Long Beach, California
On today's "Anything Goes Saturday" I have two scans with a "Long Beach" theme. Just because!
We'll start out with this shot of the RMS Queen Mary as she nears the end of her 1,001st (and last) voyage; she reached Long Beach Harbor on December 9th, 1967. As you can see, many locals turned out to witness the event. Be sure to see Nanook's family photos (taken from aboard a boat!) HERE; just think, he was not too far away when this picture was taken! As most of you know, the Queen Mary has been a tourist draw in Long Beach for decades now. Time and the elements have taken their toll, and the boat is in need of many expensive repairs. Let's hope that it gets the TLC that it deserves!
Next is this artistic October 1960 photo from The Pike, an amusement zone that started way back in 1902. I remember it well! The Pike had its ups and downs, and was re-dubbed the "Nu-pike" in the 1950s in an attempt to clean up its reputation and hopefully make it more palatable for families that might think of heading to Disneyland or Knott's instead. This long exposure makes the Ferris Wheel a blur of light. To the right we can just see one of the diving bells. To the left is a Tilt-a-Whirl, and behind that might be the "Laff In the Dark" attraction. I'm unsure about what the structure to the extreme left could be.
I was reminded of this vintage postcard!
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Long Beach, California.
21 comments:
Major-
HEY... I was there for the Queen Mary's arrival-!
I would say that's the Rotor on the extreme left, but can't be certain.
Thanks, Major.
That seemed to be a fad in the sixties; Americans buying British landmarks/symbols and moving them to the western U.S.. The Queen Mary in '67 and London Bridge (in Lake Havasu, AZ) in '68.
I toured the Queen Mary in '75 but have never seen, or crossed the London Bridge.
In The Pike photo, the diving bell looks like the resultant love-child between a Star Wars Storm Trooper helmet and Skull Rock. Could that scaffolding structure on the left be part of a Rotor ride? Although, it seems to be "backstage", so maybe not. (Nanook beat me to it!)
Ah! In the postcard we can see that there was indeed a Rotor ride present, and it's in the vicinity of the Ferris Wheel, so my guess in the previous paragraph is probably correct. Don't know why it appears to be backstage though.
I've never been to this park but I did ride the Sky Hook (seen in the postcard) when it was at Six Flags Over Texas, in 1966.
Thanks for the side trip to Long Beach, Major.
I agree, that is the Rotor. Jill Munroe, Kelly Garrett, and Sabrina Duncan captured a criminal by turning on the Rotor, while he was inside. They watched him spinning around, from up above while standing on that platform next to the staircase.
We went to see the Queen Mary docked in Long Beach, three months after it arrived. But Nanook was there when it arrived! Cool!
Here's a pic my dad took three months later. They had left the flags up. I wonder if those very same flags are hanging on the ship today? ;-)
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GKoRVVS3hCI/V4DLMHJQ7lI/AAAAAAAAMxc/A48FkCqTiwofZ9iARVRua5fzR3yghyygACLcB/s1600/Father%2527s%2BDay%2B2018%2B%25281%2529.jpg
I just noticed that in that postcard view of The Pike, we can see Elmer McCurdy, floating on his back in the ocean. I just always have to bring up his name, whenever The Pike is mentioned. Actually, we can see the old "Rainbow Pier" in the background, which was actually a road on top of a rainbow-shaped breakwater. That building surrounded by the "Rainbow Pier" is the old Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. Of course both of those things were demolished and a major landfill took their place. Why? Because they ruin everything. Sad.
I’d say the fad of Americans buying British artifacts was spurred by the British quickly modernizing by the 1960’s after they got out of the debt created by WW2. They were selling off lots of stuff to everyone…. But few landmarks were sent intact or reassembled.
London Bridge is a funny story because the group of investors purchased LONDON BRIDGE right away … but they thought they were purchasing THE TOWER BRIDGE . Didn’t anyone research what they were purchasing!?? They didn’t even know till it was being rebuilt at lake Havesu …. “WHERE ARE THE TOWERS!???” It would be like thinking you bought Disneyland and got DCA.
