Hoping to continue financing "Queen Elizabeth 2" which was under construction at Brown's shipyard, Cunard mortgaged the majority of the fleet. Due to a combination of age, lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market and the damaging after effects of the national seamen's strike, Cunard announced that both "Queen Mary" and "Queen Elizabeth" would be retired from service and sold off. Many offers were submitted, and the bid of $3.45m/£1.2m from Long Beach, California beat the Japanese scrap merchants. "Queen Mary" was featured in the film "Assault on a Queen" (1966) starring Frank Sinatra.