The
earliest long trip or vacation that I recall happened ca. 1952 or so. I was about 10 years old. We drove from our home in Jackson Michigan
all the way to Sidney Mines Nova Scotia both to 'sightsee' and visit my
stepfather’s family along the way. There
weren’t any expressways, motels were rare and most nights we stayed in roadside
cabins. We returned to Jackson via a
route that took us through Greenwich Connecticut where we visited my mother's sister and her family…
Even
today, that trip would take a minimum of 6 hard driving days…10 hours per day
with stops and over 3,200 miles. My
stepfather, Hugh Thomson, managed that drive, sightseeing and the family visits
along with my mother Elizabeth, my grandmother Estelle Weed, my brother Robert
and me…in just 16 days!
So…thinking
about that early adventure, I started perusing my old time travel related
collectibles just to see what I had been given or purchased here and there, items
showing what North American travelers might have seen should they have hit the
road or taken a train on vacation ca. 1943 and earlier.
One of
the old-time souvenirs I’d acquired was this little packet of photos showing a
number of views of New York City…a long time tourist draw for people around the
world.
This
packet of photos of New York City landmarks was published by Alfred
Mainzer. His address at this time was at
118 East 28th Street…but later his then postcard and greeting card
company operated out of an address in Queens at 39-33 29th
Street.
Based on
the automobiles in the second photo, it appears that this photo folder was from
the late 1930s. I’m guessing that this souvenir
packet effort preceded Alfred’s later success with his greeting card/postcard
company. Both the Chrysler Building and
the Empire State Building are in the first photo…and they were completed in
1930 and 1931 respectively.
Even
today, at 1,454 feet to the tip of its spire, the Empire State Building is the
6th tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. As for tourists, the observation decks are
visited by over 4,000,000 visitors per year!
FYI, Alfred
Mainzer’s card company was founded in 1938.
Mainzer’s cards featured artist renditions of ‘dressed dogs’, ‘dressed
mice’, ‘dressed hedgehogs’ and most famously, ‘dressed cats’. They were published from the 1940s into the
1960s. From what I can tell, the company
still exists, (Alfred Mainzer, Inc.), now operating out of Astoria NY.
Staying
with New York City, this World’s Fair souvenir and advertising card depicts the
Murray Hill Hotel. It was located at 112
Park Avenue. The hotel was built in 1884
with 600 rooms and 2 courtyards. It was
part of the Bowman-Biltmore Hotels chain.
The hotel was torn down in 1947.
The card
with its horse-drawn carriages doesn’t seem appropriate for the 1939 World’s
Fair. More likely but still
questionable, was the Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and
Industries, which was held in 1918.
Partially due to the ongoing struggles of World War I, it was considered
a failure.
The
Murray Hill Hotel was advertised as being practically fire-proof due to its
construction…with stone, iron and cement almost exclusively used plus the
exclusion of wood in the walls, floors, staircases, etc. The hotel also had a powerful fire safety
system with roof-top tanks holding 14,000 gallons of water with a hose on each
floor for fire suppression.
I was
interested to find one of these Murray Hill Hotel advertising/souvenir cards
for sale on the Internet for $69.99.
Talk
about sightseeing! This giant chocolate
2,200 lb. sculpture was on exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair aka The
World’s Columbian Exposition… I wonder
how they kept visitors from chipping off a piece of goodness here and there!
Stollwerck
Chocolates was founded in Germany in 1839.
By the early 1890s there were over 4,000 of its vending machines in New
York train stations! Its US branch, Volkmann, Stollwerck and Company was
founded in 1894 and by 1900 the company was the second largest producer of
chocolate in the USA.
FYI…Chicago’s
Columbian Exposition attracted 27,300,000 tourists from around the world… They
came by foot, carriage, horseback, boat and train. Consider this. The population of the USA in 1890 was only
62,979,766. Today our population is
around 329,500,000.
This
tourist packet or folder contains 16 views in and around Boulder Dam (now
Hoover Dam) and Lake Mead. The dam is
located on the Colorado River on the border between Arizona and Nevada. It was completed in 1936. The dam was called Boulder Dam from 1933
(during construction) until 1947. In
1947, Congress renamed the Dam to honor President Herbert Hoover.