We used to go to the Queen Mary all the time …. For scout trips… when relatives came to visit or when the ships exhibits changed … by grandfather in my mom’s side went to Europe on it when she was a troop carrier “The Grey Ghost” . My grandpa would always remind us … it didn’t look anything like this when he first traveled in it”
I remembered as a kid they had that glassed window in the hull of the ship to show how big the propellers were - there was creepy blue-green lighting on it because of the murky Long Beach water … so spooky and creepy. I remember the Jacques Cousteau exhibit where there had a giant chunk of a real iceberg you could touch…… the first time I had a Club Sandwich was on the Queen Mary at Sir Winston’s Restaurant…. I was about 5. There was a toy shop on the ship that had an impressive selection of matchbox , Dinky, Corgi diecast vehicles … Britains figures …. Hornby trains … everything there was probably twice the cost of the same items at other toy stores at the time … and I couldn’t purchase anything by order of my parents. The shop had two small curved windows facing into the 1930’s shopping arcade … and an entrance off one of the promenade decks … the “new” promenade entrance ( not original to the ship ) featured a display window with a big animated and illuminated diorama of a road accident featuring Dinky-Corgi-Matchbox vehicles …. There was backed up traffic , road barriers and emergency equipment with flashing lights and sirens … a flying helicopter and flickering “flames” within cotton fire and smoke with firefighters attempting to extinguish the fire. There was a diecast white VW Beatle on its side … with its door open … whoever built the display had added decals of a “53” to make it look like Herbie The Love Bug … which was not a offering from either of those companies at the time .
I had my 40th birthday party of the Queen Mary in the Observation Lounge at the front of the ship
… totally restored extreme art deco lounge …that’s been used to represent Los Angeles clubs of the 20’s and 30’s in dozens of movies : including The Aviator. I knew after dinner we were going to have drinks and we had 4 rooms so we could drink all we wanted and stay onboard … but I didn’t know they were throwing me a 20’s party … we had a third of the lounge set aside for us .. even a real 20’s jazz band played for a few hours …. It was so much fun. It was March and we were having very windy weather with sone rain … every time anyone went out to the observation “bridge” the wind slammed the door against the wall making a loud noise that would scare everyone in the lounge. One odd thing was that in another section of the lounge they had booked another party … so for the last 30 minutes of our jazz dance band .. there was a tacky Elvis Impersonator performing at the same time.
Elvis and 20’s Dance Jazz don’t mix… but everyone was pretty snockered.
Wow, I'm assuming that's a double Ferris wheel? Take me back to this place!
The Queen Mary arriving in Long Beach was a very very very big deal for us PV Peninsula sailor-types. The port of LA/Long Beach was, and is, a juggernaut source of commerce, and this ship coming in (as I remember) was a gigantically deal, and I too was out there in the harbor when she arrived (after the refit) as a small tike who just arrived from Britain. I only have vague memories of that event, but I have stronger ones for later when the ship finally opened for tourists and the further incarnations of Jaques Cousteau, Howard Hughes, Wrather, and then ultimately...spending a few years and very long days trying to eeek a profit out of her with the WDCo. Before she was moved to her permanent berth, I remember when driving over the Gerald Desmond Bridge (which I later termed the Norma Desmond Bridge) you could see her in the special dry dock made for her. Thanks for the link to Nanooks photos!!! I remain very emotionally close to the ship for a more than a few reasons. My family owned and import business and we were one of the first vendors to provide pewter souvenirs that my uncle designed: bottle openers, etc. I still have one somewhere. There were other things like medallions, etc etc. Problem was...this ship had money issues out the gates, they wouldn't buy anything until it was fully produced...so we produced them, had them shipped from Norway, and then...they refused to buy anything. "eek". This of course not the city's doing, but the lessee of the lessee of etc etc. So there we were, stuck with hundreds of pewter Queen Mary very well made trinkets. We ended up selling most of the inventory to an import store at Port's o' Call village: (now very defunct.) There was some copyright thing on top of it all...that we ignored. I have hundreds of stories to tell quite literally, of both visiting and working. I'll respond to some of the comments. The Flags are probably not the same now. Disney had some made and when fully dressed it was very impressive. The flags go in a VERY specific order. They don't exactly spell out something. The ships officers were responsible for rigging and getting them up. Which in my time, they were constantly dragging their feet on. My boss Larry Nunez (former Canoe/Order of the Red Handkerchief/etc etc.) and I decided...as we Disneylanders do...that we could not wait, and would just do it ourselves. It caused quite a stir with the former Wrather employees. We were show people and wanted them up. Michael Eisner wanted them up. The end. They are going up. The Pike: eeesh. There is a building in that photo with the interesting roof...."Loeffs" . It technically was a gambling place. Even after the Pike was crumbling, Loeffs stayed intact, and was always filled with people playing this pinball "game of skill" thing...but it was gambling. Look it up, I believe it's still around. I did some urban archeology at the Pike and took hundreds of photos...all somewhere, but not in my possession. Long Beach was a big hang out for me in the 80's, and I had a lot of friends there, and know it all very well. I'll add more as the day progresses. Thanks for the morning rabbit hole Major and Nanook!
