SS Andrea Doria

Sorry I am rather late with my most recent blog post. As mentioned on Wednesday, today's blog post is in very questionable taste and I've been putting off writing about it.
The below is probably the most controversial card I own, not just because of the subject matter but because I bought the card knowing the history of the subject matter. I have other cards in my collection featuring controversial subjects but which were purchased in a job lot and I didn't realise the significance of the cards.

It's not the New York skyline which is the  problem here, this card is from the 1950s, long before the World Trade Centre was built and I would not feature that on the blog anyway.
The ship featured on the card is the Andrea Doria, which sank almost 60 years ago today on 25th/26th July 1956 (again the  date is a coincidence) with the loss of 46 lives.
The ship, built in 1951, was famed for it luxury and beauty and boasted three outdoor swimming pools and expensive artwork and décor throughout the ship.
It was also considered one of the safest ships ever built, with early warning radar and plenty of lifeboats no-one expected another Titanic. However there were flaws and its tendency to list when hit by heavy force was a contributing factor to its sinking. It also made it impossible to reach half of the lifeboats.
On 25th July, 9 days into a routine crossing, The Andrea Doria collided with the MS Stockholm after misinterpreting each others courses. I don't want to dwell too much on the accident itself, there are plenty of places you can read about that. I will say that 51 people lost their lives, including 5 from the SS Stockholm, but considering there were over 1700 people on board the Andrea Doria and a further 742 on the Stockholm, the loss of life could have been much greater. Survivors of the crash included Hollywood actresses Ruth Roman and Betsy Drake. Sadly, many of those killed were young families.
The fate of the two ships involved was very different, The Stockholm was repaired and is still in service as the MV Astoria, the Andrea Doria remained afloat for 11 hours after the collision before sinking into the North Atlantic Ocean. The wreck remains there to this day and 16 divers have lost their lives diving wreck giving it the nickname the Mount Everest of Scuba Diving.

Wednesday - Question Day

I'm not going to answer a question today. I'm just going to muse.

I mentioned the blog at work today and that Friday's post will be rather controversial as it features a well known tragedy and I was asked if I meant  the Summerland Disaster.
I replied that I did not and  that I have no plans to feature any postcards  of Summerland on the blog as it is too close to home for most of my readers and is still an emotional subject in the Isle of Man even after 43 years.The anniversary of the disaster in which over 50 people died is coming up at the start of next month and a one minute's silence is planned to commemorate the victims. I intend to take part.
It does make me ponder why I'm willing to feature certain controversial subjects and not others and which other subject matter I would shy away from posting about.
I would certainly not post any cards featuring cultural heritage destroyed in large scale recent disasters, for example the Earthquake in Haiti in 2010 or the one in Nepal last year. The loss of life was too large and the countries involved are still recovering so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to discuss. I know other news sites have run stories on the loss of cultural heritage and UNSCO are also assessing the damage done, but for now at least you won't see any cards of such places on this blog.
Is it hypocritical of me to include a card of Varosha when the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus destroyed many more lives than the Summerland Disaster and took place only a year later?
Yes it probably is, but Varosha has been covered by so many other blogs and newspapers without too much controversy that I didn't feel I would be opening up new wounds should I choose to feature it here. I'm not sure the same could be said for Summerland.

The QEII

I'm going to start today's post by showing something I don't usually post in the blog. The postmark.
While the blog is described as being postcards you can't send anymore there isn't actually anything to stop you posting these, you're just not likely to be able to visit them.
This post mark on the hand is obsolete.

Also, in a first for this blog I can tell you exactly who sent it. It was my dad on our first trip on the ship in 1988. It was a memorable experience not least because there was a none fatal stabbing on board among the kitchen staff. Our second trip  a few years later was no less eventful with rumours of yellow fever on board and a BBC helicopter overhead filming segments for Good Morning with Anne and Nick. Despite all of that, I did have a lovely time on board.

The QE2 was in service from 1969 to 2008 , most of this time as an ocean liner, the flag ship of the Cunard line but she did also serve in Falklands War.  
She had everything a passenger could need including 5 restaurants,  a number of swimming pools, a cinema, casino and hospital. In her 40 year service history she carried over 2.5 million passenger, logged over 5 million miles,  rescued passengers from Antilles which had run aground, received a bomb threat and encountered a hurricane.
Her farewell voyage was in 2008, during which time she met with the two other Cunard Queens, The Queen Victoria and the Queen Mary this being the last time this would happen.  Unsurprisingly, I have a postcard of the occasion.

