I couldn’t see anything in this light, so I am so pleased how this shot came out.
Alex was directing a show with the wonderful Jeff Perry for the MFA program at Cal State, and their theatre (or one of their theatres) is on the Queen Mary, docked at the harbor, and now a hotel and museum and spectacular in every way. I got to sit in on the tech rehearsal, which was so fun (bringing up so many memories of my college days), and got to see Alex and Jeff in action. It was great.
Great setting too.
Brought me to tears. Sailed NY to France arriving October 18, 1949. Was just shy of five years old. Amazing that she’s still out there (and I’m still here!). Thanks for the memories…….
Melissa – wow!! Awesome story!
I got to explore a little bit, while the rehearsal was going on – and the ship is beautifully preserved, the dining room, the giant staircase, and other features – I didn’t go into the hotel part of it, I stayed in the theatre area – but it’s a beautiful monument. I think they’re restoring a lot of it now, there was quite a bit of construction going on.
My dad’s boat is docked at the marina at Shoreline Village. There’s a great view of the Queen Mary from it. It looks spectacular at night. They used to do a great fireworks show every 4th of July and I’d always go down there to watch. It was great, just sitting on the back of the boat, drinking and eating and watching those fireworks. Then the city of Long Beach got in some dispute over the cost of it with the Queen Mary people and it stopped. That really pissed me off.
I didn’t know there was a theatre on the Queen Mary. My sister and her husband were married there in 2001 and I spent a couple of nights aboard. Their suite had recently been redone and was spectacular. My room had not been remodeled yet and appeared to be circa 1965 or so and getting a little threadbare. Still, it had portholes toward the bay and it was kind of cool to experience the ship that way. The website now shows rooms that are maybe a little too modern now.
Large parts of the ship were blocked off for construction and I had the feeling that the whole enterprise was on the bubble as far as making a go of it. Great bar though, aft I think. I’m glad to see that the old girl seems to be doing well now.