Mike: Ah but I DID get to pick up a couple of choice Dinky "cars" on our visit in '74! Picked up Thunderbird 2 and an Interceptor from "U.F.O."....and probably spent more money on them than everything I bought at Disneyland put together. Well worth it to my 11-year-old self though!
These are fun to see. Good memories.
We visited the QM several times over the years. As a kid, I recall the oceanographic museum vividly, most of Mikes memories are mine as well, including not getting any toys. I really wanted the die-cast metal Thunderbirds aircraft, sigh. Scott Lane! You got a UFO Interceptor! Lucky guy.
Later, in the 80’s, Not-Yet-Mrs G and I attended an architecture conference on board, with drinks in that amazing lounge, but stayed on a friends floor because we couldn’t afford the hotel.
(Insert Interval of Life, Careers, Family here)
And just a few years ago, I presented a paper at another architecture conference at the Convention Center across the bay and now-Mrs G and I stayed a night in a QM stateroom, quite an experience that was. TokyoMagic was kind enough to host some of our pictures of that visit on his blog. Sad to see the decline of the lovely ship and the lounge practically a sports bar with a passel of TVs and bros in tank tops yelling at sportsball in a room that demands a suit, tie, and a stirred drink. I guess I’m a snob.
I do recall the Nu-Pike as a kid, but not clearly. The double Ferris Wheel was a standout. It’s a shame all of it is torn down and replaced with an outlet mall. I wonder why that’s always the solution, more outlet malls? Probably the same schmucks who wrecked the Nut Tree.
The new Convention Center and Hyatt are very nice and well-suited to convening, but none of the old school charm remains.
Thank you Major, nice memories today.
JG
Nanook, how can I be sure that you were there for the QM’s arrival? ;-) And the Rotor is a good guess!
JB, I’m going to buy Buckingham Palace to have it shipped to Oxnard. Think of the uptick in the local economy! I’m glad to know that a Storm Trooper and Skull Rock round love in this crazy mixed up world. I’m going to have to look up Rotor rides to see what those were, I assume they spun around, Like so many rides!
TokyoMagic!, did the Angels go to the Pike?? I guess it was still around back then. I don’t think I saw the QM until the early 70s, so it had been there for four or five years at that point. I thought it was neat, but my memories are pretty fuzzy after all these years. I love the photo from your dad. Somewhere on this blog I have a photo in which two (?) of the QM’s funnels are missing, apparently they had to manufacture new ones to replace the rusted originals.
TokyoMagic!, I have a few other vintage photos of Long Beach in which you can clearly see the Rainbow Pier, and the Auditorium, I’ll have to scan those for a future blog post!
Mike Cozart, modernization sounds like a good theory - old was out, new was in. Even today I think a lot of people think of the Tower Bridge when they hear “London Bridge”. It is pretty iconic, not to mention spectacular. Didn’t C.V. Wood have something to do with the bridge relocation to Lake Havasu? I think there was a model of the QM on display showing how it looked with its gray wartime paint, very neat that your grandparents were on it when it looked like that. Somewhere on this blog I have a photo of the propeller as seen aboard the ship, in the green water - one of the few things I remember from my (only?) trip to the ship. I have zero memories of toys, my mom probably avoided the gift shop! It seems like it would be a weird experience to sleep aboard the QM as a hotel, but maybe not. We all know it’s haunted!
