Queen Mary Ship

The Queen Mary attraction in Long Beach received a boost this week when the Long Beach City Council recommended that the luxury liner remain open. The council voted 6 to 3 Tuesday to recommend that the city's Board of Harbor Commissioners fund the liner and its facilities, including the Spruce Goose, while officials find a new operator or determine what would replace the attraction on the site.

The Long Beach City Council voted Tuesday to take control of the Queen Mary and lease it to a new operator, ending months of uncertainty and haggling over the future of the landmark. The action, approved on an 8-1 vote, calls for transfer of the ship at the end of the year to the city from the independently governed Harbor Department, which wanted to sell the vessel to a Hong Kong firm for $20 million. Under terms of the agreement, the Harbor Department is to give the city $6.

Long Beach city officials announced Tuesday they are negotiating exclusively with an investment group headed by Joseph F. Prevratil, who once managed the Queen Mary, to run the tourist attraction beginning Jan. 1. City Manager James C. Hankla cited Prevratil's experience in choosing his proposal over two other bids to operate the ship. Prevratil oversaw the operation of the Queen Mary for the Wrather Corp., which ran the ship under a lease until 1988. The current operator, the Walt Disney Co.

A new study indicating the Queen Mary is in better condition than feared apparently has cleared the way for the City Council to take jurisdiction of the landmark and keep it in Long Beach. The City Council on Tuesday directed the city attorney's office to draft an agreement that would transfer the money-losing tourist attraction from the city's independently governed Harbor Department. Final approval of the agreement is expected to come within two weeks.

A nonprofit corporation backed by Robert Gumbiner, chairman of the board of FHP Health Care and a wealthy philanthropist, has emerged as the key financial backer of a plan to reopen and run the Queen Mary, sources said Friday. The Long Beach City Council on Dec. 22 awarded a five-year operating lease to Queen Mary Partners Ltd., a for-profit group of investors headed by Joseph F. Prevratil. But that group never finalized the lease.

The Disney Development Co. won approval Monday to start planning for the construction of a 800- to 1,200-room hotel on a site across the bay from the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board voted to give Disney Development, the real estate arm of the Walt Disney Co., exclusive negotiation rights for the oceanview site near Shoreline Drive and Pine Avenue. Disney is deciding whether to develop a resort hotel in conjunction with the building of a major theme park at the Queen Mary.

A grand-opening celebration with bands, bagpipes, a wandering puppet theater and fireworks will be held today at the Queen Mary, marking the ship's return to full operation as a tourist attraction. The city-owned ocean liner was shut down last December by the Walt Disney Co., which decided not to renew its operating lease after years of losing money. A nonprofit foundation, the RMS Foundation Inc., acquired the operating lease and reopened portions of the ship Feb. 26.

The Queen Mary appears to be dying. If you've never gone to see her, go now. The end may come soon. Two weeks ago the Walt Disney Co. announced it was terminating its lease to operate the Queen Mary and the Spruce Goose. The two freakish giants of the sea and the air managed to lose $8 million in 1991, the company said. So Disney was pulling out. In Long Beach, the city fathers promised to search for someone, or some way, to save the two. Actually, the Spruce Goose might attract some suitors.

Long Beach officials on Tuesday narrowed down the list of proposals for the Queen Mary to six--one to operate the ocean liner where it is now moored and five to buy the vessel and move it out of the city. The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners rejected 12 proposals to buy or operate the ship because they were not accompanied with a $100,000 bond, a requirement imposed by harbor officials to weed out spurious offers.

Waving big dollars at cash-starved Long Beach city leaders, the operator of the Queen Mary on said Tuesday he wants to take the famed ship to Tokyo Bay for three to five years in return for making badly needed repairs. Joseph Prevratil, who operates the Queen Mary under a lease from the city, proposed to spend $40 million on improvements to the 60-year-old ship and pay the city $5 million each year it is in Japan. "The Queen Mary needs an overhaul.