Appetite for America

by Stephen Fried

  bleary-eyed: The time of death, and the fact that Ford was with her until the end, were reported in “Death Comes Suddenly to Mrs. Harvey.”

  “was as simple as that”: “Mrs. Ford F. Harvey Dies.”

  government’s first transcontinental: Route 66 was actually the second transcontinental highway—the first, privately funded, was the Lincoln Highway in 1913, which ran from New York to San Francisco, following the Union Pacific’s route through Nebraska, Utah, and Nevada. Details on Route 66 history are from Olsen, Route 66 Lost and Found, p. 98. Interestingly, Route 66 was rerouted in 1938, and the new route bypassed Santa Fe, just as the railroad’s High Iron had.

  CHAPTER 32: A WONDERFUL LIVE TOY TO PLAY WITH

  “The Southwest is the great”: D. H. Lawrence, “Just Back from the Snake Dance—Tired Out,” Laughing Horse, Sept. 1924, pp. 26–29.

  “Indian detour couriers are smart girls”: W. E. Hill, “The Great Southwest,” CT, Nov. 24, 1929, p. D11.

  “It takes so long”: This essay appears in slightly different forms in different volumes (the best-known of which was more heavily edited by Edmund Wilson for The Crack-Up), but this is from the original typewritten and hand-edited manuscript in Fitzgerald: My Lost City: Personal Essays, 1920–1940, app. 1, p. 316 (which is typewritten page 13, first entry for 1927).

  “Wild buffalo fed”: While several historians have used edited recollections of this quote, from a handwritten scrapbook entry by Harvey Girl Opal Sells Hill, it did appear in “Mr. Rogers Waxes Enthusiastic over the Beauties of the West,” NYT, May 13, 1931, p. 27, and is also in Smallwood and Gragert, Will Rogers’ Daily Telegrams, telegrams for March 12, 1931, no. 1498, vol. 3, p. 26.

  “The only test”: Fisher, From the Journals of M. F. K. Fisher, pp. 167–69.

  CHAPTER 33: POISED FOR TAKEOFF

  Freddy Harvey was one of those: Freddy’s day with Lindbergh is described in “Lindbergh ‘Drops In’ Again,” LAT, April 12, 1928, p. 1.

  the Wall Street Journal announced: “Form Transcontinental Air Transport Company,” Wall Street Journal, May 16, 1938, p. 20.

  “Air travel in the U.S.”: “Train & Plane,” Time, May 28, 1928.

  first big golf game: “Southerner on Ticket Is Goal of Virginians,” Washington Post, June 10, 1928, p. M4.

  their teams finally met: Coverage of the match is in “Will Rogers Leads Team to Win Over Blues,” KCJP, June 15, 1928, p. 8.

  “Something terrible just happened”: Breakin is recreated from coverage in “Detectives Rake Underworld for Harvey Intruder,” KCJP, Oct. 5, 1928, p. 2-A; and “A Knife Bandit in Home,” KCT, Oct. 5, 1928, p. 1.

  frequent house calls: This observation is inferred from the original coverage, which said she was being treated “by a private physician,” and observation of later probate records showing frequent house calls. At that time, a private doctor making private calls on a wealthy patient would have been fairly normal.

  marriage had long been over: While coverage of the Drages never really acknowledged this, it is clear the couple never lived in the same place for the last five years of Colonel Drage’s life. Also, author interview with Stewart Harvey Jr. Both the loan and the co-signing are mentioned in probate documents, probate no. 43,282, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City.

  “the greatest year”: Quoted in Klingaman, 1929, p. 54.

  had grown astronomically: A conservative estimate was 88 percent growth in the number of restaurant and lunchroom keepers, according to Recent Social Trends in the United States, p. 668.

  he was running: These tallies come from “Byron S. Harvey Becomes Head of the Fred Harvey System,” SFMag, Feb. 1929, p. 44; details were also confirmed by corporate year-end report ledger books in JKC for 1931.

  “How large can”: Ford Harvey, unpublished manuscript, July 19, 1927, pp. 17–18, HMC.

  CHAPTER 34: FORD HARVEY HAS A COLD

  “Ford Harvey has”: This recreation of the scene of Ford realizing he is sick in his office is based on an author’s visit to the office, which still looks very much now as it did then; descriptions of the office culture from taped interviews with Stewart Harvey Sr. and author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.; details from obituaries, especially “Ford Harvey Dead,” Santa Fe New Mexican, Dec. 14, 1928; and an authorly nod to the canon of Gay Talese at Esquire.

  “milder variety”: “Flu Epidemic Spreading Fast,” LAT, Dec. 12, 1928, p. 7.

  He hired nurses: The nurses’ names were in the Ford Harvey probate documents, including their paid bills, probate no. 31,671, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City for 1929; which were also used to flesh out many other details of his treatment.

  “progressing satisfactorily”: “Ford Harvey Is Worse,” KCStar, Dec. 13, 1928, p. D-14.

  “Ford Harvey Nears Pneumonia”: KCJP, Dec. 13, 1928, p. D-14.

  Dr. Griffith recorded: As per death certificate, file no. 40,792, Missouri State Board of Health.

  “I have lost an old friend”: White’s reactions to Ford’s death, and those below it, are all quoted in “Ford Harvey, Worthy Son of a Worthy Sire, Taken by Death,” SFMag, Jan. 1929, pp. 33–35.

  “all forms of petting”: “Taboo on Kissing Is Urged While Flu Epidemic Rages,” Washington Post, Jan. 5, 1929, p. 5.

  “In as few words”: “Will of Ford Harvey,” KCStar, Dec. 20, 1928.

  “one of the shortest”: “Harvey Children Receive All of $1,000,000 Estate,” KCJP, Dec. 20, 1928; dollar amounts in the rest of this section are based on Ford Harvey probate documents.

  the Christmas present Ford had chosen: Handwritten receipt from John Angel, dated Jan. 4, 1929, in the amount of $175 ($2,118), in Ford Harvey probate documents, along with request from Freddy for reimbursement on Jan. 12, 1929, since he paid for the delivery with a personal check.

  “A Harvey should always be”: Gertrude Benjamin Schloss to Amfac (the company that bought Fred Harvey in the mid-1970s), Jan. 10, 1976 (it was later forwarded to the Grand Canyon office and ended up in Amfac file, CLC).

  Since Freddy and Kitty: The ownership stakes of the lucrative Union Station business are in the Harvey Hotel & Restaurant Company corporate meeting book, p. 79, DHC, which shows the stockholders as of Jan. 14, 1929.

  CHAPTER 35: FREDDY SPREADS HIS WINGS

  “You may not be able”: Colter to Hunter Clarkson, Oct. 4, 1926, as quoted in Berke, Mary Colter, p. 162, which is also the source of other La Fonda design background.

  “You never met”: Pyle, Home Country, p. 76.

  “the most beautiful hotel in America”: De Beauvoir, America Day by Day, p. 186. This entry was for March 20, 1947, and went on to describe the scene at the hotel: “Around the patio there are cool galleries paved with mosaics and furnished in the Spanish style. In the lobby an Indian has, for years, been selling fake turquoise and petrified wood to the tourists. This small-time tradesman has a noble face sculpted with deep wrinkles, like an old chief in James Fenimore Cooper. The dining room is Mexican-style in decor, dress, and varied cuisine. And here we are, four French people gathered together by chance, fraternizing around a table, just as travelers fraternized at roadside inns in old adventure novels.”

  “Airsickness is mental”: “Meeting the Food Problems of Travelers Who Go by Air,” KCStar, June 6, 1929, n.p., HMC.

  Transcontinental Air Transport finally: Background on TAT from “The Lindbergh Line,” Aviation History, July 2007, pp. 34–41; daily coverage in the NYT and LAT; and author interview on Aug. 5, 2008, with author Gore Vidal, the son of TAT executive Eugene Vidal, who provided much useful insight—along with some career advice for me. “Why are you writing about some caterer,” he asked, “when my father is the real story?”

  “showed no concern”: “Air Passengers Transferred Owing to Mishap to Plane,” Hartford Courant, July 10, 1929, p. 13.

  “blood trickling from my tiny lobes”: “Love of Flying,” New York Review of Books, Jan. 17, 1985. Interestingly, the vivid first paragraph of this article—which
is all that is available for free on Web searches—leads the reader to believe (and some journalists have rewritten) that Vidal was on the maiden flight of TAT. But a footnote, available only in the full text, appears to suggest that a fact-checker challenged this bit of Vidal family lore and, since the passenger lists for that first flight were widely published, was able to prove his memory false. But the lede of the essay wasn’t changed.

  “American Aviation Shall Be”: From dedication book of the Columbus event, Winged Victory, p. 5.

  “the American Century”: This was the title of an essay Luce wrote in Life, Feb. 17, 1941.

  CHAPTER 36: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT CRASHING SOUND

  “Young man, I’m shielding”: Collins, Tales of an Old Air-Faring Man, p. 110.