Andrew, I thought it must be a double Ferris Wheel too, and like you, I wish I’d seen The Pike back in those days!
Bu, very neat that you have so many personal connections and memories associated with the Queen Mary. For me, it was just another in a long list of fun things that lucky SoCal kids could do (along with Disneyland, Knott’s, Movieland Wax Museum, Marineland, Japanese Deer Park, Jungleland, the Alligator Farm, and so on). I vaguely remember a Jacques Cousteau exhibit, as a kid I always looked forward to his TV specials. I wonder if those are on YouTube? They are probably silly when seen through today’s eyes. I have a friend who lives in Long Beach, and we sometimes go for a walk toward the harbor - I admit that it is always kind of great to see the Queen Mary in the distance, like an old friend. Funny how there was a small kerfuffle about the flags, something that guests probably liked but didn’t think about too much. I understand why Disney unloaded the QM, but it’s a shame that they couldn’t figure out a way to turn that area into a thriving tourist attraction. Back in the 80’s, a group of friends wanted to meet at the Queen Mary. Turns out they meant a club with “female impersonators”. There was a Liza and a Judy and a Bette and a Marilyn and even an Ethel. I forget the others.
Scott Lane, I hope you still have those toys!
JG, we might have seen the toys, but I don’t remember them Childhood seemed to mostly be a time when my parents said “NO” to everything! I know they didn’t really, but, you know, kids just want stuff. Somewhere I have a pinback badge with a photo of my seven year-old self on the ship. The ribbon on the badge is long gone (I had fun unraveling it), and a rubber band somehow came in contact with the picture while the badge was in storage and it reacted badly with the plastic, they sort of melted together. Bummer!
Major-
"Nanook, how can I be sure that you were there for the QM’s arrival?"
Well... you can't-! In fact - how do you know this is ME right now-? Ah-hah-! AND... How do you know that was the 'real me' when I joined Ann and you for dinner @ Dahlia Lounge, and not some 'paid imposter'-?? Ah-hah (again). AND (again) you can't be absolutely certain "I'll" be the one commenting for Snoozles™ tomorrow... Now performing my famous whistle/humming reminiscent of a Theremin... (Rod Serling, where are you-??)
@ Bu-
Great [and sad] stories of your family's entrepreneurship dealing with the [loser] lessee's on the QM. (I'd love to see those pewter souvenirs-!)
Considering the cost of maintenance, it's amazing to me that the QM is still afloat. And may it do so for many generations. Nu-Pike...and its final days. A go-to during and right after my high school senior year. It was so seedy...full of tattoo parlors by then...and that's when getting one was truly an act of defiance akin to joining the Hell's Angels...or the Navy. I still don't understand the attraction of getting one to this day. A last late-night ride on the Cyclone Racer before its closure. Great memories. And yet, the area is a far better place today no matter how much I miss it. At least there is a nod to it in the artwork now in place in remembrance. KS
Major; regarding the Queen Mary (Ship) being haunted : while nothing happened while I stayed there for my birthday …. I did have a spooky experience another time. Every few years my Dad and I would go to Long Beach for the LB GRAN PRIX …. We would stay at the Queen Mary Hotel and meet up with one of my dad’s car club friends and his son who was an about my age … get dinner… then drinks and the next data see the car exhibits and the racing trials. We almost always had the historic vintage hotel rooms with the porthole windows … it was extreme nautical art deco …. In the bathroom too. One nite I kept hearing coins and a watch being played with on the nite stand …. First I thought my dad was checking the time on his watch sitting on the night stand and I just ignored it … then again … ( how many times does my dad need to check the time so late??) then I heard the coins moving …. And that noise when you try to pick up a coin from a flat surface and it keeps clicking back down flat … I reach over and turned the light on above my bed … and nothing … my dad was totally asleep … the coins and watch layed there …. On the nite stand between us. So I turned out the light … and before I could fall asleep I heard the damn coins or watch moving on the table … I turned the light on really quick and I hit the shade and fiddled trying to get the switch on … when I hit the lamp with my hand I kinda made noise and woke my dad up .. he asked what was going on..- I told him and he said he never once touched his watch or was ever awake . (???) I made note of the way the coins were and I moved the Pennies together, the dimes together and 3 quarters together … and I stacked the quarters . Then went back to sleep. I woke up later because I heard something walking and a floor lamp next to a reading chair switched on!! I thought at first it was early in the morning and we were gonna have to get up and ready … I was so tired . But my dad was still in bed!!!!! So I woke him up telling him that lamp came on and did he turn it on ?!? I looked at the time on my Cel phone and it was just after 3 am … he said he hadn’t turned on the light and had TOTALY been asleep … he said just turn the light off if it’s bothering me…
I did . When I got back in bed and went to turn off my reading light I looked at the coins and they were in the same arrangement but there was only TWO QUARTERS from the stacked 3 I set up earlier!!! I didn’t mention it to my dad till in the morning because he was getting irritated I kept waking him up.
