Really terrific piece in the new Pennsylvania Gazette, the award-winning alumni mag of my alma mater, about me and Fred and the book by editor John Prendergast. And love the pictures Chris Crisman took at the Pennsylvania Railraod Museum of me and Harvey-ana for the piece and the excerpt that follows.

Fred Harvey’s great-granddaughter Jean Vanderbilt just shared with me this never-before-seen shot of Kitty Harvey from the 1950s, which I think really captures her “dead-shot debutante” personality. The eldest daughter of Fred’s son Ford, Kitty was a well-known socialite and Indian art collector based in Kansas City and at the family’s vacation home in Montecito, CA. During the late 1930s–in a drama explained for the first time in the book–Kitty inherited almost the entire Fred Harvey company, but was forced to sell it to her Uncle Byron, who then moved the company HQ to Chicago. As this photo suggests, she lived a pretty good life on the proceeds of the sale, which she was said to have invested brilliantly.

Fodor’s recommends Appetite for America as one of the top new travel books: “Here are our picks to inspire your next trip, or to simply bring along for the ride.”

Here’s a link to an interesting piece in the St. Louis Dispatch by Joe Holleman, who we met at the book festival event there. He was already reading the book for his own pleasure, and just came to be part of the conversation–and then did a terrific story for the Sunday travel section.

Appetite for America was written using a treasure trove of Fred and Ford Harvey’s actual writings, from datebooks and letters discovered in family collections–which offer great insights into how America’s first great hospitality empire was built and maintained for over 70 years, and many lessons that businesspeople still find crucial today.

Here’s a particularly fascinating page from Fred’s datebook covering 1875 and 1876, when he and a partner opened three eating houses on the Kansas Pacific, and then he quickly realized he wanted to have his own company and partner instead with the fledgling Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe–starting with a second-floor lunchroom at the Topeka, KS depot. In January of 1876, he took over the lunchroom, scrubbed it immaculate from top to bottom, and replaced all the dishes, silver, stemware, chairs and kitchen equipment–as well as the cuisine itself. This is his first known hand-written list of the things he bought to transform the Topeka lunchroom into the first great eating house in the West.

Good local TV news feature from KSN in Wichita with a lot of nice local pictures. Good job by anchor John Snyder and his crew, who shlepped in from Wichita to meet us in KC (three hours each way).

Some have wondered about the identity of the “Black Bart” to whom the book is dedicated. She is, of course, none other than my wife/editor/everything Diane Ayres. When she was a kid, she liked to dress up as a cowboy all in black, hence the nickname.

And here are two shots of her at her Black Bartiest. The first, which I’ve been using in my slide presentation, is from the actual first trip we took to El Tovar in 1993 which originally inspired the book. (Bart is shown twirling toy guns, and wearing a toy sheriff’s badge and holsters, all purchased at the Fred Harvey giftshop at the hotel; I’ve had this picture, and three others from the series, hanging over my desk ever since.) The second is from the last moments of the One Nation Under Fred train tour last week–on the rental car shuttle to LAX, with Diane sporting the new Black Bart hat she bought at the fabulous store at the Autry Center. She was partly inspired by a great-grandaughter of Fred’s, Jean Vanderbilt, who wore her own black cowgirl hat so well, turning heads from Kansas to New Mexico, during our train trip.

Howdy pardner!

Here’s a link to the Harvey Girl documentary-in-progress, “Opportunity Bound,” we screened at the Santa Fe event, and which several people have asked about. The LA-based filmmaker, Katrina Parks, is a committed Fredhead and Harvey Grrrl and is still doing interviews all over the Southwest.

When we first started imagining a train book tour to launch Appetite for America our dream was to go from Chicago to LA on the train–just like Fred and Ford often did–stopping at major historical venues and big bookstores along the way. We hoped to start at the Chicago History Museum and end at the Autry National Center, where the curatorial staff had helped me do some crucial research for the book–even though I had never been there. So our last day of train tour at the Autry was especially wonderful, because the launch of the book was complete (and we had survived speaking in 11 cities in 16 days) and the Autry is just a fantastic place (which many travelers and locals have yet to discover, but should.)

The timing was also perfect–they just opened an extraordinary show called Home Lands: How Women Made the West, which included a rare La Fonda Harvey Girl costume for Santa Fe fiesta (adorned with Indian symbols–including a spot where someone had obviously removed a traditional swastika after it took on a new meaning during WWII) and some of the most inventive exhibit designs I’ve ever seen. Thanks to Jasmine Aslanyan, the manager of the Autry’s great store for inviting us to speak there (and for the lovely parting gifts which were “so Jas”), to director Stephen Aron for being such a great host (loved the Harvey fried chicken and slaw at the cafe) and to Kim Walters and the curatorial and photo staffs who helped us dramatize Ford’s eye-opening journey in 1901 that forever changed the way he, and Americans, viewed the Southwest.

