How Automats Worked | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's not. here but Chuck is and Chuck's new. nickname is poopy. McGee actually pukey mcge not both no uh. here's the story everybody I went to. Mexico City uh again and got sick again.

uh thankfully at the end and uh I. couldn't record yesterday but we're we. were in danger of missing a publish date. for the first time yes in 17 years grave. danger I would say like it's Wednesday. at 3 and we need an episode for tomorrow. at 5:00 a.m. right and we've never cut. it this close so first of all my friend. thank you for your flexibility thank you. for not throwing up long enough to. record this episode uh I last thre up.

about an hour ago man and the main. problem is it's just I've been in like a. Fugue State man I have nothing in my. body for three days now yeah so I'm just. like Spacey and can I told you on an. email you guys still love this that like. I'll go 30 minutes where I just like am. just so zoned out I can't have a I don't. even have a coherent thought for a half. hour I know and Josh said well that part. sounds kind of nice it really does man.

to be able to just turn it. off yeah but uh you know I love that. City I'm going to keep going back um I I. I'm going to maybe next time drink only. bottled things and not even cocktails. with ice I'm trying to figure out what. what's triggering me it might just be my. Biome and some of the food I don't know. you need to learn four words in Spanish. I'll have that. neat okay it's not a bad idea but um I'm. still going to go back I'm going to try. it again again uh this may have also.

triggered my diverticulitis oh so that. may be why it's extending here into day. three I don't know but I'm here uh and. this gives us dude a rare opportunity to. do anything newsy or like current if you. want to mention anything well that's. what we're doing we're doing an episode. on automats there's nothing more Newser. current than that uh that's right. automats and we need to give a big shout. out to a documentary called the automat.

by from director Lisa. herwitz because it's great and I saw it. a couple of years ago and that's what. inspired this episode but I wanted to I. don't want to like right on the heels of. this great doc you know kind of swoop in. and do a podcast episode about it but. right great documentary it's streaming. on Max highly recommend it she did a. great job I can't wait to see what she. does next and uh it was a big help here. we have another other huge shout out to. give this is the first uh episode we're. doing with help from our new writer. Laura CLA.

so yeah welcome aboard Laura Laura came. to us through Livia which is all the. recommendation we needed right right. exactly and she's been great I've been. thinking Chuck a lot of our writers have. good. nicknames okay Laura spells her last. name like claw claw son so I think we. should call Laura Dr. claw okay I thought you gonna say the. claer no Dr claw it's An Inspector. Gadget reference Dr oh okay I never. watched that good I actually um have.

seen it so if you don't have uh cable. but you have an antenna over the air. antenna yeah there's a station called me. TV and they just play all sorts of great. reruns and everything well they just. launched a whole new channel called me. TV tunes and they show some deep cut. Tunes I mean like Beetlejuice the. cartoon there's Scooby-Doo on at 600. p.m. Eastern every day which makes me. very happy but they show inspector Gad.

too and I was like this is actually a. much better cartoon than I remembered uh. where is this in your off-grid Panic. Room like where are you watching antenna. TV oh no I've got I've got a really. high-tech setup I have hijacked the. coaxial cables throughout my house and I. connected my outdoor antenna to the. indoor cable feed so I can connect TVs. throughout my house to get the reception. from the outdoor antenna that is the. Josh clarkia thing I've ever heard it.

works really well yeah I love it yeah so. there you go you don't need to just. stream you can also get free TV heck. yeah man had free TV for many many many. many years yeah well um you need to be. watching me TV tunes chuck all right. I'll check it out uh should we talk aom. mats or did you have another. announcement no no I don't have any. announcements but I do have a question. for you okay. Chuck have you ever eaten. food by the way this is going to be a. tough for me to get through for obvious.

reasons yeah yeah uh because in the. first paragraph I saw the words oyster. stew earlier and I almost vomited in my. mouth yeah same here and I I don't even. have diverticulitis uh I have not eaten. food in three days uh but I used to eat. food oh nice okay well Chuck then I. think you would have enjoyed a trip to. the. automat that's right and we've been at. it for six minutes we might as well go. ahead and say that the automat was a a a. grouping of chain restaurants self-serve.

restaurants sort of like a cafeteria but. instead of being served in a line where. people would dump food on a tray they. had these uh walls filled with uh glass. fronted compartments and you would put. in some money and a slot and you would. uh open the door and get your piece of. pie or your chicken pot pie or your pot. roast or whatever have you yeah your. oyster stew God Bo yeah but you got to.

