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.)
