A new documentary, which has been airing on PBS stations throughout the country, concerns the S.S. United States, the ocean liner which plays a part in The Lucky Strike Papers. The film is called S.S. United States: Lady In Waiting. DVDs of the film can be purchased via the film’s web site:
http://www.bigshipfilms.com/bsf_final/#
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I mentioned the S.S. United States, when I spoke about The Lucky Strike Papers on June 30th, at the Pompton Lakes (New Jersey) Public Library. I’ve lived in Pompton Lakes since the fall of 2002.
June 30th was a day of great significance at the Library—the last day at work for the Library’s longtime director, Dr. Margaret Freathy. She had overseen the Library for 18 years.
I enjoyed speaking with a small group of Library patrons and staff members (including Dr. Freathy).
When I referred to the S.S. United States, a gentleman in attendance told me the following: he said he was unsure, but he believed that the S.S. United States was the ship featured in the 1957 film An Affair to Remember, starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.
I had not heard this, and so, last week, I rented the film. There were, in the film, many exterior shots of the ship; the ship plays a prominent part in the film. As one who has seen many photos of the S.S. United States (and took two tours of it, in the year 2000, on the Philadelphia waterfront), I was sure the gentleman at the library was right: it looked, I thought, just like the United States.
However: in an image of the bow of the ship, in the film, one sees the name “Constitution.” I thought, though, that perhaps the liner was still the United States, but that it had been renamed for the purposes of the film.
Yet so often today, of course, DVDs include additional footage and features, and one newsreel-type feature, on the DVD, concerned a 1957 event related to the film’s debut, an event which took place on the S.S. Constitution— the ship, the narrator noted, that had been featured in the film.
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Andrew Fielding, while host of a radio talk show in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996
A Book About Network Television in the late 1940s and early 1950s, by Andrew Lee Fielding. Originally published in 2007 by BearManor Media. Revised Edition published in 2019. See also: www.andrewleefielding.com, or www.earlytelevision.net
A Blog About Early Television...Later Television...The Big Band period...and other matters of history, family, and popular culture...
REVISED EDITION NOW AVAILABLE
"The Lucky Strike Papers"--subtitled "Journeys Through My Mother's Television Past"--profiles such early network television shows as "Your Hit Parade" (also known as "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade"), "Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge," and "The Freddy Martin Show." Author Andrew Fielding's late mother, Sue Bennett, sang on these programs, and others, in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
To purchase a copy of the 2019 Revised Edition of the book, please visit:
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Andrew Fielding, while host of a radio talk show in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1996
About Me
- Andrew Lee Fielding
- Andrew Fielding has written for The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Providence Journal, The Philadelphia Daily News, Horizon Magazine, and other publications. He has also worked as a radio talk show host--in Philadelphia, in suburban Philadelphia, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in northern New Jersey. He was also, for three years, the host of a weekly talk show on a nostalgia-oriented Internet radio station. His book about early television, "The Lucky Strike Papers," was published in December, 2007 by BearManor Media. A revised edition of the book was brought out in January of 2019.