Her final voyage was on 26th November 2008 after which she was handed over to her new owners Istithmar in Dubai. 
Today, despite campaigns to bring her back to the UK, she is still docked in Dubai with a question mark over her future.  

Gone but Not Forgotten- The Majestic Hotel, Hot Springs Arkansas

I've mentioned before that there are some postcards I'd like to be able to setp into and this is one of them.
I'd love to be able to see this beautiful building in its prime and I'm intrigued to know what the people on the left of the card all in white are doing.
Curiously, I've seen a couple of different versions of this same card but with cars or trams superimposed over the horse and carriages. The mysterious figures in white remain in all versions. What do you think they are doing?

The hotel, built in 1882 and originally named the Avenue Hotel had an interesting and varied life before sadly being destroyed in fire 6 years ago.
The hotel got its new name six years after being built and with the change of moiker came a lift, something new at the time.  Curiosly it's the second hotel called the Majestic Hotel to feature in this blog. I wonder if the name is cursed. I don't really beleive in curses but I might make it a side project to see how many places called the Majestic would be suitable for this blog.
The building as depicted on the card was actually built in 1903, replacing a wooden structure and becoming one of the first brick buildings in Hot Springs. Although not part of the famous Bathhouse Row, the hotel did receive many vistors who were in town to take the waters and trams would depart to and from the hotel every five minutes to guests to the bath houses.
The hotel rose in popularity in early part of the 20th century and famous guests included The Boston Red Sox, the Pittsburg Pirates and Babe Ruth.  Could the people on the card be playing baseball? I wonder. The Pittsburg Pirates did spring training here from 1901 until 1916 so that is a distinct possibility.
The sender of the card (postmarked 29th November 1910) doesn't mention meeting anyone famous, just that she wishes she'd brought warmer clothes.
Perhaps the most notorious guest was Al Capone's rival Bugs Moran. Capone spent a lot of time in Hot Springs too and the two formed a sort of truce while in town.  During WWII, the hotel was used as a redsribution centre for American soldiers, but it opened again as a hotel in 1945 and still attracted celebrity guests such as Humphrey Bogart and Liberace.
The latter half of the 20th century seems to have a been a rather uneventful period for The Majestic though a million dollar renovation did take place in 1982.  Guest numbers dwindled in the 1990s and the hotel was closed and abandoned in 2006.
Plans to renovate the building were discussed the following year but came to nothing and now sadly never will as the hotel was destroyed by fire 2010.
The hotel is still fondly remembered by many residents of the town.

Update

Here's another version of the card, with cars instead of horse and carriages taken from the abandonedar website. Looking at it again, I believe the people in white might be fencing.

Source  http://www.abandonedar.com/

Wednesday- Question Day

Hello again.

First things first, I do intend to update my post on King Island in light of the link CarolAnn sent me.

Thank you again for taking the time to comment.

If anyone else spots anything in my blog which doesn't reflect the true picture, please let me know and I'll correct it.

I haven't received any question on the blog, but I did get one on Facebook asking me if I have a favourite subject matter for cards.

I'm particularly fond of outdoor swimming pool cards for some reason. I think they look very inviting and colourful and I suppose they evoke a feeling of nostalgia for carefree summer holidays.

I like cards which show the familiar and unfamiliar together, a recognisable building but with trams and carriages rather and people in old fashioned garb rather than cars and modern clothing would be an example.

I also like lighthouse cards, art deco architecture and "through the window cards"

I'm extremely envious of this gentleman's window cards collection and I could, in fact I have,spent hours looking at them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94207108@N02/albums/72157633894905340


I have a couple of guilty pleasures. I love the so-called boring cards, the type that you see in Martin Parr's books but I know I'm not alone in this as many collectors enjoy these too.

My real guilty pleasure, because they don't tend to be popular with collectors, are postcards of dolls. I used to collect dolls as well but don't anymore as they are prone to damage, take up a lot of room and doll phobic friends ask me to hide them when they come for visits. Collecting postcards of them is a good alternative.

 I like dolls in national costumes but I also like general doll cards too. This card, sadly not my own, which combines dolls and an outdoor pool, is unsurprisingly one of my favourites.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/kitschandcurious/4775760680/in/faves-27534119@N08/

News of the World.

I made a decision last week that Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays would be my blog days, with Monday dedicated to British Isle related cards, Wednesdays for questions and Fridays for cards from further afield.
While a lot of the items in this blog are places it has been a shame to lose, I doubt many people mourned the passing of this notorious tabloid which ceased publication 5 years ago yesterday. 

