Family Day at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard - July 1968 (& The Queen Mary!)

Back in July of 1968, "Family Day" was held at the Naval Shipyard in Long Beach, CA.  It was an event that was open to the public, and allowed visitors an up-close look at some U.S. military ships.  My dad shot all of the vintage color images in this post, except where otherwise noted.

This first ship is the U.S.S. New Jersey (BB-62), an Iowa-class battleship, which was launched on December 7, 1942 (on the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor).  The ship was decommissioned after World War II, but reactivated in 1968 and sent to Vietnam.

My dad took another photo of the ship, but I'm not sure why he aimed the camera so high.  I would have rather seen more of the ship and the people on the ground, and less of the sky.

Here's a family photo, with the U.S.S. New Jersey in the background.  I don't know the name or the type of boat that was docked in front of it (on the far right), but the boat on the far left is the R.M.S Queen Mary.

The R.M.S. Queen Mary had arrived at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard 7 months earlier, for it's conversion into a hotel and tourist attraction.  However, this was not to be it's permanent home.  After undergoing renovations for 4 years, the Queen Mary was then moved to it's current location, at Pier H.  This aerial view shows both the Queen Mary and the U.S.S. New Jersey, docked at the Naval Shipyard.

And this photo from Wikipedia, shows the U.S.S. New Jersey in it's current home of Camden, NJ.  In 2001, the ship was opened to the public as a museum.

Another ship that was on display during Family Day, was the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12), an Essex-class aircraft carrier.  Again, I wish my dad had aimed a little bit lower, so we could see more of the ship!

The U.S.S. Hornet was put into service in the Pacific, during World War II (1943).  She later played a minor role in Vietnam, and she also recovered both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 astronauts, upon their return from the moon.

The U.S.S. Hornet was decommissioned in 1970, just two years after these photos were taken.  The structure on the far right is a shipyard crane, and not a part of the ship (which is visible to the left of the crane).

Designated both a National Historic Landmark, and a California Historic Landmark, the U.S.S. Hornet opened as a museum in Alameda, CA, in 1998.

It appears that this was the designated parking lot for the "Family Day" event.  The Naval Shipyard would have been behind my dad when he took this photo of the Gerald Desmond Bridge.  The bridge had opened just one month earlier, at a cost of $13 million.  The new bridge created a connection between Long Beach and Terminal Island, and replaced a pontoon bridge that had existed since the 1940s.  The Gerald Desmond Bridge was recently demolished, after being replaced by the new Long Beach International Gateway, which opened in October of 2020.

In 1968, my family was living in Lomita, CA., so we were able to use this new bridge to get to Terminal Island, and then continue on towards home by also using the fairly new Vincent Thomas suspension bridge.

This shot was taken from the front seat of my grandparents' Lincoln Continental, as we approached the brand new Gerald Desmond Bridge:

And this shot shows us being just a little bit closer.  Gee, look at all of that brand new asphalt and concrete!

The last photo my dad took that day, was this elevated view, with the Queen Mary and U.S.S. New Jersey in the distance.  We can also see cars parked below, and people walking in the direction of the shipyard.  I don't know exactly where the car was at this point, but the railing in the foreground seems to match the railing seen above, alongside an offramp from the Gerald Desmond Bridge (on the far left).  I looked at current aerial views to try and locate this spot, but was unsuccessful.  Remember, the location of the Queen Mary in this shot, is not where the ship is located today.

Now, I had also mentioned the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge, earlier.  Traversing the two bridges (one after the other), would take drivers up and over the Port of Los Angeles, creating a short cut between Long Beach and San Pedro.  I found this next shot (taken five years earlier), in a separate batch of my dad's slides.  It shows the Vincent Thomas Bridge under construction in July of 1963 (just four months before it opened, in November of 1963).  This view was taken from the San Pedro side of the bridge, looking east toward Terminal Island, and Long Beach beyond that.  The building on the far right is the then-new Los Angeles World Cruise Center.  It was once home to the "Love Boat," and could be seen in most episodes of the classic TV show.

Would you like to see one more image of a ship in the Port of Los Angeles?  Well, my dad took this last photo in September of 1967 (ten months before the photos of the other military ships in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard).  This was taken on the San Pedro side of the port, and shows the U.S.S. Thomaston (LSD-28), sitting in the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's dry dock.  The ship was a Thomaston-class dock landing ship, launched in 1954, and scrapped in 2011.  I tried to find more information about this ship and what was being done to it here, but the information was conflicting.  It stated that the U.S.S. Thomaston was undergoing an extensive overhaul in San Diego, from June to December of 1967.  But this was taken in September of 1967, and this is the Port of Los Angeles, because we can see the Vincent Thomas Bridge in the background (on the far left).

