What got you into Titanic, or did Titanic call to you in some way? Are you a relative or descendant? Are you an artist or author? Let's get to know each other!
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Honoring Titanic and her legacy through factual documented history.
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So happy to have you back!!
Thank you Jill.
welcome to our newest forum member, author @Norbert Zimmermann !
I got hooked before the movie came out, I was always a "read the book then see the movie" kind of person. I wouldn't allow myself to go the 97 blockbuster film until I knew my history. I took out every book I could find and I was hooked! Internet groups were just starting and I quickly joined the Titanic historical society. Didn't see the movie until it hit our local budget theater (where movies go before they are really done making money). I Don't really have a preference of where the artifacts go, just as long as they are preserved and treated well and used for education. Not sure how i feel about salvaging... although there is much to learn from the artifacts. After watching Bill Paxton go to the wreck, I'm not sure I could handle it!
The coolest event/Gathering I've been to was the 2012 Titanic historical society dinner, where they unveiled the memorial and we dressed up for a real 1912 dinner (they did a fabulous job!) I got to meet many people there like Dennis Fae (Faenza), Loree Collins and Dennis, Linda and Michael Lee, Julie Hedgepeth Williams, Phill Kleppen and his wife, Philip Vitiello and his lovely wife, Lynn, just to name a few
Some other memorable things I've been able to do and enjoy are:
1. I took Dave Gardner fabulous Titanic tour in NYC. He made it especially fabulous for me by giving me a pre-tour! What a wonderful and exhausting day! I was really happy to also meet Charles Pellegrino and a descendant of a survivor on the tour and we then went to pier 54 and paid our respects. A wonderful day indeed.
2. Going to the the Titanic museum with Helen Benziger, Margaret Brown's Great granddaughter. She's one of the kindest women I've ever met and the museum treated her like royalty! we spent two days there and it was not enough time! My favorite part of the exhibit was probably the Father Browne exhibit, those giant photographs all blown up... wow.
3. Getting picked up by Phill Kleppen and spending a wonderful Titanic day! He's a tour guide at the Molly Brown house in Denver, and quite the celebrity there! I was honored to do my tour with him, I actually want to make a separate post about this day but i still need to get my son to send the cd with the pics! I better remind him!
4. Meeting the great niece of survivor Lillian Bentham with Jason Tiller. He came over on the fast ferry from Toronto to Rochester and we went by her home to just take pictures of the home. To our surprise, her niece, Sherry, opened the door and asked what we were doing. we told her and she invited us in! She had boxes of original newspapers! My eyes and Jason's were popping out! Sherry later met with me to show me some letters her great aunt had written on Titanic. Lillian was a young energetic happy teenager on her way over... and the letters after the sinking were so sullen and sad. This was a changed woman.
5. Ed Kamuda's funeral in Springfield Mass. It was one of the most touching funerals I have ever been to.. and it was lovely to meet Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, although not really the greatest circumstances... but beautiful, touching, and memorable.
I never met a survivor but wish I had met Millvina Dean, I love her philosophy of having a kind heart and a sense of humor, both which i need to work on. I also love Ruth Becker and so many others...
ill close now but can't wait to hear your story!
I'm Benedict Rome, I'm 12 years old and I live in the Philippines. I started my Titanic craziness when I watched James Cameron's movie Titanic (1997). I'm currently working on a book about the Titanic, The Unsinkable Voyage and I'm planning a documentary film based on that book.
I am related to a survivor of the Titanic, Madeleine Force Astor. We are distant cousins, and just found this out this year, after my cousin did an extensive family tree. My dad and she are 8th cousins. She was in Lifeboat 4, and her husband died in the tragedy. She gave birth to their son about 4 months after the sinking.
Hi, My names Riley and im 13 i live in the UK (United Kingdom). I have had an obsession with Titanic for quite some time now and in my opinion Titanic didnt deserve what she got. I joined a meeting on the 6 th August 2021 and i really enjoyed and decided i wanted to be part of the Titanic book club. I have no one related to me who was on the titanic. The Titanic 1997 movie inspired me about titanic. I am a Titanic Enthusiast and currently helping @Benedict Rome's Titanic Blogs with a documentary.