For 1937, Canadian Pacific cut the length of the cruise from 130 to 125 days. It deleted stops in Hilo, Hawaii, and Havana, Cuba, and reduced the length of the stay in Los Angeles from one-and-a-half days to just one day.
Click image to view and download a 74.7-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection, which also has a shorter brochure advertising the cruise.
The cover of the booklet advertising the 1937 cruise is reminiscent of the 1935 cover showing faux luggage stickers from various cruise destinations; this one instead shows letters and postage stamps mailed from various cruise destinations. The front and back covers of the 1935 and 1937 booklets don’t match up perfectly, but the 1937 one was close enough that I am showing front and back above.
Click image to view and download a 9.8-MB PDF of this brochure from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
In 1936, CP raised fares only for the most expensive rooms and suites. In 1937, it again raised fares for the premiere suites by another $250 to $300 per person, and increased fares for most of the other rooms by $150 to $300. The lowest-priced rooms went from $2,150 to $2,300. This might seem like much in today’s dollars, but $100 in 1937 would be worth well over $2,000 today. The rooms on the sun deck whose prices had increased in 1936 were about the only ones exempt from this increase.
These increases averaged around 5 percent and were probably a mistake as the number of passengers fell by 29 percent from 414 in 1936 to 294 in 1937. As I’ve mentioned before, most of the costs of running a cruise are fixed, as the staff numbers are the same no matter how many passengers are carried, so a lot more passengers at slightly lower fares produce more net revenue.
The painting on the cover of the fare brochure is unsigned. The back cover has paintings of two other exotic figures in the same medium and style. I suspect all three paintings are by Gillespie or Greenwood.
Click image to view and download a 10.5-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
The passenger list doesn’t include any names that jump out at me as members of the aristocracy or uber-wealthy. However, it is slightly more egalitarian than previous lists: It still doesn’t give the first names of women passengers, but it also only gives the first initial or initials for most male passengers. This makes it more difficult to track people down.
For example, the list includes Mr. E.S. Goodrich and Mrs. Goodrich. That may refer to Edwin Stephen Goodrich (1868-1946), an English zoologist who taught at Oxford. But there could have been other E.S. Goodriches alive at the time as well.
Click image to view and download a 110.6-MB PDF of this packet of memograms from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
The DeMuths were aboard, as usual, and sketched at least 17 memograms for passengers to take home as souvenirs or mail to their friends. The above distinguished looking folder contains these 177 memograms.
Click image to view and download a 1.9-MB PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
The Chung collection has a few menus from this cruise. The cruise would have crossed the prime meridian on the night of January 19, which may have been when the above menu was used. The menu is the usual seven- or eight-course meal served aboard Canadian Pacific ocean liners but with not quite as many selections as on the shorter trans-Atlantic trips.
Click image to view and download a 2.5-MB PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This menu was served by the Manila Hotel to cruise members making an excursion to the Philippines. Most of the items offered were distinctly American, such as California celery and beef tenderloin. But the menu did have Supreme of Lapu-Lapu and chicken a la Manhoco. Lapu-Lapu is the name of a legendary Filipino chief but also another name for grouper. Manhoco is a Portuguese word for “sleight of hand” but I’m not sure how that applies to serving chicken. At least the concert music included native dances and songs.
Click image to view and download a 1.2-MB PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This menu was used as the ship crossed the Pacific between Hawaii and San Francisco and wished “au revoir” to passengers who would be disembarking in California. The menu itself had entrées of pheasant, ham, or Pojarski de Volaille, which is a Russian method of serving chicken. While nice to see that the ship served some semi-exotic foods, it was too bad that it didn’t offer any authentic Hawaiian cuisine.
Click image to view and download a 1.2-MB PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
This menu was used for cruise members at the Kyoto Hotel in Japan. It is disappointing to see that, with the exception of bamboo sprouts, it doesn’t include any traditional Japanese foods.
Click image to view and download a 550-KB PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.
Maxfield Parrish painted some murals for the San Francisco Palace Hotel, one of which is shown at the top of this menu, which was used for cruise members during their San Francisco excursion. To the extent that San Francisco had a distinctive cuisine in 1937 (which probably would have been heavy on seafood), it isn’t represented on this menu.