The lively, ocean-side Pike circa 1928 – photo courtesy of the Long Beach Heritage Museum
In 1967, Long Beach’s famed Pike amusement zone, once a world famous, family orientated playground on the shore of the Pacific Ocean with ocean spray, a rolling surf, and adjoining swimming beaches was on its last legs. Local folklore ascribes its demise to changing social tastes in the 1950s and to the advent of Disneyland. But the environmental changes in the area of the Pike after World War II are far more compelling reasons for its decline than changes in social mores or the construction of Disneyland.
The breakwater built shortly after World War II stilled the rolling waves that
once gave life to the resort town of Long Beach and to the Pike.
The direct ocean view disappeared with the creation of the massive Piers H and J
in the early 1960s originally planned to house a world’s fair. The world’s fair
never materialized. In its place a cargo port was built in front of downtown
Long Beach and its beaches.
The downtown swimming beaches themselves that were once part of and adjoined the Pike were effectively destroyed by manmade changes in the flow of the flood channel of the Los Angeles River after World War II. Designed by the Army Corp. of Engineers to accommodate both the eastward expansion of the Port of Long Beach and to control flooding of the Los Angeles River, the changes rerouted the river’s flood channel past Long Beach’s original downtown beaches. Unfortunately pollutants in the river soon made the downtown beaches unsafe for swimming, silting turned them into muddy swamps and landfill turned these into parking lots.
One societal change that did contribute to the Pike’s decline was the increased presence of the Navy in Long Beach after 1941. The un-gated amusement park became a place for sailors to wile away their leave time. Related small businesses – tattoo parlors, tough bars and prostitution, soon developed in the adjacent area.
For the past 58 years Long Beach has been endeavoring to replace the downtown beaches that were its first claim to fame with a recreational urban inner harbor. (1) The purchase of the Queen Mary in 1967 was the first decisive step taken by civic leaders towards creating a new tourist destination in the new inner harbor that was created by the Army Corp. of Engineers and the Port of Long Beach.
The Queen Mary steams into Long Beach Harbor in full working order on December 9, 1967.
In 1967, the Queen Mary, while world famous and already recognized as the
greatest ocean liner of the twentieth century, was not as unique then as she is
today. Her slightly larger sister ship, the first Queen Elizabeth, remained in
service on the North Atlantic for another year, as did some of her major
competitors such as the SS United States, (until 1969), and the SS France (into
the early 1970s).
Civic leaders were looking to adapt the ship for shore-side novelty attraction
use rather than to preserve the Queen Mary as the great historic artifact that
it was. This focus led to exploiting the ship’s icon value to attract visitors
to totally new amusement park style features installed aboard the ship rather
then to preserving as many as possible of the original features of the great
ocean liner.
The $3.5 million in Tidelands Funds used at the last minute for the purchase the
ship had been set aside to build a maritime museum in the proposed new downtown
harbor of Long Beach. Proponents of the purchase argued that this museum could
be placed aboard the Queen Mary and the city would get two attractions for the
price of one. This decision resulted in the removal of the five lower decks
including most of the power train and the critical service alley aboard the
ship. It apparently never occurred to the purchasers that the Queen Mary already
was a maritime museum when she steamed into their harbor in full working order.
The four year long conversion process was fraught with problems, and since
opening as a commercial attraction in 1971 the Queen Mary has experienced mixed
financial results. The attempt to create a commercial attraction out of the ship
had the opposite effect.
The maritime museum for which the five lower decks were removed opened as the
Cousteau Living Sea Museum in 1972. It soon failed and has been removed.
The two large clusters of tourist shops for which most of Sun Deck was rebuilt
have also failed and these shops spaces are now used for exhibits about the
amenities once found on the ship and as administrative offices.
Many of the ship’s original facilities were significantly modified by the
conversion.
Furniture and fittings were auctioned off en masse.
Two of the main dining rooms were closed for storage uses.
One original swimming pool was removed entirely and the other was rendered
unusable.
The passenger service support facilities on C deck
(or working alley) were destroyed in order to add head room to the new Maritime/Cousteau Museum that was entered on D deck.