This
particular tourist souvenir was sent to Nathan and Estelle Weed, my
grandparents, by my Uncle Nathan Jr., on July 27, 1943. Note the 3 cent “Win the War” stamp as well
as the cancellation asking recipients to “buy War Savings Bonds and Stamps”. This folder of images has a copyright of
1935…right after the dam was dedicated but before the final work on the project
were finished and the dam was turned over to the government.
Did you
know…112 deaths were reported that were related to the building of
Boulder/Hoover Dam, including 3 suicides.
I’ve only
included 2 of the 16 pictures in this little portfolio. The first one shows Boulder City. This town was originally built in 1931 by the
US Bureau of Reclamation and Six Companies, Inc. as housing for the workers who
built the dam. Boulder City was
controlled by the Federal government until 1959.
Alcohol had been banned since the town’s
inception and it wasn’t allowed until 1969.
Gambling is still prohibited within the city. Boulder City, with an estimated population of
over 16,000, is one of only 2 towns in Nevada that doesn’t allow gambling. Panaca, a town of less than 1,000 residents
is the other exception.
The
second photo shows the boat landing near Boulder City. It appears that the lake wasn’t quite at
capacity when the photo was taken. Lake
Mead was originally called the Boulder Dam Recreation area. In 1947 it was changed to the Lake Mead
National Recreation area. While 186,000
acres of the Recreation Area are water filled (if the lake is up), the total
recreation area covers 1,495,806 acres.
It’s still a very popular tourist destination, with 7,578,958 visitors
recorded in 2018!
This is
the photo on the back cover of the picture portfolio. Even as early as 1935 the lake was filling up
and tourists were visiting the area.
Given the enormous demands for water by cities in the Southwestern USA
and a long term reduction in rainfall and snow pack, the lake is currently only
at about 40% of its total capacity.
Despite this fact, cruises are still offered to tourists and they remain
popular. The type of boat being used has
changed just a bit though. Currently the
Desert Princess, a 3-level Mississippi style paddlewheel with the capacity for
275 passengers is plying the lake all the way to Hoover Dam.
Now for a
little about the company that produced this collection of Boulder Dam and
Boulder Lake views. Curt Otto Teich
(1877 – 1974) was a publisher of popular color postcards, usually depicted
scenes from American life. His company,
Curt Teich and Company (Chicago IL) became the world’s largest printer of view
and advertising postcards. Teich
employed hundreds of traveling salesmen who sold postcards to homeowners,
convinced businesses to create advertising postcard and who photographed and
helped idealize the images they created.
My second
New York City souvenir picture folder is at least 10 years older than the first
one. I can’t read the postmark, but it
only cost 2 cents to send this portfolio and based on what I can read, it’s
probably from 1928. The publisher was the
H.H. Tammen Co.
Much like
Curt Teich, Harry Tammen (1856 – 1924) was a real entrepreneur! More diverse than Teich, he was especially
focused on minerals, selling specimens, collections, decorative products
studded with minerals plus he published a promotional journal entitled “Western
Echoes” which dealt with natural history, botany, minerals and more. At some point he included humorous and scenic
postcards in his collection of products.
This
particular picture folder was focused on New York City skyscrapers. The Woolworth Building was completed in 1913
and it stood 60 stories tall! It was the
tallest building in the world until 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building
were completed in 1930. One can only
imagine the crowds of tourists that it must have attracted!
By the
1920s, the Woolworth Building had more than 1,000 different tenants who in turn
employed over 12,000 people! Of interest
to me is that the New York University School of Professional Studies Center for
Global Affairs leases space in the building. (Our oldest grandson attends the
University) The building has been completely refurbished and the top 30 floors
have been converted to private residences. (Great location!)
This
picture from Herald Square looking up Broadway is part of the reason I dated
this portfolio ca. 1928. It’s all about
the vehicles in use. Another picture
showing 5th Avenue at 42nd Street adds credibility to my
dating of this tourist souvenir.
Herald
Square is formed by the intersection of Broadway, the Avenue of the Americas
and 34th Street in Manhattan.
