#732 The MV World Odyssey, The Dream Ship

 SEMESTER AT SEA SHIP HISTORY

MS Seven Seas, 1963-1966
SS Ryndam, 1966-1971
SS Universe, 1971-1995
SS Universe Explorer, 1996-2004
MV Explorer, 2004-2015
MV World Odyssey, 2015-present

During our previous Semester at Sea voyages when the program was sponsored by the University of Virginia, the MV Explorer was our shipboard home for more than 500 days/nights.  We have a gazillion photos of this modern ship built in 2001 but the beautifully photographed article in Maritime Matters is the place to go to best understand the contemporary style of our previous home.

MV Explorer

The MV World Odyssey is the sixth shipboard home of the SAS program and we are eager to see it up close this fall.  In 1998, she was built in Kiel, Germany - just north of our embarkation point in Hamburg.

MV World Odyssey

We have a lot to learn about our new ship, but we already know that she has a cinematic history. The German television show Das Traumschiff ("The Dream Ship"), based off the American TV series "The Love Boat", was filmed on board for 15 years.  Fans of The Dream Ship have the opportunity to sail during the summer when the MV World Odyssey is not used for SAS.  It would be fun to sail on The Love Boat, ie, the Pacific Princess, but it was decommissioned and taken apart for recycling in 2013.

I've done some serious cinematic research of films set on ocean liners, so I'm happy to have found this cinematic connection with the MV World Odyssey.  For the official results of my research, see my Top 20 Films at Sea and even More Films at Sea. Spoiler alert: My favorite is One Way Passage, 1932.

Yours in dreaming of The Dream Ship,
Mary Jo

#549 Vacation Virginia #9 - McCormick Farm

Vacation Virginia #9, in celebration of our fathers, is a day trip to Lexington, VA.

Kelly and I are both lucky enough to have grown up on Missouri farms.  These farms ultimately benefited from Cyrus McCormick's 1831 invention, the mechanical reaper - only 50 miles from Charlottesville, near Lexington. Cyrus was only 22 when he invented and built the reaper on his family farm.  Today, the Cyrus McCormick Farm is managed by our friends at Virginia Tech and is a beautiful place to spend the afternoon enjoying the outdoors, walking the trail, and visiting the blacksmith shop, grist mill, and museum.

The drive from Charlottesville to the McCormick farm is a beautiful trip through the George Washington National Forest, across the Blue Ridge Parkway, and into the Shenandoah Valley.  Luckily for us, our route takes us by the Wintergreen Winery in Nellysford and Ron King's kettle corn booth at Afton Mountain, offering important victuals for what is about to come.

The final stop of the day is Hull's Drive-In Theater in Lexington.  If you miss the good old days of the Fork Union drive-in, then this theater is for you.  It is the nation's only non-profit, community-owned, drive-in theater.  And like Fork Union used to be, it is more a field than a parking lot. The theater is packed to see Man of Steel, a fun movie to watch on a cool night under the stars, a bright moon, and fireflies galore. 

Yours in celebrating our fathers, men of steel both,
Mary

#545 Vacation Virginia #6 - Blandy Farm

On UVA finals weekend when Charlottesville welcomes 35,000 out-of-town guests, we drive north two hours to the Winchester area for Vacation Virginia #6.  When we veer away from the commercial corridor that is highway 29 onto the lovely highway 231 paralleling the Blue Ridge, the scene shifts.  So many rolling hills, clear streams, inviting driveways, and often a view of the mountains make us think this may be the prettiest drive in Virginia.  But then we remember Skyline Drive, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and all the other beautiful Virginia drives!

Our first destination is the State Arboretum of Virginia, UVA's Blandy Experimental Farm.   We give the secret librarian handshake and quick as a wink, we're inside the Blandy library.  

As cool as libraries are, we're really here to see the Ginkgo Grove.  The 300-tree ginkgo grove is the largest such grove in North America.  Seeds collected in 1929 from a single mother tree on UVA grounds were planted at the Blandy Farm and 300 of those seeds grew to maturity.  We enjoy the privilege of walking under the ginkgo canopy more than 80 years on. 

The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is definitely a Michael Graves building.  Upstairs, the main gallery is topped by a stylized timber structure suggestive of a Shenandoah Valley barn.  I quickly remember another Graves-designed ceiling, the barrel vaults at the NCAA office.  Mr. Graves likes for us to look up.

Six acres of gardens surround the museum. We find the Chinese garden unexpectedly impressive.  Moss, stone, water, bamboo, and Koi are expertly stitched into this nearly hidden, serene, and superb Shenandoah landscape.

