ROYALTY, Hollywood stars, world leaders, millionaires, politicians, captains of industry, television personalities – the list of those who have travelled with Cunard over the decades is a collection of famous names that can never be matched by any other shipping line.

Anyone who was anyone opted for the glamorous life on board one of the great Cunarders. It was the only way to cross the Atlantic.

Cosseted and pampered throughout the voyage, the celebrities lived a social whirl of cocktail parties, dinner with the captain and exclusive receptions.

There was a time when hardly any cinema newsreel did not feature the arrival or departure of an actor or actress, sporting champion or diplomat on a Cunarder at Southampton or in New York.

“Cunard looked after its celebrities impeccably,” says Elspeth Wills in the book Stars Aboard, which chronicles the many well-known names who were Cunard passengers during the golden age of Atlantic travel.

“Dorothy Lamour refused to travel unless she could secure her favourite cabin on the promenade deck.

“On her honeymoon on Mauretania, film star Lana Turner ordered raw minced beef with raw eggs beaten into it for breakfast, washed down by champagne, of course.

“The late Queen Mother, who enjoyed an evening at the cinema, liked to be called just before the main feature to avoid the cartoons that preceded it.

“Famous people on board attracted gossip and legendary tales. Helena Rubinstein is supposed to have tossed her 20-carat diamond earrings out of the porthole, forgetting that she had hidden them in the tissue box she was discarding.

“Cary Grant proposed to one of his five wives on Queen Mary, while film producer Samuel Goldwyn stalked the liner’s decks with his camera at the ready in case he spotted a photogenic new face.

Daily Echo:

Cary Grant abord the Queen Elizabeth

“Marlene Dietrich followed her friend Noel Coward’s advice ‘Always be seen dear...always be seen’ by timing her entrance to the dining room for maximum effect. She was never seen at breakfast and only rarely at lunch.

“Notoriously publicity shy Greta Garbo travelled incognito and disembarked disguised as a stewardess while Bing Crosby sought refuge in the darkroom where he chatted to the photographers as they developed that day’s film.”

In 1950 Elizabeth Taylor honeymooned with hotel chain heir Nicky Hilton on Queen Elizabeth where her new husband surprised passengers by playing cards until the early hours of the morning. She regularly travelled Cunard with her producer husband Mike Todd before his death and partied all night with Richard Burton, whom she married twice.

Daily Echo:

Elizabeth Taylor on Queen Elizabeth

Cartoon producer Walt Disney and his family always reserved a table on Queen Elizabeth which had a view of the Manhattan skyline at sunset while comedy pair Abbott and Costello, who starred in 36 films, many radio shows and two television series, were passengers on Queen Mary when they changed their baseball gags to football jokes for British audiences.

James Cagney, Laurel and Hardy and rock and roll singer Bill Hayley were all passengers, as was Gary Cooper, who voyaged to Europe on Cunard to rest and recover after an exhausting film schedule.

Debonair actor David Niven was a firm favourite on Queen Mary, where he would entertain other passengers with stories of his life in Hollywood.

In the 1950s the Shah of Iran became a byword for wealth and luxurious living and caused a stir among Cunard passengers.

“When he travelled on Queen Mary with his second wife, the Empress Soraya, the extent and exquisite quality of her wardrobe caused a sensation.

“Changing her clothes several times a day, she never wore the same outfit twice and her entry to the dining room was the event of the day,” says the book.

Singer Paul Robeson, Wimbledon singles champion Fred Perry, wife of former US president John F Kennedy Jacqueline Onassis, war hero Viscount Montgomery and comedian Bob Hope, who regularly practised his golf swing on the upper decks of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth 2, are just a few of the other celebrities who have stepped out on Cunard’s decks.