If you like the idea of re-living, or experiencing for the first time, train travel from a better era, Steamrail Victoria are providing a chartered return trip from Melbourne to Wycheproof called “Steaming Up Broadway” (pdf info available here).
It departs from Souther Cross Station in Melbourne at 10pm on Friday the 10th of October and arrives at Wycheproof at 10.30am on Saturday the 11th. IT then departs Wycheproof at 9.50am on Sunday the 12th and arrives at Southern Cross Station at around 8pm that night.
The Maritime Timetable Images website is a great collection of…maritime timetables, from a period in time when “the journey was more important than the destination”.
The huge collection, put together by Björn Larsson, covers a pretty wide era and starts around the late 1800’s.
Below are some of my favourites, but definitely go and visit the site to see a whole bunch more :)
While its not from the 1930’s or 1940’s, there is a brand of suit from Studio Italia, which goes under the moniker of the “Money Market Suit”, which almost plays the part of a golden era suit…and the limited edition (300 only) peak lapel suit with the Regal Lilac lining they announced, really does look quite nice.
In the last week i finished re-reading two books by one of my favourite authors, Eric Ambler.
One was first published in 1956 and is called “The Night-Comers” (also called “State of Siege”) and the other is “The Light of Day” that was first published in 1962.
The Night-Comers
All in all Steve Fraser had enjoyed his three-year stint in the former Dutch Southeast Asian colony of Sunda, and he’d been well compensated. But now he was looking forward to a last weekend in the capital before heading home.
But Sunda was newly independent, and not entirely stable. An opposition faction with fundamentalist Islamic leanings was set on overthrowing the provisonal government. And instead of enjoying a sybaritic weekend with the Eurasian beauty Rosalie, Fraser finds himself trapped with her by a fanatical group who’ve taken over the country’s radio station and made their headquarters in his friend Jebb’s apartment.
As the government launches a counterattack, the couple’s survival depends on their ability to dodge bullets and the shifting loyalties of the coup’s liuetenants.
The Light of Day
When Arthur Abdel Simpson first spots Harper in the Athens airport, he recognizes him as a tourist unfamiliar with city and in need of a private driver. In other words, the perfect mark for Simpson’s brand of entrepreneurship. But Harper proves to be more the spider than the fly when he catches Simpson riffling his wallet for traveler’s checks.
Soon Simpson finds himself blackmailed into driving a suspicious car across the Turkish border. Then, when he is caught again, this time by the police, he faces a choice: cooperate with the Turks and spy on his erstwhile colleagues or end up in one of Turkey’s notorious prisons.
The authorities suspect an attempted coup, but Harper and his gang of international jewel thieves have planned something both less sinister and much, much more audacious.
Note: The Light of Day was the basis for the 1964 Jules Dassin classic film, Topkapi (IMDB - wikipedia). You can watch the trailer to the movie below and over at this YouTube page.
If, like me, you are a fan of the hotel luggage labels that adorned peoples suit cases in a time when travel meant taking a journey and not just the quickest way to get from one place to another, then you will probably like this site i ran across recently that contains a pretty decent collection of those great labels.
The English content on the page has obviously been machine translated from Italian so it makes the reading a little bit amusing.
Here are a few of my favourites from the site that i would love to have on my luggage…my selection is not based on design…but on places that would have been amazing to visit in the era of luggage labels.
Note: If i could find a website for the hotel, i’ve added a link to its name.
It is also the only film adaption of a Christie novel to star Albert Finney as detective Hercule Poirot, with the role being played by Peter Ustinov in other films.
“Murder on the Orient Express” was the more successful of the two movies, bringing in $25 million in the US versus only $14.5 million for “Death on the Nile”. I’d have to agree with those figures as “Murder on the Orient Express” is definitely my favourite of the two…though they are both great films :)
The other week I finished re-reading a book I haven’t picked up in a few years….
Case Reopened
The Mean Streets team again! The Wanda Beach murders, the disappearance of Harold Holt, the Bogle-Chandler case, the missing proceeds from the Qantas Bomb Hoax, the mystery of the Beaumont children and the Shark Arm murder. These are just some of the real ‘cases’ investigated by the cream of Australian crime writers who were given the brief to take a famous Australian murder or mystery…and solve it!
