SOCIAL HISTORY

Matson Lines SS Lurline was halfway from Honolulu to San Francisco on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The liner arrived safely in San Francisco with passengers from California and the USA on December 11th. The liner arrived safely in San Francisco with passengers from California and ... Read More »

West Hollywood’s Chasen’s was a glamorous world – “Celebrity chefs” will never replace stylish hosts and personalities like Dave Chasen, Vincent Sardi or Mike Romanoff. I had dinner at Chasen’s many times. First, with my parents and then later on when I became a writer/producer. Dinner with Groucho Marx, who ... Read More »

Decades before Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton became famous for being rich girls with sex tapes, no class, and the height of 21st Century vulgarity – the original out-of-control Hollywood heiress-celebrity was Barbara Hutton. Hutton came from money on both sides of the family tree. Her maternal grandfather was Frank ... Read More »

Murder, suspicious deaths and disappearing at sea aboard liners from Cunard to Union-Castle have made cruise history.   The romantic decks of “The Love Boat” can be a very dangerous place. As for cruising the past, history finds there were two or three murders supposedly linked to Cunard Line’s RMS Queen ... Read More »

When you are sailing on a cruise ship, how to communicate with other passengers onboard. Watch the video: WATCH the video and see how to stay in-touch with traveling companions along with friends, family and business associates onshore. Why take a look at the video? Because it will give free ... Read More »

Cruise History – The Old Fall River Line – Everyone from presidents to swindlers sailed the Sound on “Mammoth Palace Steamers” in the heyday of the side wheelers and night boats.   The Fall River Line was a combination steamboat and railroad connection between New York City and Boston that operated ... Read More »

The US Flag Delta Line was cruising to South America from New Orleans from the 1940s into the 1960s. The steamship company introduced three revolutionary passenger-cargo ships to its South American services in the post-war years of the 1940s. In keeping with the trade name of the company, “Delta Line,” ... Read More »

Sunset Boulevard is a 1950s famous American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett. Norma Desmond’s car in Sunset Boulevard is a nineteen twenty-nine Landaulet limousine model of the Italian car, the Isotta Fraschini Tipo eight A. It cost Norma twenty-eight thousand ... Read More »

The SS Normandie was, of course, the result of a successive series of bigger and better French liners, beginning with the France of 1912 and continuing to the Ile de France (1927) and L’Atlantique (1931). Even the far smaller Champlain (1932) has often been called a prelude. She also drew ... Read More »

Bullitt is a 1968 American neo-noir action thriller film. San Francisco was featured in the film directed by Peter Yates and produced by Philip D’Antoni. The film stars Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, and Jacqueline Bisset. Bullitt opened in fall 1968, with a San Francisco premier and had a long run ... Read More »