****BONUS****

I was a little surprised to see that during the "Family Days" event at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, my dad didn't take any other photos of the Queen Mary.  That might have been because we had already driven to Long Beach to see it, just four months earlier.  I posted this pic back in June of 2018, but this is the first time I've shared the one below it, which includes my brother and me.

These were both taken in March of 1968, just three months after the Queen Mary had completed it's very last voyage, and arrived at it's new home of Long Beach.

 

The Queen Mary In Long Beach - Special Guest Post! (Part 2)

Back in May of 2019, I featured a "Special Guest Post" about the Queen Mary, from Gorillas Don't Blog and Meet The World reader and commenter, "JG."  Well, as previously mentioned, JG had more photos from his stay aboard the Queen Mary, and once again, he has generously offered to share them with us!  The following narrative is from JG, himself:

My wife and I visited the Queen Mary in 1983 for a conference, but we couldn’t afford to stay on board then.  When we had a chance to return to Long Beach for another conference, we decided to stay one night on the QM before moving to the Convention Center hotel, since 34 years later, we could afford a nice room.

As promised, here are some follow-up pictures of the exteriors and other parts of the ship, including the special exhibit on Winston Churchill with props from the 2017 movie, Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman.

First is the Retail Promenade, still in good shape, but the shops' merchandise is very different from what I remember years ago. Similar to Disneyland Main Street, there are more key rings and coffee cups and less authentic British or Scottish goods.  There was a wine shop featuring products from a local winery that was unfamiliar to me, but quite good.  We shared a bottle in our room that night.  Notice the inlaid linoleum, this is the original floor.  Linoleum is pretty bullet-proof.  The stripes at the base of the wall are different color strips of lino laid into the field.

The exterior walkways still look good, and were recently featured in a Netflix series made in Spain, set on an ocean liner.  The interiors of that show were all sets, but many exterior scenes were filmed on the QM.

The stair/elevator towers to enter the ship have been remodeled a bit since the 1970’s, and the signage is updated.  The domed hangar built for the Spruce Goose is still there, but I understand that the plane was moved again, so I never got to see it.

Down deep in the ship, where the Jacques Cousteau “Living Sea” exhibit used to be, a special exhibit was mounted, featuring props and scenery from the recent film, Darkest Hour.  The Imperial War Rooms were replicated for the film.  I had visited the real War Rooms in London some years ago, so it was very interesting to see how well the film scenes replicated the originals.  Almost down to the flyspecks.

Churchill’s bedroom, deep underground with over 20 feet of concrete in the ceiling was one of the sets.  None of this furniture was original, of course.  Any of the real things surviving are in museums in Britain.  The bedroom had an animated projection effect showing Churchill (Gary Oldman) walking back and forth.

There was also a replica of Churchill's quarters on the QM, used on his many travels aboard, but for some reason, I did not take a picture of these rooms.  These were very nice rooms, as might be imagined for VIP first class quarters on the ship.

The ship’s exteriors still look good from a distance, but if you get close up, you can see the toll of the years in a maritime environment with little effective maintenance.  It made me sad to see it.  

We did tour the bridge and some of the upper deck cabins in Officers’ Country, including the radio room.

The bridge with the brass telegraphs looked much like I remembered it, only more worn and in need of polishing.

Overall, it was a good trip to re-visit the Queen Mary, but I don't want to go back.  I don't know how much longer the ship can survive with the present management.  It's very down-at-the-heels and doesn't have the feeling of a top destination anymore.

TokyoMagic!, here again.  I want to give a great big "thank you" to JG, for sharing his personal photos and memories with us!

 

The Queen Mary in Long Beach - Special Guest Post!

A few months ago, I was contacted by Gorillas Don't Blog and Meet The World follower, commenter, and special guest blogger, "JG." He had seen my post from June 2018, which included some vintage pics of the Queen Mary, and was wondering if I would be interested in seeing some of his personal (and more recent) Queen Mary photos. He thought they might make a good addition to my post. However, I thought the photos and information that he provided, were worthy of their very own post. So here is "JG," in his own words, accompanied by his own personal photos:

My wife and I visited the Queen Mary in 1983 for a conference, but we couldn’t afford to stay on board then. When we had a chance to return to Long Beach for another conference, we decided to stay one night on the Queen Mary before moving to the Convention Center hotel, since 34 years later, we could afford a nice room.

Since we were only staying one night, we chose one of the fancier suites, which was comparable in price to our room at the Convention hotel.

