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Friday, October 18, 2019

The Great Mackinac Island Car Caper of 1938.

Last month, Vice President Pence's visit to Mackinac Island ruffled a few feathers because it involved the VP's eight-SUV motorcade cruising around on the formerly car-free resort island. Inevitably, the incident called to mind a much earlier breach of Mackinac's strict anti-internal-combustion-engine protocols. This one took place more than 80 years ago, and the culprits were that pair of Painesville anarchists, the Notorious Hallinan Brothers, Paul and Art.


The duo took several road trips together in the 1930s and early 1940s, each of which was documented by an after-action slideshow created by Art Hallinan and released under the Outafocus Pictures label.



A historic voyage ...


In 1938, Art and Paul swapped out the road part and took a lake cruise instead. Their conveyance was the S.S. Seeandbee, the Great Lakes' largest passenger liner.

S.S. Seaandbee. (Image from wikipedia.org.)

The boys' adventures were memorialized in a slideshow entitled "Captains Outrageous, or Seven Nights on the Seeandbee."


The opening frames of the show set the tone, disclosing that this trip was no mere sightseeing gig: it was a re-creation of the pioneer travels of the early French explorers Tonty and Lasalle ... sort of.



On the Lakes ...


The cruise first took the "intrepid pair" east to Buffao NY, with a side trip to Niagara Falls.


Niagara Falls.

They then sailed back west across Lake Erie and north through Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron to the Soo Locks and Sault Ste. Marie.

At Sault Ste. Marie.

The eventual destination was Chicago, from which the boys made a quick excursion to Paul's alma mater, Notre Dame.


The University of Notre Dame.

From Chicago they retraced much of the original route back to Cleveland, with a stopoff at Detroit on the way.

Paul, prepared for whatever maritime disaster might be on the horizon.

Paul (center), with Seeandbee crew members Ed Tully (left) & Charlie Byrider (right).


(In 1938, by the way, the Cleveland-to-Buffalo round trip cost $9.80, including two nights on the ship, all meals, and "Brilliant floor show, entertainment, and dancing." The 7-day vacation cruise to Chicago and back, likewise all-inclusive, was $59.50. The whole shebang came to about $1,250 per head in today's dollars.)

At Mackinac Island (the scene of the crime) ...


The Seandbee stopped at Mackinac Island on the way from Sault Ste. Marie to Chicago. It's clear that Art and Paul were aware of the automobile prohibition, but they were prepared. Rules are made to be broken, after all, and if smuggling was required, then smuggling it would be. The photos in the slideshow speak for themselves.









And so the deed was done. We can infer that there were no arrests, since the slideshow says that the smugglers spent the evening at the island's famed Grand Hotel, and there's no mention of the municipal jail at all.

They spent the night here ...
(image from wikipedia)
not here.
(image from Google Streetview)

There is also no description of the encounter between the playful pair and the famously formal and serious (one could reasonably say stuffy) Grand Hotel. It's fair to assume — or at least hope — that it resembled the usual interactions between the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont. Anyway, their crime spree was complete, and Art and Paul made their way home to Painesville safe and sound. And that's ...




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