In the morning I explained everything that had been happening …… and I looked around on the floor to see if the missing 3rd quarter was on the floor .. the beds were on pedestals so nothing could go under them … and the nitestand was attached to the wall between the two beds and you could clearly see beneath it … I even opened the drawer to see in the coin was inside . Nope.
I don’t know what was happening … but I swear I heard coins or the watch being fiddled with several times … I know that floor lamp came on … I know I heard someone walk across the room’s floor and I know a quarter coin went missing …
Was it a haunting?? What else could it have been??
Mike, excellent (and vivid) Queen Mary recollections. Thanks!
Bu, thanks for more of your (and your family's) adventures. Always interesting and enjoyable!
Also thanks to Scott Lane and JG for your stories.
Major, the Rotor was/is unlike other spinny rides, in that, from the outside you can't actually see anything going on. It looked like a giant (really) old- fashioned washing machine. I guess you could walk up the stairs to the observation level for free, and look down into the drum, with the riders plastered to the wall like squished insects on a windshield. When the drum got up to speed, the floor would lower down several feet, leaving you pressed against the wall; similar to the "Starship 3000" a.k.a. "Gravitron" flying saucer-shaped flat ride. When planning to go on the Rotor, you do NOT want to eat corndogs and elephant ears beforehand! (Or pretty much anything else.)
Nanook (or whoever you are), stay mysterious! And we'll see you (or whoever is playing you) tomorrow.
KS, I share your puzzlement over tattoos. Also, pretty much any kind of piercings.
Mike, really good ghost (or whatever) story.
Not too many comments today, but really quality stuff! (And some of them, looooong! Which, in this case, is a good thing.)
The ship is most definitely haunted. I had many many many encounters...worthy of me exploiting the stories and publishing my own book. One timid story has to do with house phones ringing as I past them throughout the ship on a walkthrough. Not one or two: all of them. House phones were everywhere. I'd pick them up and someone on the other end would say "hello? hello?' as if I was calling them...but they couldn't hear me. This phenomena occurred frequently throughout my 2 years there. I stopped picking up the phone. The phones would ring as soon as I passed them...from stem to stern. The little things like that you just tended to ignore. When I was with others it would happen too...and it would freak out the new people. Some say there was cameras and someone was messing with me...etc. It was far too frequent, and there were no cameras anywhere. There was barely money to have lights on much less cameras. Some of the other things were a bit more freaky....like guests telling me that "the guy downstairs is asking for a wrench"...this was in the engine room...again...not just one or two people, but randoms throughout my tenure there. Watertight door #13 is a bit famous, but I never had anything tactile happen down there in "Shaft Alley". The entire engine room was creepy, especially walking through there after operating hours when we had to "sweep" the place. It was easy for guests to get lost and get into spaces that were "off limits" and get stuck: hence all the phones everywhere. The other experiences are too long for even me to account for on here. We absolutely did not exploit the stories back then, and everyone was instructed to keep all paranormal incidents hush hush. The pool was a hot bed of activity for some reason, and the boiler rooms, although super creepy (and inaccessible to normies) had their share of perhaps self-manifested "experience". Full scale apparitions were normal on B deck. My office was on F deck below the water line....nothing to see down there. Everything freaky deaky was above the waterline, and there were many stories actually BEFORE the ship came to Long Beach. There were many "things" that went on near the bow where the ship ran into another during the war and was instructed to "press on" rather than save anyone. For some reason we were instructed to absolutely not speak of any incidents surrounding that "incident". I was instructed to do whatever it took to get more people on tours and get people through the gates. There was always a great deal of "divide" around the long term employees and the Disney's. Some led to incidents of sabotage, etc. The flag situation was one of many incidents of insubordination. I oversaw the building of many things there, that were thought of as "TRE" at the time. I was doing "as told" in the most of design-respectable things. I was the one that brought the now very photographed "Ship of Beautiful Woods" marquetry panels out of buried cold storage to a place where it could be enjoyed by all. For some reason I was very very maligned for that incident, and now I guess celebrated. Note that the Mark Twain Steamship has actually been in service much longer than the Queen Mary. Gives you some perspective on how long she was actually in service as a passenger liner.
