The Sunbelt
California is one of the States in the Sunbelt. It is located south on the West Coast of the United States. The State itself has a lot of different things to offer and the landscape varies from deserts and mountains to beautiful orchards and green valleys with giant redwood trees and clean rivers. The products of this State include oil, fruit, vegetables, wine, films and high tech.
Two big cities
California has two major metropolitan areas, Los Angeles and San Fransico. Some of the most famous sights of the USA are located in the greater metropolitan area of Los Angeles. Disneyland and Hollywood are well known all over the world.
The Magic Kingdom
Disneyland is named after its own creator, Walt Disney. His dream was to build a family park where children and parents find recreation away from the hectic world outside. The plan was made in the 50s and a lot of energy was put into finding people willing to finance the idea. Television was used in order to sell the concept of the Magic Kingdom.
Difficulties constructing
Once the financing of the park was taken care of they got 180 acres of land which had been orange groves and walnut trees. However, problems didn’t stop with the financing. When the rivers and lakes had been shaped, they were to be filled with water. The sandy soil functioned like a sponge, all the water disappeared into the ground. To solve this problem they had to bring in clay.
Opening
The work started on July 21st 1954 and when the park was finally opened it consisted of five parts, Main Street USA, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Today this is one of the most visited amusement parks in the whole world.
Movie industry
Hollywood is world famous for its movie industry. A well-known landmark is the name Hollywood written on a cliff above the town itself. There are quite a number of film producing studios located here, but only a couple of them will take you in to see their production area.
Visit a studio
At Warner Brothers they offer you a trip around the whole site in one of their busses. The guided tour stops in front of scenes that have occurred in famous movies. Some of these scenes are entire streets creating a variation of environments. Inside some of these houses you find nothing but empty rooms. They are actually furnished for the need of one movie at the time. Others are nothing but outer walls, literally just shells.
Small rooms
The studios where TV-shows are produced, are so small that it is hard to see how people can work there. Through the position of the camera, the audience in front of the TV-sets is led to believe that the rooms are large.
Clothes
In a special room they have a collection of clothes that well-known actresses and actors used in films that were seen all over the world.
Stars
The stars themselves live in Beverly Hills and along Sunset Boulevard in their luxurious houses with large gardens and private swimming pools. Naturally, everything is hidden behind large fences.
The Queen Mary
On Long Beach, just south of LA one of the old prides of the Atlantic is anchored, the Queen Mary. This is one of the largest passenger liners that ever crossed the ocean. Let us compare the statistics of this giant ship to one that might be more familiar to you, the Titanic.
Queen Mary Titanic
John Brown & Co, Scotland Builders Harland & Wolff, Ireland
81,237 Gross Tonnage 46,328
2148 Passengers 2139
1101 Crew 915
31 knots Normal Speed 21 knots
4 Propellers 3 (one forward only)
12 Decks 9
Quadruple Steam Turbines Engines Triple Expansion
Steam Engines
24 for 3266 people (Enough) Lifeboats 20 for 1178 people (Not enough)
In 1967 the Queen Mary left Britain for its last voyage
across the Atlantic.