What is it?

Paul,

Ah, I beg to differ...for mine was always live, unscripted, completly verifyable fact, and uncensored! Seems to me Jazzou wrote the script you refer to back in the early 1990's (jazzou feel free to jump in and embelish on this or correct me where necessary).

This brings back a memory from the early 90's aboard the MISSISSIPPI QUEEN. On the MQ there is a midship staircase accessible only to the crew which connects all decks but the sun deck (roof). At the top of this staircase (with a service elevator in the middle of it) is a former crew lounge which became the Entertainment Office/Chefs Office for awhile. Later the Entertainment Office moved to the Projection Booth (which had gone digital by that time) of the Theatre in the hull (Lower Deck) until her untimely demise.

At any rate, I was a guest aboard the MQ on Derby Day of 1992 and Jazzou and I tweaked the script for the Calliope Capers event. He took me from the Main Deck to this elusive staircase and we ascended to this room. I had no idea this was hidden in the MQ at all. I was shocked to find this totally modern office in the heart of the vessel.

Bob Stevens and I rewrote the DELTA QUEEN version of the Calliope Capers script a couple of years ago and it is about as factual as it can be with out Joshua Stoddard (patent holder for the American Steam Piano), William Hoyt (True inventor of the calliope as we know it today and former finance man for J. Stoddard), Thomas J. Nichol (Premiere builder from 1890 till his sons took over and closed it in 1935 renaming the company General Devices and Fittings, Grand Rapids MI), and George Kratz (Builder in Evansville, IN) delivering it to Norman Baker (developer of the Tangley Calliaphone air-operated calliope in 1914 in Muscatine, IA) himself!

Of course, for it to be completely effective when delivered to the passengers David Morecraft, Dave Miner, and Capt. Clarke Campbell "Doc" Hawley would have to be the panel of judges with the gong!

Did that qualify as embellishment?

By the way, anyone else remember when the event (as it were) was merely called "Calliope Tryouts - Sun Deck Aft at the Calliope"?

~Travis~

Travis Vasconcelos;12362 wrote:

[snip]

Later the Entertainment Office moved to the Projection Booth (which had gone digital by that time) of the Theatre in the hull (Lower Deck) until her untimely demise.

Trav,

Your mention of the projection booth Entertainment "Office" on the MQ brought back painful memories. I don't mean "painful" in the emotional sense, although there is that. I mean literally painful. I spent many an uncomfortable hour doing the newspaper there. The "desk" is so narrow that you can't put the computer keyboard directly in front of the screen so you're constantly looking off to your right, and up, at the screen while facing square in front of the keyboard. After awhile, I used to get a literal pain in the neck. And how many times would I bump my head on that metal cabinet on the wall!

And it's location is inconvenient in the sense that you're on the firing line whenever the movie computer program would do one of its occasional hiccups. Since I always left the door open, I had several conversations with small groups of passengers irate because they were missing "Paducha, The Pearl of the River", or some other cinematic classic.

"Oh, hi folks. What's that? The movie's not on? I'm sorry. Well I'll get right on that for you."

(picking up the phone)

"PHIL! The movie's broke again and you haven't taught me how to fix it yet!"

I also remember the first time you and I ever had a substantive conversation.

You were intently watching me do Capers and I didn't know who you were. All I could think was, "Who is that guy and why is he scowling at what I'm saying?"

Afterwards, you told me about the fiction involving J. Stoddard. I was not about to change it, though, because it was the premise of my favorite personal embellishment to the saga. At the end of the story about the church boiler exploding, and the steeple being blown off, I would always assert that it was the first North American launch of an ICBM.

I guess you had to be there.

By the way, was my explanation of the different pronunciations of "calliope" right, or is that also fiction? Say it isn't so.

Later, I came to be able to count you as a close friend whose advice I would often seek out and appreciate. And it's those friendships that make life aboard such a treasure, to be cherished at the time and missed when it's over.

As they say a lot these days, "Good times".

Paul

Paul,

Those were good times as we came to the end of an era with that boat.

Speaking of that small desk in the Entertainment Office/Projection booth...I wrote my first Riverlorian Chat at 1am the morning before it was delivered in there. and all the chats for the first month on the MQ came from that office over the next week.

