The Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity will come up for auction in June, according to a report from Maritime Executive. The luxury cruise ships, part of the defunct Crystal Cruises, have been tied up in the Bahamas since the line ceased operations earlier this year with the wind-up of parent ... Read More »
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‘The Love Boat’: How a TV show transformed the cruise industry
Last week, CNN writer Tamara Hardingham-Gill interviewed me on my involvement as a writer for The Love Boat in the 1980s, and a book I am writing on the landmark hit TV series was a major factor in creating today’s cruise industry. Also, as a Travel Historian focusing on the ... Read More »
San Francisco to Los Angeles aboard the Yale and Harvard night boat liners
The SS Yale and SS Harvard became known as “white Flyers of the Pacific”! Operating overnight between San Francisco and Los Angeles with day connection sailings to San Diego. The Los Angeles Steamship Company (LASSCO) twin passenger ships made four sailings a week, carrying 565 First Class passengers at an ... Read More »
Anchored: Will Philly be stuck with the SS United States forever?
The former American luxury liner was supposed to be docked In Philadelphia for 21 days; it’s been almost 21 years. Is time running out for the famous ocean liner? The SS United States is a luxury passenger liner built in 1952 for United States Lines. It was designed by American ... Read More »
Famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard
After his success with the Egyptian Theatre, Sid Grauman turned to Charles E. Toberman to secure a long term lease on property at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. Toberman contracted the architectural firm of Meyer & Holler (who had also designed the Egyptian) to design a “palace type theatre” of Chinese design. ... Read More »
New York Cruise Fashion to Castro’s Cuba in 1959 onboard the SS Homeric
Appearance was very important to women during the 1950s. Ladies always looked their best when they stepped outside their homes. Home movie video of the SS Homeric sailing to Castro’s Cuba in 1959. Cruise fashions on display. It didn’t matter whether they were going to the grocery store, the airport, to ... Read More »
MS St Louis 83rd Anniversary Voyage of the Damned
Over 900 German-Jewish passengers had purchased return passage in Cabin Class and 3rd Class on the Hamburg-America Line MS St Louis. On May 13, 1939, eighty-three years ago, they sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba. M.S. St. Louis The liner had gained an excellent reputation in the service from ... Read More »
Stars onboard the Santa Fe Super Chief
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 ... Read More »
The Cruise Liner Eva “Evita” Peron
Does Madonna know that two passengers ships were named after Eva Peron (Evita)? The Argentine liners were called the T.S.S. EVITA and the T.S.S. EVA PERON. The “Eva Peron” liner/cruise-ships… They were similar in design to the T.S.S. JUAN PERON. (Our thanks to Timetable Images for these great photos: www.timetableimages.com). The ships ... Read More »
California Zephyr Mid-Century Premiere Train in USA
Other trains may have been more luxurious but none could compare to the California Zephyr in the way of friendly service and breathtaking scenery. From 1949 until 1970, the California Zephyr operated daily during the 1950s and 1960s between Chicago and San Francisco. Over two days and nights, across prairies, through canyons, ... Read More »