We had a big crowd at the Autry, over 100 people (they had to add more chairs because people kept coming), and a lot of Harvey history in the room. Diane sat between Victoria Vanderbilt, one of Fred’s great-great-grandchildren, and John Kander, the great-grandson of Fred’s top executive, Dave Benjamin. Architect Frances Shloss, Dave’s granddaughter, was also there, regaling us with great stories (and the promise of some new documents I’m hoping she’ll send–the search for FH history never ends.)

Here’s a shot from the event: I’m signing a book for Dan Greenwald who has quite a Harvey lineage–his mom was a Harvey Girl at Los Angeles Union Station, which is where she met his dad, who ran the Fred Harvey bookstore there. It’s from the Autry’s blog, which also has a Fred page with other shots.

Check out this new review in the Philadelphia Inquirer. It’s especially gratifying because the author is David Haward Bain, a brilliant historian who wrote THE authoritative book on the transcontinental railroad, Empire Express. It’s also nice it appears in my hometown paper (and suggests that Hollywood should be taking a second look at the REAL Fred Harvey story, and not the one made up for the 1946 Judy Garland flick.) Enjoy.

Here’s a link to a really fun show that just aired–A Chef’s Table, hosted by my longtime Philly colleague Jim Coleman. Thanks to him and producer Lari Robling for one of the best shows that’s been done on Fred, where we really talked about some different foodie aspects of the company and story, and looked at old dining car menus and instructions (just before I returned them to the family). Enjoy.

Here’s a link to the All Things Considered piece on Fred and the book which also lets you get a look at the terrific web page they built with photos, an excerpt and recipes. The interview was recorded during our train tour, the morning after “the night the lights went out in Santa Fe.” Thanks to Melissa Block and all the newly minted Fredheads at NPR.

All Things Considered will feature a segment on Fred and the book on Thursday, 4/22. Try to listen in! Don’t have the exact time yet, but will post when I get it, and will post a link after it airs. This should expand the Fredhead Nation quite a bit–especially in the East where Mr. Harvey is less known.

Pulled into LA Union Station a little after 7 am (early, who knew such a thing was possible?) and before heading to the hotel I couldn’t resist walking over to the old Fred Harvey restaurant space, with Mary Colter’s amazing Navajo Rug floor (made of industrial linoleum) to see if it might be open. It’s usually closed–it is only used for rentals now, Hollywood movies, bar mitzvahs, etc. I can report that it was open, and the Jonas Brothers had enjoyed it very much, since they had just left after filming something there (not sure if it was a video or a movie trailer.) Here are some shots of the workmen breaking down the stage where Mary and the Jonas Brothers were united. I’m sure she was amused.

When we got to La Posada in Winslow, AZ, we recognized several people we had seen at Grand Canyon and, earlier, in Santa Fe. It turns out more and more travelers are figuring out that the old route of the Fred Harvey Indian Detours—which tourists in the 1920s took by car, bus and train between Santa Fe and Winslow and the South Rim—is an even better trip today. And while most people know about El Tovar and La Fonda, to many La Posada is still a surprise—especially the story of how a couple from LA, Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion, saved it from certain death after the railroad, which had boarded it up, was ready to knock it down in the early 1990s. These two did the impossible—they unpaved paradise and restored the last of Mary Colter’s masterpieces to the point where it is no longer just living history but one of the great hotel experiences in the US. And the restaurant—the Turquoise Room, run by inventive chef-owner John Sharpe—is one of the best in the nation, and certainly a “must-eat” for anyone on a culinary tour of the Southwest. When I was writing Appetite for America, I thought of La Posada often, because it is a thoroughly modern hotel that not only honors the Fred Harvey past but improves upon it in authentic and creative ways; I always hoped my book could do something similar with narrative journalism.

So it was especially gratifying to get such a warm reception in Winslow—every seat was taken, every book sold—and get a chance to spend some time with Allen (who had helped me with the book), Tina (an artist whose amazing paintings fill La Posada, but whom we hadn’t met), and John, who has not only been very encouraging but was inspired by the archival recipes in the book to create over a half-dozen new entrees, and other dishes, which he had on the menu the whole week before we arrived. So we got to eat his scrumptious versions of everything from Chicken Castaneda to Deviled Main Lobster Tails to an absolutely life-changing Apple Nutmeg pie. We also met the wonderful Winslow Harvey Girl group, a lot of life-long Fred-heads and some hotel guests and Rt. 66 travelers–Rt. 66 runs right along the Santa Fe tracks in AZ, we met a group of Aussies who were traversing it in vintage mustang convertibles–who just wandered in and found themselves pulled into the Harvey vortex.

And the evening had a trainiac fantasy ending. We finished dinner and, literally, walked out the door of the trackside hotel and as we approached the the train, the overnight Southwest Chief to LA, the Amtrak porter, Vincent, stepped out, put down a stepstool, extended his hand and said “Ms. Ayres?” One of the great traveling moments of our lives–and exactly the way travel should be and almost never is. Just the way Fred would have wanted it.