you you would walk up and you just sit. there with your finger like on your. lower lip looking from case to case. trying to figure out what what appealed. to you right then very much like you. were looking at the menu but you were. looking at the actual food you were. going to consume instead so you didn't. even need to be able to read to know. what you wanted at this uh at a automat. and then like you said you put your. money in and you get your food out and. you go sit down and to people who first. went to the automat Chuck we're talking. like this is the turn of the last. century when they started to take off.

this was as Hightech as anything got. because it's really important to point. out um at the in like the first third at. least of the 20th century a lot of. people in the United States didn't have. a a refrigerator MH they might have had. an ice box but they certainly didn't. have anything pumping free on through it. no cable TV no no cable TV not even over. the air antennas in some cases yeah no. Beetlejuice the cartoon they also um.

might not even have electricity in their. home so the idea of this this futuristic. serve yourself out of a glass case. that's lit kind of experience was was a. really big deal and what's even more. remarkable is so okay you're like yeah. everybody in the 1910s was just a Yoko. by definition right right these things. lasted until the 1960s and they were. still viewed as these amazing places to. go eat yeah I mean the last one this is.

remarkable the very last one in New York. closed to 91 yeah which is hard to. believe uh they saw a couple of sad. decades a few sad decades before that. but um we'll get to all that but should. we go to the beginning yeah let's start. at the beginning that seems appropriate. and where else are we going to go but. our old friend Germany because the first. automat uh popped up in Berlin in 1895. and the word automat was just more of a. general term for a vending machine in in. Germany.

uh but it won a gold medal a couple of. years later at the Brussels World Fair. uh Europe kind of got into him a little. bit and they spread around Europe over. the next five or so years uh before. making the leap to the United States. yeah and it took a little uh a. little College try I guess the first few. times for it to make that leap across. the Atlantic um and it was two guys. Joseph horn and Frank Harter whose last. names would become synonymous with. automats in fact depending on what city.

you were in you would probably refer to. the automat as a horn and hard Ark. that's just they were it was like they. were like the kleenex of automats. essentially right yeah they were already. in business together they owned a chain. of cafeterias in Philadelphia and they. said what's next what will the future. bring uh and they figured out the best. way to predict the future was to build. it themselves and I think they actually. made a trip to Germany and found out. about the automats and they decided they. wanted to bring it back to the United. States and like I said it took a few. attempts for them to actually get it to.

work right yeah their first one in. Philly which was the first one overall. was 1902 but uh the equipment you know. because it started in Europe uh was in. Europe and they tried to get some of the. stuff shipped over there you know these. big beautiful cases with the right the. coin slots and the little windows and. everything and the ship sunk uh in the. Atlantic so they lost all that gear uh. they tried again uh and these were um. victim to a warehouse fire but. salvageable uh they repaired that stuff.

they they got them up and working and um. they beat out their closest competitor. uh there was one card harome uh in New. York that went out of business I think. it was a little fancier and H&H. definitely leaned toward as we'll see um. serving just sort of solid uh affordable. comfort food to the masses yeah and so. uh horn and hard Arts um automats I. think like you said started in. Philadelphia and then after harom went.

out of business um the horn and hard art. kind of muscled in on that market which. is actually pretty brave because. somebody had already proven that autom. mats may not work in New York good point. um and but I guess they had faith in. their food they were like have you tried. this oyster stew it's amazing go to stop. saying that and so um they hit they hit. New York I think in 1912 by. 1932 20 years later they had 42 Auto. mats in New York City another 20 in.

Philadelphia and H&H became the largest. restaurant chain in the entire United. States and the United States was big at. the time yeah and this is like uh that. funny by the. way uh this is like during the Great. Depression like people were going out of. business right and left and they. actually H&H thrived during the. Depression because again everything was. really cheap uh it was comforting stuff. uh as you'll see the coffee was great.

the food was was fresh and um well maybe. not more than anything but additionally. it was uh it was it was a great place to. go they were beautiful places generally. uh they were clean and they were safe. and and we'll get to a bunch of other. ways that they were inclusive as we go. on they were also known because they. were clean and safe and you could get. really good coffee for a nickel they. became places where you would just go. sit and like rest your dogs or take a. load off for a little while or catch. your breath whatever you wanted to do. for a little while and one of the.

reasons why people did that was because. part of the the Allure of the automat. was that there was no front of house. staff generally there were no servers. there was no matri there was no manager. they if there was manager they were in. the back yeah so you didn't feel like. hustled or rushed or like anybody was. judging you for sitting there as long as. you want nursing a single cup of 5cent. coffee and so like automat kind of kind.

of got that reputation where you could. just go chill out and as as big of a. deal as they were in New York and. Philadelphia they actually didn't take. off everywhere even though people tried. because horn and hard art was so. successful yeah I mean that's kind of. hard to believe in a way because they. were so successful there you would think. and the other places like of course the. the obvious ones they went to Chicago. Boston DC and Detroit uh and some other. places but you know those are big cities. and it's just odd that they didn't take. off there but we do have a quote here. from New York history uh from a guy um.

