Trains known for their famous clientele

[daveklepper]

As an actor, Ronald Regan was featured in at least one UP advertisement.

[passengerfan]

Probably one of the most famous regular passengers of the CITY OF LOS ANGELES was President Ronald Reagan before he became POTUS.

[David_Telesha]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DeLuxe

Alger Hiss?? Never heard of him! Did i miss something?

OMG, how old are you?? Do they teach history in our schools anymore??

[B)][V]

[PBenham]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DeLuxe

Alger Hiss?? Never heard of him! Did i miss something?

It was a sad chapter in the history of this country. Look into any of the bios of Richard Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, and other 1945-1956 politicians. He (Hiss) was a very minor player in the loss of our atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs (Juilus and Ethel) were the principal figures in the affair. Whether they should both have been executed has been argued over for six decades. Had we allowed the Rosenburgs to live we might have been able to get some insight into how the KGB kicked our behinds in that affair. The "official Soviet version" of the story, boasted that the information they got from their spies in the west, merely showed that their scientists in Siberia and throughout the Gulag were on the right track to the Soviet A-Bomb. Hiss' son Anthony wrote an entertaining biography of E.M. Frimbo alias Rogers E.M. Whitaker, which is widely available. It might even still be in print(?)

[Anonymous]

Alger Hiss?? Never heard of him! Did i miss something?

[daveklepper]

Leonard Bernstein, the Passenger Traffic Manager of the D&RGW after Thomas Long retired, told me he was a dining car steward on the California Zephyr when he served King Hussein of Jordan and his wife. They ate in the dining car along with regular passengers.

Any Pullman passenger could have meals served at his or her accommodations, including section passengers. Most preferred to go to the diner for the change it afforded.

The Super Chief was unique in the Turquoise Room which seated eight to twelve and could be reserved for private parties.

The Panama Limited was unique in have the names of its guests on the doors to the roomettes and bedrooms and whatever.

A different sort of celebrety. On a trip from Lenox, Mass. after a Tanglewood concert weekend, to my sister's summer home in the Hamptons on LI, I used the New Haven's weekly Sunday evening train to Grand Central (then the No. 7 Subway to Woodside, and LIRR MU (still the old MP-54's) to Jamaica, then a parlor car on the last evening Montauk train (heavy weight, ex-PRR with 6-wheel trucks, but air conditioned and snacks and drinks available). On the back of the New Haven train (one FL-9 through to Grand Cerntral, about four preWWII "American Flyer coaches, and one silver-sided parlor at the rear) I rode the rear platform most of the way, with the conductor;s permission . Those who visit the museum operations on this line today know its quite scenic. I was enjoying the scenery when a silver-headed man asked if he would mind his joining me. I was quite brash and said that he probably paid for a ticket and had as much right as I did to thoroughly enjoy the scenery. We discussed the history of the line, the demise of the Danbury electrification, Pat McGinnis, all sorts of that stuff. South of Danbury and on the main line, when it got dark, we returned to adjacent parlor seats and continued our conversation with soft drinks. Finally, around Stamford, I asked him his name. He replied: "Alger Hiss." I tried to keep my cool as much as possible. I knew he had served a long jail sentance but was surprised he was now free. (This was about 1965 or 1966, so he could not have been in jail for more than ten years, compare with Jonathan Pollard and the real damage done to USA security) I simply asked him what he was doing, and he said he worked at a bookstore. I asked which one, and he said the Jefferson Bookstore on West 23rd Street. I didn't feel much like talking after that and I guess he understood, because the conversation just about stopped. But I was polite when the attendent took our bags to the platform at GCT and said goodnight, tipped the attendent a dollar, and went to the subway for the No. 7 train. I later learned that the Jefferson Bookstore was in a building actually owned by the Communist Party and where their headquarters still was and that it sold mostly Marxist literature. Later, I actually had to enter the building when a fellow Audio Engineering Society member asked me to help him with an acoustical problem in one of the offices, not the CP's in the buidling, but I did see the door to the CP's Headquarters suite with a sort of "workers unite" Soviet-style large poster on the door. By this time I was President of our own firm in White Plains, about 1974 or so.

[David_Telesha]

One need look no farther than the New Haven...

The NH served places like Greenwich and other expensive famous people residences along the CT shoreline...

I know Gregory Peck rode the New Haven several times...

[Anonymous]

I believe it was possible on most any train to have a meal delivered from the dining car to a Pullman accommodation (maybe not a section, but even that could have been finessed by pulling the curtains shut). I understand that it was fairly common for Super Chief passengers to eat in their rooms.

As for your original question: Most any train might have had a celebrity rider (some frequently; others rarely) if that was the train serving the location to which the celebrity wished or needed to travel.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the answer.
I also read that on the 1950 Sunset Limited, first class sleeping car passengers enjoyed a valet-service, which would bring you the meal inside your bedroom if you didn´t want to eat in the dining car. Have there also been other trains with a service like this?

[PBenham]

All the trains listed had celebrity riders from time to time, but they usually hid in their Pullman rooms and didn't mingle with the other passengers. The 20th Century was right up there with the Super Chief for its celebrity clientele. Lucius Beebe's book is at its best in this respect. Karl Zimmerman's book on the Century is OK on this topic, and has the advantage of being in print! The Broadway and The City of LA likely had the occasional celebrity riders going to points the Super Chief or Century didn't serve. Noteworthy place: Philadelphia-The Broadway could have been originated there and no one would have said a word, except in PRR's boardroom. The B&O's Capital Limited deserves mention, as it was THE way to get from Chicago to Washington. Washington wasn't the draw it is now, but it was important enough during the 1920-1945 period.

[Anonymous]

We all know that the Super Chief was the train of stars, since Hollywood stars used to ride that train rather than other Chicago-Los Angeles trains. But have there also been any other trains back then which were known for their famous ridership?
I heard that the North Coast Limited, City of Los Angeles, 20th Century Limited and Broadway Limited also often had famous passengers riding that train. Or is this information false?