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Horn & Hardart was a food services company in the United States, noted for operating the first food service automats in Philadelphia and New York City.
Contents
- Automated food
- Coins and chrome
- Radio program
- Television program
- Decline
- Revivals
- Films
- Literature
- Temporary
- Permanent
- Music
- Stage productions
- Television
- Visual art
- References
Philadelphia's Joseph Horn (1861–1941) and German-born, New Orleans-raised Frank Hardart (1850–1918) opened their first restaurant together in Philadelphia, on December 22, 1888. The small (11 x 17 foot) lunchroom at 39 South Thirteenth Street had no tables, only a counter with 15 stools. Formerly, the location had housed the print shop of Dunlap & Claypoole, printers to the American Congress and George Washington.
By introducing Philadelphia to New Orleans-style coffee (blended with chicory), which Hardart promoted as their "gilt-edge" brew, they made their tiny luncheonette a local attraction. News of the coffee spread, and the business flourished. They incorporated as the Horn & Hardart Baking Company in 1898.
Automated food
Inspired by Max Sielaff's AUTOMAT Restaurants in Berlin, they were among the first 47 restaurants, and the first non-Europeans to receive patented vending machines from Max Sielaff's AUTOMAT GmbH Berlin factory, creators of the first chocolate bar vending machine. The first automat in the U.S. was opened June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by Horn & Hardart. The first New York Automat opened in Times Square July 2, 1912. Later that week, another opened at Broadway and East 14th Street, near Union Square.
In 1924, Horn & Hardart opened retail stores to sell prepackaged automat favorites. Using the advertising slogan, "Less Work for Mother," the company popularized the notion of easily served "take-out" food as an equivalent to "home-cooked" meals.
The Horn & Hardart Automats were particularly popular during the Depression era, when their macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and creamed spinach were staple offerings. In the 1930s, union conflicts resulted in vandalism, as noted by Christopher Gray in The New York Times:
In 1932 the police blamed members of the glaziers union for vandalism against 24 Horn & Hardart and Bickford's restaurants in Manhattan, including the one at 488 Eighth Avenue. Witnesses said that a passenger in a car driving by used a slingshot to damage and even break the plate glass show windows. Glaziers union representatives had complained about nonunion employees installing glass at the restaurants.By the time of Horn's death in 1941, the business had 157 retail shops and restaurants in the Philadelphia and New York areas, and served 500,000 patrons a day. During the 1940s and the 1950s, more than 50 New York Horn & Hardart restaurants served 350,000 customers a day.
In 1953, the company split into two independent corporations: the New York company was named the Horn & Hardart Company, while the Philadelphia company was named the Horn & Hardart Baking Company. New York was traded on the American Stock Exchange, and Philadelphia was traded on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
Coins and chrome
These cafeterias featured prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots, beginning with buns, beans, fish cakes and coffee. These were popular, busy restaurants, where in the late 1950s, for under $1.00, one could enjoy a large, if somewhat plain meal, purchased with nickels usually obtained from the cashier. Each stack of glass-doored dispensers had a metal cylinder that could be rotated by the staff on the other side of the vending wall, hiding the contents while they refilled each dispenser in the stack with a plate of salad, pudding, meat or vegetables. Each dispenser had a slot for one or more nickels, and a knob to rotate the nickels out of view into the internal cash box and to allow the glass door to be raised up and locked in a horizontal position for easy removal of the plate or bowl of food. More expensive items required tokens valued up to 75¢ which were available from the cashier. Some of the rectangular dispensers were heated, some cooled. Eventually, they served lunch and dinner entrees, such as beef stew and Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes. The self-service restaurants operated in the city for nearly a century.
