S ometimes the most fascinating things are hiding in plain sight. One of the best rainy-day weepies ever made, 1957’s An Affair to Remember, has a secret of literally colossal proportions in it, if you know what it is and where to look. Hidden behind super-chic Fifties fashions and a champagne sec romance between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is a nugget well worth a movie all its own - the Henry Dreyfuss-designed décor of the S.S. Constitution.

Henry Dreyfuss (inset) was reponsible for the glamorous, practical décors of the S.S. Constitution, shown here in her original American Export Lines livery. (Photo: AEL Historic Photo)

The playful elegance of the Constitution extended to its graphics, like this First Class menu cover. (Photo: Author’s Collection)

Beginning her career in 1951, the Constitution was a new kind of ship for a new kind of traveler. Far less intimidating than pre-war ships like the French Line’s Ile de France or Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, the ship was conceived with glamorous informality in mind. Unlike European steamship lines, American companies realized that indecipherable French menus and starchy staff had become off-putting to passengers. The owners of the new vessel, American Export Lines, meant to give their clientele a new, less demanding, kind of elegance.

Henry Dreyfuss was the man to give American Export what it needed; he had been responsible for such diverse designs as John Deere tractors and the Twentieth Century Limited. His work was characterized by supreme simplicity, with emphasis on line and function. Every Dreyfuss commission resulted in an easily comprehensible, practical-to-use form. Unlike many designers, Dreyfuss understood the value of ornamentation; anything from a stamped-in crease to a distinctive paint scheme could be found enlivening examples of his oeuvre. Dreyfuss’s designs were informed by extensive studies of his clients’ customers; his work for John Deere, for instance, had resulted in a tractor more distinctive and powerful-looking than anything else on the market. Only Dreyfuss had bothered to discover that farmers were just as responsive as anyone else to a little glamour, and Deere’s sales skyrocketed. For American Export, Dreyfuss’s studies of American living habits came in handy. Dreyfuss knew how Americans actually used their living quarters, and could design for real-life demands. An American Export Lines press release summed up the value of the designer’s work to AEL. “Dreyfuss, charged to provide the utmost comfort for every passenger in each of the three classes as well as American living standards for the 575 officers and crew, has produced innumerable refinements that set new standards for living at sea. Spacious, bright color combinations, exclusive fabric designs and weaves for drapery and upholstery; private baths, ample dresser, wardrobe and storage spaces and air conditioning are stateroom features. Oversized folding wall and sofa berths permit instant conversion of bedrooms into spacious living rooms.” The result of Dreyfuss’s labors on the Constitution was perfectly in tune with the pull-up-a-chair informality of the newly affluent middle-class traveler. Staterooms worked better than ever before, the result of Dreyfuss having ordered full-scale mockups built and tested by consumer focus groups. Public spaces were grand in scale, but made easy to relate to by the use of familiar materials like mosaic panels. Comfort was assured by air-conditioning the ship from bow to stern - a first on an ocean liner. Tremendous thought went into making the new ship both upscale and easy to enjoy. Dress codes were relaxed, at least in the daytime. Menus reflected an abolition of the haute snobisme that made American passengers so uneasy on European ships. The French Line presented its passengers with menu items like Pigeonneau de Nid Rôti Bûcheronne - a name few from the U.S. could decipher. On the Constitution, First Class travelers were offered Breast of White Guinea Hen Montmorency with Wild Rice: even those who didn’t know that “Montmorency” meant the sauce contained cherries could relax, knowing they were getting a poultry dish. This early-1950's publicity shot of Deborah Kerr shows the premium placed on Modernism in that era. Kerr is seated in a Womb chair designed by Eero Saarinen. (Photo: Twentieth Century-Fox) It was all wildly successful from the beginning; Dreyfuss had gauged American Export’s target customer perfectly. The Constitution became a favorite of America’s new rich, and American Export worked hard to ensure that potential passengers everywhere knew that the ship of their dreams was afloat. AEL’s chance to get national media exposure began with a proposal from Desilu, the production company responsible for the hugely successful I Love Lucy TV show. When Lucy’s writers came up with an episode titled “Bon Voyage”, the script called for several scenes set on a ship. Since the I Love Lucy budget was not nearly as lavish as the public believed, Lucy star and producer Desi Arnaz came up with the idea of approaching cruise lines to help finance building a set copying a real ship, with obvious advertising benefits for whatever cruise line participated. American Export was the company that saw the advantages of the deal, turning $12,000 of its advertising budget over to Desilu to bankroll sets depicting the Constitution. AEL gave more than money; actual Constitution items ranging from deck chairs to drink stirrers were used to dress the Lucy sets showing the ship’s decks and its Boat ‘n’ Bottle Bar. First airing on January 16th, 1956, the “Bon Voyage” episode gave the ship and its owners millions of dollars’ worth of publicity. The company was so happy with the result, it began looking for another opportunity. It found two.

