(erielack) Phoebe Snow and the boxcars

[MDelvec952_@_aol.com]

In a message dated 12/16/01 4:54:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
dmvgvt_@_earthlink.net writes:

> Lackawanna started using the Phoebe Snow "billboard" lettering in
>  1942.  Why did they do that 7 years before the debut of Miss Phoebe in Nov
>  1949?

Dave, Pheobe Snow the character has been around since 1903, and she was an 
image used by the Lackawanna throughout the 20th Century.  She lapsed during 
the USRA control of WWI, returned during the christening of the electric 
m.u.s, and returned again in 1941 to help sell war bonds. The boxcar slogans 
were an extension of the wartime promotions, possibly to help justify a 
voluminous boxcar order during wartime steel restrictions -- not many roads 
got big freight car orders during WWII.  Phoebe's wartime image appeared in 
many advertisements and on several bits of company literature.

After WWII she fizzled again until p.r. man J. Hampton Baumgartner in 1949 
hastily suggested to William White that the new streamliner be named for 
Phoebe.  The name stuck and another advertising campaign was born.

Interestingly, all of the Phoebes were represented at this year's Hoboken 
Festival, and one of the most popular and stunning in appearance was wartime 
Phoebe. I saw her later without the jacket, and she didn't have nearly the 
impact.  With the jacket, she was a stunner.  But the grand dame at Hoboken 
had all the magnetism and class of the original. Glad we did that, the 
Phoebes were a huge hit.

If anyone is interested, there's s short fiction novel published in 1968 
called Phoebe Snow by Elizabeth Hall.  I bought a copy for less than $10 at 
www.abebooks.com, and there were a dozen on there. It's a great read for a 
fiction story.  And it captures a real feel for turn-of-the-century life 
along the railroad in western New York. The premise is that a small-town girl 
sneaks her way to the 1903 World's Fair in St. Louis masquerading as Phoebe.  
I loaned my copy and some suggestions to an amatuer filmmaker friend who's 
trying to break into Hollywood.  This book has a potential for a fun little 
movie with lots of opportunities for "Little House on the Prarie" sub-plots.

                    ....Mike

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