I would like to say that the choice of card for today was intentional but it was not.  I could not get a good enough scan of the card I wanted to show so looking for a replacement this was the first one I came to. The timing was just luck.

I won't go into the history of it as I'm sure you all know it.

Hit the comments button with thoughts on the News of the World or anything else you would like to see the back of or which you are glad no longer exist.

Ukivok, King Island : The Inuit Stilt Village

Ukivok on King Island isn't the most northerly abandoned settlement, that would be Pyramiden in Svalbard but the Inupiat stilt village in Alaska must be a contender for runner up.
Hanging on a cliff face in the Bering Sea, 40 miles from mainland Alaska, it also has to be one of the most precarious and isolated dwellings in the world.
In the 19th century, several hundred Inuit families lived  there and made their living hunting, fishing and carving souvenirs.
By the early 20th century, the settlement's only school was closed, over concerns about rock slides, meaning the younger population had to move to  mainland making island life less viable. World War II and TB sadly also contributed to the dwindling population.
By the time the postcard above was produced in the mid 60s only 25 families remained on the island but even they had left by 1970. The village itself still remains and is in quite good condition probably because its isolated location keeps it safe from vandals.
The former residents still have a proud and distinct culture and some have returned to the island from time to over the past decade.

Update
Thanks to research done by CarolAnn it seems that the part about concerns over rockslides being the reason for the school closures was not true. Many pieces about the island refer to social and economic pressures forcing people off the island. It seems as if government bureaucracy, under the guise of Western modernisation, was the real culprit. The rock side never happened and families were torn apart and forcibly separated for no real reason, children were sent to boarding schools thousands of miles away from their families and were punished for speaking their own language and adults were sent to live somewhere not suited to their lifestyle and skills.
Would island life still be alive and well if the Bureau of Indian Affairs hadn't interfered? It's hard to say but considering there had been a community there with a flourishing language and culture for a long time I imagine it probably would.

Wednesday - Question Day

Well it seems everyone is too shy to comment on my blog so I'll get the ball rolling by answering a couple of frequently asked questions.

How Many Postcards do you have?

I get asked this a lot and people are always surprised when I say I don't know.  I don't collect postcards because I want to amass a huge collection of cards. although I don't believe you can ever have too many cards but I've never had the desire to count them.
I will say that I have 18 albums plus a small suitcase  full of cards as well as a few which I have framed or put up on my walls etc.

Why do you collect postcards then?

There are many reasons why I collect cards. They serve as a memory to holidays or day trips I've had and I like to look at them when I'm feeling low to remind myself of happier times. I keep cards people have sent me because it's nice to think that someone was thinking about me and they serve as reminder to friendships past and present.

Finally they are a window into another world, one which we may  not experience but which we an imagine through the postcard. I can spent hours looking over my old cards and I never get bored.

What's the oldest postcard you have?

A Valentine's produced card of Sugar Loaf Rock from 1894. I won't feature on this blog as the view is virtually unchanged.

So that's it for now, join me on Friday when I'll be looking at a village hanging on the face of a cliff.

Hit the comments for any questions for next week.

 

Death, dereliction and destruction - The Curious Case of Jezreel's Tower.

This strange folly stood in Gillingham, Kent from 1885 until 1961. It was never completed and had already started to fall into dereliction when this misspelt  postcard was produced.

The building was the vision of self proclaimed prophet James Jershom Jezreel, the founder of  the Jezreelites sect.
He had grand plans for the tower which was to be their headquarters. These plans  included an amphitheatre to hold upto 5000 people, printing presses, castellated towers in a cube shaped building with a glass roof. Perhaps the most ambitious part of the project was the assembly room floor which would rise under hydraulic pressure on which a choir and preachers would rotate.  Along with gardens and stately avenues ,the estimated cost of the project was £25,000.
Jezreel did not live to see his vision realised. He died in March 1885, 6 months before the foundation stone was laid.
His unpopular widow carried on with the project,  alienating many of the followers along the way before she too died in 1888 at the age of 28. Her death put an end to any further building work.  
The Tower was sold in 1903 but only used by the few remaining Jezreelites for two years before demolition began.
However in  twist to the tale, the contractors employed to do this went bankrupt and demolition was only completed in 1961.
The strange building, fortunately for people like me, was a popular subject for postcards allowing people to marvel at the eccentricity of it all.