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. ... Read More »
CELEBRITIES
JUDY GARLAND triumphant comeback in A STAR IS BORN at Hollywood’s greatest premiere!
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 ... Read More »
CHASEN’S – The world-famous Hollywood Celebrity restaurant opened in the late 1930s and lasted into the 1990s.
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 ... Read More »
Movie stars were aboard the fatal voyage of the SS Andrea Doria
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, ... Read More »
Judy Garland is onboard the SS United States – What happened to Passenger Lists?
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 – ... Read More »
Pop legend David Bowie traveled by ship and train. No flying for this star!
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 ... Read More »
San Francisco’s fabulous Fox Theatre was a lesson in the City’s tenuous loyalty and devotion.
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 »
In the 1950s SUDDEN FEAR film star Joan Crawford heads to San Francisco on the famed California Zephyr.
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 ... Read More »
The Italian Line’s S.S. REX and Cary Grant’s S.S. REX…
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 ... Read More »