or an idea rather from this guy named. Nicholas brahl who basically was like. you know what in New York it's so dense. and they they really concentrated the. restaurants around uh offices like in in. the Garment District in the financial. district in Midtown uh where people were. either shopping or like going to work uh. far less in like you know the the. quieter neighborhood streets and stuff. like that so it was just so densely. packed and everyone knows how how busy. New York foot traff is around those.

places and that was at least Nicholas. bahl's take on why they took off in New. York and Philly I have my own take let's. he at the at the very least in Detroit. it didn't work because of the name they. used for the restaurant the automat in. Detroit was called automatic lunchroom. number. one I mean that's like the that's like. the that cereal that's like a plain. white box that says brand Flakes and. just black font yeah or be beer like. that beer can you got me that time oh.

yeah I mean I kind of like the offbrand. stuff but yeah that's definitely weirdly. vague that's not off brand that's off. brand. awful you want to take a break uh yeah. let's take a break we'll be right back. take a break so you can go throw up. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music].

okay we're back I did not throw. up I think I'm good it's been subsiding. every day in the in the afternoon and I. feel fine good and then in the morning. again I'm nauseous so that's why I think. it's s di reticulitis man that is awful.

are you going to be able to record. tomorrow uh we'll see all right no I'll. be okay uh I'll be fine good I'm gonna. do a lot of studying after this okay. good uh all right so we were talking. about the the busyness of New York and. why it worked out there and one of the. other reasons it was really popular. because like I mentioned it was it was a. very clean place they prided themselves. at least in the in the Heyday decades uh. they did go downhill and you know kind. of fall into a little bit of shabbiness. but in the Heyday they were known as. being really really really clean safe.

places and uh believe it or not at the. time there were a lot of cafeterias that. like if you were unaccompanied woman. they would not serve you you had to be. in there with your husband or they just. serve men like businessmen uh so a woman. could go in by herself uh children could. go in and it wasn't like a seedy thing. uh families could feel safe and and like. they were in a clean place with good. food and also a lot of these were really. really beautiful restaurants on the. inside yeah they weren't like there was.

a really low likelihood that one. customer was going to expose himself to. the other customers it just wasn't that. kind of place right yeah and like you. said they are gorgeous um they were Art. Deco which was the trend at the time. beautiful um and they uh they would have. some of them had like two-story. facades uh there was a lot of marble. stained glass bronze everywhere uh they. had big windows that led in tons of. light some of some of them had a. mezzanine upstairs dining area like they.

were huge and then they also paid. attention to details too like that. famous coffee that you were talking. about um you would put your Nickel in. this cool little dispenser and the. coffee came out of like a an italianate. dolphin's mouth it that it's a beautiful. like I would love to find one of those. on eBay just they're there oh you can. buy those mhm how much are they I didn't. see but I'll get you one just just as a. present for for recording today how.

about that well I I think in the I mean. it's been a while since I've seen the. dock but I think there was someone that. is getting like the automat machines too. and collecting and destroying them wow. nice yeah pretty cool kind of like uh. the MV Griffin set they just found them. out back of a Burger King what I never. heard that you remember in Seinfeld when. Kramer found the old M Griffin set and. he started hosting the M Griffin show in. his apartment that's right Burger King. we'll come back again in this episode. believe it or not that's right um so you. said they were rigorously clean that was. one of the things they were known for.

the other thing they were known for was. that their food was. like like really fresh I couldn't think. of a non-offensive way to put it but it. was a really fresh take on food yeah I. think it was as fresh as food could be. for that format exactly let's say that. uh the coffee was Super Fresh like after. 20 minutes they would throw the coffee. out and put new coffee in uh the food. they did not sell the next day um and if.

you're thinking God what a lot of food. waste because they're pre- makak this. stuff and you know we'll get to that in. a sec but um a little bit of Genius here. is they had three different day old. shops in lower inome neighborhoods in. New York so the next day they would sell. the food there at a discount so uh even. if you didn't have the nickel for the. piece of pie or whatever uh you might be. able to get it for like two or three. cents the next day yeah or two and a. half cents. you find a half cent I'll eat a pie for.

a week so I'm fine with that for sure as. long as it hasn't fallen on the street. in public for sure. noie um and they were also known for. that really good coffee right that came. out of dolphins mouths MH um so at the. time if you were in America the coffee. you drank and this is the I don't know. the. 1910s it was boiled yeah and there was. no filter no nothing so like grounds. would come out so your coffee was gritty.

