A Tall Tale on the B and O

[Miningman]

From Mike! 

 

 The article became the script of a radio program, but without the B&O. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pbE5sI4HYY

 

The Saturday Evening Post, Jan. 9, 1943  https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-01-09

 

[Jones1945]

Thanks a lot, Vince and Mike.

Some background of the classic WWII advertisement "The Kid in Upper 4" 

Allies won the war but too many railroads didn't survive after that. When the kid was no longer a kid, he bought his first car for his family, completely forgot about the comfy Pullman upper berth and the name of that friendly Pullman porter who treated him like his own son. Most of the steam engines were purged like a lethal virus; there were two men walked on the Moon, only to find out that there wasn't enough place and money to preserve one single Hudson. No more choo-choo train, no more steam whistle, no more upper 4. Dreyfuss and Loewy were long gone, and the war continues. 

[Deggesty]

It is still possible to ride in a real upper (not those things that Amtrak provides in rooms)--in Canada. 

[Flintlock76]

Well, "The Kid" may have forgotten about the railroads after he came home and got on with his life, but those of us who know about the railroads and what they did during World War Two haven't forgotten "The Kid."

One of the greatest, if not THE greatest railroad ad ever!

Sheer genius.

[Miningman]

Johnny-- Yeah, thanks for the reminder,  go for it before it's gone. 

Jones-- Well said. We cut off our noses to spite the face... a needlessly self destructive reaction to a problem. No Hudson, no New York Central.

[Erik_Mag]

I remember reading the story in 8th grade English - don't want to say how many years ago that was...

[Deggesty]

Miningman

Johnny-- Yeah, thanks for the reminder,  go for it before it's gone.

Jones-- Well said. We cut off our noses to spite the face... a needlessly self destructive reaction to a problem. No Hudson, no New York Central.

 

I fear that my days of traveling via VIA are now done.My wife and I did enjoy 4 trips on the Canadian, and I added a fifth one five years ago this fall. On our first trip, she re-lived her first overnight trip (she was about eight years old) in a lower from Miami to New York CIty--her aunt had a lower across the aisle from her. In telling me about her experience, she said, "At night the seats became beds!"--she had been unaware of Pullman travel--we had a lower from Vancouver to Jasper and a compartment on to Toronto. On our next trip, we had a bedroom from Toronto to Jasper, and a lower on to Vancouver. Our next trip from Toronto to Vancouver was in a bedroom all the way. On our last trip in Canada, we had a drawing rooms from Vancouver to Jasper, Jasper to Toronto, and Montreal to Moncton. On my last trip, I had a bedroom Vancouver to Edmonton, a roomette back to Jasper (day trip), and then a compartment on to Vancouver. To get those drawing rooms, I made our reservations seven months in advance.

On our trips together, we stayed ins several of the former railroad hotels. On our third trip, we went to Halifax. After detraining, my wife was wondering how we were going to reach the hotel--I told her, essentially, to "keep walking this way"--right into the hotel lobby.   

[Miningman]

Eddie Cantor reads The Kid in Upper 4  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Te7gK-gkQ&t=26m

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89828/page/n153

 

https://ia800204.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/18/items/ERIC_ED406277/ERIC_ED406277_jp2.zip&file=ERIC_ED406277_jp2/ERIC_ED406277_0044.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED406277/page/n75 June 6

 

[Flintlock76]

Eddie did a great job reading "The Kid In Upper Four," but I was wondering about "White Christmas" as the background music, then  Eddie got to his brilliant spin on the ad!  

I'm not sure I could call it an improvement on perfection, but he came pretty close.

[Backshop]

" that friendly Pullman porter who treated him like his own son."

I'm not picking on the person who posted this, because I've seen this sentiment (or similar) on numerous posts in these forums, but why do I always get a queasy feeling when I read something like this?  Does anyone ever wonder why the Pullman porter had to treat people that way?

 

[Miningman]

The Moving and Portable Hotel 

https://ia800902.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/21/items/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2.zip&file=the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_0015.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0

 

https://ia800902.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/21/items/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2.zip&file=the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_0040.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0

 

https://ia800902.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/21/items/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2.zip&file=the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_0041.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0

 

https://ia800902.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/21/items/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2.zip&file=the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_jp2/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16_0043.jp2&scale=1&rotate=0

 

https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16/page/n15

 

 

[BaltACD]

Miningman

The Moving and Portable Hotel 

 

https://archive.org/details/the-saturday-evening-post-1943-10-16/page/n15

Having read the story past the linked page - there is a whole lot of verbage and identified 'practical jokes' that would not be acceptable in todays publications.