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Dixie Flyer


Mike

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Dixie Flyer Songfacts

The NC&StL's energetic publicist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and General Passenger Agent, Major W. L. Danley, first conceived the name "Dixie Flyer" for a Nashville to Jacksonville, Florida, through sleeping car service in 1892. By 1904, the service extended from Chicago all the way to Miami, Florida. Danley popularized the NC&StL with such names as "The Dixie Route," "The Lookout Mountain Route," "The Battlefields Route" (borrowed from the Western & Atlantic), and the name that stuck with the public (years later adopted by the L&N following the 1957 takeover), "The Dixie Line."

By 1914, the "Dixie Flyer" was the nation's premier service from the midwest to the sunny Florida vacationland. Originating in Chicago, the "Flyer" was brought south by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois (early on it was the IC), L&N, NC&StL, Central of Georgia, ACL, and finally the Florida East Coast from Jacksonville to Miami.

This period of time, and into the 1920's, was the high point of NC&StL passenger service in terms of everyday ridership and overall system track mileage, a total of 1231 miles. The Great Depression, starting with the Crash of October, 1929, hit the NC&StL very hard. Ridership plummeted, and several unprofitable branch lines were either cut back or eliminated altogether.

The seemingly overwhelming demands of World War II, and the strategic importance of the NC&StL as the primary bridge between the midwest lines and the southeast, snapped "The Dixie Line" out of the depression-era doldrums practically overnight.

Newman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Adele (née Fox), a secretary, and Irving George Newman, an internist. As an infant, Newman moved with his Jewish family to New Orleans, Louisiana, where his mother's family lived. He lived in New Orleans as a small child and spent summers there until he was eleven years old, his family having by then returned to Los Angeles. The paternal side of his family includes three uncles who were noted Hollywood film-score composers: Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman and Emil Newman. Newman's cousins Thomas and David, and nephew Joey are also composers for motion pictures. He graduated from University High, Los Angeles. Newman attended the University of California, Los Angeles.

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