Strangers on a Train?

All three photos: John Holly Williams Collection, LLF Library

It's 1951 -- Sunday, April 15.  We don't know why photographer John Holly Williams met an Illinois Central passenger train in the dark, presumably at the Brookhaven Depot, to take these three photos of disembarking passengers, some of whom appear to be heading to a Greyhound bus on the left in the last photo.

I love these pictures for the fashion, and the luggage, and the formality that goes with being Dressed to the Nines.  We had T-shirts, dungarees and sneakers back then, but we dressed up when we traveled, always looking our best. 

Since I could find no local reason for these shots, I Googled the date to get a better perspective of the times.  

Around this time, Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train was released, starring Farley Granger, Robert Walker and Ruth Roman.  Swimmer movie star Esther Williams was on the cover of Life magazine, and popular books were James Jones' From Here to Eternity and The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk.