Twilight on the Bay: The Excursion Boat Empire of B B Wills by Brian J. Cudahy, well-illustrated, Very Good+ condition with slight spine slant (see pictures).
From back cover: “ In the golden age of American steamboating, paddlewheelers were a principal form of basic transportation of people and goods. Twilight on the Bay begins after such steamboats had devolved into day excursion boats and concentrates on the efforts of one man to run such vessels even as the automobile was becoming America's first choice for recreational travel.
“The true American excursion boat steamed away from a downtown pier at nine-thirty or ten o'clock on a summer morning and took mom and pop, all the kids, and a big wicker hamper full of good things to eat on an inexpensive two- or three-hour cruise to a nearby picnic grove, bathing beach, or amusement park. And then, late in the afternoon, when everyone was totally exhausted, she brought them all back again as the sun was slipping behind the water.
“Sometimes, too, as mom and pop were heading home with the kids on the local trolley car, the old excursion boat set out on a moonlight cruise from eight-thirty until midnight. Young couples would dance to the strains of Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, or maybe just three or four young musicians working their way through a local college.
That, in a nutshell, is what an excursion boat was.
“Over the period from 1934 to 1967, B.B. Wills owned and operated twenty-two of these excursion boats up and down the east coast. Thanks to B. B. Wills, the steamboat industry survived a little longer than it might otherwise have, and hundreds of thousands of additional people were able to experience the joy of spending an inexpensive day cruising down the river or across the bay for no other purpose than relaxation and en-joyment.”
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