Topic starter
22/08/2011 3:49 pm
Hello all,
There's a nice 54-image photo set on Flickr with images from the mid-70s, including Phil Donahue and "Grandpa Walton"'s visits to the DQ, the MQ under construction and during her trial run. You can view it at DQ Steamboat Company - a set on Flickr.
22/08/2011 4:46 pm
? on half or more
fun to recall the ones that come up for me, but more than half show a ? instead of a picture. Anything that can be done about that, Jonathan?
22/08/2011 5:02 pm
Some IDs
Good find, Jonathan! A few crew identifications: that's Dan Forman playing the DQ calliope. Gabe is the First Mate greeting the women on the Texas Bow. Vic Tooker in officer's uniform appears in several shots. He is leading Mom and the band down the gangplank on the 50th anniversary... when was that, because it looks like Pop Tooker obscured next to Mom, and he died in fall 1975... In the photos of the ceremonies at the landing, that is drummer Kenny Hall and next to him organist Pete Eveland sitting in front of the podium. Eddie Bayard is playing cornet in another photo. In one of the public landing pix, it looks like the back of R. Dale - could it be???
22/08/2011 5:25 pm
*RE: DQ period pixs*
By golly, Judy, you're right! That is me in the long ago with longer hair, thinner, 'disco' pants flared and all. The jacket clinches it from those years. I had that jacket maroon in color with zipper pockets for a while until somebody liked it better than I did later 'lifting' it from a chair back at some other venue. Who would believe it?! Thanks for the memories.
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.
22/08/2011 6:27 pm
Drew ID
One more crew identtification in photo #0239. That is Capt. Carl Shelton, the first Captain of the MQ in the DQ pilot house with Capt. Wagner.
22/08/2011 9:27 pm
More I.D.'s
In the thumbnails, 3rd row, picture #5 (several people standing at the midship door): On the left is a guy named Henry -- he was a cook. Next to and behind him is Jim Bryeans, First Assistant Engineer. The next guy I don't know, but the guy on the right worked in the galley -- salad department, I THINK. Jim Bryeans, BTW, died in his sleep on the boat in 1977 or 78 at Linwood, IA.
The human mind is a very amazing thing. I took a trip as a passenger in 1974 and Eddie Bayard was the bandleader with several members I never saw again. One of those was the musician in the middle in picture 0917. Never saw him again until right this minute, but I remember he sang "St. James Infirmary", and sang the line "...bury me in a white coat -- double-breasted".
Picture #0935, Dan Forman: this is actually a piano on the Texas deck bow, not the calliope as captioned.
Fifth row, pic #5: The guy on the left is a redhead named Brian (can't recall his last name). He was actually a porter - the Mate must have asked him to turn the line loose from the shore.
I'm going to disagree with Judy (and my wife Sharon) on the 50th Anniversary-coming-down-the-stage photo: I don't think that is Pete Eveland behind Guy Tooker. But the guy behind him is Terry Severns, Cruise Director.
Great pics and a great find, Jon!
22/08/2011 10:29 pm
Pete Eveland
I didn't say he was on the 50th gangplank pix - there are 3 pix together on the landing where Kenny Hall and Pete are sitting in front of a podium on the levee(4th row, 2-3-4). When was that 50th celebration? If it was 50 years after the 1925 christening, like in April, then that would be Pop Tooker walking down the gangplank next to Mom Alice. But any later and it would be a ghost, since Pop died in Memphis in the fall of 1975. Is that Duane DePuy the Purser in the back near Gabe? Bob, do you remember that night that Jim B. died? Didn't we drop down to MacMillan to refuel and then head back to Davenport for the shore stop? I remember landing at Mac about 1AM with sheriff's deputies awaiting us...
23/08/2011 2:45 am
Sorry for the confusion on Pete. I do believe that is Duane DePuy.
As far as the night Jim Bryeans died, I remember it well. Leroy Smith went to wake Jim up at 11:30, came out of the officer's Quarters and said "I gotta go find Capt. Gabe". I think we were already landed at MacMillan Oil by that time. It took a while for me to figure out what had happened, as initially everyone was pretty hush-hush about it. The paramedics came and took Jim off there at MAcMIllan, and we had to get a number of people to stand on the heel of the stage to balance it so they could carry him off there.