Grace Kelly posed in front of the Constitution's Pool Bar mosaics on her way to Monaco, and marriage to Prince Rainier. (Photo: AEL Historic Photo)

The first was completely accidental; Grace Kelly booked passage on the Constitution to make the trip that took her from American movie star to Princesse de Monaco. On April 12th, 1956, the liner was met in Monte Carlo’s harbor by Prince Rainier’s yacht, the Deo Juvante II. Hundreds of newspaper and newsreel cameras filmed the star’s transfer from the Constitution, a publicity bonanza beyond anything money could have bought. Movie theatres and TV networks ran the images for weeks while covering the wedding of Kelly to Prince Rainier, giving the ship maximum PR exposure.

The second was a new CinemaScope movie planned by Twentieth Century-Fox, a remake of 1937’s Love Affair. The new version was titled An Affair to Remember, and glamour was built in from the project’s inception. About one-third of the film took place on an ocean liner, and when Fox officials approached American Export, they found a most cooperative partner. Set designers working under the direction of Fox art director Lyle Wheeler found their task eased considerably by the helpfulness of the Constitution’s owners; china, silver, and furnishings from the actual ship found their way onto Fox soundstages. The Constitution was carefully photographed and measured, to facilitate duplicating the tiniest details. The liner’s restaurant and its Lido deck, complete with swimming pool, were the major areas re-interpreted for the camera by Wheeler, but the First Class bar also figured in one scene.

Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant lounged on a soundstage Lido deck (left)
copied from the Constitution's real one (right). American Export thought so highly of Fox's fakery,
the photo at left was used in AEL advertising. (Photos: Left, Twentieth Century-Fox / AEL. Right,
AEL Historic Photo)

The movie ended up as an effortless blend of romance, comedy, and sentiment, with the Constitution being shown off to gorgeous advantage. Cary Grant wooed Deborah Kerr all over the ship, from its First Class promenade and a Dreyfuss-designed suite, to the pool and restaurant areas. Dreyfuss’s signature mosaics served as backdrop for a comedy scene, and breathtaking establishing shots of the actual liner made it appear that everything had really taken place at sea.

The movie’s making was just the beginning of joint publicity efforts between AEL and Fox. AEL launched an expensive print ad campaign titled “A Voyage to Remember”, using a shot of Grant and Kerr on the set Fox had built to represent the Constitution’s Lido deck. Fox reciprocated handsomely by launching the film on board the Constitution itself; on July 2nd, 1957, the ship floated calmly in New York Harbor while a phalanx of celebrities boarded her for the picture’s gala world premiere. Affair star Cary Grant and producer Jerry Wald were on hand, as were Debra Paget, Celeste Holm, Arlene Dahl, and Fernando Lamas. Also in attendance were Shelley Winters and husband Tony Franciosa; in a coincidence only Hollywood could generate, Franciosa would later split with Winters and marry Judy Balaban, a member of the party of bridesmaids that had accompanied Grace Kelly on her Constitution crossing to Monaco. Fox Movietone News covered the event with its newsreel cameras, with the premiere footage giving AEL just that much more publicity wherever it was shown.

An Affair to Remember (left) copied the Dreyfuss mosaics seen in the Constitution's Pool Bar (center)
and its First Class restaurant (right). The restaurant set used different colors than the real restaurant; the color scheme was changed to coordinate with Deborah Kerr's russet hair. (Photos: Left, Twentieth Century-Fox. Center and Right, AEL Historic Photos)

Henry Dreyfuss's trim staterooms for the real Constitution (left) inspired Deborah Kerr's in An Affair to Remember (right). (Photos: Left, AEL Historic Photo. Right, Twentieth Century-Fox)

In spite of the general downturn in ocean travel, American Export’s efforts to keep the Constitution in the public eye paid off, at least for a while. The advent of jet travel in the late 1950’s, however, started an industry-wide slide that eventually affected even American Export. AEL struggled to keep things as they had been, but 1969 brought the sad decision to drydock the liner and put it up for sale.

A buyer was eventually found in the 1970’s, and American Hawaii Cruises put the Constitution into service as a cruise ship serving the Hawaiian Islands, along with her twin sister, the S.S. Independence. The easy glamour of the liner found a whole new generation of fans, and it sailed its new route from 1980 to 1995. By that time, the aging ship was no longer in compliance with new safety regulations, and the owners sadly realized that retrofitting was financially out of the question. She was decommissioned, and prepared for breaking up as scrap metal.

The ship that had served so many so graciously had other ideas. As if she had a mind of her own, the Constitution refused to keep her date with the breakers. While she was being towed to her scrapping, she began taking on water, making it impossible for the tow ship to control her. The decision was made to cut the Constitution loose, and the great liner almost immediately slipped below the waves, plunging to the bottom of the Pacific. A lady to the last, the ship had defied her fate without injuring or killing any of her handlers.

She rests now in her element, a much more dignified end than the one planned for her. Fish swim the salons where Grace Kelly played charades on her way to her Prince’s arms, and sea growths encrust the decks copied for Lucy Ricardo’s shipboard landing by helicopter. Marine life is devouring everything left of Dreyfuss’s work. But you can still see the Constitution, whole and vibrant and epitomizing the luxury and style of the Fifties, just by popping in the video of An Affair to Remember.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr ain’t bad, either.