Have they really stumbled onto new information…or are their speculations merely fiction?
While continuing my research into the Lloyd Triestino “SS Toscana” (the ship my father traveled to Australia on), i was cruising around eBay and ended up picking up two interesting books on shipping services to and around Australia.
THE VANISHED FLEET - AUSTRALIAN COASTAL PASSENGER SHIPS 1910-1960
Written & illustrated by T.K. Fitchett
“The Golden Age of Australian passenger ships began early this century, when the steamship companies oredered splendid new ships to trade between all the principal ports from Wyndham around to Cairns…..
Holidaymakers cruised aboard them to the Australian tropics. Businessmen enjoyed a few days’ relaxation between one city and another…..
Occasionally the voyage was more adventurous than they’d bargained for. The liners encountered most of the hazards of the seas including fires, shipwreck, freak waves, collision, and uncharted rocks. Two became mysteries of the sea when they vanished in cyclones….
T.K. Fitchett tells the story of Australian passenger liners from the arrival of the tiny Express during the Victorian gold rush to the departure of the Manoora under a foreign flag….”
HOME AND BACK - AUSTRALIA’S GOLDEN ERA OF PASSENGER SHIPS
by Stuart Bremer
“Home and Back seeks to remember an era that has passed, a time when on any day major passenger liners arrived and departed from the ports of Australia.
This is the story of the principal shipping companies involved in trade to Australia and around its coastline from 1900 to the 1970s…
It is also the story of the ships that served Australia, from the humble to the grand.”
It’s a real shame that all of the local services have now gone and been replaced by plane flights :(
On Saturday the 19th of July 2008, a few members of The Fedora Lounge gathered in Melbourne for a day of Art Deco oohing and aahing due to the Art Deco 1910-1939 Exhibition that is on at the moment at the National Gallery of Victoria.
After having been given a “private viewing” of items still to be worked on by the owner Circa Vintage Clothing, thanks Nicole….great stuff, we wandered of to the National Gallery of Victoria.
Before getting our tickets to enter the Art Deco Exhibtion, we checked out the Charleston demo that was on.
After much oohaing and aahing inside the exhibition at the stunning pieces, we grouped outside for some photos at the entrance signs.
After leaving the NGV we then wandered the streets of Melbourne and visited a few bars…EQ Bar, The Toff in Town (love the carriages), Madame Brussels (the fake grass was interesting…but the warm alcohol was lovely), Pellegrini’s (how can you not like Pellegrini’s), Mai Tai Cocktail (Tiki) Bar (intersting…in a good sort of way), the Chill On Ice Bar (very cold…-10o celsius…brrrr) and Charlie’s Bar (the cocktails were as always…perfect).
At The Toff in Town
At Pellegrini’s
It was a great day and the perfect way to meet fellow Fedora Loungers :)
I’m not a big fan of the tie (I’m a weddings, funerals and very important meeting sort of tie guy)…but i do like a bit of nice design.
Anyway…I had an opportunity to pop into Chapel Street Bazaar in Melbourne on Tuesday and was looking to pick up some art deco style cuff-links…I ended up buying a nice 1940’s Manhattan hand painted tie that was in pretty good condition.
Now while i was trying to find out some info on the Manhattan, i ran across a site called American Vintage which has some great ties from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. Some of the ties from the 1950’s had what was called a “peek-a-boo girlie tip in”…scroll about half way down the page to see some of them.
For some reason the term “tie porn” springs to mind…
Ok…here is the first batch of my photos of the radio room at the Upper Yarra Museum that i took while looking after the place recently.
The descriptions have been taken from a bit of paper in the room and from what is on the radio’s themselves so…if anything is named wrong or if you know what year they may be from, i would love to know it so i can label everything properly :)
Starting with the Gramophones.
Clariola
Columbia Portable Gramophone
Masterpiece Gramophone
Perfectone
Rexsport Portable Gramophone
Some of the radio’s from the collection are coming next :)
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