Carolyn Hughes Crowley described the appeal of the Automats:
In huge rectangular halls filled with shiny, lacquered tables, women with rubber tips on their fingers— "nickel throwers," as they became known—in glass booths gave customers the five-cent pieces required to operate the food machines in exchange for larger coins and paper money. Customers scooped up their nickels, then slipped them into slots in the Automats and turned the chrome-plated knobs with their porcelain centers. In a few seconds the compartment next to the slot revolved into place to present the desired cold food to the customer through a small glass door that opened and closed. Diners picked up hot foods at buffet-style steam tables. The word "automat" comes from the Greek automatos, meaning "self-acting." But Automats weren’t truly automatic. They were heavily staffed. As a customer removed a compartment’s contents, a behind-the-machine human quickly slipped another sandwich, salad, piece of pie or coffee cake into the vacated chamber.Radio program
Beginning in 1927, Horn & Hardart sponsored a radio program, The Horn and Hardart Children's Hour, a variety show with a cast of children (including some who as adults became well-known performers). The program was broadcast first on WCAU Radio in Philadelphia, hosted by Stan Lee Broza. It was broadcast on NBC Radio in New York during the 1940s and 1950s. The original New York host was Paul Douglas, succeeded by Ralph Edwards and finally Ed Herlihy.
Television program
The television premiere of The Horn & Hardart Children's Hour appeared on WCAU TV in Philadelphia in 1948, succeeded by WNBT(TV) in New York in 1949, telecast on Sunday mornings. Stan Lee Broza hosted in Philadelphia and Ed Herlihy in New York. Frankie Avalon was a frequent performer of the Children's Hour as a child prodigy trumpet player.
Decline
The restaurants remained popular into the 1960s with automats, sit-down waitress service restaurants, cafeterias, and bakery shops. In the late 1960s, consultants attempted to develop automats with interior decoration relevant to surrounding neighborhoods; thus, the Automat on 14th Street was decorated with psychedelic posters. The eateries began to close with the rise of fast-food restaurants, served over the counter and with more payment flexibility than traditional automats. By the mid-1970s, at some locations, Burger King franchises replaced the automats. Horn & Hardart further expanded its fast food operations in 1981, with its acquisition of the Bojangles' Famous Chicken n' Biscuits restaurants, which it sold to a California investment company in 1990 for $20 million.
In 1979, Horn & Hardart agreed to buy the Royal Inn in Las Vegas for $7.4 million. By late 1980, the sale had been completed, and the property was rebranded as the Royal Americana Hotel, with a New York theme. A $3.5 million renovation increased the room count to 300. By 1982 though, the hotel was experiencing substantial losses, and Horn & Hardart decided to close it. They reportedly agreed that December to sell the property to an investment group for $15.4 million.
The last New York Horn & Hardart Automat (on the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Third Avenue) closed in April 1991. Horn & Hardart continued to own a catalog division; it renamed itself Hanover Direct in 1993. Hanover Direct bought Gump's in 1993 and sold it to an investment group in 2005. Hanover Direct, purchased International Male in 1987 when founder Gene Burkard retired.
Revivals
Horn & Hardart opened two 1950s themed Dine-O-Mat restaurants in New York. They closed in 1989, after less than two years in operation.
In the early 1990s, two entrepreneurs bought the Philadelphia company (Horn & Hardart Baking Co.) out of bankruptcy. While they did not open any restaurants, they did reproduce a dozen of the most famous food items, including macaroni and cheese, Harvard beets, tapioca pudding, and cucumber salad. The food was packaged fresh, refrigerated, and sold in supermarkets throughout Philadelphia and New Jersey. The food was still available up until 2002, then disappeared from the stores.
More recently, the Horn & Hardart name was used for a now-dormant chain of coffee shops in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Horn & Hardart Coffee Co. closed its last coffee shop in 2005.
A company called Horn & Hardart Brands has a website, with a 2014 copyright, offering coffee Online and at Philadelphia area food stores.
A version of the current automats used in the Netherlands, Bamn!!, was located in New York's East Village at 37 St. Mark's Place, between Second Avenue and Third Avenue, but has since closed, though their website is still active.
Currently the Horn & Hardart - Bakery Cafe is the name of a coffee shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A company called Horn & Hardart Coffee has a website, with a 2015 copyright, offering Horn & Hardart branded coffee, mugs, and T-shirts.