Memories of the Island Queen

by Rose Pranger

submitted by Don Baumann
 

For those who know and those who don't, here is some info about this boat which took passengers - 4,100 of them strong up to Coney Island when I was a kid. Here are my recollections of the big steamer. A web site with a photo is shown at the end of this message:

THE ISLAND QUEEN

Anyone who lived in the Tri-State area in the 30s and 40s, remembers the ISLAND QUEEN with affection. This big steamboat carried more than 4,000 folks up to Coney Island on the Ohio side on mega trips up and down the river.

For more years than I care to confess, I did not know that CONEY ISLAND was not an island. A lot of people I knew in the West End of Newport did not have cars - but even then a family could drive up to the amusement park via the Eastern part of Cincinnati. I was kind of sorry I found this out. This revelation ruined a part of my childhood.

It was an adventure to go down in the bowels of the big boat and watch the men stoke the furnaces. It was hot and noisy but worth the inconvenience.

On a personal note - My Dad Frank Bamberger, was a trombonist with the Clyde Trask Orchestra, which played on the GIGANTIC dance floor. It was customary to dance and/or just listen to the music and Clyde Trask's’ band was the best around, with a reputation up there with the likes of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and band leaders of the day. My Dad even arranged music for Clyde Trask.

Mom said she would take me on the boat when I was but a small tyke - under 2 years old - circa 1932 or 1933. I wish I could have been older so I could brag about this feat.

As I grew to some maturity, there were Moonlight rides on the Island Queen. A bunch of we ‘cuties’ would go on a ride and sashay out on the dance floor and hope a Knight in Shining Armor would venture out to ask for a dance. It happened only on occasion but that was fine. We went home the same way we had come - unescorted.

I was walking home from school - in 1947 - A Junior at Academy Notre Dame of Providence in Newport, when I heard the EXTRA (for the uninformed, an EXTRA was a Special Edition of the paper, rushed out on the street ASAP after a major incident - sold by a newsboy shouting just that). The boat had been destroyed by an explosion up river and I shed a few tears, I am not ashamed to confess. It was the end of an era. I will never understand why someone or some company with deep pockets could not have built another vessel, the size and quality of the Island Queen. Heck, they build baseball stadiums, don’t they?

Sad Note: A caretaker for a tenant of my Grandmother’s, was killed in the tragic accident. We saw her name in the newspaper.

It was hard to find a web site which does justice to a picture of the boat. But here is one:

  http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/raeburn/iq.htm


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