It was named for the New York Herald, a daily newspaper that ceased
operations in 1924. Those elevated
tracks in the picture used to run up the Avenue of the Americas. (Sixth Avenue)
Finally,
the weirdest of all tourist attractions…at least among my memorabilia. Today we have the Kardashians and a plethora
of on-line celebrities and ‘influencers’ but in late May of 1934, the Dionne
Quintuplets were born…and the world went wild!
These 5
girls were the first quintuplets known to survive infancy. The identical sisters were born near the
village of Corbeil Ontario…not too far from North Bay. All 5 girls survived to adulthood with two of
them, Annette and Cecile still living today.
The
Dionne sisters were born two months prematurely. After about 4 months with their family, their
custody was signed over to the Red Cross, which paid for their care and
actually oversaw the building of a hospital/nursery/home for the girls.
…but the
story gets weirder, at least by today’s standards. Less than a year after the agreement with the
Red Cross was signed, the Provincial Government of Ontario stepped in and
passed the Dionne Quintuplets’ Guardianship Act of 1935. This act made them Wards of the Crown until
they were 18 years old. It didn’t take
long after the government took control of the girls before the provincial
government and those around them began to profit by making them a significant
tourist attraction.
In the
photo shown above, believe it or not, that isn’t the quint’s father, but rather
it is Ontario Premier Mitchell Hepburn posing with the babies.
As the
preceding photo shows, finding a parking place to view the girls could be a
challenge. It was all about
commerce/tourism!
When the quint’s
father Oliva was approached by fair exhibitors to put the girls on display for
Chicago’s Century of Progress Exhibition, he signed them up and in 1935,
several stage appearances were made.
Note: At the time it was not unusual for so-called “incubator babies” to
be displayed at fairs and other events.
Back home
in Canada, Oliva operated a souvenir shop and a woolen store across the road
from the nursery and the area became known as “Quintland”…hence the name on my
souvenir folders. The souvenirs featured
the 5 sisters and included autographs, frame photos, spoons, cups, plates,
plaques, candy bars, books, postcards and dolls. A bin contained free stones from the area
that claimed to have the magical power of fertility…and the bins had to be
refilled every day.
The
quintuplets accounted for more than $50 million in tourist revenue for Ontario.
(Equivalent to $872,000,000 in today’s Canadian dollars) The girls were a
bigger tourist attraction than the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Movie stars that visited the Quints included
Clark Gable, James Stewart, Bette Davis and James Cagney to name a few. The sister’s likenesses and images were also
used to promote commercial products.
These included Karo corn syrup and Quaker Oats along with many other items.
The lines
at “Quintland” to see the Dionne Quintuplets was every bit as long as one might
expect for the newest hottest ride at Disney World. It is a bit mind blowing!
This was
the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery that was built right across the road from their
birthplace. They lived here until they
were 9 years old. The outdoor playground
was designed as a public observation area.
Tourists could view the sisters behind one-way screens. The girls were brought to the playground for
public viewing 2 – 3 times a day. The
day to day staff consisted of 3 nurses and 3 police officers plus a housekeeper
with 2 maids. The complex was completely
surrounded by a 7’ barbed-wire fence.
About 3,000 tourists viewed the Quints every day from the observation
gallery. Almost 3,000,000 people walked
through the gallery between 1936 and 1943.
In 1942,
the Dionne family moved in with the Quints while they waited for their new home
to be completed. In late 1943, they made
the move. The big brick, 20-room mansion
was paid for via the Quint’s fund and it was fairly luxurious with telephones,
electricity and hot water. These days it’s
a retirement home…
There is a lot more to this story than I could include
in this post…and much of it is ugly.
Suffice it to say, once the girls had their eighteenth birthday, they
moved out of their parent’s home and didn’t look back. In addition, the then 3 remaining sisters
reached a $2.8 million settlement in 1998 with the Ontario Provincial government
as compensation for their exploitation. For more about the Dionne Quintuplets
and their long complex, sad and incredible example of financial and personal
abuse, go to
Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...
Thanks for stopping by for a visit!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