there was no filter again to take out. any of the oils any of the tastes it was. harsh harsh coffee and that's what. people drank and you liked it and you. didn't complain cuz the the coffee would. punch you in the face if you did it was. that kind of coffee well horn and hard. art had a different take they had a. French drip right which is still makes. pretty good coffee but at the time you. had to go to New Orleans to get coffee. like that and Horn and hardart serving. the stuff in New York and Philadelphia. at all of their 60 plus automats for a.

nickel and every 20 minutes they throw. out the old coffee and bring in fresh. stuff that's right uh they sold so much. coffee that they ended up losing money. on it because they kept it locked into. that nickel price for 38. years yeah and I did the math in. 1912 which is when they hit New York and. nickel was worth $160 today by 1950 uh. it was worth 64. so they started definitely losing money.

over time on the on that coffee yeah for. sure so they were losing money they. eventually had to raise the price uh the. only thing they could do was double it. to 10 cents uh because their slots took. nickels uh and their sales dropped a lot. uh from 70 million cups a year to 45. million uh they still came out on top. Revenue wise if you do the math but um I. remember watching the documentary and. they were talking about this I wondered. and I haven't found my a way to wrap my. head around to actually do this topic.

but something about change like coins. and how they established uh so much. Commerce like a coin slot only taking a. nickel the only thing you can do is. double it so what does that mean to the. economy like there's something there but. I'm just not quite sure how to frame it. so maybe somebody could help me with. that maybe we could tie it into to that. idea that I had about why everything is. so much more expensive now even. relatively speaking than it used to be. yeah because I mean the idea of like. uh doubling the cost of something is.

crazy uh even if it's a nickel to a dime. at the time like doubling your price is. just Insanity for a business but there. was nothing else they could do but even. still even doubling the price from a. nickel to a dime in 1950s money that was. still 20 or so cents less than what they. were getting for it in 1912 yeah. adjusting for inflation so it sounds. like to me the bigger problem is that. they just doubled it overnight and and. again that's all they could do because.

their slots only took nickels so that's. what they had to deal with but like you. said even still they came out on top. Revenue wise but I get the impression. that there were probably a lot of. grumblers over that kind of thing who. really just took super good cheap coffee. for granted and frankly shame on them. yeah uh they also sold a lot of pie uh. and I do remember this from the dock Pi. was a very big deal at H&H um in 1964. here's a pretty fun stat um they sold an. average of 822 pieces of pie in New York.

City between 8 and 11:00 a.m. MH uh and. there are some people who said uh some. historians that have said that I don't. know about this but maybe um that there. was a desire for people to do things. like eat pie for breakfast but if you. had to order it from a server you might. be like oh you know I can't order apple. pie for breakfast right uh gets aot of. pancakes with apples on it yeah exactly. but uh at the automat you could just do. it on you know on the and be quiet about. it um I just I didn't know people would.

be judgy like that back then but. maybe uh yeah I think every yeah cuz. they were pretty proper back then too. you know pie for. breakfast even today though I went and. looked I was like okay surely our. attitudes have changed no no they. haven't if you look up breakfast pies. it's all like you know breakfast stuff. but in like a pie shell or something. like that there's no one out there. eating actual pie for breakfast it's. insane uh yeah cuz it's a dessert it's a.

little weird for sure I me I like the. idea but it it is a dessert you can make. the case that almost all breakfast foods. are desserts in the United States man. have you heard of like. IHOP so after your steak dinner you get. a bacon egg and cheese. biscuit exactly I would that sounds good. although I Don't Like Biscuits very much. as a sandwich I like a biscuit by on its. own like say Cracker Barrel if you get.

biscuits and honey really good but if. you take that biscuit cut it in half and. put anything like a egg or cheese or. something on it I'm like this is groy. give me an English muffin make it a mi. wow okay for sure never knew that all. right still getting to know each other. after all these years all right so let's. talk a little bit about uh the nickel. throwers because if you're going to. require a bunch of nickels you're going. to have to have a bunch of nickel and. you don't and come in with a bunch of. nickels as a consumer so they had Chang.

uh people they were women basically they. called them nickel throwers yeah and. they just sat there all day long shoving. nickels across the counter just like. when I would go to the 99 cent movie. when I was a kid uh they had a big stack. of tickets and a big stack of. pennies and they would just shove it. back to you in the window and it was. always a lot of fun I thought that's. funny so I guess they they decided that. that 99 price really brought people in.

more than a $1 movie would huh maybe and. I'm curious how much they would lose in. a year on those pennies I don't know you. know uh one of the things though Chuck. did did you see I guess in the. documentary The the nickel throwers and. like the the Bubble Glass the glass. bubble fronted things that they said and. they look like fortune tellers yeah it. was pretty funny but it was part of that. whole ornate look to everything like. just the whole most of those places were. really pretty yeah absolutely um and you. know like you said it it conveyed a. sense of the future like kids loved it.

