The final round of Titanic on 43rd Street revisions begins tonight
The final stop on last year's Titanic on 43rd Street walking tour was my favorite stop of the evening. It was the most subjective & the leanest stop. It was already dark before we got to Avenue H and 43rd Street last year, but the set piece written to close the tour worked better than anything that preceded it.
The challenge in preparing this year's tour has been searching for the right launching points for focused subjectivity. The board above looks crowded. Each post-it note represents an opportunity for subjective riffery during Thursday evening's walking tour. So I can't keep most of these post-its if I intend to keep the tour lean.
Before I bring myself to peal away aspirational post-its, I want to provide an example of a undeveloped riff I that I couldn't include last year.
This is Emily Kane. At the time of Titanic's sinking in the spring of 1912, Emily was still married to her first husband, Charles Foster Kane. Mr. Kane was a newspaper publisher. The above image shows Emily reading the news while seated across from her husband at breakfast. Instead of reading one of her husband's newspapers, Emily chooses the masthead of her husband's bitterest rival, the Chronicle.
The real William Randolph Hearst launched a nationwide, months-long smear campaign against Titanic survivor J. Bruce Ismay. Titanic was the second luxury liner of the White Star Line's Olympic series. Ismay was managing director of the White Star Line. As far as Hearst papers were concerned, every detail of the ship's sinking was further indictment of Ismay's cowardice, negligence, greed, or brutishness. Yes, Hearst papers did stoop to referring to Ismay as J. Brute Ismay on multiple occasions.
So while Emily Kane was conspicuously reading the rival Chronicle across the table at breakfast, Charles Foster Kane may have been reviewing his latest round of attacks on J. Bruce Ismay in his paper.
Thursday (4/14/22)
7:00 PM
NE corner of 43rd Street & Speedway
Titanic on 43rd Street will be a free outdoor event. The walking tour will weave together elements of Hyde Park history, Titanic anecdotes, homebuilding, shipbuilding, Tudor London, Texas trees, and nautical lore into a brand new story spanning centuries and oceans.
April 14 will mark the 110-year anniversary of Titanic’s final sunset. The ocean liner would sink beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912. Austin Aloha has developed a novel way to commemorate the legendary ocean liner’s maiden voyage and her final sunset at sea.