The Queen Mary’s maiden voyage was in May of 1936. She is permanently docked now in Long Beach, California, operating as a luxury hotel.
The Queen Mary, on average, took just over four days to cross from New York to Southampton. Her top speed record was three days, twenty-two hours, and forty-two minutes. She held the Blue Riband for speed in 1938 and maintained it until 1952, when she lost it to the S.S. United States.
The RMS Scythia was the longest-serving liner in the Cunard line until the QE2. Her maiden voyage was in 1921, and she sailed until 1958.
The New York Cunard Pier, number 90, was indeed located at number 90, 711 Twelfth Avenue.
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 plunged the country and the world into the Great Depression, resulting in breadlines and soup kitchens, and high unemployment that lasted until the United States entered World War II in 1941.
William “Billy” Haines was a huge movie star with MGM in the 1920s and early 1930s. When he refused to marry to hide his homosexuality, MGM fired him, and he started a successful interior design business with Jimmie Shields, his life partner.
Buster Crabbe was an American swimmer and film actor. He won the 1932 Olympic gold medal, which launched his movie career. He was often featured shirtless to show off his physique.
Upton Sinclair was an American author who wrote nearly one hundred books. He won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1943.
Ellis Parker Butler, another of the authors mentioned in this book, was an American writer who died on September 13, 1937. He is most famous for his short story “Pigs Is Pigs.”
Jean Harlow was an American film actress and sex symbol up until her untimely death at age twenty-six in 1937.
Wiltons of London was established in 1742, famous for oysters, wild fish and game, and traditional, old-fashioned hospitality. Wiltons gained a Royal Warrant for supplying oysters to the royal household in 1836.
The Woodlawn Woman’s Club of Chicago was active between 1895 and 1954.
Lord Burghley did indeed win the gold medal in the 400 meter hurdles at the 1928 Summer Olympics, and in April of 1936 he did run one lap (400 yards) in evening dress around the promenade deck of the Queen Mary in under sixty seconds.
Smith Wigglesworth was an actual evangelist in England, who lived from 1859 to 1947. He dedicated his life to preaching and ministering, employing methods that were often controversial.
Heatherwick is a fictional estate created by the author, but the villages of Brockenhurst, Long Wittenham, and Battramsley are real.
Europe entered World War II on September 1, 1939. The United States got involved after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
The working title of this book, believe it or not, was The Curse of the Swamp People. It was later changed to The Quimby Curse and finally to Death’s Prelude, as suggested by Sandy Lowe of Bold Strokes Books. A much better choice!