The range of general attractions and leisure facilities available to the public has increased many times over since 1967. Thus using the greatest ocean liner of the twentieth century as an amusement park novelty is worth rethinking. The Queen Mary is unique and valuable for what she once was, not for what Long Beach has done to her or the novelty “attractions” they’ve put into her.
The Queen Mary, an icon and an important visual buffer between the city and its
industrial port. (Photo courtesy of Press-Telegram. Photograph by Stephen Carr.)
Approaches to historic preservation have also evolved in the past thirty years.
Authenticity is now recognised as the true attraction for people in an era of
mass manufactured amusement parks. Maritime examples such as the Royal Yacht
Britannia, HMS Belfast, and the USS Missouri are preserved as close as possible
to their original form, recognising that it is their historical integrity that
attracts visitors. Land based attractions from the venerable Tower of London to
Hearst’s Castle are using a presentation that emphasizes the uniqueness of their
historic attributes. We sited the ship in a location that presents the Queen Mary as a striking
icon for most of downtown Long Beach to enjoy. From the ship there is a fabulous view of the skyline of Long Beach and a
sweeping view of the entire coastline. We allocated an additional 47 acres adjacent to the ship for parking and
future development. The engineers and architects created an excellent system for emergency egress
using internal working spaces aboard the ship itself. We pioneered an early form of cold ironing technology to permit land based
utility hook ups eliminating the need to use the ship’s own power system as it
would create unnecessary pollution. We selected the right businesses to place aboard the ship – hotel, catering
business, a conference center, an attraction, and retail shops. The areas of the Queen Mary that have in fact retained lasting appeal are those
that were changed the least from the ship’s seagoing days. The hotel occupies most of the original first class cabin area. The lounges and the dining room that remain are still used for catered events.
The original shopping area of the ship on Promenade Deck houses the
successfully surviving shops on the ship. The remaining engine room is one of the single most popular attractions on the
ship. A look at the recent annual reports of the RMS Foundation that operates the ship
and Queens Seaport Development Inc., (QSDI), the development company that holds
the lease to the Queen Mary reveal that:
Attraction revenues spiked after the wide release the movie “Titanic”
in 1998.
This release brought new appreciation for and interest in ocean liners and
growth in the cruise business. The building of the Queen Mary 2 is one result.
But revenues have declined at the Queen Mary in Long Beach each year since 1999. The hotel has been in flux since renovations stopped almost four years ago. Of
the 365 rooms, about half were freshened fours years ago, another 65 are in
frozen in construction limbo and the remainder have not been touched since the
Disney era refurbishments of the 1980s. Food and beverage sales generate the largest share of the revenue but the
volume is insufficient to sustain the operation. The strategy of reserving all
original public rooms of the ship for potential banqueting/catering use allows
the operation to minimize costs but to do so at the expense of developing
revenue generating amenities and services for local citizens, hotel guests and
visitors alike. This strategy is assumed to insure maximum flexibility in the
use of the facility and generate maximum revenue from it. We question this
strategy. Attractions such as the annual Halloween “Shipwreck” bring in revenue with
little investment but do they do so at the expense of trivializing the history
and damaging the legend of the Queen Mary, thus lowering her overall earnings
potential? Parking revenue has one of the highest margins of profit but it is dependent
on viable attraction(s) and services provided on the ship and property. It too
has declined in recent years.
Side view of proposals. Click on this image to expand to
full size The size of the Queen Mary and the cost of her operation require that the ship
be run as more than a walk-through exhibit space. While the ship does not need
to be “put under glass”, running her as a floating novelty attraction is also not
the answer. We need to recapture the essential spirit that caught the
imagination of the multitudes that toured the Queen Mary during her maiden
voyage visit to New York City in 1936. We need to relate this facility to our
community needs and the needs of visitors from the Southern California region
and around the world. To do this means rethinking our use of the Queen Mary and
her adjoining property. Revenue Analysis The Queen Mary maintains a respectable level of profit margin on the key
services offered on board. Yet the profits generated by this revenue are not
sufficient to cover the fixed costs of operating the ship. A conservative
estimate of the revenue potential for the ship, restored and rehabilitated as
discussed above is three times the level of the current revenue or more than
$100 million per year for shipboard activities alone. Appropriate property
development would push the figures much higher. Conclusions Biographies The voters of Long Beach were never consulted on the issue of expanding the
port in front of their downtown. The last bond issue for port expansion was in
1928 when Pier A was built that still allowed the Los Angeles River a straight
southward egress flow. The eastward expansion of the port began during World War
II and was funded by port tideland oil funds; hence no bond issues or widespread
public debate was involved. The Army Corp. of Engineers and the Port Commission
orchestrated the development with a compliant city council asking few if any
questions. (Click here to return to where you were in the text
above.)
