MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German transport ship that was sunk on January 30, 1945, by Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea. The former cruise liner was evacuating German civilian refugees from East Prussia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, and military personnel from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) as the Red Army advanced. By ... Read More »
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The Coast Daylight – California’s most beautiful train in the world.
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 on a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless mile. The streamliner traveled along the coast ... Read More »
How did the “Red Carpet treatment” start? On the famous 20th Century Limited all-Pullman train!
Have you wondered where the much-overused phrase “the red carpet treatment” originated? It all started with the 20th Century Limited. The train of tycoons and movie stars. The “Century” was an express all-Pullman passenger train operated by the New York Central nightly from New York to Chicago. From 1938 until ... Read More »
Nightmare at sea: Holland American Line forces elderly passengers to get off the MS AMSTERDAM halfway across the globe!
Hundreds of American passengers thought they were in for the cruise of their lives when they boarded Holland America’s MS Amsterdam at Port Everglades on January 4, 2020, Around The World Cruise. That was before the novel coronavirus sparked a worldwide crisis that has thrown the travel industry into unprecedented ... Read More »
Escape the virus blues! Rodgers & Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! on stage live and streamed free for the entire family to enjoy!
Enjoy the complete video presentation of the award-winning recreation stage version of Oklahoma! as it premiered on Broadway in 1943 at no charge. The New York hit musical is for all ages and a quick excursion back to a simpler time. Act 1 and Act 2 from the recreated original ... Read More »
Father Browne’s photos of the RMS Titanic sailing from England to Ireland
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 on board 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 ... Read More »
NYC developer seeks home for historic SS United States after planned rebirth as hotel
RXR Realty LLC of New York plans to renovate the S.S. United States. The massive ocean liner that has spent decades deteriorating at a dock near South Philadelphia’s big-box shopping district into a hotel-and-museum complex for a yet-to-be-determined city’s waterfront. The developer, whose properties include Manhattan’s Helmsley Building and 75 ... Read More »
Social History: ELSA MAXWELL – the ‘Hostess with the mostest’!
Pianist, gossip columnist, TV star, and above all a giver of great parties, Elsa Maxwell was famous for being herself. She was most likely far more interesting than the celebrities she covered. Elsa Maxwell first worked as a theatre pianist after leaving school at the age of 14 and before ... Read More »
Home movies onboard the SS France
Sailing in the 1960s onboard the French Line’s SS FRANCE and SS LIBERTE round-trip from New York to Europe. A fun home movie from www.shipgeek.com sailing on the France and Liberte. With the loss of the Normandie in New York Harbour in 1942, the Ile de France became the only ... Read More »
Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train – The Congressional Limited – Trains in the Movies!
Pennsylvania’s express train between New York and Washington D.C. was featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. The 1951 American psychological thriller film noir was based on the 1950 novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. Director Producer Alfred Hitchcock shot the hit movie in the autumn of ... Read More »