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"What a Remarkable Age!"
I play a character called Henry Etches, who is the first
class steward. Which means that he looked after all the millionaires, the Guggenheims, the
Astors, the Thayer's, the Strauss. There's a great enjoyment, a kind of love of the people
that he serves. Which is something that is very much of the period I think they caught it
very well. The English class of 1912 was extraordinary because someone like Henry Etches
who did not come from an upper class background became more posh than the posh. Because he
had to really really make them feel at home and comfortable and quiet and nothing could go
wrong.
-- Allan Corduner, Henry Etches
They had been married for seven months and she was seven months pregnant. It just was
not looked on well by society at that time. But still on the Titanic he is treated as the
most influential -the most important citizen.
-- William Youmans, J. J. Astor
He met her actually in Bar Harbor, Maine. She was up there vacationing with her mother.
Her father was a Brooklyn shipping clerk. So she was not coming from the kind of
background was expected. There is a scene in the show where we are all assembled and she
is trying so desperately to fit in. She's not a brain surgeon so - Mrs. Widenor asks her
.."So how did you find Paris, Mrs. Astor?" and she replies, "Thank goodness
I didn't have to Jake knew right where it was!"
-- Lisa Datz, Madeline Astor
And then there would be the Clarkes, which is really him because he is really a Clarke and
I'm really a Neville. And we're traveling in 1912, sharing a cabin and we're not really
married.
- Judith Blazer, Caroline Neville

But we act like we are. People think that we are.
--Don Stephenson, Charles Clarke
We tell people that we are. But I'm really Lady Caroline which I'm from Peerage and really
intensely first class British. And he is a Journalist who is not. They were real
characters but I don't think we know very much about them. The names are real and they
were actual passengers but I think that the story within the show is fictional. There were
people that took chances even then in that class. All of the other couples are the same
class and the same background. Like the two young Irish people that meet in 3rd Class. The
Strauss are both Europeans of Upper sophisticated and cultural backgrounds.
--Judy Blazer, Caroline Neville
The Strausses were very much in some ways like other people of their class of that
era. And while they did live a very comfortable lifestyle, I don't know that one would
call it opulent. They were extremely hardworking people. So they appreciated everything
they had. It wasn't something that they took for granted.
-- Alma Cuervo, Ida Straus
Isidor Straus the owner of Macy's - a man in his late 70s was one of the wealthiest men of
the country. And he wasn't simply a wealthy immigrant. Isidor Straus had been a member of
the House of Representatives and had been a special advisor to President Cleveland.
- Maury Yeston
He was a great philanthropist. He started a lot of organizations for the underprivileged.
The thing that the Strauss are honored for is that they wouldn't leave eachother. He would
not board a lifeboat before the women and children were gone and before the other men or
the younger men had gone. And she would not leave his side. They would die as they lived -
together.
- Larry Keith, Isador Straus
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