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The Friendship Train: The Amazing Story of Drew Pearson’s Own “Little Engine” That Could… E.J.
CHICAGO, CHICAGO
My Kind of Town (Chicago) – Frank Sinatra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpEGxHLJpK4
OTD: November 15, 1947 – November 15, 2017
70 years ago today in Chicago, Illinois, one section of the Santa Fe Friendship Train, Drew PEARSON’ s extraordinary people-to-people humanitarian program to collect food for starving France and Italy after WWII, consisting of 77 cars, left the “Windy City” eastbound on the Pennsylvania Railway (PRR); another section left on NYC.
A week earlier, on November 7, 1947, Los Angeles, California, had launched its actual “Christmas collection drive” with the most razzle-dazzle, star-packed parade and ceremony Hollywood has ever seen thanks to Harry. M. Warner, head of Warner Bros. and Chairman of the Friendship Train National Committee, leaving Glendale station that night with 12 boxcars of wheat, flour, canned milk, sugar, and a soybean product called “Multi-Purpose Food.” Spirits were high on the West Coast. Drew PEARSON was hopeful: His original, personal goal for the First Friendship Food Train – 80 boxcars – seemed feasible… https://www.francaisdeletranger.org/en/2017/10/11/mdfdeusa-wwii-here-is-to-you-drew-pearson-mdfdefriendshipmercitrain70/
The California Friendship Train, led by Governor Warren, had the greatest time traveling through the West Coast, collecting foodstuffs again and again: Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Stockton, Oakland, where Governor Ingram M. Stainback from the Territory of Hawaii, not yet a member of the Union, and who had flown to Los Angeles on a special “Friendship plane,” presented not one (as originally announced) but two carloads of sugar as a gift of the citizens of Hawaii: Hawaiians had work so hard at pooling their pennies to help the people of France and Italy.
Sacramento added two boxcars so by the time the Friendship Train, now pulling 27 boxcars, hit Reno, Nevada where, thanks to Gov. Vail Pullman’s powerful appeal, urging “all Nevadans to give their share of required food” in a proclamation dated November 1, 1947, the state’s 149,000 residents had managed to fill two boxcars and would have done even better if they just had more time. The Santa Fe Friendship Train was then on to Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
Friendship Train Donation From Sacramento Valley – 1947
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/friendship-train-donation-from-sacramento-valley-1947-chicago-and-north-western-historical-society.html
Fired up by the spontaneous enthusiasm of the crowds they met at each station–thousands of people, dignitaries, school children, boys scouts and girl scouts, bands, military personnel, local committees– greeting and happily bringing their contribution, Drew PEARSON and his Friendship Train Team continued their glorious odyssey across the Southwest with stops in Ogden, Utah, Green River, Rawlins, Laramie, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Sidney, North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Fremont, Omaha, Nebraska, Council Bluffs, Boone, Ames, Cedar Rapids, Clinton, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas….
And then came the Midwest, America’s Heartland…
Indiana, home of Fort Wayne in Allen County where neighboring communities contributed more than a carload of condensed milk to the Friendship Train. There, the RR train was split into two sections, with one proceeding directly to New York and the other making local pickups. Ohio, where crowds, standing in the freezing rain, donated 4 Boxcars filled to the max… Illinois… Governor Dwight Green had designated the week of the 7th–14th as Friendship Week in Illinois, and urged all citizens to make generous contributions to the Friendship Train.
By the time the Santa Fe Friendship Train, dubbed the “Breadbasket Special,” reached Chicago, Illinois, it had grown 82 cars. The Train had become so long that it had to be split up, with one section continuing via the New York Central system and the other over the Pennsylvania Railroad. All Aboard the Friendship Train for its last leg to New York! Elisabeth Jenssen
#GRATITUDE
#RESISTANCE
#MDFDEFriendshipMerciTrain70
© The Official French-American Project entirely conceived by Ms. Elisabeth JENSSEN to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the Friendship Train and the Merci Train (2017- 2019). All rights reserved.
Chair, Elisabeth Jenssen Co-Chair, Tyler Abell
Honorary President: The Comte Gilbert de Pusy La Fayette
Contact: elisabeth.jenssen@francaisdeletranger.org
Chicago Mayor Martin H. Kennelly Welcomes Friendship Train – November 14, 1947 is a photograph by Chicago and North Western. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/chicago-mayor-welcomes-friendship-train-1947-chicago-and-north-western-historical-society.html
MDFDE Drew Pearson Posts: https://www.francaisdeletranger.org/en/2017/11/07/mdfdeusa-wwii-here-is-to-you-drew-pearson-ii-mdfdefriendshipmercitrain70/
Related MDFDE posts: https://www.francaisdeletranger.org/en/2017/10/14/mdfdeusa-wwi-wwii-here-is-to-you-gabrielle-griswold-mdfdefriendshipmercitrain70/
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