for that reason because they were it was. like being in the Jetson or something uh. but kids also loved it because that gave. them a sense of autonomy to to go in. there and get a couple of nickels from. their parents and to be able to walk up. and pick something out you got to read. that Neil Simon quote it's great Neil. Simon I take issue with this quote or. the end of it oh you okay uh Neil Simon. the great Neil Simon said this uh when. he was a child about going there or as. an adult about going there as a child to. have your own stack of nickels placed in.

your tiny hands to be able to choose. your own food richly on display like. Museum pieces to make quick and final. decisions at the age of eight that was a. lesson in financial dealings that not. even two years at the Wharton School. could buy. today maybe a little hyperboy there you. think that's hyperbolic yeah probably so. but it is a pretty great quote for sure. it's very sweet um so uh one of the. things though is including people like. um Neil Simon. other people who are interviewed in the.

automat documentary um people tend to. remember the food as like good and it's. entirely possible it was for a while but. the older the the the longer you go. along and the history of the automat the. the worse the food probably got for a. little while so it's not entirely clear. that that the food was actually good. toward the end and we can't really say. because again the last one closed in. 1991 and I'm guessing by the time that. one closed it's probably wasn't too good.

right you shouldn't really compare the. food in general over the course of the. history of the automat to that last one. but I'm guessing it was probably pretty. decent for a while based on some of the. stuff I'm I'm reading I bet it was. pretty good if for no other reason than. in the 1920s and 30s and 40s and 50s. they use real food right and real. ingredients and it wasn't like it is. today so I just think by virtue of that. it was probably not bad you know yeah. I'm with you so Chuck I say we talk. about how automated the automat really.

was because it turns out not really it. was really a a facade literally it was a. facade of food that seemed to be. mysteriously um conjured out of nowhere. possibly by. robots yeah and that was one of the. selling points that you know another. piece of pie on a tiny plate would pop. into that window when uh one went out. it's not like it just stayed empty I. guess if they ran out of pie it would or. they probably put you know something. else in there but uh they had a huge um.

actually a few different Central. commissaries in the city where they. would make all the stuff they would ship. it over there and they had tons and tons. and tons of worker bees behind the. scenes doing all that stuff they had. these rotating drums that would do the. work of filling the actual slots but. there had to be someone filling those. drums so it wasn't a bunch of robots. back there it was not George Jetson it. was just a bunch of people plating stuff. up and putting it in the drum to put in.

the window yeah so say that you went up. and you're like I'm going to have that. um delicious bowl of bubbling greasy. oyster stoop that's just sitting there. looking at me in the face I think one of. those oysters might still be alive. that's that's how good it was right and. you put your Nickel in and you pulled a. lever. correct uh I don't remember if it was a. lever but that sounds about right or or. like uh you pulled that like you were. buying cigarettes as a kid when you were. 14 in a coin oper. that kind of L is what I'm talking about.

right well I I didn't like you did but. sure I saw the bad kids doing that. exactly um so you would do something. like that and then either it would open. like it would allow the the little glass. compartment window to open up so you. could get your oyer stew or what have. you from inside um or it might rotate a. drum like you were saying so that that. oyster stew was now available to you and. you'd open the window and then the there. would be an open compartment in the back. of the drum that somebody who was.

working the back of the automat cases. would see was empty and would put a new. thing of oyster stew in there and then. the whole thing would just continue um I. also saw that some of them had a photo. of the food and that yeah you would like. open the case and just pull it out and. then the people in back would notice. that that one was empty but suffice to. say however the food came out there was. a way to see in the rear that that. compartment needed refilling and one of. the horn and hard art was known for was. employing armies of people who made sure.

that that food was there that the. compartments were full and that the food. was fresh too that the the Salsbury. steak wasn't getting jiggly you know. what I. mean I'm struggling I'm. sorry uh I know you're doing it on. purpose it's all fine that last part was. an purpose um for a while there they. didn't have hot uh Windows they just had. the cold windows so the hot food was. served from a steam table um but it was.

not too long until they had the the hot. windows and the cold windows or the hot. cases probably right um how they treated. their workers is a matter of debate um. they they struck a couple of times uh. 1937 they struck um they had 3,000. employees at the time um that uh failed. that organizing effort did not hold um. then again in 1952 they struck again uh. and eventual New York State Supreme. Court Justice Melvin.

