Ruth and Harry Hotz boarded the SS Homeric in New York and sailed south on a seven-day voyage that would turn out to be one of the last cruises to the island until briefly in the late 1970s and then recently. SS Independence, SS Homeric, SS Constitution docked in New York.  Bob Hotz, their son, recalled his ... Read More »

North Carolina School of the Arts’ “OKLAHOMA!” Recreation of the 1943 original production of the most produced American in history proved that the UNC had the hand on presenting great theater. National known conductor John Mauceri served as musical director and artistic supervisor of the stage production. Oklahoma! – Looking back… By the early 1940s, Rodgers and Hammerstein were each ... Read More »

The 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train operated by the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967, during which time it would become known as a “National Institution” and advertised as “The Most Famous Train in the World.” Movie stars were regular passengers on the 20th Century. Kim Novak drew enormous attention from rows of businessmen ... Read More »

The Paramount Theatre opened in January 1923 as Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre. It was the second largest movie palace in California, San Francisco’s fabulous Fox Theatre was the first. Both were demolished in the 1960s. Elvis Presley appeared in person at the Paramount in the 1950s. Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood were featured on the gigantic screen in “The Girl I ... Read More »

Aerial view of the handsome Dutch passenger cargo liner ORANJE NASSAU, one of two sisters built in 1957 to the order of KNSM and used on North Europe to the Caribbean regular service until about 1972. The largest passenger ships in the KNSM’s fleet, ORANJE NASSAU, and her sister were very popular with round-trip passengers as a cruise-like trip. In ... Read More »

National holidays were celebrated onboard liners and cruise ships with special events and elaborate menus. From Russian Caviar to Filet Mignon to Ice Cup, Independence Gourmandizes. The menus are classics in cuisine prepared onboard and not the fresh frozen cruise meals aboard today’s cruise liners. Here are a number of Steamship Lines celebrating the 4th from the 1900s into the ... Read More »

Appearance was very important to women during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. 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 to the grocery store, the airport, to run errands or to pick up the kids from school. This was especially true for ... Read More »

Star of Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO, Janet Leigh is ready to board the famous SUPER CHIEF and Virginia Leith, star of A KISS BEFORE DYING shows us the all-Pullman train during the 1950s in a promotional film. Even the characters from TV’s MAD MEN may have been aboard the train all through the 1960s. A lot of executives would take the ... Read More »

In the late 1940s, the Milwaukee Road introduced the Olympian Hiawatha, the transcontinental version of the railroad’s very modern fleet of Hiawatha passenger trains. The original version of the train was the Twin Cities Hiawatha, which began operating between Chicago and the Twin Cities on May 29, 1935, one of the first streamlined trains ever to be introduced in the ... Read More »

Raymond Loewy, whose modern concept of everything from fountain pens to airplanes, ships, and railroad trains won him the title of America’s foremost industrial designer. His basic design philosophy was behind the creation of the interiors for Matson’s luxury liner Lurline and modern ticket office in downtown Los Angeles in 1948. These were the ultimate in mid-century design. “We translated ... Read More »

The Southern Pacific’s Streamliner Coast Daylight was the West’s finest train in the 1940s, 50s and early 1960s, linking Los Angeles and San Francisco in a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless mile. Chair car passengers had full access to the Coffee Shop, Diner, and Tavern cars. The two ... Read More »

Horseracing was popular on liners and cruise ships during the 20th Century. The following is from a young man’s diary who sailed with his parents First Class from San Francisco to London via the Suez on board the RMS Oransay in the 1960s. A NIGHT AT THE RACES Tonight, there is the gala event: The “Pacific Winding Race Meeting.” On ... Read More »

In the 1950s pioneer shipping executive Arnold Bernstein wanted to offer superior Economy Class steamship liner services from New York to Europe offering all staterooms with private facilities aboard the SS Atlantic. Bernstein had chartered in the summer of 1948 a passenger ship the CONTINENTAL (ex ANCON of 1902) for four round voyages from New York to Plymouth and Antwerp. ... Read More »