Chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr.’s twin interests in baseball and Catalina Island – he bought Catalina in 1919 and gained a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs in 1921 – dovetailed nicely when he made the decision to have the Cubs train on Catalina starting in 1921. In doing ... Read More »
2007 FEC Made Blogs Media Sentencing The Los Angeles Times To Death
Along with the Daily Kos, I was involved in the 2007 decision by the FEC that blogs were media just like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times. The 2007 U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) found that political blogs and bloggers are media for the purposes of ... Read More »
Cruise ships walking fine-line on Vaccine Policies
Governor Ron DeSantis has been a champion of restarting cruises on the one hand and the leading proponent of not allowing proof of vaccinations for cruises or anything else. That’s left the cruise industry walking a thin line. The first cruise to set sail from Florida left on June 26. ... Read More »
Stars Dining in Chicago’s Famous Pump Room
When stars traveled across country via train in the 1940s and 1950s, they would have a 10-hour layover in Chicago. Between trains, like the Super Chief from Hollywood and the 20th Century Limited heading to New York, they would have eight hour layover. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, ... Read More »
All-Pullman Overnight on the Pittsburger to New York
The Pittsburgher was a premiere passenger train operated between New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Main Line. The PPR’s overnight all Pullman service-connected the Steel City with New York via the railroad’s mainline. It was initially launched during the mid-1920s, for many years the train pampered ... Read More »
First Class Alaska Cruise 1950s $9 A Day
A sailing day meant excitement for the Alaska Steamship Company liners. Here is the SS Alaska sailing from Seattle in 1952. A look at the final days of the Alaska Steamship Company with a history of the famous organization that provided passenger service to the far north. A fond farewell. ... Read More »
1955 American Passenger Fleet Featuring 40 Ships
Featured in the Ships and The Sea magazine in the Spring 1955 issue was a complete “handbook” of American-Flag ocean-going passenger ships. The feature story opened with this grim news: “America’s fleet of ocean-going passenger vessels is fast diminishing. 40 active ships with a total passenger capacity of only 12,162 ... Read More »
The 1939 MS ST. LOUIS German Jewish Refuges Tragic Cruise to Cuba
Six months after the Nazis celebrated Kristallnacht, the German transatlantic liner MS St. Louis sailed on May 13, 1939, from Hamburg Germany. The voyage became a symbol of American and Canadian heartlessness, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism. CUBA PROFITED WITH HEAVY FEES FOR VISAS Flags were flapping in the wind and well-wishers ... Read More »
Jets Killed American Banner Line’s New SS Atlantic Transatlantic Service
In the 1950s pioneer shipping executive Arnold Bernstein wanted to offer superior Economy Class steamship liner services from New York to Europe offering all staterooms with private facilities aboard the SS Atlantic. Bernstein had chartered in the summer of 1948 a passenger ship the CONTINENTAL (ex ANCON of 1902) for ... Read More »
Florida Wins Court Case Against CDC to Lift Conditional Sail Order
The State of Florida has prevailed in its injunction against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lift the Conditional Sail Order (CSO) that has been restricting the cruise industry since October 2020. A court essentially ruled in favor of Florida that the CSO exceeds the CDC’s “statutory ... Read More »