Marsh, Reginald 20TH CENT. LTD. S. 125. Etching, 1931. State III of III. Edition of 14, printed and signed by Marsh in pencil, and numbered "#4.". 5 x 12 inches, 127 x 305 mm. (plate), 7 1/4 x 13 7/8 inches (sheet).. Rare. In excellent condition. The 20th Century Limited was, in its day the most famous train in America, on a par with France's Orient Express. It ran between New York and Chicago from 1902 until 1967. Passengers walked to in on a red carpet, the origin of the phrase "red carpet treatment." Upon boarding, women received roses, and men, carnations. The train had Pullman Car sleepers, Roomettes, a dining car and a Barber Shop. The fare with all of the amenities, was about $50.00, equivalent to nearly $900 in today's dollars. The train was the setting for a play called Napoleon of Broadway, which was adapted into the 1934 film Twentieth Cantury, a brilliant comedy starring John Barrymore and Carole Lombard, which in turn was adapted in 1978 as a Boradway Musical titled On the Twentienth Century with music by Cy Coleman and book and lyrics by Comden and Green. Though the train was later redesigned in a streamlined industrial style, Marsh's version is a close rendering of how the train appeared when he did his painting of it and this etching.
