Mention of Cedar Rapids Still a Titanic Mystery

CEDAR RAPIDS - In the 1997 movie about the Titanic, rereleased last weekend in theaters, two men from the salvage crew doubt old Rose's story. In fact, one of them checked her out, learned she was an actress and claims she's a liar.

"Her name was Rose Dawson back then," says Lewis Bodine. "Then she marries this guy named Calvert, they move to Cedar Rapids and she punches out a couple of kids. Now Calvert's dead, and from what I hear Cedar Rapids is dead!"

"It certainly isn't very flattering," says Mark Stoffer Hunter, a Cedar Rapids historian.

"It is one of the enduring mysteries of the movie," adds David Wendell of Marion, a Titanic aficionado.

The men, unpacking a Titanic model for a display at the Carl & Mary Koehler History Center, speculate that director James Cameron was simply looking for a nondescript Midwestern town for his film and came up with Cedar Rapids.

Of course, anyone who knows Cedar Rapids history from a century ago knows that Walter Douglas, a member of the family that founded Penick and Ford. died when the ship sank April 15, 1912, while his wife, Mahala, and their maid, Berthe Leroy, survived.

Mark and David were helping set up a new exhibit at the history center as a companion piece for "The Titanic's Unsinkable Stories: 100 Years Later" which opened last month at Brucemore. This exhibit, "Cedar Rapids 1912: The Titanic Connection," opens Saturday and runs through July 14.

Among period clothing and artifacts, you'll see a piece of coal from the Titanic's death bed, autographs of Titanic survivors and reproductions of dishes from the first-class dining room, photographs and paintings.

"It's fun to be able to put these things out," says Lisa McKirgan, communications director for the history center. "It was a fascinating time and these are fascinating clothes," she adds about items that have been donated through the years.

David, who owns a half-dozen replicas of the Titanic including the detailed four-footer in the exhibit, paid about $100 for a piece of coal hauled up during salvage operations. Another piece of coal will be set up for visitors to touch.

"People will be able to leave this exhibit and say, ‘I touched a piece of Titanic history,'" he says.

Through the years, David's interest helped him become friends with Titanic survivor Eleanor Johnson Schuman while he lived in Chicago. In fact, he introduced her to James Cameron as he helped with publicity for the film.

Eleanor, not quite 2 as a third-class passenger, was so cute her family was escorted up to the last collapsible lifeboat, David says. Her autograph is among those he collected that include Millvina Dean, the youngest survivor at 2 months old, Cameron and Celine Dion, who sang the movie's theme song.

"The Titanic is not a ship to me," David says. "It is 2,207 people, some of whom I had the privilege to get to know and considered to be close friends. Exhibiting these artifacts is my way of assuring that these men and women who mean so much to me are never forgotten."