L, Jay & his daugher Mimi on the Delta Queen’s deck. R, the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville take part in the annual paddle-wheeler race on the Ohio River in 2007. The race is part of Kentucky Derby festivities. This shot was taken at Duffy’s Landing in Jeffersonville, IN.
In February 1958, Jay Quinby got a call from Hollywood begging him to get down from New Jersey to Cincinnati ASAP to save a chunk of American history: the Delta Queen paddle-wheeler.
The California caller, Richard C Simonton, was a flamboyant businessman and writer who shared with Sparks an intense passion for theatre organ music (he was one of the founders of the American Theatre Organ Society.)
Quinby, his son Jack (who was, helpfully, a marine engineer) and Simonton met aboard the Delta Queen on the Ohio River. It was a miserable, cold winter day.
The trio met with a phalanx of company officials, shareholders and lawyers associated with Greene Line, the firm that owned the historic riverboat. (Letha Greene, one of those present, was widow of Tom Greene. Tom had bought the steamer in 1946, and had her transported from California to Pittsburgh to be refurbished.)
Simonton and Quinby picked up control of the venerable river steamer, and invested heavily in promotion.
One of the most successful pieces of hoopla was the brainchild of PR manager Betty Blake. There hadn’t been a steamboat race on the Mississippi or any of its tributaries for thirty years, but Blake set one up in ’53, to coincide with the Kentucky Derby.
The race was a huge success, attracting hordes of riverbank spectators and many more on TV. Adding to the excitement were the blisteringly loud calliope organs on both vessels exchanging musical blasts at each other.
The Delta Queen ran excursions through seventeen states, joining St. Paul, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Chattanooga, Nashville and Little Rock. Home port was Cincinnati. Jet planes and cars have their place, but the ol’ riverboats have an essence that’s rare in the modern world.
L, now there’s a flight of stairs! The grand staircase on Delta Queen. R, the ol’ paddle-wheeler serves a big part of America’s heartland (Delta Queen Steamboat Co.)