IN this space yesterday we talked of the great Mae West’s visit to these shores in 1947, and carried a picture of her arriving at Southampton on board the Queen Mary. It was, of course, not only the actress who could pull in the crowds ... the liner herself was a superstar of her time.
West made her big screen debut in 1933 in She Done Him Wrong; the Queen Mary took her bow the following year.
Our main picture shows crowds, estimated to number 250,000, packing the dockside in the pouring rain on September 26, 1934, waiting to see the launch of ship number 534, soon to be officially named RMS Queen Mary, at John Brown’s shipyard at Clydebank.
Construction work on the Queen Mary had begun in December 1930; it was finally completed (with the help of a Government loan) three and a half years later at a cost of £3.5 million (about £238m in today’s terms). As can be surmised from such sums, no expense was spared to make the Queen Mary the envy of the world. Our picture shows workmen putting the finishing touches to a cocktail bar, which we are confident was patronised by Mae West and, no doubt, other stars who sailed on her, including Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo and Audrey Hepburn.
Opulence was indeed the watchword; she boasted ballrooms, restaurant, bars and two indoor swimming pools, grand salons, magnificent sweeping staircases and sumptuous state rooms. More prosaically, she also had libraries, children’s nurseries and dog kennels.
The Queen Mary saw service as a troopship during the Second World War; she was later refitted and continued her transatalantic passenger service. She was retired in 1967, and now serves as a tourist attraction in Long Beach, California.
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