CRUISING THE PAST Travel and Social History

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 in a glorious daylight trip, streaking along the edge of the Pacific Ocean for more than a hundred breathless mile. Chair car passengers had full access ... Read More »

California’s famous overnight steamboats Delta King and Delta Queen operated first-class overnight passenger service between San Francisco and Sacramento from 1927 until 1940. The steamboats were called the “mail-order” ships because they were initially built in Scotland, shipped to Stockton where they were assembled. The new steamers replaced the Fort ... Read More »

When the Fox Theater was built in 1929, it seemed as if there weren’t enough adjectives to describe the movie theater’s magnificence. The San Francisco Chronicle called the opening “a spectacle of such beauty and magnitude that it seemed rather a fancy of one’s mind rather than the inaugural night ... Read More »

When Ernie Byfield opened The Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel on October 1, 1938, he undoubtedly had little idea that he was beginning an enterprise that would still be thriving to this day. Today, The Pump Room remains highly acclaimed restaurant and Chicago landmark. Located in Chicago’s Gold ... Read More »

From 1914 to 1949 the RMS Aquitania crossed the pond between New York, Canada, and Europe carrying celebrities, tourists, businessmen, immigrants, and war brides. The RMS Aquitania was the longest-serving Cunard liner built in the 20th century and to survive service in both World Wars. ARRIVES IN NEW YORK AS WORLD ... Read More »

Sailing from New York on board a cruise ship was a fashion statement for many women in the 1950s. Appearance was very important when ladies always looked their best when they stepped outside their homes. Newsreel clip of fashions 1950 onboard the SS Homeric.  It didn’t matter whether they were going ... Read More »

  The American Harmony has arrived at the Port of New Orleans. The newest ship in American Cruise Lines’ groundbreaking series of 5 modern riverboats, will remain docked in its homeport of New Orleans until it departs on its inaugural Mississippi River cruise this August 17th. New Orleans is monumentally ... Read More »

The great German liner Bremen, which ran a British blockade, ended her career in a scrapyard. After docking in New York on August 28, 1939, only four days before the outbreak of World War II, Captain Adolf Ahrens of Germany’s North German Lloyd shipping line was faced with a decision. ... Read More »

Premiere Passenger Trains during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s  were the finest in the world. With excellent meals, suburb Pullman service, dinner in the diner, club lounges, train secretaries, barbershops, cocktail bars, observation cars… trains like the Super Chief, 20th Century Limited and the California Zeypher were world-famous.   New ... Read More »