The Doomed Art Deco Floating Palace

(As always a click on a photo will enlarge the image so you can get a closer look at the details!) 

Seventy-five years after she lay burning and capsized in the New York harbour, the French SS Normandie still holds the record as the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built. She is considered one of the greatest of ocean liners in history, a floating palace of Art Deco majesty so dazzling, they nicknamed her the “Ship of Light” similar to Paris as the ‘”City of Light”. The gilded first class dining hall was longer than the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and guests included Ernest Hemingway, Colette, Fred Astaire, Walt Disney and even the von Trapp family singers, who all sailed aboard the Normandie during her career of 139 westbound transatlantic crossings from Le Havre, France to New York City. She was, for a brief time, Queen of the seven seas, before war, negligence and possibly sabotage, sealed her fate.

 An SS Normandie promotional poster, 1935 © MCNY

 The Normandie was the fastest transatlantic ship during her career, in direct rivalry with the British RMS Queen Mary. She was a product of the roaring twenties when the U.S had closed its door on most immigration and steamship companies no longer found themselves catering to huge numbers of steerage-class European immigrants, but instead, to upper-class American tourists, particularly those wishing to escape the Prohibition for alcohol-fueled holidays in Europe.

 In 1935, three years after the stock market crash (and considerable subsidy from the French government)–  the SS Normandie was sensationally launched in front of 200,000 spectators. There was no question that the Normandie was designed predominantly with first-class passengers in mind. Most of the public space, filled with grand perspectives, over-the-top entryways and grand staircases, was devoted to the highest paying customer…

 

One of the salons aboard of the SS Normandie © MCNY 

Facilities included lavish dining rooms, lounges, swimming pool, a luxury department store, theatre, nightclub, chapel, beauty parlour, and even a winter garden.

 First class swimming pool © MCNY

 

Cinema and theatre © MCNY

Chapel © MCNY

Le Bon Marché luxury department store aboard the Normandie © MCNY

 

Dog Kennel © MCNY

 

Salle de sport © MCNY

 

Wine cellar © MCNY

Each first-class suites was decorated by a different designers and the most luxurious accommodations featured dining rooms, baby grand pianos, multiple bedrooms, and private decks.

 

First class suite © MCNY

 

 But Normandie’s excessive luxury was also perhaps its greatest flaw as a profitable ocean liner. While the ship’s income covered her operating expenses almost exactly, throughout her career, the Normandie often carried less than half of its potential passenger capacity.

The problem was, there weren’t enough passengers willing to pay that first class fair. With less space and consideration given to second and tourist class, Normandie‘s luxurious if not slightly intimidating art deco interiors ended up being a deterrent to most travellers. She was regarded of as a ship for the rich and famous only, an unattainable dream voyage. Meanwhile her rival, the Queen Mary had placed just as much emphasis on decor, space, and accommodation in second and tourist class as in first class– and making a profit.

Before the French Line behind the Normandie had a chance to re-think their marketing plan, the war had other plans for her. With Hitler’s invasion of Europe looming, the Normandie made its way to New York, seeking haven on the Hudson River. Although America was not yet involved in the war, when France declared war on Germany in 1939, American authorities immediately put Coast Guard troops on board the Normandie and interned her in accordance with international maritime law.

 

French crew remained aboard but for three years, she remained motionless at pier 88, guarded by the Coast Guard.

In 1942, France had been invaded by Hitler and was technically now a German ally under the Vichy government. Within days of the Pearl Harbour attack and America’s entry into the war, the French crew were removed from Normandie and the was ship seized. To defend it against possible sabotage and under the American right “to seize and apply for the purposes of war any kind of property on belligerent territory, including that which may belong to subjects or citizens of a neutral state”, President Roosevelt officially approved the transfer of the SS Normandie to the US Navy.

 The ship would be renamed the USS Lafayette, in honor of the French General who had helped make U.S. independence possible during the revolution, and converted into a troopship. The sheer size of the ship saw much of neglected and unmonitored, including the Normandie’s elaborate state of the art fire-watch system which ensured that any fire would be suppressed before it became a danger.

On the afternoon of 9 February 1942, sparks from a welding torch set fire to stack of flammable life vests being stored in the first-class lounge. None of the former floating resort’s woodwork had been removed yet, and the flames were able to spread quickly and a strong wind saw them engulf the upper decks of the ship in less than an hour. The Normandie had been built with an efficient fire protection system, but since its French crew had been removed, it had been disconnected and its internal pumping system deactivated.

 As the New York City fire department tried in vein to control the fire, the ship’s designer arrived at the scene, offering his help, suggesting to enter the vessel, open the sea-cocks and flood the lower decks so she could stabilise at the waterbed and avoid the risk of capsize. He was barred from the scene by police, his suggestion rejected by the Naval commander, and sure enough the Lafayette eventually capsized, nearly crushing a fire boat in the process.

In what might have been an attempt to divert blame and embarrassment on the Navy’s part, all kinds of accusations of enemy sabotage were flying around. It was even suggested that the maffia were responsible for the alleged arson that nearly engulfed the ports of New York, where the mob had strong influence with the unions.

A congressional investigation later concluded that the fire was indeed completely accidental due to a careless and poorly-planned conversion effort; aka. a testament to human stupidity.