We got the Queen Elizabeth Suite, which was quite a large suite of rooms. There were two bedrooms, one large and elegant, the other small and humble, for one’s valet or maid. There was a foyer off the main corridor, which opened into the trunk room (!) to store one’s empty luggage, the bath, a large elegant sitting room, the big bedroom and the servant’s room. (I took a picture of the servant’s room, but only after I unpacked my suitcase and had clothes scattered all over it, so I didn’t include that photo.)

The large bedroom:

(JG has informed me, that the round items on the wall on either side of the bed and also the dressing table, are the original ventilation outlets. However, they have now been disconnected.)

The sitting room had a built-in dresser/make up table and a built-in writing desk. It was updated with a large screen TV. The original furniture was changed out to modern pieces, somewhat the worse for wear, but compatible with the original style.

The sitting room:

The large bedroom had similar built-in dressers, desks, and closets as the sitting room. Many old original light fixtures. The information guide said that these rooms were set up so that several could be connected together to make very large connecting suites of up to 10 bedrooms if desired. Hard to imagine that kind of entourage.

The bath was modern for 1930’s standards, but far from today’s norms. The old tub still had the original valves for hot and cold, fresh and salt water, but had been refitted with a modern shower valve. It was all set up in separate rooms so multiple people could use at once.

Our suite was on the west-facing or port side of the ship and was quite warm, even in October. The rooms were re-fitted with air conditioning as part of the Long Beach remodeling, but the AC didn’t work. We asked for a fan, but none were to be had. We decided that the heat was part of the experience that Clark Gable or Myrna Loy might have had, and so we sweated while pretending we were film stars of the 1930’s silver screen. Fortunately, the amusement park setup was not yet running, this would be a reason to avoid staying during mid to late October as the suite would be quite noisy with the rides running right outside.

We ordered a bottle of wine and read quietly, did not turn on the television at all, as this would spoil the cinematic mood.

The next day, we took the Steam and Steel tour, which was interesting and somewhat disappointing. I had remembered so much of the old engine room and equipment remaining, but a lot has been removed. I’m not sure when or how this was done, but I think the stories of the ship no longer being seaworthy are probably accurate since a lot of structure seems to be taken out.

The interior public rooms on the upper decks are still in good repair, but the exterior areas are suffering.

I remember being able to walk out on the side bridge walkways (not sure what these are called), but now they are boarded off, probably because the wood decks are rotten.

We had a drink in the Observation Bar, (the old First Class Lounge) which I vividly remembered for the beautiful Art Deco design and red enameled lighting. Most of this was unchanged, but again, run down and shabby feeling. There are a lot of TV’s now, like a sports bar, and a lot of loud people. No longer the quiet elegant experience I remembered. The drinks were not exceptional either.

Staying in the Queen Mary now is like staying in an 80 year hotel, it’s genteel but shabby. If you want a first class lodging experience, go elsewhere. But, if you can overlook the broken AC and the loud people in the bar, you can still hear the echo of the old days.

(I hope everyone enjoyed this tour of the Queen Mary! And a great big "THANK YOU," to JG, for sharing your photos and memories of your experience aboard the ship!)

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***Editor's Notes & Additions:***

I thought I would include some interesting "odds and ends" bits of information about the Queen Mary, here:

The Queen Mary has had a long and fascinating history, since her maiden voyage in 1936. In 1967, she was retired from service and sold to the City of Long Beach (for $3.45 million!). Unfortunately, after she arrived in Long Beach, many areas of the ship were severely altered or completely gutted and removed (as JG mentioned above, about the engine room.)

One of the areas that was altered was the Observation Bar, seen in that last photo taken by JG. This vintage image shows the Observation Bar, before an expansion that took place in 1967. Here, the seating area ends with that drapery, which was covering up a long curved wall and a row of windows.

The other side of that wall and it's row of windows can be seen here, in this photo of Walt Disney, standing on a covered walkway just outside of the bar. When the Observation Bar was expanded, that wall and those windows were removed and the interior space of the bar was bumped out, towards the row of windows seen on the far right.

If we go back and take another look at JG's photo of the bar, we can see a wooden support column on the far right. That was originally part of the back wall of the bar (behind Walt Disney). When JG took his pic, he was actually standing in what used to be the covered walkway seen above!

We'll end today with this photo from 1945, showing the Queen Mary arriving in New York Harbor. During World War II, the Queen Mary and her sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth, were both converted into troop transport ships and their exteriors were painted battleship grey. According to Wikipedia, the two ships were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war. Because of her new color and her speed, the Queen Mary was given the nickname, "The Grey Ghost."

And with that, I would like to wish everyone, a Happy Memorial Day!