Each night as the show was going on I would take my pile of books to my room, figure out what direction I was going....and make notes I would take to the office and type out. I still have each and every page I typed in there.

I, too learned quickly what it meant to keep that door open!

One time a pax came to me with a complaint about not being able to hear the movie...it wasn't the sound was down...it was the toilet in the hall. It wouldn't stop flushing. The sound was echoing in the theatre!

Then there were the pax who on turnover day sat in the Theatre for over 2 hours waiting to be released to their rooms and wondering why no one came down to tell them.

That theatre was always a source of entertainment! Regardless of if a movie was playing or not!

Nothing like that happened when I was on the AQ in her Theatre...or at least I was not aware of it.

We never did do something I really wanted to do on the MQ...host Riverlorian Movies. I know Toots did it many times....so did Clara.

I always hung around in the background of Calliope Capers....so I would know what questions to be prepared for...and to support pax I sent up there to play it! Of course the fact the soft-serve ice cream was up there didn't hurt, either!

~Travis~

Travis Vasconcelos;12387 wrote:
[snip]
One time a pax came to me with a complaint about not being able to hear the movie...it wasn't the sound was down...it was the toilet in the hall. It wouldn't stop flushing. The sound was echoing in the theatre!

[snip]

That theatre was always a source of entertainment! Regardless of if a movie was playing or not!

[snip]

Ah, yes, the wonderful world of plumbing on the Magnificent One. When I heard they were going to renovate her, I would have been happy if new plumbing was the only thing they did.

And the theatre did get interesting uses, including crew movie and popcorn nights. But the most imaginative use I ever saw was the result of some "out of the box" thinking by Cruise Director Westbrook. During the 2006 World Series he got the engineers to wire the satellite television to the video feed in the theater so the pax could watch a wide screen version of the Fall Classic.

Of course, since the Red Sox were not involved in that one, I didn't see the need, but then Phil is a Mariners fan so he doesn't get it.

Paul

Judy, I asked my dad and he has no idea where the plaque might have gotten to. sorry for the dead end there

Judy,
I asked my dad about the whereabouts of the plaque, and he had no idea. sorry for the dead end there

JC Petersen;12318 wrote: Most of Pete's posts are all gone now. I know he posted something recently about his Grandfather Zahn, but now it's gone.

On a personal note, I did not know Mister Zahn either, but I do know the Sisak family quite well, they are tops in my book.

I hate to go off the topic, but what happened to Darin Schuld & all of his posts?

Was he banned too?

I haven't heard of anyone being banned. I read something by Darin not too long ago. Maybe some people just choose not to post for periods of time for reasons only they know.

JC, the purpose of this thread in particular and the purpose of this forum in general should not allow us to discuss if any of us are "banned".

I know that you and Pete do not agree with me on a lot of things and that is OK with me, really, to each his own. As has been described to me MANY, MANY TIMES by the webmaster, any posting on this forum is welcome as long as any post by anybody doesn't unjustly criticise or slam another person. Do you think it is right to make fun of anybody that can not or will not defend themselves? That is the reason that we went toe to toe a few weeks back. Frankly I don't care what the definition of a "good" DQ cruise is, your and Pete's definition is perfectly valid, and I know that my definition is a tad different, that's fine, really...

Anyways, the end result is that this forum is ONLY about two things and two things only. It's about people sharing information about steamboats, any steamboats, the steamboat life, the river life, past and future and secondly, it's about people reading this forum for the very first time trying to form an opinion whether steamboating in general and riding the Queens or any other steamboat in particular is a good thing. What does banning a forum member have to do with either of those?

Pete just posted less than 3 weeks ago and I have no clue as if he is banned, personally I sincerely hope not, as I really, really enjoy his unique "other side" view! I don't always agree with him, but so what? That's what makes this forum so dam_ed interesting, don't you agree? Darin posted not long ago also. So be it, I suspect we will find out. Let's try to make this forum about sharing steamboat information, not about personal information. Personal information is meaningless to the person trying to figure out if riding the American Queen is worth X thousands of dollars for the first time. I'm sure there is an explaination about why both are not posting, information that should be reserved for personal e-mails, not here.