Three fascinating blog posts on the Museum of New Mexico blog concerning the Mary Colter Weekend, which you can view by clicking:
here for the first
here for the second
here for the third
In the meantime I’ll share my favorite picture from the coverage, a nice shot of Diane (Black Bart) Ayres chatting with Katherine Harvey (and behind them Kay Harvey) while I work the room.
This article is copyright © 2024
People sometimes forget that historic Dodge City, KS is a Harvey Heritage town, and the old Harvey House there, El Vaquero, was restored as a dinner theater and train station, with the Mary Colter-designed hotel lobby (which she presumably did over in the 1920s, since the hotel was built in the late 1890s before she started working for the company) fully replicated. It looks great.
We visited there during our research trip for the book a couple years ago–see the appendix for information on how you can visit–and I just got an email from a civic leader in Dodge asking me about coming to talk about the book at El Vaquero, which would be a great treat. More info as this develops. But here’s the building:
This article is copyright © 2024
To celebrate the publication of the paperback edition of Appetite for America, I’ll be making my first public visit to Fred Harvey’s hometown (I did sneak in and out once years ago to do research). It’ll be a Fredhead field trip to the city’s Harvey Treasures.
Tickets are $20, and include a tour of historic Harvey homes in Leavenworth, a lunchtime talk–including lunch–by Stephen Fried at the Leavenworth County Historical Society, using Harvey family items donated there as show-and-tell, a book signing and a cocktail reception later in the afternoon. Because of the capacity of the LCHS, only a limited number of tickets will be sold–however the book signing at 3:00 and the reception at JW Crancers (cash bar) at 6:30 are open to the public and books will be available for sale.
This article is copyright © 2024
I’m pleased to announce I’ll be returning to the fertile crescent of Fred Harveyness—Kansas City, where the Fred Harvey company was located during its glory years and, for the first time since the book came out, Leavenworth, Kansas, where Fred Harvey lived and raised his family–to talk about all things Fred and sign copies of the new paperback of Appetite for America.
My host is the Kansas City Public Library, where on May 19 at 6:30 I’ll be giving a new talk on Fred Harvey, Ford Harvey and Kansas City–complete with new photos (and perhaps even a recipe or two). The event is free but reservations are required, click here to make them.
While in the area, I’ll give a smaller talk at the Leavenworth County Historical Society (which holds only 50 guests) the next day, May 20, at lunchtime, using some of the actual photos, letters and Harvey housewares donated there as show-and-tell. There will also be an evening reception at J.W. Crancers. Books will be available for sale and signing at both events, courtesy of the local indie store the Book Barn. In between, we’re hoping there will be time for informal touring of Fred’s original house on Olive Street, and the Mount Muncie Cemetery where Fred and his family are buried. I’ll post more details on the “Leavenworth Detours” as I get them.
I very much hope to see you at one or both of these special events. May Fred be with you (in paperback.)
This article is copyright © 2024
I’m writing from my room at La Fonda, where from the terrace we are watching the sky grow blue-white in anticipation of yet another stunning New Mexico sunrise, and just starting to get our heads around the whirlwind weekend we had in Santa Fe–where we honored the memory of Mary Colter with people from all over the country who love her work and who love Fred Harvey for making it all possible.
It was just a glorious weekend, benefiting the New Mexico History museum and put together by its director, Fran Levine, La Fonda Hotel chairman Jenny Kimball, and their hardworking staffs (especially Annadru Lampert at the hotel and Kate Nelson at the museum.) The Saturday lectures and dinner were completely sold out, and it was a packed house at the special sponsor’s dinner Friday night.
And while all the talks were really interesting and well-received (I understand they were filmed and I’ll post links when they are up), I must admit that for us, perhaps the biggest thrill was seeing, all in one place, so many of the people responsible for keeping the legacies of Fred Harvey and Mary Colter alive. It was like the Woodstock of the Fredisphere. And since so many of these people have become really good friends to my wife—Diane (Black Bart) Ayres—and me over the past year, it was just an amazingly warm and wonderful time.