In a very short period of time, we at The Walt Disney Company, started a renaissance for the Queen Mary. We gated the property, which before us, was a free for all, which upset all the freeloaders...we spent vast amounts of money to maintain the property and get her to (as best we could) Disney standards. Lots and lots of paint and sweat. The Wrathers did not have the cash or the clout of Disney. We worked so very hard to bring back some dignity, and for a short time The Queen Mary did shine. The "Voyage to 1939" was a very well done promotion, and Disney had the very dubious distinction for bringing the first and only Harrods to the United States. Which was a very very big deal. We had Prince Michael at the kick off. Attendance numbers on tours increased exponentially...hundreds of percentiles. Prior to us, if there was "nothing to see", they just cancelled tours. (?) None of us understood that. It was a hard transition and either you made it or didn't. We re-costumed everyone and ran the place like Disneyland. Everyone had fresh costumes to wear, and the old timers just complained that they weren't "authentic" enough. I bought everyone new lockers, and spruced up employee areas so they didn't look like skid row. These small things were the tip of the iceberg as the biggest thing we brought was sustained EMPLOYMENT. We brought some life to the place, and I will say that although it broke me somewhat, I am proud of economically bringing someone of a sense of stability and glamour back to the old gal. We were all maligned for not maintaining "true Cunard colors", etc. etc. At least wasn't crumbling anymore. It was a proverbial mess in a dress before us. We did not have to be true to Cunard, we just had to paint the place. The QM was thought of at the time as "Disney Exile". We had to sign papers that we were not guaranteed jobs back at Disneyland if things went south. That ship had sailed (sorry for the pun), so I signed. In the end, when Disney jumped ship too...no one lost their jobs. It's sad to have seen the deterioration since that time long ago, but it seems a new generation has got on board and is committed to a new renaissance. Like Disneyland, I'm sure there is a semblance of 1934 throughout the ship despite the layers of TRE. The true TRE went on after the ship was decommissioned in 1967 and sold to the city of Long Beach. Let it be known that Disney, and myself, was committed to "de-TRE" the TRE. Don't believe everything you read about the abandonment after my time there (more aptly...after Disney's time) there. We got people on the ship again.
I didn’t experience anything paranormal on our stay on the QM, but I certainly did on the Aircraft Carrier Hornet in Alameda.
Too long to write out, but definitely not my imagination, and confirmed as a common experience for visitors by a docent. To the extent that they close off that part of the ship where I blundered in ignorant. So, I’m prepared to believe all the QM stories.
Bu, thank you for rescuing the Ship of Beautiful Woods plaque (sign?). I enjoyed that very much.
JG
Phenomenal comments today, thanks.
From Grandpa’s fishing boat in San Pedro, to the funky Pikes (even my sailor father thought so) and some fried chicken downtown my family loved, Long Beach loomed large to life growing up in South Bay; although my favorite area attraction was called ‘Shady Acres’ a beautiful mini-golf.
