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 »
Almost everyone knows about the tragic story about the sinking of the world’s largest “unsinkable” ship. The legend of the RMS Titanic has lived on in the movies, books, television, and of course, James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster film. The facts and history of the Titanic also live on in photos ... Read More »
Pianist, gossip columnist, TV star, and above all a giver of great parties, Elsa Maxwell was famous for being herself. She was most likely far more interesting than the celebrities she covered. Elsa Maxwell first worked as a theatre pianist after leaving school at the age of 14 and before ... Read More »
Premiere Passenger Trains during the 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 Zypher were world-famous. New York Central’s streamlined ... Read More »
The SS Catalina and SS Avalon operated together from 1920 into the early 1950s — except for World War 2 – with service from Los Angeles to Catalina Island. The Catalina continued running during the summer months into the mid-1970s. The two steamers carried millions of passengers between San ... Read More »
Elvis’ love for Hawaii ran deep, and during his lifetime he visited often. Whether it was to perform concerts and benefits, film a movie, or just to vacation, the islands would always draw him back. Matson Lines ran weekly service to Honolulu from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Hawaii. ... Read More »
West Hollywood’s Chasen’s was a glamorous world – “Celebrity chefs” will never replace stylish hosts and personalities such as Dave Chasen or Vincent Sardi or Mike Romanoff. I had dinner at Chasen’s many times. First, with my parents and then later on when I had become a producer. Dinner with ... Read More »
On the evening of January 13th, 2012, the cruise industry was forever changed after the modern, family cruise ship, the Costa Concordia collided with rocks and sank off the coast of Italy. The thought of a modern cruise ships, catering to families and couples on a romantic Mediterranean getaway, would ... Read More »
In the 1957 musical film Pal Joey, Frank Sinatra gets off a Southern Pacific train and then heads across the SF bay to San Francisco, aboard one of the SP Ferry Boats. Oakland Long Wharf was the western terminus of the Southern Pacific Railroad. From there, ferries carried both commuters ... Read More »
More than a century after the Titanic sank in April 1912; few new stories surface from the wreck. When documentary filmmaker Arthur Jones and his team started work on “The Six” — their film about the ship’s six Chinese survivors — in 2012, they kept expecting to find that someone ... Read More »
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