Standing in the grand first-class lounge of the RMS Queen Mary, where royalty, captains of industry and Hollywood celebrities once mingled beside the golden onyx fireplaces, it is easy to wonder what life on board must have been like during the ship’s heyday.
Amid the cigarette smoke and piano music, the likes of Clark Gable, Winston Churchill and Audrey Hepburn may have marvelled at the luxurious surroundings of the Cunard-White Star Line’s crown jewel as she sped across the north Atlantic.
Today, the occupants of the draughty first-class lounge on a chilly southern California morning are journalists, politicians and locals invited on the first tour of the ship since she was renovated and reopened by her current owner, the City of Long Beach. The vessel’s
