Journey with us now to the year 1960. Cunard’s Mauretania embarks on a cruise to the Bahamas, and this intrepid amateur cinematographer grabs a few color shots on deck, then takes his/her camera into the lounge, the dining room, and the disembarkation area. It’s an odd little film, but notable for the relatively clear interior shots. Music is from Pedro Garcia, a little track called “Hechizo.” Enjoy!
Journey with us now to the year 1960. Cunard’s Mauretania embarks on a cruise to the Bahamas, and this intrepid amateur cinematographer grabs a few color shots on deck, then takes his/her camera into the lounge, the dining room, and the disembarkation area. It’s an odd little film, but notable for the relatively clear interior shots. Music is from Pedro Garcia, a little track called “Hechizo.” Enjoy!
April 25, 2012 – Here’s some vibrant color 8mm of what looks like a fun cruise to Cuba aboard the Swedish America Liner Kungsholm, loving shot by one J. Quentin Jaxon of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (at least that’s what the Kodak box said!). A quick check with Kludas would suggest this film is from sometime between 1939 and 1941. Any car aficionados out there care to help identify the cars at the pier in the opening shot? And check out the deck games. I’m sure no cruise line today would allow passengers to straddle a log and beat each other with a pillow until someone falls. Music here is “Frenesi” performed by Don Felipe and His Cuban Caballeros, followed by “Smile of a Latin” by Frank Chacksfield and His Orchestra. Enjoy another little Shipgeek trip back in time!
April 24, 2012 – Here’s some fun 8mm color home movies from 1960 showing the docks at Southampton (or is that Bremerhaven?), Le Havre, as well as shots aboard the ship. Set to “Gay Romance” by the Melachrino Orchestra, it’s a trip back in time. Enjoy!
April 18, 2012 – Finally have some time to catch up on some vintage film transfers. Here’s some spectacular footage of the SS France’s maiden arrival in New York Harbor in 1962. The song is “La Mer” performed by the exquisite Chantal Chamberland. Enjoy!
April 15, 2010 – Like most ship geeks, I certainly had my Titanic phase. Mine really began in the mid 1980’s when I saw the National Geographic special about Bob Ballard’s discovery of the wreck, which naturally led me to A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. Soon I found myself writing a screenplay with Dudley Sanders set aboard the ill-fated liner, using a bookending device about an explorer going to the wreck in present day to salvage artifacts for profit only to find something that would serve as the trigger for the bulk of the plot which took place aboard the ship the night of the tragedy. Our film also featured a final sequence set aboard the the ship as she broke in half, rose perpendicular to the water, and then carried all those poor souls to their graves in one last roaring whoosh. Naturally, there was an “across class” romantic interest, as well. When the finished script was submitted to the studios all over Hollywood, our agent said the response was universal, including from a certain production company owned by a certain Mr. Cameron and his then wife Ms. Hurd: “Really well-written script, but this would be the most expensive film ever made and nobody wants to see a movie about the Titanic!” Apparently, that “conventional wisdom” changed over the course of about ten years. Still, I became completely obsessed with the tragic story for awhile, even researching the music played by the ship’s orchestra and purchasing CDs by I Salonist to help set the mood as I visited the graveyards in Halifax to pay tribute to the fallen heroes. Everything started to change for me when a film called Titanic (not to be confused with the 1953 Barbara Stanwyck/Clifton Webb film, which I still find to be a superior story) premiered in the late ’90s, and suddenly everybody and his 12-year-old sister became obsessed with my precious Titanic. I admit to being a curmudgeon where the film is concerned. I found the recreation of the ship to be breathtaking, and the story and dialog to be wooden and predictable–with Jack and Rose wandering around 1912 sounding almost like they’d boarded the ship from contemporary Van Nuys. And so my fascination began to wither, and I moved on to other ships. It didn’t take me long to realize that I truly prefer those passenger liners that actually did what they were designed to do–carry passengers to a destination with speed, comfort, style, safety and efficiency. So while today marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we should note that another centenary is coming up in July–the 100th anniversary of the record-breaking maiden voyage of the SS United States, a far-superior vessel in my estimation, one whose first crossing to Europe made ecstatic and not tragic headlines. Finally, as long as I’m quibbling, I find the pretentiousness of calling the former ship Titanic rather than “the Titanic” to be especially irritating. This seems to be one of the Cameron film’s legacies as well, but since we say things like “oh, she sailed the second voyage of the Normandie” or “hey, I just went aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach,” the rule should hold for the Titanic as well. I was quite pleased to see that even the venerable New Yorker seems to agree. And still, all of this aside, the story of the Titanic endures and fascinates, reminding us of our human fallibility. But seriously, if I hear that damn Celine Dion song in Trader Joe’s one more time…
March 5, 2012 – Lobster for me!
March 4, 2012 – I wonder what exactly is meant by “a pre-Broadway movie!”
February 28, 2012 – Ah, the days when you could go to Europe… and take your car!
