FlyingCrow 42nd Street Special......PRR..... NY-DC From the movie with Dick Powell. 1933, I believe....she was married to Al Jolsen at the time.
42nd Street Special......PRR..... NY-DC
From the movie with Dick Powell. 1933, I believe....she was married to Al Jolsen at the time.
So close and yet.....so close. The train I was thinking of was New Haven New York-Boston 42nd Street.
There was a 42nd Street Special that Warner Brothers chartered for the promotion of the film "42nd Street" in 1933 which did a cross country tour. Unfortunately, the only information I have been able to come up for this train were passing references in newspaper articles about the film.
Anyway Buck, go ahead and ask the next question.
Excerpt from The Carole Lombard in Macy's Window by Charles Eckert, in Quarterly Review of Film Studies (1978)
Awakened by the brakes of the train, Bette Davis pulled aside a window curtain.Beneath a winter moon the Kansas plains lay grey with late winter snow. The mail clerk glimpsed Bette's face, but was too astounded by the pullman car itself to recognize his favorite star. The pullman was totally covered with gold leaf. The rest of the train was brilliantly silvered. From one car a tall radio aerial emerged mysteriously. Lost in his wonder, the clerk barely noticed that the train was underway again. He would later tell his children about the train with the golden Pullman, perhaps fashioned for some Western gold baron or for a Croesus from a foreign land. But he would never know that the interior of the train held greater wonders still.
As the cars gathered speed, other passengers shifted in their sleep, among them Laura La Plante, Preston Foster and numerous blond women with muscular legs (was one of them the supernal Toby Wing?). In an adjacent lounge car Claire Dodd, Lyle Talbot and Tom Mix were still awake, attending to a reminiscing Leo Carillo. In still another car a scene as surrealistic as a Dali floated through the Kansas night. Glenda Farrell lay in her Jantzen swimsuit upon a miniature Malibu Beach beneath a manufactured California sky made up of banks of GE ultraviolet lamps. The sand on the beach was genuine sand. Everything else was unreal. The next to last car held no human occupants. The hum, barely discernible above the clack of the rails, emerged from the GE Monitor-top refrigerator positioned next to the GE all-electric range. When one grew accustomed to the dark, one saw that this was merely a demonstration kitchen lifted bodily, it seemed, from Macy's or Gimbels, and compressed into the oblong confines of a railway diner. In the last car was a magnificent white horse. An embroidered saddle blanket draped over a rail beside him bore the name "King." The horse was asleep. The occasion that had gathered this congeries of actresses and appliances, cowboys and miniaturized Malibus, into one passenger train and positioned them in mid-Kansas on a night in February 1933, was the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If the logic of this escapes you, you must make the acquaintance of Charles Einfeld, sale manager for Warner Brothers.
Charles Einfeld was a dreamer. But unlike yours and mine, his dreams always came true. Charles Einfeld dreamed (and it came true) that Warner's new musical, 42nd Street, would open in New York on the eve of Roosevelt's inauguration, that the stars of the picture (with other contract stars, if possible) would journey to New York on a train to be called the Better Times Special, and that they would then go to Washington for the inauguration itself. The film, after all, was a boost for the New Deal philosophy of pulling together to whip the depression, and its star, Warner Baxter, played a role that was a patent allegory of FDR. Einfeld then sought a tie-up with a large concern that would share the expenses of the train in exchange for a quantity of egregious advertising. General Electric, already linked with Warner as a supplier of appliances for movie props, rose to the bait. The gold and silver train was given a definitive name: The Warner-GE Better Times Special. As it crossed North America from Los Angeles to New York its radio broadcasted Dick Powell's jazz contralto, GE ad-copy, and optimism (GE, as the parent organization of RCA and NBC, was in a position to facilitate hook-ups with local stations). When the train arrived at a major city the stars and chorus girls motored to the largest available GE showroom and demonstrated whatever appliances they found themselves thrust up against. In the evenings they appeared at a key theatre for a mini-premiere. Their ultima Thule was, of course, 42nd Street. On 9 March bawdy, gaudy 42nd Street looked as spiffy as a drunkard in church: American flags and red, white and blue bunting draped the buildings; the ordinary incandescent bulbs were replaced with scintillant 'golden' GE lamps, a fleet of Chrysler automobiles (a separate tie-up) and GE automotive equipment was readied for a late afternoon parade that would catch those leaving work. In the North River, a cruiser stood at anchor to fire a salute - a great organ boom to cap off a roulade of aerial bombs. As the train approached New York from New Rochelle, a pride of small airplanes accompanied it. Once it arrived, the schedule was as exacting as a coronation: a reception at Grand Central by the Forty-Second Street Property Owners and Merchants Association, the parade, a GE sales meeting at the Sam Harris Theatre, and the grand premiere at the Strand.
wanswheel Excerpt from The Carole Lombard in Macy's Window by Charles Eckert, in Quarterly Review of Film Studies (1978)...