Our fun day ends with another drive-in movie, Star Trek Into Darkness at the Family Drive-In in Stephens City.  While Bengie's Drive-In had boasted of the largest screen in the country, the Family Drive-In boasts of being the only 2-screen drive-in theater in Virginia (and perhaps one of the smallest screens.)  The theater guy and UDITOA report 9 drive-in theaters are still operating in Virginia, but I can only find 8 (Christiansburg, Goochland, Keysville, Lexington, Marion, Moneta, Norton, Stephens City).  Does anyone know the 9th?

 

Yours in enjoying a weekend escape from the hustle and bustle of Charlottesville,

Mary

#543 Vacation Virginia #4 - Fort McHenry, National Air and Space Museum

To be precise, Vacation Virginia #4 takes us just outside our state borders into Maryland.

Our goals are to eat some crab cakes, see the movie "42" at a drive-in theater, and tour Fort McHenry.  We succeed in all these things and so much more!

O! say can you see that giant flag flying over the star-shaped Fort McHenry?  On the gorgeous morning of May 4, the winds are calm enough that the largest flag is flying proudly against a brilliant blue sky.  Yea for Baltimore's citizen soldiers nearly 200 years ago in 1814 and yea for Francis Scott Key!

After yummy crab cakes at G & M restaurant, we walk the mill race alongside Little Gunpowder Falls at Jerusalem Mill, a reassembled mill village that looks a lot like it did in 1772. 

The highlight of our evening is an outdoor movie, "42" about Jackie Robinson.  Drive-in theaters are a fragile business, with only 357 remaining in operation today - according to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association.  And the move to digital may put many more out of business.  So while every drive-in theater in Virginia is showing Iron Man 3, we see this terrific movie at Bengie's Drive-In, on the biggest movie theater screen in the US, 52' x 120'. 

For more fun on the way home, we stop at Green Acres Elementary School in Fairfax, VA.  Never heard of it, you say?  Though it is now a community center, Green Acres is where I kick-started my education. Gina, a proud Green Acres graduate who now works in the center, showed me around and let me peek in the classrooms and the old library a few decades after I'd last seen it! 

Finally, we opted for one more fun event - a visit to the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles.  In preparation for our fall adventure with astronaut Kathy Thornton, we want to check out her typical ride, the space shuttle Discovery.

Yours in crossing the border into Mary-land and back again,
Mary

#535 Silent film extravaganza

Inspired by our recent viewing of the Oscar-winning silent film The Artist, we have now traveled further down the silent film wormhole...

The Artist (2012) was set in 1927 at the time Paramount Pictures released Wings and The Wedding March.

Wings (1927) is a silent film about WWI fighter pilots with spectacular dogfights, the introduction of Gary Cooper, and an all-organ score. It was the only silent movie to win the Best Picture Oscar until 2012's The Artist.

The Wedding March (1928) is a silent film set in Vienna about a a roguish Viennese prince who agrees to marry for money and then falls in love with an inn-keeper's daughter (Fay Wray).

So, of course, when the Packard Campus for Audio-Video Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia (about an hour from Charlottesville), announced a showing of The Wedding March, we were there. The bucolic setting with panoramic Blue Ridge Mountain views, modern architecture, green roofs, and endless plantings make the place seem more like a botanic garden than the cold-war currency bunker from which it sprang.

Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Video Conservation

Just off the soaring lobby, the elegant theater seats over 200 people and screens films year round free of charge to the public.  In the same building with one of the world's largest film collections (over 80% of American movies made between 1893 and 1930 have been lost, according to the Library of Congress) this is a theater with extra special features like an organ rising from below the stage for silent film showings. In the silent film era, every showing included a live sound track. 

Packard Campus Theater

In this unique setting, we crossed paths with a premier silent film accompanist, Ben Model who turned his passion for film and music into a unique career that puts him in high demand.  He's already performed over 150 times in 2012 including a gig earlier this day at the National Gallery of Art in DC. 

Ben Model - silent film accompanist

The house lights dropped, the organmeister and instrument slowly descended from their pre-show perch to a performance position at stage height, and The Wedding March appeared before us.

Yours in enjoying some silent film history via the Library of Congress,
Kelly

#532 More Films at Sea

Wait!  There's more!

After listing my Top 20 Films at Sea, friends suggested I check out these films set on ocean liners: 

Reaching for the Moon (1930)
SS L'Amerique
Douglas Fairbanks (in one of his few talking roles) follows Bebe Daniels aboard the art deco ocean liner, the SS L'Amerique.  And the not-yet-discovered Bing Crosby makes an appearance to sing Irving Berlin's "When The Folks High Up Do the Mean Low Down."

