Customer Reviews

Hollywood to Honolulu, The Story of the Los Angeles Steamship Company

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I really enjoyed this book!! The authors bring history to life in a way that will have you wanting to book passage on one of the long forgotten liners covered in this book. Who knew that before modern cruise ships, even before the Matson Liners of the 1930's there was a glamourous way to go to Hawaii from Los Angeles. Movie Stars and other notables would book passage on these virtually all first class liners. The gossip columns were always covering the ships of the Los Angeles Steamship Company. Also, you can read about "Shipwrecks Deluxe". How this little known company managed to loose half its fleet without loss of life. A must read for anyone into ships or Los Angeles/Hollywood history.

Tom in Long Beach.

Gordon and Martin have brought to life the world my father lived in while I was a small child...All we knew was that he went to sea and was the Captain of a luxury liner at that time, a ship that was very popular during the 20s/30s "The City of Los Angeles", everyone wanted to sit at his table while traveling with him to the many ports of call he visited,countries, the Panama Canal.The book opened my eyes to all the things that his work involved and the interesting people he worked with and the famous people he was privy to know...the life I remember most is when he decided to leave the glamour of liners and became Captain of some freighters just a few years before the start of World War 2...Since my 2 brothers and I were so young this book has been a wonderful gift for not only each of us, but for our children,grandchildren and great-grandchildren.....if you love the times of the Liners on the West Coast.....this is your book....Frances Hamma Schupp

This book Hollywood to Honolulu was a present and I have found it to be a real delight. Through fascinating research the authors have rediscovered an entirely lost chapter in the development of Los Angeles and its port in the 20s and opened my eyes to the exciting story of LASSCO Line. In fact I had known very little about it before. The characters who sailed on these beautiful white liners between LA and Honolulu come to life in these pages. The book is a technically detailed and well illustrated tale of the ships built or commandeered into the LASSCO fleet and what happened to them subsequently. Indeed all this is thoroughly documented - with deck plans and photographs and an abundance of expert detail - but there is so much more revealed about this world of leisure travel and of Hollywood during its first great era. It is hard to put down once you start reading, the authors have obviously done wonderful detective work, they've found rare artifacts and photographs and personal stories. The result is a brilliantly crafted book which is a thrill for people like me who love the age of steamships, as well as to anyone who is interested in America and Hollywood rich history.

This book is a pantheon of ocean liner pleasure! The chronicle of the Los Angeles Steamship Company is fascinating, complete with exotic details and fancy photographs. A must read!!

Having just read this book, I feel that it has so many facets,an accurate account of the history of a once famous shipping line, the technical imformation and the glamour of cruising in the 30's with romantic Hawaian islands its destination. A book for eveyone, I really enjoyed it. Daphne Cox

This book is a great deal of fun and a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in history or ships or the glamour of Hollywood in the 20s and 30s. It is beautifully written, thorough and insightful, and has dozens of great old photos. I highly recommend this book.