Reaction when the G.C.G. was laid up/sold?

A similar question, one I've always wondered about, and I apologize for this slight thread hijacking...

What was passenger's reactions when the company's name was changed from Greene Line to DQSC?

That happened in our time, 1973 or so. Most of us hadn't known the Greenes, so it wasn't a big deal. I met the Greenes several years later... As to no responses, probably the one who'd know but doesn't do computer is Virginia Bennett.

Bruno, at the time I thought it was somewhat a slap in the face to the Greenes, though I never knew any of them. All of the company name change happened around the time of needing to get the second DQ exemption. I wrote Bill Muster (President of GLS/DQSBCo at the time) and told him what I thought about the name change. Of course, every company president loves having 14-year-old boys writing to them telling them how to run their companies. ;-). I did receive a very nice letter from Mr.Muster stating the reasons for the change, namely the DELTA QUEEN name recognition vs. the Greene name, which meant nothing to most folks outside the Ohio valley. In the 1970's the bulk of the DQ's pax came from California.

Say what you will about Mr. Muster, but he and Betty Blake were an unstoppable team.

Dear Bob & steamboating colleagues:
Interesting question Re: "When the GORDON C. GREENE was retired." Judy is right that Virginia Bennett would be one to remember vividly--as would present members of the Greene family, Lil Smith, Helen Prater, Dick Prater and a list of others dating to that time. Veteran GL Purser, Bob McCann made the final entry in the GORDON'S log and it was most touching. I've a copy of it at home and it can be found in the boat's log book at the Inland Rivers Collection, Cincinnati Public Library. As a kid I remember, though vaguely, the talk around Cincinnati when the GORDON departed. One person who did shed real tears that day from her office window was Mrs. Letha C. Greene. Horace Lyle was still with the company then and, in so many words, said, "Now, now, Mrs Greene, don't be so sad."
Capt. Fred Way termed the GORDON the "Goose that laid the golden egg." The size and amenities of the then 'newer' DELTA QUEEN were what Capt.Tom Greene was looking for. The late Cat. C.W. Stoll waxed with great enthusianms for years on the GORDON'S charm and homeiness. Old veterans I talked to last winter in Cincinnati continue to gush over their experiences as passengers on her. My own grandmother, upon first seeing the DELTA QUEEN

Steamboating colleagues:
Something happened up here in the north and my computer went PFFT! To continue on with the last message. My grandmother first saw the DQ in/around 1949. She'd been on a number of steamboats including the famed KATE ADAMS. Looking the boat over at the foot of Broadway she shly said to my parents, "My, my she certainly doesn't look like the boats I knew." Dad explained the DQ was different...the "big California boat in design." My grams had known Capt. Mary B. Greene well in their early days along with Cat. & Mrs. Jesse Hughes and all of the Edgington boys on the river.
Judy's great GORDON photos elicited a lot of comment on the web and are included in the archive here. Woody Rutter and others recalled for me 'life on the GCG.' Many recalled the main cabin with the fold-down tables. The maids, cooks, serving stewards etc. usually ate early in the morning at tables in the very rear before the passengers. There were outside tables also for eating down on the lower guard along with something like picnic tables near the engine and boiler rooms for the crew down there. There's an old B/W photo of Capt. Fred Way on the GCG seated at one of those tables with smokes at hand banging on a typewriter. He could well have been setting up the daily newspaper or working on his vast correspondence.

I've kept up-to-date on all of the DELTA QUEEN news via this web, phone calls and E=Mails. The CINCINNATI ENQUIRER E=Mailed here for an interview the other week. I was gone for the day and didn't open until later. We never connected as the writer was hit with the print time. I gathered they had been reading the threads on this web. There would have been little I could have added beyond memories and sentiments so well covered by all of you on this web.

*On a personal note. Summer moving fast up here in the far north. Our family are now moving ahead from a very bad car crash in the resort area here involving my nephew, niece and neighbor girl. It could have been far worse and those injured are recovering and all is under control. It has been three frightening weeks. The cruise control malfunctioned sending them through an intersection and into another vehicle.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick in the now cold, windy, rainy north.

Steamboating colleagues:
High winds still roaring in here all day from Lake Michigan; thus giving time inside. I thought more about memories some of the old timers related to me Re: "life on the GORDON C. GREENE. Again, as stated, Virginia Bennett would be the one to nail a lot of the events and sentiments if she were on computer. The only time I ever saw or stepped foot on the GORDON was way back as a kid with my father while he was tending to city business and the Public Landing in Cincinnati. I mentioned in a posting some time back the only things I recall now were the high black stacks, lower deck and roar in the boiler room. Things were quiet that day and the main cabin was dim. Those famed dining room tables much discussed, and in Judy's pictures, were folded up against the wall when not used. They dropped down with tressel legs for meals. Three times a day the cabin staff performed that ritual. In the evenings when entertainment, music, dancing etc., was held the tables were again up with chairs arranged. The tables ran totaly fore and aft.

Space for the 'cook house' and scullery were limited as is the case on most boats. Woody Rutter and others answered my question on how china, cutler, cooking materials were washed. They recall a spinner dish washer shaped like a drum similar to models on navy ships. My thought early on had been that all was washed by hand and scalded before being stowed until the next meal. Alan Bates, Bill Judd and others may recall who had authority over sanitation and health in those days--was it the Steamboat Inspection Service or local Public Health? Mrs. Greene related a story to me years ago Re: the GORDON laid up for winter and required maintenance and service. An old mate put some men to working painting the GORDON'S cabin. Capt. Tom Greene came through on some errand and was shocked to see the men lathering paint on over unwashed surfaces. Anybody who has ever painted a boat/ship/home knows what the results can be on that. I can only imagine what his reaction was and how the situation was corrected.

Dry and cold food storage had spaces provided with many perishable materials being picked up along the way. Letha Greene once said to me in discussing the GORDON, DELTA QUEEN and the then new MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, "These boats live from one port stop to another for fresh water and this will always be a major issue in operations." She also said with a smile, "The toughest businesses to be in are food, beverage, entertainment, hotel operation and a boat--and I inherited all of it!"

The sale of the DQ, name change and retirement of the huge GREENE LINE STEAMERS wharfboat was felt in Cincinnati by many. For years that big wharfboat emblazoned with the name in big letters was one of the first things those arriving in Cincinnati saw from autos, buses, trains and later planes. The Greenes were known and knew untold legions in Cincinnati and up and down the rivers. Capt. Mary B. Greene was a living institution in her own time creating good old fashioned 'Public Relations' naturally. [*See the serialized interview of her done in 1948 in the archives of this web.] Capt. Tom carried on in his own personable style and after his death the name of Greene often appeared locally and nationally in the press linked to the boat, interviews and later TV commercials. Betty Blake carried on with PR programs advancing the boat in a new age to a new group of travelers looking for something new--and the disposable income to travel. Company names changed as did ownership of the boat. I meet old timers around the country who rode the GORDON and DELTA QUEEN in the early years. They ask, "There was a lovely lady and a Greene with children we met who ran the company. Is she still living?" I mention Capt. Mary and Letha Greene and they have to sift through the years and trips to remember. I don't know what I've said of importance in my postings, but it sure has been fun brightening a cold, windy day in the north.

Cheers and thanks to Bob Reynolds for the original question.
R. Dale Flick, Leland, Michigan - summer.