Category Archives: Mississippi Diary

Toured the beautiful Twin Cities and then overnighted in Saint Paul.  I could live here if it weren’t for the winters.  In the morning we fly home.  This concludes my Mississippi Diary.  On to 1965!

Yesterday was occupied with a brief look around Red Wing and packing.  Today we disembark, take a tour of St Paul and overnight there before heading back to the blast furnace that is Indio in August.

 Yesterday we stopped in La Crosse, Wisconsin.  We spent most of our time in the classic car museum. Today is the final stop of our journey – Red Wing, Minnesota.

Sorry no river pictures today.  Yesterday, I did manage to see three new old movies with Lionel Atwill in supporting roles.  The leads were some of my favorite actors so it worked out well.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film from the Dr. Kildare series before.  In this one, Lionel Barrymore needs a long rest for his health but resists.  So Lew Ayers tricks him by taking on the case of a millionaire’s (Atwill) daughter.  The plot is not the world’s most plausible but the repartee between Barrymore and Ayers makes the movie work.

This is an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel.  Irene Dunne returns to New York from Europe after her marriage to a Russian aristocrat fails.  The prospect of divorce scandalizes her high society family but her sophistication and openness are even more shocking to them.  Cousin John Boles, who is engaged to another woman, is appealed to to get her to behave.  Eventually her way of thinking wins him over and things get even more complicated.  I adore Dunne and this was my favorite of the three.  Atwill plays Dunne’s disreputable nouveau riche suitor.

Dunne plays a singer who falls for high class rotter Phillips Holmes while on tour in London.  He is totally dependent on his father (Atwill) for income.  He is furious when he find out Dunne and his son have secretly married and cuts him off without a cent.  The couple try to make a go of it in France but Holmes is unfit for gainful employment and eventually weakens.  When Dunne falls pregnant the plot turns ultra melodramatic ending in one the most astounding courtroom scenes ever. Once again, Dunne is enough for me.

We spent a fun couple of hours in Hannibal where every other business has been named after Mark Twain.  After reading Life on the Mississippi I love him even more than before.

I’ve been watching plenty of movies on TCM but seldom without interruption and almost all not new to me.  Yesterday I scored with Harry Beaumont’s Faithless (1932).  Tallulah Bankhead is a wealthy heiress who falls for Robert Montgomery’s ad exec.  He wants them to live on his earnings but she prefers the high life.  By the end of the film the Depression has driven both to their knees.  I enjoyed the performances but the film seemed too long for its story and then ended really abruptly.

We’re cruising the river today.  Next stop Bettendorf, Iowa.

Yesterday it was Alton, Illinois whose claim to fame seems to be as the hometown of Robert Wadlow, world’s tallest man.  I preferred the Audubon Center.  As a robin, cardinal, and ruby-throated hummingbird.  No big deal to some but we don’t get any of these species where I live.  I’d give anything to see this place in winter when it is filled with migrating water fowl.

Yesterday we visited Chester, Illinois the home of the creator of Popeye, Elzie Sanger.  Chester’s other movie connections are as the locations for In the Heat of the Night and The Fugitive.

Had only a couple of hours much of which was taken up by downloading ebook and audiobook in blessed cafe with broadband access.  After that we just took a look at the awesome view from the nearby Courthouse.  Popeye statues are all over town.

We had a good day yesterday in Cape Girardeau.  Toured one of the few English Gothic churches in the US; the “Red House”, home and trading post of the city’s founder; and a museum with loads of Indian artifacts among other things.

Today we make a brief stop in Chester, Illinois.  One of the main attractions for us will be a cafe with broadband wi-fi!

Don’t have much to show from the pretty little arts center of Paducah.  The National Quilt Museum was a big hit with me but no photos were allowed inside.  The quilts – all modern – were fantastic art pieces, really stunning.

Next we got a tour of the town’s little Civil War museum by a couple of Sons of the Confederacy.  Such a different perspective.

Today we are off to tour Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Our stop in tiny Hickman was really the gateway to little Union City, Tennessee pop. 10,000 and the truly amazing Discovery Park of America.  In the middle of nowhere a Union City boy who made good spent 100 million on this museum/park.  It’s like a mini Smithsonian filled with fantastic Kodak moments.  I only wish we had more time there.

Today we explore Paducah, Kentucky.