Excerpt from The Carole Lombard in Macy's Window by Charles Eckert, in Quarterly Review of Film Studies (1978)...
Thanks, Wanswheel, for this excerpt concerning the special train for the film 42nd Street. I did some further snooping and uncovered a Warner Bros. short called The 42nd. Street Special which describes the train and the stars who were traveling on this train. Despite the name The Better Times Special mentioned in your excerpt I think they ended up calling the train The 42nd. Street Special based on the material I uncovered online. The following description is the from the Internet Movie Database about the short The 42nd. Street Special:
"As part of a publicity campaign for the film 42nd Street, Warner Bros. studios, with the assistance of the General Electric Company, assembled a 7-car train they called "The 42nd. Street Special". With numerous Warner Bros. contract stars as passengers, the train made a tour across the USA. It was scheduled to make stops in more than 100 cities, ending in Washington, DC for the March 1933 inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This short film records the send-off for this trip in Los Angeles. Using a microphone set up on the rear platform of the last car, several people addressed the crowd attending the event. Those making remarks include performers, studio executives, and the mayor of Los Angeles. Written by David Glagovsky <dglagovsky@prodigy.net>"
I also have here a link which shows a picture of the observation end of the 42nd. Street Special filled with stars and sporting dual drumheads, one for GE and one for Warner Bros.. -
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RKWtpew6Y9Q/SSg8jbaD7yI/AAAAAAAAB-o/KcIM_T6StV8/s320/67E-BB.jpg
This short is available as part of the "Busby Berkey Collection" on Warner Home Video.
You never knew what train shots would end up in these 30's era feel-good musicals. I just watched "Broadway Melody of 1936" this morning before going to work. (Nothing like movies at 4:30 in the morning).
So, ZO...who gets to Pass GO and collect $200?
FlyingCrow You never knew what train shots would end up in these 30's era feel-good musicals. I just watched "Broadway Melody of 1936" this morning before going to work. (Nothing like movies at 4:30 in the morning). So, ZO...who gets to Pass GO and collect $200?
Since you already "danced" with the answer, you get the next shot.
Couldn't seem to get into the Forum last night to post this question.
The 1947 order for the Golden Rocket. RI took delivery of it's set of cars.....the SP bailed out. The diner for the RI Golden Rocket set was El Comedor, while the name for the SP diner was to be????
El Conquistidor?
La Fonda?
K4sPRR La Fonda?
La Fonda it is! Congrats , K4 and the floor is all yours.
Post WWII modernization and expansion project of this large mid western yard facility mandated the moving of an entire town, building by building. This town would later be annexed into a neighboring city. Whats the yard the railroad and the town in question?
I would say SP, Rocklin -> Roseville except is was pre-WWI and is not in the Midwest.
Nope, post WWII era, near a city that carries a catchy tune if traveling to it.
The City must be St. Louis, but I must confess I do not know the names of all the yards around the place. Maybe this hint will help someone else.
You'r movin in, although, try looking at the other end of the state.
Are you thnking about Argentine Yard on the Santa Fe?
Bob Hanson, Loganville, GA
You got two of the three, now, the town that was moved and later annexed to a larger city in that great state of Kansas!
Not an expert on Kansas history, so this is a guess, but how 'bout Argentine, Kansas?
Again - strictly a guess.
Ok, I've been on the sidelines because I grew up in this area, but if Argentine yard is the correct answer, then Argentine, KS was annexed into Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas in 1910....hardly after WW2, so I'm not sure if this was what K4 was looking for.
Argentine, so named originally because of the large silver smelter that existed here at the turn of the 20th century, is mostly an ALL ATSF town, just like Armourdale, to the north of the river, belonged to the UP and Rock Island.
It's a huge facility, and a tour of the locomotive facilities here in the 50's was always a great Scout outing!
AWP your the one who broke the ice on this one, so I guess its only fair that the next question be yours. Two out of the three in my senario, so congratulations, you earned it. Argentine KS was the curve ball in this question but as stated that was pre WWII.
In the book Railroading, the Modern Way by Kip Farrington published in 1951 tells of the post WWII expansion of Argentine yard and the town of Turner Kansas being moved to accomodate the expansion. Turner Kansas was annexed into Kansas City, Kansas in 1965-66. I once lived in not too far away Leavenworth KS (lived, not confined) and really enjoyed all the rails in the area.
