First as the trans-Pacific record holder liner, then serving during World War 2, followed by being renamed the Empress of Scotland on the trans-Atlantic run and then finally sailing under the German flag. It was ironic, the allied ship used during WW 2 to fight the Nazis, was sold to ... Read More »
ALL POSTS
USA Olympic Team sails aboard the SS AMERICA in 1948
The USA Olympic Team sailed aboard the SS America to England in 1948. The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were ... Read More »
Novelist John Rechy celebrates the 55th Anniversary of CITY OF NIGHT, a lifetime achievement award and publication of his new novel PABLO.
Social History: Los Angeles icon novelist John Rechy, a first-generation Mexican American who has chronicled gay life in America, received the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement at a gala ceremony at the University of Southern California last month. John Rechy, like Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal shares ... Read More »
SS United States Conservancy Receives $100,000
She’s the largest luxury cruise liner ever built in the United States using all American products and by American workers: Meet “America’s Flagship,” the S.S. United States. Cruise industry executive and philanthropist Jim Pollin, owner of the Pollin Group and winner of the SS United States Conservancy’s National Flagship Champion ... Read More »
101st Anniversary of the RMS LUSITANIA sinking.
Monday, May 7th marks the 101st anniversary of the sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania. The Liverpool-built passenger ship whose destruction sparked the United States’ decision to enter World War I in 1917. “Enlist” (mother and child drowning), by Fred Spear, June 1915. WWI recruitment poster published by the Boston Committee ... Read More »
Streamliners served Palm Springs from the 1930s into the 1950s.
The Southern Pacific Railroad was a major element in the development of Palm Springs. At one time the SP offered passenger service on over eight daily trains. The SP, Union Pacific, and Santa Fe Railroads brought thousands of visitors to Palm Springs. Palm Springs was a retreat for movie stars ... Read More »
Part 1 – The LURLINE was HAWAII – 70 Years Ago this week the famed cruise liner returned to service after WW 2
70 Years ago this week, Matson Line’s refurbished SS LURLINE had sailed from San Francisco and Los Angeles on her maiden post-WW 2 voyage to Hawaii. The flagship of Matson’s passenger fleet had just emerged from a stunning $18-million makeover, following six years as a troop carrier with her white ... Read More »
The SS MORRO CASTLE – FIRE AT SEA – 137 DEAD!
On the morning of September 8th, 1934, en route from Havana to New York, the SS MORRO CASTLE caught fire and burned, killing 137 passengers and crew members. She was a luxury ocean liner of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for runs between New York City and ... Read More »
ELVIS PRESLEY on the train to Memphis in 1956
“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 ... Read More »
P&O and Orient Lines served the world during the 1960s
Great photos of passengers and officers aboard P&O and Orient Line ships sailing from England to Australia. The RMS Arcadia was one of P&O’s great liners. Sailing on P&O Orient Lines… Read More »