23/08/2011 11:51 pm
Though ID'ing people in the photographs is a good thing, the big picture should be of the pictures of those two magnificent Queens.
Tom
24/08/2011 12:09 am
Sitting next to Kenny Hall on the left (Kenny's right) in the picture with John-Boy Walton is pianist Stan McAuley. The slick looking man standing on the right with the dark hair is Cincinnati talk show host Bob Braun.
24/08/2011 2:54 am
Purpose of pix...
Tom, each posting on .org can be taken by each reader as he/she wishes. Perhaps you weren't around the boats in the 70s, but these pictures are bringing back many memories for those of us who were. The structures of the vessels are grand, but the spirit of each is its people. I'm grateful to Jonathan for finding this series of photos of the DQ and MQ for us all to enjoy in our own way.
Topic starter
24/08/2011 8:51 pm
AMEN to both Judy and Tom
Tom, I couldn't agree more that these images show the splendor and magnificence of these boats in better times! That said, I wholeheartedly agree with Judy that each of us takes away from these photos what we will. It's not up to someone to say what a particular picture should or should not say. Actually, this is exactly the reason that I started this thread in the way that I did. I prefer to simply call people's attention to the fact that something like this exists, planting the seed for a conversation to start! (I'll admit that this is my underhanded attempt to glean more and more from the folks who know the stories and have the memories that I missed out on. Although, truthfully, it usually doesn't take much to get a story out of this community!!)
25/08/2011 1:04 pm
MQ Stern Name Board
I see a detail on the Mississippi Queen trial run photos that has my memory shaken. The sign board on the stern is awaiting the name to be painted. All across the top of the name board where a railing would be is a row of acorns. It is a nice detail but I do not have any memory of those acorns. Is it just my foggy memory or did they remove them before the boat went into service. All I remember there was the wooden railing. Sad what the years can do to your memory.
25/08/2011 2:04 pm
Ted,
The row of acorns were removed the winter of 1978/1979. I don't remember why. Seems somewhere along the way I heard a reason for their disappearance. They were brass as I remember. The stern flag would get caught up in them...perhaps this is why they disappeared? Wonder where they are now?
Travis
25/08/2011 5:50 pm
By the time I first rode the MQ during July, 1978 those acorns were getting rather sad. They were tarnished and on many of them you could lift the brass berry off of the red enameled pod. My guess is at that time it was less expensive for the company to remove them than to fix them.
Betty Blake chose ro celebrated the DQ's fiftieth birthday in conjunction with America's Bicentennial. She arranged for a very large birthday cake to be displayed on Cincinnati's Public Landing, and then cut by Ernie Wagner and "Grampa Walton" before the boat's departure for the 1976 Kentucky Derby. The cake was served to those whom came down to see the boat off. I remember it like yesterday, but don't ask me what I had for dinner last night
25/08/2011 8:18 pm
*RE: The DQ birthday cake*
Hi, Frank,
That was a LONG time ago now that we look back. Remember what they used to 'cut' the giant birthday cake with? Betty and Capt. Wagner used a big crosscut saw similar to what lumberjacks used. What a hoot! That was our Betty Blake.
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.
26/08/2011 2:47 pm
Many Memories
In fact, so much so that I began to wonder why I wasn't in some of those pictures. Then I got to figuring that I wasn't in the pictures because I was somewhere in the same vicinity of that photographer taking picures myself.
26/08/2011 6:02 pm
Those MQ Acorns
Here's a shot of those MQ acorns in question here. Since the MQ was brand-new when this shot was taken, there was so much to take-in with this big monster boat. Details like that could easily be overlooked!
The picture was taken in Cincinnati from the Roebling Suspension Bridge on July 25, 1976. The boat was arriving at it's home port for the first time to attend its Commissioning Ceremonies at the Public Landing. Capt. Ernie Wagner and Capt. Ted Davisson were in charge.
26/08/2011 9:39 pm
I remember painting those acorns a year or 2 later with Gold Leaf.