Libeled Lady (1936)
SS Queen Anne
William Powell crosses the Atlantic twice in order to trap Myrna Loy into falling for him.  But first he is able to impress her father with his extensive knowledge of angling - thanks to the ship's vast library!  

Mister Roberts (1955)
USS Reluctant played by the USS Hewell
Mister Roberts is stuck on a cargo ship instead of seeing battle at the end of WWII, but his contributions are many on the USS Reluctant.  Even though the USS Reluctant is a navy cargo ship rather than a passenger ship, I've included it on this list for 2 important reasons.  1) I love William Powell and Henry Fonda.  2) There's a library on board!   

 
Murder Ahoy! (1964)
HMS Battledore
Miss Marple boards the HMS Battledore, a merchant marine training vessel, to investigate a poisoning death and figures it all out before the chief inspector.  (Thanks Barbara!)  I like Miss Marple's home library and here is Miss Marple solving the mystery using the ship's library!

Voyager (1991)
Pegasus (filmed aboard the RMS Queen Mary)
An unsettling movie to be sure, Voyager is worth watching for the shipboard scenes alone.  Sailing from New York City to France in 1957, Julie Delpy and Sam Shepard meet on board Pegasus and explore the bridge, the engine room, some trap shooting, some ping pong, some shuffle board.  (I don't know how I missed this one.  Thanks, Laura!)  Of the sailing experience, Delpy said, "I love it!  I could sail around the world!

Love Affair (1994)
The third time is not the charm for this remake with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. But the good news is that we get to see Katharine Hepburn in one last film.

Mann (1999)
Sun Vista
What began as Love Affair in 1939 evolved into Mann, sixty years on.   Though an over-the-top Bollywood, song-and-dance spectacle, it remains the same Love Affair story when Dev and Priya meet on board the Sun Vista en route from Singapore to Mumbai and fall in love.  Instead of the Empire State Building, the lovers plan to meet at the Gateway of India.  Instead of the grandmother's shawl, Priya receives her ankle bracelets.  Other than that, it's the same.  But different.

 
I'm sure there are many other films set on ships.  For example, I specifically avoided disaster films so I would be brave enough to step back on the MV Explorer.  But if you think of other non-disaster ship movies, be sure to let me know! 

Yours in completing the trip through nautical cinema,
Mary

#531 Top 20 Films at Sea

After seeing Boat Trip last year, I wondered how many other films have been set on ocean liners.  So I've been doing some serious cinematic research in my TV room.  As you can tell from the results of my in-depth investigation, the heyday for shipboard films was the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.  Chronologically, here are my top 20.

One Way Passage (1932)
SS Maloa
There's much to like in this 24-day voyage across the Pacific from Hong Kong to Honolulu to San Francisco with William Powell and Kay Francis.   Powell, aka the Thin Man, is perfect as the debonair murderer headed for San Quentin.  And Francis plays the terminally ill socialite.  They fall in love, of course, and choose not to tell their secret.  Made in 1932, this is the oldest of all the films listed here and it is my favorite.  I'd love to see the remake: Till We Meet Again (1940).  Nautical highlights: trip through the engine room, map of route with breadcrumb trail (to use a GIS term I've picked up.)

Dodsworth (1936)
RMS Queen Mary
There are three Atlantic crossings in Dodsworth, on the RMS Queen Mary, on the RMS Aquitania, and on the SS Rex.  But most of the story of Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton's failing marriage happens on land.  Nautical highlight:  The RMS Queen Mary is used as a filming location.

Shall We Dance (1937)
SS Queen Anne
With music provided by George and Ira Gershwin, Fred Astaire follows Ginger Rogers across the Atlantic on the SS Queen Anne in this their 7th of 10 films together.  My favorite scene: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off (on roller skates!).  Nautical highlight: Slap That Bass in the ship's art deco boiler room. 

Love Affair (1939)
SS Napoli
Irene Dunne's favorite film spurred pink champagne sales and a host of remakes: An Affair to Remember (1957), Love Affair (1994), and Mann (the 1999 Bollywood film).

The Lady Eve (1941)
SS Southern Queen
After spending a year on the Amazon River, the ophiologist Henry Fonda sails home on the SS Southern Queen where he meets and falls in love with the scam artist Barbara Stanwyck.  Nautical highlight: the outside dining area reminds me of deck 6 dining on the MV Explorer.