barash uh was one of the people trying. to organize at the time in 1952 and in. 1991 he said the conditions were. straight out of the 19th century MH um. that effort failed other people if you. watch the documentary The the son of the. president of the company said no it was. great we had company picnics and. Christmas parties and like every it was. really really really great daddy loved. the workers yeah exactly there was also.

an actor named aachi Ramos who uh is. best known for playing one of the. orphans in the. Warriors but also is lesser known as. having managed the Fat Boys in the 80s. oh the Warriors that Warriors yeah like. come out and play Yay Apache Ramos okay. I'll have to check that guy out oh man. he had a magnificent afro in that um in. that movie um oh yep I totally know. exactly the guy yeah what a great afro. yeah but he also managed the fat boys.

like The Fat Boys Are Back uhhuh uh in. the'80s um he worked at an automat and. so did his grandmother I'm assuming one. or the other got the other one the job. but he remembered um that the horn and. hard art would throw holiday parties for. the workers children around like. Christmas time and oh man can you. imagine how beautiful those places. looked when they were decorated for. Christmas parties in like the 50s and. 60s like I if I you know people are like. if you could ever go back in time what.

would you do I would go to that. Christmas party yeah yeah for sure uh. this reminds me of a childhood trauma. that I suffered because growing up my. sister had a best friend whose father. worked for craft foods and they had a. big craft like they rented Six Flags or. something it was some big thing every. year wow my brother's best friend worked. for Coca-Cola M and every year they had. the big Coca-Cola picnic. I had nobody and I never got to go and.

every single year I had to watch Scott. and Michelle go to the craft event and. the coke event man that's terrible yeah. it just it it still sticks with me after. all these years your friend Richie was. like well my dad owns the tire shop so. you can come to that we don't really. have a party but we stand around right. uh should we take another break yeah all. right we'll take another break and talk. about the inclusivity of the automat. right after this. [Music].

[Applause]. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. okay Chuck just before before we took a. break um you nailed it on the head you.

said we were talking about the. inclusivity of the automat and in. particular the horn and hard automat. which again they were synonymous with. automats um they were one of the. earliest chain restaurants in the United. States to uh integrate not discriminate. against their clientele not just um you. know like unescorted women God forbid. but also racially speaking economically. speaking like like whoever came to a. horn and harder automat to to eat was.

treated equally and that was huge I mean. we're talking starting in the 1910s yeah. that was an enormous deal and that's. something that I mean my hat's off to. them for that yeah for sure they had a. motto which was serve everybody and. serve everybody in the same way which is. a great quote uh and colen poell um. former secretary of state is in the. documentary and it's a great really. sweet interview and he said the one we. would usually go to was automat on 42nd. straight uh 42nd Street I never even.

thought about the fact that I'm a black. kid should I go into horn and hard Art. Is it okay to go to the automat all the. automats had the be that beautiful. diversity that didn't exist in most of. the rest of the country of economic. standing of color of ethnicity of. language you never knew what you'd run. into in an automat yeah it's pretty cool. there was also um a historian named Lisa. Keller I believe in the documentary. pointed out that if you were an. immigrant um this was a great place for. you to go because you just went and.

looked at the food and put your Nickel. in you didn't really have to be able to. read or speak English and you could. still get a good meal of oysters. too I can't wait to see what Aaron. Cooper does with this. yeah they were also known for uh their. celebrity um fans uh they had those one. very famous Esquire spread of course. this is for Esquire so it was all set up. but in 1951 Audrey burn was a photograph. for Esquire so cute shopping at an.

automat very cute but in the documentary. um Riner and Brooks You Know Carl Riner. and Mel Brooks love the automat and they. they talk with great adoration about uh. their childhood of going to those. restaurants yeah and James Dean his. favorite baked beans in the world were. horn and hard Arts baked beans James. Bean more like that's right he really. knew what he was talking about too. that's how he died in that car accident. he was eating some baked be at the time. and lost control of the steering wheel.

God uh that's not true everybody we did. a short stuff on it so yeah exactly. don't at me uh so I guess we're at the. sad Point um like so many of these. episodes that we do on a cool thing from. the past where the decline begins right. uh the 1960s is when that started uh. although they were still like a a huge. deal culturally you know everyone knew. about the automat and I don't think we. mentioned you know at a certain point in. New York City they were so famous that. it was like when you go to visit New. York you would go to an automat just for.

that experience right like how you like. when we were kids you went to that. City's like Hard Rock Cafe to get the. T-shirt remember that oh man totally you. wear it with your Panama Jack sunglasses. and everybody at at home would be like. you had a great summer obviously oh yeah. my band did a one gig at the Hard Rock. Cafe here in Atlanta one time wow we did. they put your guitar up under a glass. case afterward they did that'd be pretty. sweet they should uh but the 60s is. where things really started to struggle. uh even though they were again U still.

