42nd Street Special? Warner-GE Prosperity Express! Wow!

[gmpullman]

Hi, Folks...

While there's another thread here about a bomb I'm going to start one about a hit!

I recenntly bought a DVD collection featuring the work of Busby Berkeley, the Hollywood musical director famous for his elaborate song & dance routines in such popular movies as Footlight Parade, Gold Diggers and, of course, 42nd Street.

As part of the bonus material I came across a featurette called The 42nd Street Express. I never heard of such a thing 

Well, seems like Warner Bros. and GE teamed up to run a special cross-country trainand bring some of the stars and officials to FDR's inauguration in Washington on March 4, 1933.

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/64350/42nd-Street-Special-The-Original-Movie-Promo-.html

[I tried to imbed the video here but, no such luck]

Now, I've learned of all kinds of special trains operated over the years, The Freedom Train, The Rexall Train even the "Celebrate The Century Express" run by Amtrak to commemorate the US Post Office but this one, actually called The Warner-GE Better Times Special was a new one to me.

It's not so much that there was a special train run from L. A. to D. C. this kind of thing went on all the time back then, it is the way this train was equipped that sparked my interest. First, all seven cars were covered in gold and silver foil, there were large illuminated signs mounted to the outside of the train; four carbon-arc flood lights shone out of open baggage doors; there was a 250 watt radio station on board, KEID, that would broadcast during station stops; one car had a General Electric "Health Kitchen" and one of the cars was set up to look like a sunny beach with real sand, GE infra-red lights and painted murals depicting Malibu Beach.

I can just imagine what this train looked like streaking across the plains with those huge signs illuminated and the whole thing covered in silver and gold foil!

 My point in sharing this is I wondered if any of you have heard of this train and is there any more information that can be found on it beside the few mentions on Google?

More here: opens as a PDF, takes a few seconds to load...

http://www.atsfrr.com/society/Western/12-02.pdf

 

I have seen models of the American Freedom Train with the white Alco PA-1 but I wonder if anyone has ever modeled anything like the 42nd Street Express?

Thanks, Ed

["JaBear"]

Gidday Ed, looks what’s required is some older Rivarossi Pullman cars, a gold paint rattle can, a heap of LEDs, and an HO scale Bette Davis.

Cheers, the Bear.