Now, Voyager (1942)
Walt Whitman said, "The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted / Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find."  Whitman's poem inspires Bette Davis to sail on a South American cruise to seek and to find.  She sails to Rio and finds love.  Bette likes this film because it became the biggest box office hit of her career.  I like it because it's the one film on this list that mentions a shipboard library.

Song of the Thin Man (1947)
SS Fortune
Have you seen the Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy?  They're delightful, especially the first one.  They were running out of steam by the time they reached the sixth and last one in the series, but setting it on the S.S. Fortune was the perfect ending.

Romance on the High Seas (1948)
SS Southern Queen
In Doris Day's very first film, she travels to Havana and Rio, two cities that are still on my bucket list.  Before docking at the first port of her months-long voyage around South America, she falls in love with the detective who has been hired to follow her.  Romance, the high seas, some high jinks, and Doris Day - what more could you want?      

Royal Wedding (1951)

Fred Astaire and Jane Powell travel by ship to London at the time of Princess Elizabeth's wedding.   The Atlantic crossing isn't nearly long enough (less than a half hour screen time), but Astaire makes up for it by dancing on the walls and ceiling of his London hotel room.

A Blueprint for Murder (1953)
Victoria
Four films made in 1953 (A Blueprint for Murder, Dangerous Crossing, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Titanic) were all filmed on the same sets. Sets?!  How disappointing to discover the films were not made on a ship!   In this film, Joseph Cotten follows the suspected murderess Jean Peters onto a ship bound for England.

Dangerous Crossing (1953)
In this film noir classic, newlyweds board a trans-Atlantic ocean liner in New York City, but the husband goes missing and the crew doesn't believe there ever was a husband.  Nautical highlight: a trip through the engine room.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes  (1953)
SS Ile de France
The SS Ile de France is famous for carrying passengers from the SS Andrea Dorea in 1956 after it collided with the MS Stockholm.  In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell sing their way across the Atlantic, fall in love, wear dazzling fashions, and in this scene - point out the round windows.

Titanic (1953)
RMS Titanic
The only music heard during the film is played by the musicians aboard the ship. No background music is played.  The drama on board includes Barbara Stanwyck leaving her husband and a 23-year-old Robert Wagner (a Purdue tennis player) falling in love with Stanwyck's daughter.

The Birds and the Bees (1956)
SS Southern Queen
A remake of The Lady Eve (1941), this film stars George Gobel as the ophiologist and Mitzi Gaynor as the scam artist.  In this version, Gobel returns from the Congo River instead of the Amazon River, but everything else is the same - just not as good.  

An Affair to Remember (1957)
SS Constitution
Of course, this film with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is the shipboard film everyone talks about and rightly so.  It's the first remake of Love Affair (1939) and the best of all versions.

Carry on Cruising (1962)
SS Happy Wanderer

According to IMDB, the SS Happy Wanderer was a life-size mock-up, complete with all the features of a real cruise ship.  IMDB also reports that even though the cruise ship docks at several ports (Spain, Italy, North Africa), it always moors against the same quayside with the same tree standing on it.  I didn't  notice.  

Ship of Fools (1965)
Vera
In Vivien Leigh's last film, the German ocean liner Vera sails from Veracruz, Mexico to Cuba to Spain to  Bremerhaven, Germany in 1933.  Like the Porter novel, this is a sad story of the passengers - some oblivious, some happy - to be headed toward a Nazi-rising Germany. 

Out to Sea (1997)
MS Westerdam
Out to Sea is one of ten movies made by good friends Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.  So many of the earlier shipboard films were made in a sound studio rather than on location on a ship.  But it looks like the MS Westerdam was actually used for filming Out to Sea.  Or it's movie magic. 

The Impostors (1998)
SS Intercontinental
Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt are just two of the impostors in this Laurel-and-Hardy kind of comedy set on an ocean liner sailing from New York to Paris in the 1930s.  The opening silent sequence is my favorite part.  My least favorite part is the line dance during the closing credits, starting on the ship and dancing through the soundstage.  I didn't need/want to have the ship illusion destroyed.

The Legend of 1900 (1998)
TheVirginian
1900 is the name given to an infant born in that year and abandoned by his immigrant parents on a cruise ship.  (Exterior shots are the inspired blueprints of the SS Lusitania, according to IMDB.)  Adopted by a stoker, 1900 grows up on the ship.  Tim Roth plays the adult 1900, a gifted pianist and composer of music inspired by his fellow passengers.  The piano duel between 1900 and Jelly Roll Morton is the highlight for me, but this is the ship movie that made me cry.

Yours in traveling through nautical cinema,
Mary