popular culturally um stockholders were. involved by that point obviously uh just. revenues started dropping um the the the. suburbs was a big cause of it you know. when people started moving out to the. suburbs offices and office complexes. started getting built in the suburbs and. people started shopping at malls in the. suburbs and there were fewer and fewer. in people uh just you know walking. around New York doing things like. shopping and going to their their office. uh so it just it started to sort of.

slowly drop and slowly drop until they. got a little weird with some of their. ideas right yeah Wild West room I could. not find a picture of that but. apparently one of the automats this one. in Times Square they put a wild west. room in in 1966 I mean I'm sure people. would have gone crazy for that in 1966. not a wild. restroom that's that's every restroom in. New York City there's like a ton of. potted plants and a tiger in there right. uh they also tried a beer garden they. tried the roller skate uh waiters thing.

they tried ENT you know live bands and. dancing and stuff like that uh but. eventually horn and harder looked at. each other and they said well this has. clearly seen its best days the Silver. Lining is is we are sitting on a bunch. of really valuable real estate I know. like 40 buildings in Manhattan yeah so. they're don't feel too bad they were. doing okay no but instead of selling. them they said hey I've got an idea. let's remove the automat and put Burger. Kings in instead franchises so that's.

where you would have gotten your old. automat cases is in the back of a Burger. King I was just about to improvise one. of those terrible terrible terrible. terrible Burger King commercial songs. that's that's one of the big drawbacks. to watching uh me TV tunes oh oh is that. on there too there's this one Burger. King ad that keeps playing over and over. and over again I had to hit myself in. the knee with a hammer to get it out of. my head well is this whole new campaign. with a guy that's singing yeah that.

can't sing please don't do it no no no. that's like my oysters. too well I guess I won't do a song right. now. Auto actually I know exactly why now. we're even exactly so yeah um I guess. you can just if you can mute the the um. the TV fast enough then you can keep. watching me TV tunes yeah yeah all right. so Burger Kings went in um automats were. going downhill another thing that. happened was uh as they started going.

downhill. um a different kind of Shopper started. coming in there uh people that were. itinerant people that uh were unhoused. um people that were vagrants and just. sort of coming through town who knew. that they could hang out there for that. nickel cup of coffee for hours and hours. and hours um and when that starts. happening families stop coming in and it. just creates this sort of vicious cycle. where your clientele is different and. it's not seen as that that safe middle. class space any longer no and those same.

families they're like oh let's go down. to the automat steeping and they're like. oh it's cedy here so they stopped coming. in which just reinforced the ability of. like uh the homeless population to hang. out in Horn and hard art Horn and. Hardart's whole thing was serve. everybody and serve everybody the same. way so as far as I ever saw they weren't. exactly rousting uh vagrants who were. hanging out drinking like a cup of. coffee um and it just it it just was. basically the same story as the inner. city in the United States in the 60s and.

70s once they once the suburbs Rose and. everybody moved out of there and the. neighborhoods and the communities that. did survive had us interstates built. right through their neighborhoods things. just took a a turn for the worse and the. automat was not uh immune to that whole. thing yeah another big part of that is. like these this huge Central commissary. kitchens where they were cooking all. this stuff is an excellent excellent. efficient way to do it when you are.

booming with business right um once. business drops and you're not cooking. you're not needing to cook as much uh. all of a sudden you're you're the. economy of scale isn't there any longer. and you have these huge places with. fewer employees and less food being. pumped out right and it's just it was. just a downward spiral it's very sad y. so um the other thing too is it's it's. interesting and I think it's kind of. appropriate that horn and hard art got. into um fast food franchises because the. automat kind of helped lay the the.

foundation for that but rather than. hundreds of different dishes which is. apparently what horn and hardart offered. at each of their automats um you know. fast food has like 10 and like yes you. can have it your way but really you can. have it your way choosing from these. five ingredients or whatever um and the. the there were much like. downscale um like surroundings it was. just like the auto Matt's um Vision with.

all of the glitz and idealism removed. from it then you have Fran fast food. franchises yeah basically uh that last. one that closed in 91 um it was the last. one starting in 1977 M at 200 East 42nd. Street so right there you know sort of. near Time Square sure and it lasted 14. years on its own as a as a Nostalgia. piece basically um before becoming a Gap. that's right it's a gap what.

else um so like you said if you went to. New York like you would go to the Empire. State Building you might go see a. Broadway play and you would go eat it an. automat that's just how iconic it was. right um it popped up like anytime. you're trying to get across how New York. your your your movie was like there. would be a scene in An automat or. something like that yeah um Francis Ford. Copa apparently directed a movie in the'. 60s that featured an automat called. automat now um that showed up in I'm.

