CELEBRITIES

Looking very chic, HRH Princess Michael of Kent recently attended the opening exhibition of Juan Bastos: California Portraits at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The rich exhibition of 40 portraits of prominent Californians painted by Bastos, the Bolivian-American artist, a longtime resident of Los Angeles. The exhibit was part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (Latin American & Latino ... 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! No credit cards were honored! Credit was by house accounts only. Not based on credit scores but on celebrity scores. Now the ... Read More »

In the late twenties and early thirties, American Airways was created through the acquisition of dozens of smaller airlines throughout the United States. Great video of American Airlines in the 1930s… Like most airlines, at the time the company profited by carrying United States mail. In 1934 American Airways Company was acquired by E.L. Cord, who renamed it “American Air ... Read More »

“Elvis who?” Photographer Alfred Wertheimer recalls uttering that very question in early 1956. A publicist from RCA Victor Records had contacted him, asking if he was available to photograph a young singer named Elvis Presley. “I’d never heard of the man,” Wertheimer told TIME Magazine in an article 40 years later. “He didn’t have a gold record yet.” (By the ... Read More »

Judy Garland is sailing today on the SS United States. Everyone knew the famous star was on board because they had a First Class Passenger List. They also read that Marlon Brando, Salvidor Dali along with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were other celebrities sailing to Europe on America’s famous trans-Atlantic liner.  Cunard Line Passenger Lists Passenger lists were ... Read More »

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 »

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 »

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 »

David Bowie (8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016), who starred in the film The Man Who Fell to Earth, had a long-standing fear of flying. Bowie sailed aboard Cunard’s QE 2, the Italian Line’s Leonardo da Vinci, P&O-Orient Line’s Oronsay and Canberra along with many other ships.   So while other superstars would take the Concorde or private jets to ... Read More »

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 of another commercial enterprise.” OPENING NIGHT But the life of ... Read More »

The streamliner California Zephyr was featured in Columbia Pictures 1952 thriller SUDDEN FEAR starring Joan Crawford and Jack Palance. Included were exterior and interior scenes aboard the train. Grand Central Station and the Oakland Mole were highlighted where Crawford respectively boards and disembarks to head across the bay to San Francisco by ferry boat. After playwright and wealthy heiress, Myra ... Read More »

Besides the fabulous Italian ocean liner S.S. REX launched in 1931, there was another S.S. REX. The gambling ship off the coast of California in the 1930s and 1940s. The far lesser (but profitable)REX was operated as a gambling ship off Los Angeles by Anthony Cornero. Gary Grant made a movie in the early 1930s based on the gambling boats. ... Read More »

The steel-hulled, diesel-powered yacht Aras was laid down on March 19, 1930, by the Bath Iron Works; launched on December 8, 1930; and delivered to wood-pulp magnate Hugh J. Chisholm on January 15, 1931. The Aras, a long graceful steel ship, was sold in April 1941 to the US Navy for use as a patrol gunboat and re-christened it USS Williamsburg. ... Read More »