Recently the Rotterdam Drydock Company, or “RDM”, purchased the SS Rotterdam V
for use as a historic monument, hotel, entertainment and conference centre in
the heart of Rotterdam. Built in the late 1950s, the Rotterdam is the largest
passenger liner ever built in the Netherlands and one of the most significant
ships of the post war era. The Rotterdam Drydock Company and the Holland America
Line pioneered new approaches to passenger accommodations with its introduction.
The ship has long been a symbol of pride for the city for which it is named.
RDM’s goal is to preserve and reuse the historic ship in as close as possible to
its original condition.
Rotterdam can learn a few lessons from Long Beach’s handling of the Queen Mary.
Long Beach actually did a number of very important things right with the Queen
Mary Project.
The numbers tell the story
What is to be done?
To assist this process we have authored a web site that includes both a detailed
deck-by-deck analysis of the Queen Mary and a series of business recommendations
for recapturing the essence of the ship. The web site can be found at:
http://www.sterling.rmplc.co.uk/visions/index.html
The essays in the “Alternative Vision” series include the following
recommendations:
Club Queen Mary – The elegant public rooms that were once the heart of second
class on the Queen Mary were remarkable for their innovative design and luxury.
More intimate than the baronial lounges in the first class area they would make
a perfect setting for a social and athletic club that might be used in
conjunction with the hotel. The club would give the people of Long Beach the
first personal reason to take a close look at and interest in the Queen Mary
they’ve ever had.
Hotel Queen Mary – the cabins that are now part of the hotel need to be
refurbished and in some cases upgraded to their pre-war luxury. When integrated
with the amenities of the Club Queen Mary you have just recreated a venue for
life afloat in the grandest ocean liner of the twentieth century.
Hospitality Center – the magnificent pre-war first-class ensemble of lounges on
promenade deck were the showstopper on the Queen Mary. They might be again and
be very profitably used as a venue for corporate entertainment on a scale unseen
in this region. With appropriate replanning, restoration and use the rooms would
be breathtaking.
Banqueting Business – the original three dining rooms were all located on
current R deck. Restored for sit-down banqueting purposes the banqueting center
on the Queen Mary would be unsurpassed in the region. Additionally, keeping
banqueting on R deck allows full restoration of the suite of Promenade Deck
lounges.
Conference Meeting Center- The creation of a
major conference hotel on the southern edge of property with the state of the
art conference rooms and 1000 hotel rooms would go far towards solving the
Monday through Friday business problem of the Queen Mary. Properly linked to the
downtown convention center by an aerial tram, it would allow a restored Queen
Mary to shine as the social and hospitality center for conferences while
enhancing the major convention business in downtown Long Beach.
Historic Attraction – there should be a multiple tour program similar to the one
in place at Hearst Castle with a self-guided portion as well. In fact, it is an
almost entirely new attraction as conceived here. We submit that Long Beach has
never been allowed to see the real Queen Mary. And what they’ve been shown has
been a shadow of itself.
Retail and Merchandising – the Queen Mary needs to move beyond hosting a series
of leased gift shops towards being a showcase for a specially designed line of
nautical and art deco merchandise. Art Deco, currently in its fourth wave of trendiness, is a staple of the interior design industry and has been for
decades. Many of the manufacturers and suppliers who provided the fittings for
the Queen Mary are still in business. Why not use them and others to create a
wide range of merchandise that can be sold on this ship and elsewhere like
Colonial Williamsburg has done so effectively with their collection over the
past 70 years?