  But the flight never arrived: Recreation of the search for this plane is based on national coverage at the time but also the excellent two-part series by Richard Melzer in the Valencia (N.M.) News-Bulletin: “Greatest Airplane Search in Southwest Touched Off in Western Valencia County,” March 25, 2006, and “No One Survived Crash in Rugged Terrain,” April 1, 2006, both written with the help of the Valencia County Historical Society.

  “a Railroad Problem”: “Broad Street Gossip: A Railroad Problem,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 10, 1929, p. 2.

  “We had one customer”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 184.

  “You’ve lost a wheel, sir”: “F. H. Harvey in a Thriller,” KCStar, March 16, 1930, n.p., company clipping file, HMC.

  “homelike and livable”: Memos on the Wellington wall debates found in the Santa Fe “Splinters” collection, a copy of which I read in the Russell Crump archive in Kansas City before Russell’s untimely death. The memo with this phrase, near the end of the debate, was dated Oct. 12, 1937.

  “Congratulations on the new”: Grattan, Mary Colter, p. 67, citing her phone conversation with Harvey executive Harold Belt on Nov. 3, 1977.

  railroad-rich Van Sweringen: Details on the brothers and their station are from Harwood, Invisible Giants.

  “really the fronts of drawers”: “Harvey Comes to Cleveland,” Publishers Weekly, Aug. 16, 1930, pp. 585–87.

  “Why does this magnificent applied science”: “Einstein Sees Lack in Applying Science,” NYT, Feb. 17, 1931, p. 6.

  “What’s his business?”: “Einstein Is ‘Great Relative,’ Hopis Decide on His Theory,” NYT, March 2, 1931, p. 5.

  CHAPTER 37: LOAVES AND FISHES

  “Of course we can”: This scene is recreated from Bob O’Sullivan’s wonderful piece, “It’s 55 Years Late, but Thanks, Mr. Harvey, for the Memory,” for the CT travel section, Dec. 11, 1988, p. 3.

  started removing some links: This list of closures was compiled from datelines in the Fred Harvey and Santa Fe corporate archives, but also cross-checked against company ledgers in JKC.

  “Those were tough times”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 189.

  “My waiter informed”: Adam C. Powell Jr., “Soap Box: Without a White Massa Trouble Is Negligible,” Amsterdam News, May 15, 1937, p. 22.

  The two of them would sit: This scene is recreated from reporting in Kathy Howard’s essay on Schweizer, “‘A Most Remarkable Success,’” p. 93; and Berke, Mary Colter, pp. 190–93.

  “a balcony-ringed, cave-like”: Berke, Mary Colter, pp. 199–205, which is also the source for the descriptions below.

  “the bulkiness of this manual”: Colter, Manual for Drivers and Guides.

  CHAPTER 38: HEIR RAISING

  “In the 1930s”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

  “put yourself in my position”: Anecdote from Htapes, no. 6, side A.

  “I am enclosing”: Byron Harvey to his three sons, Oct. 15, 1923, SHC.

  “Trust you will have”: Byron Harvey Jr. to Stewart Harvey Sr., telegram, June 2, 1931, SHC.

  So Minnie and Freddy both: Author email correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

  he openly defied Minnie: Author interview with Byron “Ronny” Harvey III, at which he produced his original birth certificate.

  “Mrs. Frederick Harvey Here”: Chicago American, Jan. 14, 1933, n.p., clipping found in scrapbook in Santa Fe Harvey family compound, which was kept by Mrs. Stewart Harvey Sr., SHC.

  “to cooperate with other officers”: “A Wider Harvey System,” KCStar, Feb. 27, 1933, n.p., company clipping file, HMC.

  “I try to follow the teachings”: “David Benjamin Is Dead,” KCJP, May 8, 1933, n.p., family scrapbook file, AKC.

  “who has had his share”: “David Benjamin Telephones Calmly as Earthquake Showers Plaster,” KCJP, March 12, 1933, n.p., Harvey company clipping file, HMC.

  clutching his chest: Details of Benjamin’s death are in “Kansas City Mourns Loss of David Benjamin,” Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, May 12, 1933, p. 1.

  “Let ’em have it”: Richetti, “Famous Cases” (based on FBI’s own files).

  “Wild Dash Rouzer”: “Harvey Girls,” KCStar, Feb. 17, 1946.

  “The thirty-six freight”: Quoted in Poling-Kempes, Harvey Girls, p. 184.

  CHAPTER 39: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

  “One day while zooming”: Mademoiselle magazine story quoted in IND, Jan. 4, 1936, n.p., Harvey clipping file, HMC.

