Nieuw Amsterdam : Grand Hall Ceiling, 1938.

WHAT BECAME OF THE GRAND HALL: The Grand Hall was destined to become the only room in First class to be entirely remodeled after the war. Evidently the daring , predominantly gray, color scheme worked better on paper as a means of “feminine enhancement� than it did in practice and was not popular. It is also said that much of the 1938 Grand Hall furniture came through the war in poor condition. Raedecker’s aluminum ceiling went to a cinema in Amsterdam. Roling’s murals, fore and aft , were removed, with the aft artwork replaced by an orchestra balcony and the fore supplanted after 1952 by a large balcony bar with twin curved staircases, that reduced the forward third of the room to one deck high. The color scheme was considerably more conventional than it had been in 1938, and the effect less dramatic.