I had suggested early on that we title the weekend “There’s Something about Mary.” (I didn’t win that discussion.) But I think a better point was made by Tina Mion, who with her husband Allan Affeldt saved La Posada in Winslow—and in many ways ushered in the modern era of Fred and Mary Americana fandom. We were sitting waiting for Colter biographer Arnold Berke to give his talk, and she leaned over to me and said “there’s something about the people who are into Mary Colter and Fred Harvey, y’know—they are special in a really interesting way.” And I knew exactly what she meant (as would, I suspect, everyone else among the nearly 200 people in the auditorium.)
When I gave my talk in the afternoon on Mary Colter and the Harvey Women, I looked out over the audience and smiled to see Harvey family members from Chicago and Santa Fe (Daggett, Kay, Julian and Katherine, and others), Grand Canyonites (Xanterra’s Jon Streit, GM of the Grand Canyon South Rim, and his wife Suzette; Bruce Brossman from the Grand Canyon Railway, and his wife, Prisicilla), La Posadans (not only Allan and Tina but a whole crew of their colleagues and fans), Belenista Maurine McMillan (who runs the Belen, NM Harvey House museum), Las Vegan Roary Crofton (the 13-year-old Fredhead prodigy who gives the tours at the Montezuma Hotel), all our friends from Santa Fe and even a couple of people who helped with the book but I had never met in person before, including author Arnold Berke from Washington and Nancy Tucker from Albuquerque (who helped with the postcard images in the book–including the one on the new paperback cover).
Of course, I didn’t get enough time with any of these folks (always the problem when there are so many people you like in one place), but the time I had with them was really wonderful. And now that these hotel owners have spent more quality time together, I predict even more creative Fred and Mary events over the next few years.
One highlight among many: during the Q&A after my talk, Daggett Harvey challenged my statement that the company became less aggressive after its HQ moved to Chicago in the late 1930s and I invited him up onto the stage for a Fred Harvey History smackdown. For a while now, we’ve been fondly disagreeing about the significance and ambition of Fred Harvey in the decades after the late 1940s (which is where the main part of my book ends, but was when his time working for the company began.) Daggett gave an eloquent and often emotional account of his time working for Fred Harvey, including the day he was shocked to discover this his father and uncles were selling it. He also gave a wonderful closing toast Saturday night. And, again, all of this was videotaped, so we’ll post it when La Fonda techies (who were also tweeting the whole event) make it available.
We’re off for a week up in the mountains, fishing, writing and relaxing–although I will tour the Castaneda tomorrow, and give a full report–and then back home to Philadelphia (if Southwest is still flying by then–we came here on one of those 737-300s, oy) to prepare for the publication of Appetite for America in paperback, coming out May 3–and bringing the story of Fred and Mary to an even wider audience.
Once it is out, we hope to be scheduling even more Fred Harvey-related events through the late spring, summer and fall: we already know the first one will be May 19th at the Kansas City Public Library.
Oh, there’s the door … time for another delicious La Fonda breakfast. Thanks again to everyone who made the weekend possible (and to the La Fonda staff for maintaining the standard of Harvey hospitality.)
This article is copyright © 2024
This weekend in Santa Fe we’ll be talking about Mary Colter and her fascinating influence on Southwestern style–at the New Mexico History Museum and historic La Fonda Hotel.
One thing we’ll discuss is how this group of men and women–led by Santa Fe railroad president E.P. Ripley and his wife, along with Ford Harvey–took a journey from Albuquerque to the Grand Canyon in the fall of 1901 that marked the beginning of traveling and living in the Southwest as we know it. Come find out how in my talk at La Fonda at 4pm Saturday. Or read about it in Chapter 21 of Appetite for America.
from Appetite for America, courtesy of Braun Research Library/Autry National Center
This article is copyright © 2024
Elizabeth Taylor with a box of Harvey Girl candy, circa 1946.
This article is copyright © 2024
Nice long piece on Fred and his impact on American business in the Leaders and Successes section of Investors Business Daily, giving he and his family business they credit they deserve for revolutionizing the hospitality and marketing industries!