I'd say Crow knew more about it than I did - my answer was a genuine SWAG (if you know what that is,) not legitimate knowledge.
If Crow'd like to ask the next question, I think he earned it. If not, I'll be glad to do so.
Bob Hanson (AWP 290)
Well, Bob, your questions are always real head scratchers so check back to you.
BTW...Turner was actually a little further away to be "moved" by ATSF. The real reason for the move of some of the Turner neighborhoods was the 1951 flood, which I remember very well.
Okay, Buck , here goes: We're going back a ways for this one.
As we all know, John Luther "Casey" Jones was an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad when he was killed in a rear-end collision in Vaughn, Mississippi, on April 30, 1900.
The question is, in three parts:
1. On what road was Casey Jones originally hired?
2. In what capacity?
3. Where?
AWP290 Okay, Buck , here goes: We're going back a ways for this one. As we all know, John Luther "Casey" Jones was an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad when he was killed in a rear-end collision in Vaughn, Mississippi, on April 30, 1900. The question is, in three parts: 1. On what road was Casey Jones originally hired? 2. In what capacity? 3. Where?
Johnny
No head-scratcher there!
Johnny knocked that one out of the park on the first pitch!
I thought the telegrapher part of that would derail most people.
Take it away, Johnny.
New Question:
1. In 1930, what route would you have taken to travel overnight, by Pullman, between Atlanta, Ga., and Charleston, S.C.?
2. In 1950, what route would you have taken to travel overnight, by Pullman, between Atlanta, Ga., and Charleston, S.C.?
3. What difference would you have found at Charleston in the two routes?
Johnny,
I know of two sleeping car routes between Atlanta and Charleston.
Georgia RR (#3 & 4) between Atl and Agusta and ACL (54 & 55) between Agusta and Charleston.
SR (#35 & 36) between Atl and Seneca, Blue Ridge (#17 & 18) between Seneca and Belton, and SR (#11 & 12) between Belton and Charleston.
I don't have ready access to OG's for the two time periods so I'll just hazard a guess that the GA/ACL route still ran in 1950.
The two routes terminated at different stations in Charleston. I believe the distance between the ACL and SR depots was somewhere between 1-2 miles.
Mark
In 1930 there was an Atlanta-Charleston Pullman via GaRR-Augusta-SouRy.
In 1950 (at least until the fall of that year) there was an Atlanta-Charleston Pullman via GaRR-Augusta-ACL. This sleeper was shown in the May 1950 timetable but was gone by the time the November edition was issued.
As to the differences in Charleston, I know of none, other than possibly different depots.
The Georgia Railroad, at one time or another, handled a surprising number of Pullman lines.
Well, Mark and Bob both have it right for the 1950 route: GaRR/ACL, with Augusta the junction (Bob did miss the numbers of the train between Sumter and Charleston: 52/53; 54/55 ran Augusta-Wilmington).
Bob has it right for the 1930 route: GaRR/SOU, with Augusta the junction.
Actually, in 1950, the ACL no longer ran passenger trains into Charleston, but stopped them in North Charleston, obviating a backup move for through trains, and, for most trains, providing bus service between the North Charleston station and a location called "City Market." When the ACL did operate passenger trains into the city, it used the same station that the Southern used. Using railroad license, the ACL was then calling its North Charleston station "Charleston," just as Amtrak calls its station in Rensselaer "Albany" (in 1930, the ACl was honest, and called the stop for all but the Palmetto Limited, 79/78, 89/80, and the local to Sumter, "North Charleston").
Mark's Southern/Blue Ridge/Southern route was set up some time after 1931 (I have no TT between 6/15/31 and 9/36)
Mark came through first, with the ACL/Ga route and the wrong Southern route, and guessing that there were two different stations (though he did not mention the North Charleston station), but Bob had both routes right, even though he was not certain as to the difference in Charleston stations.
Sorry, Mark, but I feel that Bob has the next opportunity to ask a question.
If it is agreeable with everyone, I'll stand aside in favor of Mark. He was first with an answer and was at leaast partially correct, and I asked the last question.
So Mark, its all yours.
Bob
I didn't notice until just now that Bob had lateraled the ball to me so here's the next question.
In the winter of 1937 if you wished to travel in a drawing room between Detroit and Florida east coast cities you had a choice of several different trains and routes. Name these trains, the roads over which they were routed, and the cities between which each participating RR handled these trains/cars.
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