My own first time to finally see the Queen Mary was the summer I was OBSESSED with the movie Poseidon Adventure, thus visiting the amazing deco dinning room as imagined upside down, looking for the inverted Christmas tree/ ladder and non-existent stained glass light fixtures on the floor.
Yes, Major, the reason I signed on to comment today is to mention the fun fact that the first manager of Disneyland was behind London Bridge falling down falling down into Arizona. Small whirled indeed.
MS
Sadly Disney in no way whatsoever wanted the QUEEN MARY …. They wanted the Disneyland Hotel and the Wrather’s knew it and knew they had no buyers for the ship. Disney came up with tons of possible projects like PORT DISNEY …. And used the promotion of the project to raise interest in the Long Beach property … all the clean up and Disney operations was only to increase a perceived value of the property and Disney hopped to get a potential sponsor … to make things clear Disney company had no intentions of ever actually building and kind of park or resort in Long Beach with or without the Queen Mary … the abandoned development would act as a nice business tax right off. The first thing Disney dud was get the spruce goose out of the dome arena and wanted to showcase its potential as an event or convention space to possible buyers or sponsors … so the most popular thing : boat and auto shows … how to showcase a auto show via Disney ??? ….. enter the “1939 Auto Show” part of the “Voyage to 1939” promotional…. The changes Disney need improved the quality of the property …. But it also did what Disney does best : RAISE PRICES AND TICKET FEES…. And people who were not interested in spending nominal money to see the Queen Mary …. Were not going to spend LOTS of money to see the Queen Mary ….and Disney was “GET ANNABELLE ANDREWS AND GET HER GOOD”!!!
I means get rid of the leaking harbor can ASAP!!
I'd be on board for a book or blog of cast member stories from the Queen Mary. (Pun intended)
Major, yes....the Angels went to the Pike! And they had fun! They even met Elmer McCurdy. Oh wait, that was Farrah's real-life husband, Lee Majors, who probably got to meet Elmer. I wonder if he was right there when they discovered him, or if he was in his "trailer," waiting to be called to shoot the scene. Charlie's Angels first season ran from '76 to '77, so yes, the Pike was still there. It's the episode where the little boy shoots Kelly in the head with a gun (at The Pike), and she lies in a coma in the hospital through most of the episode. See, even 46 years ago, guns were hurting innocent people! And fictional characters on TV, too.
There was a Liza and a Judy and a Bette and a Marilyn and even an Ethel.
Major, Ethel Merman? Ethel Mertz? Heydontlook Ethel? If there wasn't a Pepsi-drinking, wire clothes hanger-wielding "Joan Crawford," then I would have refused to go inside.
It was easy for guests to get lost and get into spaces that were "off limits" and get stuck.
Bu, I'm not sure if I've told the story before, but during a 1990s visit to The Queen Mary with friends, we walked into a public space where workers were folding down tables and chairs from some event that had obviously just ended. We went through an open doorway into another room and were just admiring the woodwork, etc. I think it was a room that was being used to store the folded tables and chairs, so we probably weren't supposed to be in there, but none of the workers said anything to us. Then I seem to remember one of my friends opening a door in that room and it led directly into the First Class pool. So, of course we went on in. Nobody said, "Hey, don't go in there." So we stupidly wondered around the pool area for a while.....both the upper and lower levels, and entered into some creepy shower area with lots of stalls and old plumbing. We were even stopping to take photos, while sitting on the pool slide and posing in the showers (fully clothed!). Eventually, two men came in and one of them said, "Follow us." I thought, okay we're going to be arrested for trespassing, or at the very least, thrown off of the ship. They led us out to a main corridor outside of the pool area, and then took off without saying another single word to us. We figured that what we did must be a common occurrence, since we didn't deliberately try and sneak in there, we just kept going through open doors, and NONE of them had "Don't Enter" signs on them. And again, employees were near every door we went through, but nobody tried to stop us. Now go ahead and scold me! By the way, I still need to post those pictures!
One day, I'll tell the full story about the Knott's ghost that singled me out, and would call my name......for five and a half years! I was always alone, so I was convinced that I was just "hearing things," until one day a coworker was with me and they heard it too, so then I realized that I had not been imagining it all those years.
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