  “Be a Tail Wagger”: From “Blue-Blooded Tail Waggers Aid ‘Poor,’” undated clip from unknown paper, probably fall of 1932, found in Daggett Harvey Sr.’s Frederick Harvey clipping file, DHC.

  photographed holding her: “Susanna Arrives for Blessed Event,” KCJP, Feb. 9, 1934, n.p., Harvey company clipping file, HMC.

  “I always wondered”: Htapes, no. 8, side B.

  “They fought a lot”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

  “camping and wandering”: “Back from a Trip to Remote Country of Cliff Dwellers,” KCStar, Nov. 22, 1932, p. 4.

  “Away my knaves”: Entire duck press scene is recreated from untitled KCJP article, Oct. 31, 1934, n.p., p. 36 of the historical clippings file for “Union Station Restaurant,” MVSC.

  pulled fifty carloads of sugar: Htapes, no. 2, side A.

  “took a special interest”: “Mr. and Mrs. Frederick H. Harvey Killed in Crash of Private Plane,” Santa Fe Magazine, June 1936, p. 9.

  On her arrival, Betty went: Betty’s trip to England is r ecreated based on Freddy Harvey probate documents, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City; author interviews with Elizabeth Drage Pettifer, for whose birth Betty went to England; and author correspondence, Aug. 14, 2007, with Mary. S Goodman, the daughter of Harold Furness, the doctor who arranged for Betty to consult with Dr. Dearnley.

  she had Norah Crampton: Crampton’s multipage bill is document no. 43,282 in the Freddy Harvey probate file, Probate Court of Jackson County at Kansas City.

  CHAPTER 40: TAILSPIN

  She and Freddy stayed over: The couple’s last visit to New York is recreated from obituaries but especially “Fred Harvey Spent Pleasant WeekEnd Here,” New York Journal, April 20, 1936, Daggett Harvey Sr. clipping file, DHC.

  The next morning, the Harveys took off: Their fateful flight is recreated from obituaries, especially “Blast in the Air,” KCT, April 20, 1936; and the Bureau of Air Commerce report on the crash, “Statement of Probable Cause Concerning an Accident Which Occurred to a Privately Owned Airplane near Dunlo, Pennsylvania, on April 19, 1936” (report dated June 11, 1936, no. 10,574), signed by Eugene Vidal. I also interviewed several contemporary Staggerwing flyers, including Paul Tollini and American Airlines pilot Bill Plecenik, who were given copies of the government report and eyewitness reports to help create the most probable scenario for what happened in the cockpit.

  “It looks bad”: “Blast in the Air.”

  “Plane Crash Nightmare”: Johnstown Democrat, April 20, 1936, p. 1.

  “Martha said to Jesus”: “To the Grave Together,” KCStar, April 23, 1936, reported on what was read at the funeral.

  “my epochal ride”: Howard Vincent O’Brien, “All Things Considered,” Chicago Daily News, Apri
l 29, 1936, n.p., company clipping file, HMC.

  CHAPTER 41: KITTY BLINKS

  Lucy Drage, sued Kitty: The recreation of this legal action comes from KCJP and KCStar coverage from when the suit was settled in April 1937 and author interview with Kansas City attorney Frank Sebree II, who recalled his father’s representation of Lucy Drage in the lawsuit.

  nothing compared to the horror show: The recreation of the internal struggles of the Harvey family over ownership is based on “It Happened in Kansas City,” KCStar, April 1, 1949, which discussed the situation; taped interview with Stewart Harvey Sr., who discussed the situation in some detail; author interviews with Stewart Harvey Jr. and Daggett Harvey Jr., who shared recollections of what their fathers told them; and author interviews with Byron Harvey III and Joy Harvey, who shared recollections of what Kitty herself told them. Valuations come from corporate ledgers in JKC and Freddy Harvey probate documents.

  “It was important”: Htapes, no. 8, side A.

  “it was done the proper way”: Author interview with Daggett Harvey Jr.

  more likely as much as $3 million: Estimate based on the money actually changing hands in 1938, which is most likely; Joy Harvey recalled hearing the higher estimate. Some of the paperwork from the final transaction is in a small, five-by-eleven expanding file, with advertising from turn-of-the-century financial firms, hand marked “Valuable Papers B. S. Harvey,” in DHC, including an envelope of Fred Harvey stationery containing letters from the summer of 1936 showing preliminary changes in the company stock owned by Kitty.

  “She didn’t like to speak”: Author interview with Byron Harvey III.

  “Not that it’s any”: Author correspondence with Stewart Harvey Jr.

  “simply refused”: Hugh Gardner, “Saga of Tim W. Cooper,” scrapbook, DHC.