kidding uh it showed up I get it now I'm. a little slow hey I think you're doing. magnificent for considering what you've. been through the last couple days man. I've been through Apocalypse Now um Bugs. Bunny went to an automat and the hair. grows in Manhattan that's right uh The. Flintstones they even had a a Flintstone. automat in a 1962 episode uh and there's. a book that I I I think I've heard of. but I never read from the mixed up files. of Mrs Basil E frankweiler that sounds.

familiar well the thing that sounds. familiar to me is that these kids um. hide out living in the met the. Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. oh that's Royal Tan. bombs that's uh yeah I guarantee that. was anage to that then yeah um but. anyway in this children's book these. kids are are runaways and they live in. uh in met that's the Met right the Met. isn't the opera house it's the art. museum the Metropolitan Museum of AR is.

the Met yeah okay right well one of the. things that they do is they um feed. themselves by going to the automat oh. that's fun and I did not know he he. totally yeah let's call an omage you're. Kinder than I am oh yeah Wes Anderson. does not rip stuff off he lovingly pays. homage to it that's right that's right. uh Pat Boon tried his version of the. automat called the dynomat in 1962 M. which was frozen food uh That Was Then.

microwave that did not work out too. wellis uh but there were a few other. things over the years that were tried. like this that did not take off like the. automat did my favorite was the Andy mat. yeah what's up with that Andy Warhol. this is just what an artist he was he. could just talk about he just mentioned. something in passing and people are. still talking about it 50 years later. but he said that he was going to come up. with the chain of Andy mats which are. like autom mats but in instead of having. to go um get your food from a case you.

would sit down on like a red mohare. banket and order through a pneumatic. tube and uh you would order frozen food. and champagne that's what he was going. to offer at the andym oh that's funny. but that never happened at all right. just an idea no it didn't but there's. some people who are trying to revive it. yeah I mean there are things like this I. mean Japan has stuff like this right. they have what's called Katen Zushi okay. what's that it's the sushi that comes. around on a conveyor belt no but they.

I've seen little Windows as well of. things it may not be hot food maybe it's. other things yeah I'm sure that they do. I remember going to Toledo Hospital to. visit my mom when she was at work and. they had basically Auto mat sandwiches. like I always just thought it was like a. um like a vending machine a vending. machine yeah but they no it was an. automat basically yeah there's a place. in Brooklyn called the Brooklyn dumpling. shop uh I think there are like 12 of. them uh in here in Canada and they I. just looked up a picture of them and. they they have these little automat kind.

of like Cubbies that you order through. an app mhm uh like a locker system and. I've also seen uh I think it was a shark. tank product that I ended up seeing in a. hotel where it's like a machine that. gives you like a cheeseburger or a pizza. like but made to order so like you can. say what kind of pizza you want and. it'll it's just got this machine inside. that'll you know load it up with. whatever and then bake it and then it. spits it out in 15 minutes or whatever. so things kind of like this but not not.

truly automat stuff one of the things. you can choose for that pizza maker is. um I don't want the cheese to scald the. roof of my mouth and the pizza machine's. like yeah yeah sure sure definitely not. and then they have a hidden camera on. you right and spit out a picture of you. going ah y yeah damn it um you got. anything else I have nothing else I. don't think I have to puke I think this. is the best I've felt in a few few days. so hopefully that holds good that makes. me feel good about the effect I have on.

you yeah just little Josh little side. cup of oyster stew I'm back on my feet. again there you go um well since Chuck's. back on his feet again obviously anyone. who's ever listened to this show before. knows that he just unlocked The Listener. mail that's right this is short and. sweet uh this is kind of fun because. it's a a this is coming out tomorrow and. it's a correction on an episode that was. just out awesome maybe for a change we. won't get like 400 emails from Crafters.

okay oh yeah hey guys re the High Times. episode and Martha Stewart hodg Podge is. a big jumble of things that don't go. together Modge Podge is the craft Supply. just don't want you to embarrass. yourselves at the craft store that is. from Kelly Mod Podge is what you use to. glue together a big jumble of things. that don't go together exactly that's a. great Kelly thank you and to the other. thousand of you who rode in it's nice to. know that they're people out there still. using Modge Podge it's fun yeah I mean.

it's fun to say and it's got a cute. label too yeah Mod Podge is really a lot. of fun I enjoy it for sure and we heard. from Martha Stewart too she said yes I. have Modge Podge laying around thank. Jerry got in touch with her and asked. that's right uh well if you want to be. like who Kelly if you want to be like. Kelly and right in to gently correct us. we love that kind of thing you can send. it via email to stuff podcast. iheartradio.com.

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