Although salvaged at great expense, restoration was deemed too costly and she was sold as scrap in 1946, for US $161,680 (approx. $1,997,000 in 2017 value). Needless to say, that money did not go to the French company that built it on borrowed money from the French government. Many Art Deco treasures recovered from the Normandie were later sold at auctions. One entire corner of the first-c;ass dining room is preserved at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York  and its doorsare now on the exterior doors of a Brooklyn cathedral (Our Lady of Lebanon Maronit).

 

More than a decade after the ship’s capsize, one of the 8 foot bronze sculptures from the grand stairway from the first class smoking room was found in a scrapyard in New Jersey. It was later installed in the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach and now sits on a cruise ship called the Celebrity Summit.

The true splendour of the most elegant ocean liner ever built might be lost to us forever, but the Museum of the New York keeps a very substantial archive of photographs from the SS Normandie. If Art Deco gorgeousness is your thing, I’d suggest a leisurely browse through the extensive collection.

Heave a little nostalgic sigh ... and then go make something beautiful!

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)(¸.•´
(¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥

 A sampling of the photo/memory albums I've been working on this summer, getting ready for the holidays! I know it's only September, but a boy has to think ahead!

Dollhouses of Death ...

My life is filled with thoughts of theatre and film - music and traveling - art and creation. But, my good friends know the dark little secret in the confines of my non-public persona: I'm fascinated and intrigued with the phenomena of serial killers.

These are the people who know my home library is stuffed with books on serials killers and bizarre murder schemes and true crime tales of the people who almost got away it! It's rare when I pick up one of these books that I can stop before reaching the last page!

If I'm going to a film, often my guilty pleasure will be a gruesome tale of a demented mind with serial killing thoughts running through his head. No question, Se7en, with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman is one of my all-time favorite movies. (gasp! Even more than a good film noir - though there is much they have in common!)

And, these same people know not to call, text or Facebook me during my favorite tv show hours each week, because when Criminal Minds or American Horror Story is on, that's where I'll be!

 

Always, however, I found the game of Clue fell a bit flat. I wanted more from the murder mansion’s one-dimensional floor plan, and really, how were we ever supposed to solve crime with a cast of suspects crafted into tiny plastic tokens?

But it turns out, around the very same time that the iconic American board game was being developed in the 1940s, forensics detectives were being trained for real crime scene investigation in a similar, miniaturized fashion, with the help of a special collection of dollhouses.

Frances Glessner Lee, also known as “the mother of forensic science” crafted a series of perfectly proportioned dioramas that turned children’s dollhouses into macabre nightmares– all in the name of science. Going into far more gory detail than your average Clue game, Lee’s miniature crime scenes were part of a department of legal medicine that she established at Harvard University in 1945. The department was called the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, named after the principles of forensic investigation, “to convict the guilty, clear the innocent, and find the truth in a nutshell.”

 

At a time when forensic science was still in its infancy, Lee was hosting week-long seminars and lectures in homicide investigation for law enforcement’s finest, inviting detectives, prosecutors and investigators from around the world to study 20 intricately designed dollhouse dioramas based on true crime scenes and autopsies she had visited.

 Armed with magnifying glasses and flashlights, students were given 90 minutes to study each scene and tasked with collecting all the relevant evidence.

  

The dollhouses were filled with clues and mousetraps, and the doll corpses extremely detailed, often depicted with discoloration or bloating, often observed by Lee during real-life autopsies.

An apparent suicide comes into question when one of the victim’s shoes can be discovered around the corner of the diaroma. Another victim shows tiny bite marks on her neck and chest.

Far removed from a little girl’s make-believe world, dolls commonly represented real-life victims of domestic violence and prostitution– on a 1:12 scale.

Frances Glessner Lee was not your average forensic science enthusiast. Daughter of a wealthy Chicago industrialist, she was educated at home, prohibited from attending college, while her brother went off to Harvard. When he brought home a classmate who studied medicine, specialising in death investigation at Harvard, it sparked Lee’s early curiosity in forensic pathology.

Dissuaded from pursuing her new interest, she spent most of her life playing the role of a Chicagoan socialite, marrying and divorcing a wealthy lawyer, before inheriting the family fortune at the age of 52 following the death of her brother. With her new found freedom, she used her inheritance to endow the Harvard Department of Legal Medicine, the first in the country, as well as the the Harvard Associates in Police Science, a national organization for the furtherance of forensic science.

Perhaps inspired by the perfectionism of her father, an avid collector of fine furniture, her crime scene dollhouses cost up to $4,500 to create, also funded by her inheritance. When students finished their week-long seminars at the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, they were treated to a banquet at the Ritz Carlton, courtesy of Miss Lee.

After her own (non-violent) death of old age in 1966, the Nutshell department was closed and permanently loaned to the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. where they are still used for training purposes by Harvard Associates in Police Science enrolled in the Frances Glessner Lee Homicide School. For this reason, the Nutshell Studies, tiny crime scene have sat virtually undisturbed for more than 70 years, are not open to the public.

There are more photos where you can take a closer look at the scenes here. 

 Be sure to see all the other hop participants on Beverly's Pink Saturday!

 Now, you go make something beautiful!

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*´¨)(¸.•´ 

(¸.•´♥ Tristan ♥

 

 Police bulletin regarding the famous "Black Dahlia" murder case, still unsolved. The case has fascinated officials and the public for many decades. There have been many books written about, and at least three films about the case - the latest, "The Black Dahlia" starred Josh Hartnett, Aaron Eckhart and Scarlett Johansson.