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THE CHIEF – SANTA FE promotional film on the famed train from the 1950s…

November 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Santa Fe promotional video on the streamliner the CHIEF (not the SUPER CHIEF as stated in the youtube video).


Here’s the Chief about to depart from Pasadena, CA., in the 1960s with Pullman sleepers, chair cars, dining car, lunch-counter car and Dome Lounge.

Social and travel history: the Santa Fe Chief…

The Chief was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Its route ran from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. The Chief was inaugurated as an all-Pullman limited train to supplement the road’s California Limited, with a surcharge of USD $10.00 for an end-to-end trip. The heavyweight began its inaugural run from both ends of the line, simultaneously, on November 14, 1926, making the cross-country trip in the advertised 63 hours, five hours faster than the California Limited. (The same day, the Overland Limited began its extra-fare 63-hour schedule between Chicago and San Francisco.)

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Filed Under: PULLMAN Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

From The Getty Museum to Lisbon’s Hills – The Future and The Past – Two Unique Ways to Transport People

September 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Getty Museum tram on video.

Lisbon’s Glória funicular on video.

CRUISING THE PAST looks at the Getty Museum tram and the Glória funicular in Lisbon.

Each of these unique ways to transport people climb a mountain. One is modern and the other old – but they share one thing in common – both are unique and an attraction in themselves.

THE GETTY TRAM

The Getty Museum pilot-less tram ride offers guests to the Los Angeles museum an experience in itself.   It carries on a long tradition of a manner transporting people in an usual way.  The Getty is massive as the mountain on which it was constructed. It features supporting walls nearly as tall as the mountain. The Getty’s stone edifice and its towering juxtaposition evoke an emotion that you, the visitor, are a god, looking down on your creation?the L.A. basin.

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Filed Under: STEAMSHIP LINES Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The other S.S. Rex – a gambling ship off Santa Monica, California in the 1930s and early 1940s.

August 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Italian ocean liner S.S. Rex.

The Los Angeles gambling ship S.S. Rex.

The other S.S. Rex – a gambling ship off Santa Monica, California in the 1930s and early 1940s.

Besides the fabulous Italian ocean liner S.S. REX launched in 1931, there was another S.S. REX.  The far lesser (but profitable) SS REX was operated as a gambling ship off Los Angeles by Anthony Cornero.  Gary Grant made a movie in the early 1930s based on the gambling boats.

Anthony Cornero (Left). He was also known as “The Admiral” and “Tony the Hat” (August 18, 1899-July 31, 1955) was an organized crime figure in Southern California from the 1920s through the 1950s.

During his varied criminal career, he bootlegged liquor into Los Angeles, ran gambling ships in international waters, and eventually operated casinos in Las Vegas.

Los Angeles Times advertisement.

In 1938, Cornero decided to open a shipboard gaming operation off the Southern California coast. Sailing in international waters, Cornero would be able to run his gambling dens without interference from U.S. authorities or the Cosa Nostra.

Gambling aboard Cornero’s off-shore ships.

Cornero purchased two ships (more like barges) and converted them into casinos at a cost of $300,000. He named the ships the SS Rex and the SS Tango.

The S. S. Tango.

Cornero’s premier cruise ship was the SS Rex, which could accommodate over 2,000 gamblers. It carried a crew of 350, including waiters and waitresses, gourmet chefs, a full orchestra, and gunmen. Its first class dining room served French cuisine exclusively. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: GAMBLING SHIPS, ITALIAN LINE Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,