Queen Mary Life Experience University and Public Service Center – the third
class public rooms, most of which survive in some shape in the forward part of
the ship, are perfectly suited for use in a seminar series similar to that
Cunard has envisioned for the Queen Mary 2 called Cunard ConneXions. In addition
they would serve beautifully as boardrooms for both private foundations and
social groups who support the community and the Queen Mary’s presence in Long
Beach.
Restaurants and Bars - We see these restaurants moved and/or upgraded to better
serve both tourists and hotel guests while enhancing their appreciation for the
great ship.
Logistical Logic – the Queen Mary was designed to support many of the functions
just discussed when she sailed into our harbor in 1967. The logistical
requirements have been complicated by our conversion of the ship and her
subsequent use here. Yet the changes required are straightforward and logical.
They include:
1.) Creating a service alley on the ship to support the storage and support
requirements of the hotel and hospitality services on the upper decks with
additional service elevators inside the ship. D deck is now the logical place to
put this,
2.) Creating a less obtrusive service entrance and replating the awkward
amidships service entrance on R deck. D deck at the very rear of the ship is a
strong candidate for this. Other requirements are identified in the essay.
3.) Building a visitor’s information center off the ship.
4.) Building an administrative and sales center for the ship and property as
well as a delivery, service and storage area off the ship.
Interestingly some of these needs were identified 35 years ago in consultants’
reports to the city at the time of the purchase of the ship.
The changes discussed above will require a significant capital investment. This
raises the question of the ship and property’s ability to generate the revenue
and the returns necessary to justify the capital cost of such a restoration.
We can start by analysing the current revenue stream of the ship and adjacent
property. For calendar year 2002, the last year for which the RMS Foundation and
QSDI officially reported audited revenue to the City of Long Beach, the revenue
figures were as follows:
RMS Foundation
$27,347,021
QSDI
$ 5,874,284
Total Revenue
$33,221,305
How can this vast increase in revenue be possible? It is possible because the
recommended restoration and upgrades put the ship in full use on a day-to-day
basis. The range of facilities is expanded, they are returned to their original
usage, and even with very conservative revenue growth the ship can not only earn
a healthy profit but also justify the level of investment required to perform
the required retoration.
The current operational approach to the Queen Mary is the direct result of the
early Long Beach conversion of the ship. Recent negotiations for developing the
property offer a new opportunity to demonstrate that we have learned from our
experiences and can do the job right. The 55 acres of land and adjacent water
that are part of the Queen Mary property are probably the largest parcel of
commercially zoned land on the entire West Coast available for development. How
that property is developed vis a vis the Queen Mary and what the ship is used
for as a result will determine its future in Long Beach.
The Queen Mary has the possibility of being both a unique local social center
and a world-class cultural landmark and historic attraction. The ship can
support a far broader range of revenue generating activities than it now does.
Depending upon how the property is developed it can attract a more affluent
level of clientele as well.
In the past 35 years we’ve all learned a great deal about the great ship that
floats in our midst. We’ve also grown as a city and as a community. Let’s put
this hard gained knowledge to good use both for ourselves and for the benefit of
visitors from the entire region, our nation, and from around the world.
Bill Cwiklo, Long Beach, California
Julian Hill, Oxford, England
Michael Wood, Auckland, New Zealand
Bill Cwiklo is a past historian of the Queen Mary. He is the current Vice
President for Preservation and Advocacy for Long Beach Heritage. He is also the
author of the web site referenced in this article. In the business world he is a
nationally known consultant and author in the area of automated litigation
support systems. The views expressed here are his own.
Julian Hill lives and works in England. He became involved with the efforts to
save her from sale or destruction when the Port of Long Beach decided they no
longer wanted to operate her in late 1991. He is the publisher of the web site
referenced in this article.
Michael Wood is a chartered accountant and business consultant based in
Auckland, New Zealand. He has a strong interest in ocean liners and in the
preservation of all aspects of transportation history. He first visited the
Queen Mary in 1996 and has returned on a number of occasions since then.
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