What I've heard about George Reeves is that his wife was a control freak and she was losing control of him as he was getting a lot of film offers at the time. He refused to stay under her thumb. Suicide? I highly doubt it. But, having said that I did get this information from the book, "Hollywood Babylon 2" by Kenneth Anger. I have seen George in several films including one with James Cagney, called "Strawberry Blonde."
Wasn't there a movie about George's death with Ben Affleck?
Well, according to Jack Larson, who played Jimmy Olsen in the series and who was a good friend of George it was a suicide. It came as a shock to Jack but not a surprise. He said George was very depressed about his career stalling after the "Superman" series being cancelled, in addition to which George was getting older and no matter how hard he worked out and dieted age was slowly but surely taking it's toll and he was losing his once fine physique.
It's really a shame, because had he held on for a few more years I'm sure George Reeves would have had the satisfaction of knowing that thanks to the "Superman" role he was an American icon, loved by more than one generation of children.
Anyway, I was curious if everyone heard what I heard when I was a kid:
"What happened to George Reeves?"
"Aw, it's too bad. He went nuts, thought he really was Superman and jumped out a window trying to fly!"
Anyway, getting back to those gorgeous ships and their demise...
In my humble opinion with proper fire supression equipment installed, proper crew training, and proper seamanship there's no reason a ship with a wooden superstructure would be any less safe than an all-steel ship. The "Morro Castle," the "Normandie," and the "Queen Elizabeth" (as Seawise University) were all-steel ships and that didn't save them from catstrophic fires.
But, the law is what it is. End of story.
A lot of what I've read postulates that the Normandie probably would have been much better off if they'd just let it burn. Since they flooded the ship unevenly with the fireboats pumping WAY more water into her than the dockside firefighters did the ship heeled over. If they had let it burn, they only would have had to clean up the fire damage but as it was they also had to deal with a lot of flooding damage which affected more areas of the ship than just the Main Dining Saloon where the fire originated. (Stack of old cork life jackets ignited by a cutting torch.)
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
You've got the "Normandie" story right Becky. Actually, if someone had thought to go below decks and open the lower gangways all that water they were pumping into the ship would have had a way to escape, and all that top-weight from the water wouldn't have been a problem.
The really sad thing was the designer of the ship Vladimir Yourkevitch was in New York at the time. Since he knew the "Normandie" like the back of his hand he would have been of tremendous help in fighting the fire but the US Navy officer in charge of the operation wouldn't let him near the ship. "The Navy can handle this!" he said. Sure they could.
Not the US Navy's finest hour.
The story of the whole sad incident is told in John Maxtone-Graham's "The Only Way To Cross," a great book to read if you love the old ocean liners. I can't recommend it enough!
I've read old news reports about the "top-heavy" Normandie capsizing. Read Maxtone-Graham's book and you learn, "No it wasn't," but fingers must be pointed, right?
Just ordered The Only Way To Cross from B&N. Thanks for the recommendation.
Another one you'll like is "The Sway of the Grand Saloon, A Social History of the North Atlantic" by John Malcolm Brinnin. Also, look for the books by Bill Miller; he has books that cover Cunard, The French Line and so forth.
You'll love it Backshop! I got mine about ten or so years ago and never tire of rereading it.
"Sway Of The Grand Saloon" is on my must-read list as well.
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