DELTA QUEEN'S 1st trip 1948 & Brochure.

In today's money, that $140 parlor for the 7 night trip would cost $1176 (168/day). The Cincy/NOLA roundtrip, which according to my brochures was a 21 dayer, that $400 room would cost $3361 (160/day). Slightly below today's rates...

Hi, Judy:
You got that right with the calculations on cruise rates from 1948 to 2006. Interesting to compare and hard to believe today. Wait till I post the rates for the first spring cruise of the new L&C LINE Str. CINCINNATI from Pittsburgh to New Orleans and return, 1924. It was 12 days from Pittsburgh down with four day visit and another 12 days back for a total of some 4,030 miles R/T. A passenger would have been away some 28 days on the boat and possibly from another day or two via rail etc. to home.

I 'lost' that internet site where you could go to type in data for cost comprisons then and now. Could you post it for the gang if you have it?

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Heck, I'd even pay $1,176.00 for a week trip in a room with bunk beds, and not a parlor room. $2,500.00 for a weel long trip in a room with bunk beds, forget it! I can go on a Cunarder for less than that!

Judy,

Very true. However, not that much below today's rates, and when you consider (as Sam has pointed ou tin the past) the crew's health care was subsidized, the crew did not make the money they now do, cost of fuel, etc., it's really pretty amazing it is not MORE now than it is.

Here is the scan of the brochure - thanks Dale for sending it; and sorry for the delay posting it 😉

Franz

I can agree with you about the operating costs being higher now, but I certainly can't agree that $168 a day "isn't that much below today's rates", as you say. When the cheapest room goes for over $300 a night, or $600 for a single traveler, that is a SIGNIFICANT difference to this fixed income retiree! What was the number of crew carried back in the early Greene DQ years? I know the entertainment staff was certainly not as big as today's, but was the rest of the crew about the same, Sam?

Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks to Franz for posting the photo featuring the DELTA QUEEN's 1st 1948 season announcement. The informative brochure doesn't mention crew compliment on the DQ. Another folder here for the GORDON C. GREENE, 1936/1937, mentions "crew of 70" on their Mardi Gras trip.

I remember the GREENE LINE STEAMERS offices on the old wharfboat at the foot of Main Street here. For years and years the only phone number they had was the old dialing system of 'MAIN 1445.' Jane Greene, Jim Reising, Capt. Don, Keith Norrington, Doc Hawley could well recall the number of employees in the office. It was a lot less than when the company was sold and moved in offices uptown. One clever wag commented that in later years the company had "...more employees for two boats than the entire CUNARD LINE in their New York office." There were offices for Letha Greene, Bob McCann and later Betty Blake. There was possibly one additional office at the end of the hall and a lavatory. In addition was the reservation office with counter. 'Red' Caldwell, Caroline Greene and, perhaps, several others I can't recall now. Virginia Bennett worked there along with another lady named Caroline who in time developed MS. Who out there recalls others in the GL office? I recall veteran steamboat agent Horace Lyle but can't recall if he was still working in the office or down there visiting. Horace went way back.

The DELTA QUEEN's initial 1948 brochure also mentions "15% Federal Tax to above fares. A deposit of $25 per person with balance due two weeks prior to departure." Alan Bates could no doubt give us insights on the salary scales for that era. I seem to recall the late 1940s-1950 goal was to reach the $10,000 per year income level.

Yesterday's anniversary of the 1947 explosion of the last ISLAND QUEEN in Pittsburgh was noted. We sat on mother's front porch here, looked at our watches and recalled that the weather was precisely the same kind of day as back then: sunny, clear sky, dry with hints of September in the air. Mother recalled old friends and neighbors who were working on the ISLAND QUEEN and where they were at the time of the blast. Several ladies up town in a WOOLWORTH store when they stepped out just as the noise and concussion was felt.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Steamboating colleagues:
Look again at the DELTA QUEEN's 1948 first year folder closely Franz kindly posted on the web.

A giant SNICKERS BAR to the keen eyes that can name all the things 'missing' from the boat in this early rendition.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Doc said that there were 6 people in the office when he was there in 1966. Sharon Wright handled reservations there prior to going on board the DQ. She, Betty, and Dorothea Frye were a tight trio of friends.

Potpourri .... http://minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm This is the address for the inflation calculator I use. In 1948, Greene Line also put out a front/back promo sheet on both the DQ and GCG. It was on yellow paper, about 11x17, with a photo of each boat at the top of its side and the schedule listed. Sorry I can't have Franz post it, as its hanging up in my NOLA apartment. But I did find a separate brochure for the GCG in 1948, obviously a companion to the DQ one Dale posted. The DQ was the 'deluxe' boat, hence her rates were higher than the Gordon's. An 18 day St.Louis to New Orleans to Cincinnati trip cost $250 for the most expensive GCG room, or $2100 (117/day) in today's money. Of course, the DQ had more 'amenities' than the GCG too. I'll send that brochure to Franz to post - its cover is quite similar to Dale's DQ brochure. "Garage service is available on our wharf for a nominal charge." Sam, were you part of the emergency valet parking crew that had to remove the cars during one flood? That's one of Doc's classics, but offhand I can't remember what year that happened. And Dale, the GCG brochure also has the 15% federal tax stipulation too. I guess they didn't have port charges, fuel surcharges, or local taxes to deal with. Why was there federal tax, or was that a catch-all surcharge misnamed????

Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks, Judy, for nailing down the office force in the GREENE LINE STEAMERS wharfboat. I didn't mean to 'ignore' when Doc was there and based my posting to earlier years. Yes, Sharon Wright was a long-time fixture. Two years ago Ruth/Butch Guenther hosted a Christmas Party in their home and, lo' and behold, in walked Sharon after all those years.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Judy..that tax was a "luxury" tax imposed during WWII and it was removed sometime in the mid-50's...much like the federal tax on automobile tires back then.

Virginia Bennett was still working for Greene Line in '66, and I think her role was that of bookkeeper along with other duties. She was a longtime and faithful servant, but her employment did not survive the takeover of the new regime in 1969. Dorothea ran the gift shop on the DQ in '66, also the first year that Roddy Hammett began working on the boat. Roddy and Dorothea got into many adventures during shore stops and one of their favorites was being allowed to roam all over the Goldenrod Showboat at St. Louis. Capts. Bill and Charlie Menke were still living on board, as was actress Blanche Forbes, who had been on the boat since 1937. Dorothea recalled Roddy staring into a very old mirror in a dressing room behind the stage and wondering if it might be the same one used by comedian Red Skelton, who got his start on the showboat -- and who never failed to come down and visit with Capt. Menke when passing through St. Louis. Again, the "good old days" of Greene Line and the great people who made it so!