Queen Mary's 80th aiversary to be celebrated in style this week in Long Beach

A Long Beach icon celebrates its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to Cherbourg, France, and on to New York in 1936, with events scheduled around the day it launched — May 27.

Festivities at the Queen Mary include an aiversary dier from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday; free admission from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, along with a Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill painting exhibition and a fireworks display that night at about 8:30 p.m. An STV Productions, British Broadcasting Company and Smithsonian Chael documentary film also will begin showing in the ship’s 4-D theater.

“The biggest thing is to acknowledge the Queen Mary through the years, the legacy it made during war and non-wartime,” general manager John Jenkins said.

“Our goal is always about upholding the authenticity of the ship,” Jenkins said. “This is just an exciting time for us as a company. It’s going to be a great weekend.”

Attractions organizer and commodore Everette Hoard said the celebration has been a group effort, underway for almost a year.

“The 80th aiversary is a milestone in the ship’s life… The thing about the Queen Mary is she’s still making history,” Hoard said.

Dining in style

One of the aiversary events is a mode twist of the menu served to first class passengers on their first evening at sea. This meal is on Thursday in the Grand Salon.

“While Queen Mary has previously recreated historic menus to mark important events, the creation of this particular menu was difficult as no records of the meal are present in our archives,” Queen Mary chef Todd Henderson said in a statement.

But organizers of the dier found some information in one of the ship’s books about its history and maiden voyage.

“Our only direction was a short list of items served,” Henderson said. “My team had to imagine the preparation and ingredients by researching the gastronomy of the period, historic recipe books and our imagination. While the meal we have produced reflects the maiden voyage menu, we caot say they are identical.”

Records show travelers on the maiden voyage complained about the opening night menu because it promoted French cuisine more than British, and the British govement and people had subsidized the ship.

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The aiversary meal includes charentais melon gelee (speck, sea salt, basil herb crystals), croute-au-pot au pomme perles (puff pastry, fried rump and potato soup, bacon leek oil), cotes courtes braisée belle mere (wagyu short rib, fava bean purée, glacé di viande), salad francaise (petit greens, French vinaigrette), chocolate crème brûlée with strawberries and Chantilly cream and café.

Guests who buy a table will hear Idea from great-grandson of Winston Churchill, Randoph Churchill. Also, the Baron of Richmond Lord Alan Watson, a Churchill scholar and author, will discuss Churchill’s lifelong coection to the ship, which began before the maiden voyage.

“It is my hope that those attending the aiversary dier will imagine themselves as part of a living history that now enters its ninth decade,” Henderson said. “Perhaps they will toast Mr. Churchill or raise a glass to the memory of the 800,000 Allied troops Queen Mary safely served aboard the greatest ocean liner of all time.”

Prices start at $150 per person, which includes cocktail hour, dier and live entertainment. An after party will be from 10 p.m. to midnight in the Verandah Grill for $50. A brunch, inspired by the aiversary, will be $45 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 27.

Emily Thoton is a staff writer at Gazette Newspapers. She can be reached at [email protected].