This article is copyright © 2024
They just finished the cool new cover for the paperback of Appetite for America! Here it is (and the book is already available for pre-order at amazon, here’s a link):
This article is copyright © 2024
Click here to pre-order on amazon a copy of the new trade paperback of Appetite for America, which comes out May 3. It has a cool new cover, which will be posted soon, and a new subtitle: “Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West–One Meal at a Time.”
But, otherwise, it’s the same book that the Wall Street Journal selected as one of the top ten books of the year, that amazon.com selected as one of the top ten business books (and ebooks) of the year, and was selected as a Southwest Book of the Year and won the Athenaeum Literary Award for non-fiction.
May Fred be with you (in paperback)
s
This article is copyright © 2024
if you missed the CSPAN BookTV broadcast of the panel discussion about journalists writing history books about the American West–which included me, Jeff Guinn and Michael Hiltzik and was pretty interesting and fun–you can now watch it online here.
Enjoy. Discuss.
This article is copyright © 2024
Live from the Tucson Festival of Books, check out the sunday CSPAN BookTV broadcast of the panel I’m doing, “Journalists Write the American West” with Mike Hiltzik and Jeff Guinn. It’s on at 2:30 Eastern time.
This article is copyright © 2024
The big news here at One Nation Under Fred is that the paperback edition of Appetite for America has been scheduled for publication very soon—on May 3, 2011!
The book will have a very cool new cover–which I’ll share as soon as I have the final version–and a new subtitle:
Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West–One Meal at a Time
At the moment, you can only pre-order it on the Random House website, but I’ll post links to amazon, B&N and indiebound as they become available.
I have already started booking some speaking engagements in conjunction with the paperback: some in May, some over the summer, and some in the fall, when I’m hoping to visit many of the nation’s top hospitality programs (for which the paperback of the Fred Harvey biography makes a great introduction to the history of the American restaurant and hotel businesses and the entire customer service industry.)
So get ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy the paperback.
This article is copyright © 2024
John Sharpe from La Posada in Winslow, AZ–our favorite Fred Harvey heritage chef–has been named a semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation Best Chefs in America Award for the Southwest!
And anyone who has ever been to his restaurant, The Turquoise Room, knows he deserves it.
Mazel tov to John (with whom I’ll be sharing a stage at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 13).
This article is copyright © 2024
Just wanted to remind any Arizonans interested in
1) Fred Harvey
2) the Harvey Girls
3) the Santa Fe railroad
4) “Santa Fe style” architect Mary Colter
5) the Grand Canyon
6) the history and civilizing of the west and
7) the American hospitality business
that the One Nation Under Fred tour returns to Arizona on March 11, in Phoenix and then down to Tucson for the book festival.
On 3/11 at 1 pm I’ll be appearing at the Heard Museum for a “Tea with Fred Harvey.” Click here for ticket information.
Later that afternoon, I’ll be shuttling to Tucson for the Author’s Table Dinner fundraiser that kicks off this year’s Festival of Books. The dinner, I’ve been informed, has already sold out–and I look forward to meeting those who chose to sit at my table–but I’m doing two book festival appearances on Sunday, March 13, which are easily attended. Click here for more information.
At 11:30 am, I’m on a panel called “Epic Stories: Journalists Write the American West” with Michael Hiltzik, Jeff Guinn. This panel will be televised live on CSPAN BookTV, and afterwards we will all be available to sign books.
Then at 2:30 pm, I’m doing presentation called “How Fred Harvey Fed America,” which includes a talk and cooking demonstration by my friend John Sharpe, owner/chef of The Turquoise Room at La Posada. Afterwards John and I will be available to sign books.
By the way, I have a free day in Tucson on Monday (I’m giving a talk Tuesday morning for the American Parkinson Disease Association about one of my previous books, Bitter Pills, and pharmaceutical safety) so if there are any university classes, booksellers or book groups interested in hearing about Appetite for America, I’m open to suggestion.
Canyon Diablo Bridge, from Appetite for America, courtesy of David Phillips
This article is copyright © 2024