Lives of the liners: Morning check

[Doc Vernon]

Bellboys.jpg
Bellboys aboard the Queen Elizabeth, 1950.


Last summer, 88-yr old Jack Gordon (from Liverpool and himself a former bellboy) told me: "To work for Cunard was prestige, great prestige. And it was a way to see faraway places like New York City. And, in war-battered Britain with rations, too few jobs and a lingering grayness, it was a job. On the Queen Mary, in 1951, I only earned the equivalent of six or seven dollars a week -- but not counting tips, which, if you were in first class, could be quite large."

[Ivan Cloherty]

Those were the days when people had pride in job and appearance, recently the Unions took the Dorchester Hotel in London to court because it was inspecting the employees before they were allowed in public places within the hotel and the employees had complained their 'yuman rites' were being infringed and that they didn't get paid enough to keep their clothes and shoes tidy, says it all really doesn't it.

Well just checked my shoes... clean, just checked my tie...straight, just checked my posture.......straight, so off to the dance we go, mind you by the time we get there will look like we've been dragged through a hedge backwards as its raining and blowing a bloody hooligan here

[j.sabourn]

#1... Ref.to picture of Bell Boys Queen Elizabeth. I know someone over here who is probably on that picture, he has been ill for sometime now, and when I phoned him last year with some such query his wife said his picture was in some book. Maybe you got from same book Vernon??
Ivan can you imagine going up for orals dressed in a pair of jeans with no knees in, a pair of sandals and rings through your tongue and nose. If didn't have a collar and tie on highly brushed shoes, hair short back sides , you wouldn't have got in the door. First impressions do count, and if going for a job even, smart dress was always expected. We live in a world today where everyone seems to think it is to be the thing to be different. However they aren't they are all the same raggy assed and barefoot long stringy hair which is probably a breeding place for every reptile on earth and they think they are cool. If I was an employer they would be last in line, and if had to use would put them out of sight of the public. Cheers JS