Japanese bid for Queen Mary

First Edition

LONG BEACH (AP) - Eighteen offers are being submitted from parties interested in buying the Queen Mary ocean liner, which failed as a Disney tourist attraction but may find new life as a luxury hotel, shopping mall, office and entertainment complex in Tokyo Bay. A Monday deadline for bids brought offers from 13 would-be buyers and five prospective operators. One Japanese partnership, the Long Beach Press-Telegram, represented by George Ball, a prominent local attorney, is offering dollars 23 million (11.5 million). The Walt Disney Co, the current operator, pulls out of the ship the at the end of December.