Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts.
-William Shakespeare
-William Shakespeare
It is Vintage Thingie Thursday over at The Colorado Lady's blog. I decided to share a picture (sorry for the blur - taken again with my blackberry!) of a vintage fan that I have on my desk at work. I got the fan in a lot of three (equally beautiful) fans on eBay a couple years ago. At the time I thought I might resell them through The ZNE Store - but once I recieved them, I couldn't bear to part with them. These delicate paper fans were marketing premiums for the Hotel Statler in the early 1900s. Yep. This fan is over 100 years old. Hard to imagine.
The first Statler hotel was built in Buffalo, New York and offered 300 rooms and bathrooms (it was later expanded to 450 rooms and baths). The Buffalo hotel was very successful and led to a chain of hotels in other cities.
Rooms were originally available at what seemed a very cheap price, leading many other hoteliers to predict the failure of the Buffalo hotel. The opening night price was as low as $1.50 for a guest room, leading to the slogan "A Room and a Bath for a Dollar and a Half." The hotel had a line of credit available of $500,000, but was so successful from the beginning that Statler never touched the line of credit. The Hotels Statler Company, Inc., was sold to Conrad Hilton's (Hilton Hotels) in 1954 for $111,000,000 in what was then the world's largest real estate transaction. (Source: Wikipedia)
Have a great Thursday everyone! Jump on over to The Colorado Lady's blog to see more fun Vintage Thingy Thursday posts!
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6 comments:
Love the Shakespeare quote!
Too cute - love that old slogan, A Room and a Bath for a Dollar and a Half - reminds me of the catch phrase "shave and a haircut, two bits".
Such a pretty fan! What fun days those used to be with advertising giveaways.
Happy VTT,
Sally
Oh, what a beautiful fan and how wonderful you included all the information about the hotel! Very interesting, and how special that this is in such wonderful condition. Have a great VTT!
Interesting post. I'm wondering if this is marked with the hotel name or if someone just remembers that they were a marketing premium.
Hi Chelsie and thank you for your visit. That fan is just gorgeous and I wouldn't have been able to part with it either. Happy VTT..have a lovely weekend.
I bet you're so glad that you didn't sell those fans, because it's so beautiful! Love the history of the hotel too, and their slogan!
Happy VTT!
Carol
The Shakespeare quote about pansies being a symbol of remembering, thinking of someone -- I have lots of French postcards with pansies. It's a pun or play on words. The word for pansies is the same word for "to think." I've often wondered if that isn't the origin of calling a guy a pansy, someone who's not macho, but thinks all the time, the modern-day geek:)
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