A Little Piece of History

A break from politics today to ruminate, briefly, on the successfully-completed maiden voyage of the ocean liner "Queen Mary 2".

Growing up, I had often heard exotic stories about my great-aunt, Rohama Lee (nee Siegel), and my great-grandmother, Ida Lewis Siegel. Ida was among the grand doyenne of the Toronto Jewish community. She help found a number of prominent organizations in the city, including the Hebrew Ladies Maternity Aid and Child Welfare Society, and was a member of the Toronto School Board. She raised six children, one of whom was an up-and-coming singer before she died in her early 30s (part of the family lore is a picture that my father has of his aunt Sarah with Bob Hope).

But of Ida's six children, I imagine that her most troublesome was Rohama, who lived a bohemian life and was at the center of any number of exotic stories. Among other things, she co-wrote the 1943 film "Tonight We Raid Calais" and the 1938 film "We're Going to Be Rich". She married an Englishman, then later, so the family legend goes, had him deported after he became violent with her. She wrote short film scripts for the Office of War Information during WWII and later edited Film News, a leading film industry magazine. Some of her papers reside in a collection at the library of the University of Iowa [link]

So what's the connection to the Queen Mary 2? Well, it turns out that among her many and varied escapades, Rohama was the first stow-away on the Queen Mary, on its maiden voyage. At the time, she was a reporter for the Toronto Star, and looking for a great story. Apparently, she toured all three classes of the grand ship, attended a number of bon voyage parties and befriended one of the elevator operators, who may have helped conceal her when the ship left Southhampton, England. Unfortunately for Rohama, she was discovered when the ship stopped at Cherbourg, France to take on additional passengers. Legend has it that Rohama's passage back to Southampton from Cherbourg was paid for by unnamed admirers.

Such an act of derring-do seem almost quaint today, in the age of terrorism and heightened alerts and heavy scrutiny of travelling documents. But still, as New York welcomes the QM2, it makes me happy to think of my small connection to a world that's probably lost forever...