#The Blue Danube

[trexalicious]

[bestofmidi]

the blue danube requested by @superbowlsunday !!!

original midi at http://www.samscars.com/bluedanub.mid

[mackintosh-buccaneer]

do your feet not dance of their own accord on hearing the blue danube?

[soapkaars]

As per my silly musicbox post, here you can actually hear the little thing singing its wound-up heart out!

[nationmckinleyscorset]

OMG OMG OMG THE ICE CREAM TRUCK IN BACK TO LIFE PLAYS THE BLUE DANUBE IT PLAYS THE BLUE- ARGHHHHHHHHHH

[petermorwood]

The Golden Age of Air Travel is frequently seen through rose-tinted glasses - even DD's (sigh) just did it - so for the sake of balance here's a look through jade-tinted ones.

*****

The plane featured in that ad would have been a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser - prop-drive not jet and thus slow (+9 hours transatlantic). Being able to sleep more or less comfortably would have been very welcome, assuming an engine didn't fail, catch fire or get wrenched off the wing by an overspeeding propeller.

Incidents of that kind - Stratocruisers suffered engine problems of one sort or another about every 160 flights - happened more frequently than modern Golden Age of Air Travel fans like to mention, since it interferes with their yearning for well-dressed passengers, well-behaved staff, comfy sleeping berths, generous servings of food and drink, and of course no riff-raff.

They also tend to skim past the financial realities of the period which would have kept most of them on the ground. Air travel in the Golden Age had more to do with earnings than yearnings, and the exclusivity they hanker after had a steep price.

Before deregulation, all airline tickets were much more expensive than now. Even a short flight could cost a month's income, long-distance far more. While people dressed less casually back then as a matter of course, passengers would get particularly turned out for a plane trip that might be a rare, maybe one-off, special occasion.

I've seen comments in various places which say, more or less, "Oh, it wasn't THAT expensive," but I've also seen non-comment sources suggesting there's a lot of forgetting, glossing over, or just kids being unaware of how often those "inexpensive" fares were real-price-not-mentioned, or employee discounts, or any of several other perks.

The Wikipedia article on the Stratocruiser shows a 1955 one-way transatlantic ticket as $500, and enlarging the OP ad let me read the surcharge for that suite, $125 double occupancy. So the couple in the ad have paid a total of $1,125 which this conversion website gives a 2024 equivalent (at time of writing) of $13,111.

At first that looks pretty good compared to a modern first-class fare, but after factoring in the difference in purchasing power combined with lower salaries, it's at least 40% more. Each.

Hence all the pampering of passengers, because those pampered passengers had paid for it.

There was also much a greater risk of something ranging from unpleasant to fatally nasty happening between take-off and landing.

Besides engine failures, flight diversions, in-flight emergencies, unnerving landings and actual "hull-loss" crashes, rough air in the lower altitudes at which Golden Age aircraft flew - combined with that lavish food and free booze - made airsickness commonplace if not inevitable.

Turbulence also caused on-board accidents, slamming passengers against interiors designed for looks, not safety. A modern US Bureau of Transportation survey of air travel incidents, injuries and fatalities in the 1950-60s estimates that a commercial flight then was at best five times more dangerous per air mile than now.

*****

@dduane just now glanced at this and reminded me of another Golden Age delight which survived long enough for us to experience it, and that's in-flight smoking.

I still remember several occasions in the late 1980s / early '90s when the first thing we had to do at our hotel after a transatlantic flight was shower, change clothes and have the travel ones laundered, because they stank so much of other people's cigs.

Changing and laundering lungs isn't so easy. I wonder how the cabin staff handled it, and I have a feeling many of them didn't.

What with the fug of second-hand smoke, the canned air, the blunting effect of high altitude on taste buds, the queasy juddering of an altitude not high enough, and the consequent recycled whiff of regurgitated dinner, the Golden Age of Air Travel is accumulating tarnish by the minute.

There are a lot of minutes in a +9-hour flight...

*****

NB, I did say at the beginning that this is the deliberate flip-side of uncritical articles, web-pages and comments which express views burnished bright by a comfy, romantic distance of 70-80 years from reality.

That reality certainly wasn't as bad as I've just painted it (unless passengers were really unlucky, and then - five times more likely, remember - it could be extravagantly terminal) but just as certainly it wasn't as good as overly nostalgic fans like to believe.

Not a golden age, more of a gold-plated one whose plating is best not picked at in case it comes off.

*****

First-Class service isn't cheap today either, but if travellers are willing and able to pay for it, they can still have it. Check here and here for examples. But not on Pan Am.

Thousands of kids (including me) had this model kit, and dreamed of some day in the future when they might take a trip on The Real Thing.

That didn't happen, but I still can't look at an image like this...

...without "The Beautiful Blue Danube" waltz starting up as background music in my mind.

A bit like this... :->

[music-asylum]

March 6, 2023

[barksbog]

foggy morning at the Danube river

[nakedinthecity]

The Széchenyi Chain Bridge, 20.01.2024

[neilsanders]

Your favourite tune is Blue Danube? What a coincidence, my favourite guy is Blue Dan-Nude

[esteemed-excellency]

WiW playlist for everyone who needs a wintery soundtrack while we all wait for the next Great Game update

[whales-are-gay]

2001: a space odyssey is kind of like if someone made a jukebox musical for strauss

[faguscarolinensis]

Stokesia laevis 'Blue Danube' / 'Blue Danube' Stokes' Aster

[silverfoxstole]

After listening to Time Lord Victorious: Mutually Assured Destruction again, how could I not draw the Doctor trying to persuade the Dalek scientist to waltz in zero gravity?

I also believe it may be @eightwithcapitale ‘s birthday today, in which case Many Happy Returns, my friend! 🥳