Created by the National Restaurant Association AMERICA’S HERITAGE OF HOSPITALITY was released in October, 1949 to advance the restaurant industry and recruit new employees to work within it. The theme of the film is that the American way of life is exemplified by its restaurant industry and the bountiful blessings that the nation enjoys on its tables from “sea to shining sea”.
The film begins with re-creations of historic moments in America’s restaurant industry dating back as far as the Wayside Inn of 1683 (2:54) before showing the modern restaurant industry with the “greatest variety of restaurants the world has ever known”. At 3:20 New York City is seen with the Rockefeller Center (3:40) and its cabs (3:48). At 3:58 a diner is seen, and at 4:01 a “White Castle” type hamburger restaurant. At 4:13, food is seen loaded onto an airplane. At 4:30, downtown Chicago is seen with Michigan Blvd and Lakeshore Drive. Various Chicago restaurants are seen, their various names obscured (apparently out of fairness to the owners) so their identity is hard to say. At 5:40 a Greyhound bus zips by on its way to Kansas City with its grain silos and soda grills (6:15). At 6:21 a sign for a hot dog stand the “Red Dawg” is seen. At 6:50 a Santa Fe train zips by on its way to the Rocky Mountains. A cowboy breakfast is seen prepared at 7:20. At 7:55 a cable car in San Francisco is seen and the “Top of the Mark”, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, is seen. At 8:43 the famous Hollywood and Vine intersection is seen, and the Chinese Theater. At 9:00 a cafeteria, and Los Angeles with its outdoor eating. Scenes seem to include the pool at the Ambassador Hotel, and a salad served at 9:53. At 10:00, the film moves to New Orleans where Canal Street is shown. At 11:50, a meat storage locker is shown, while at 12:00 carrots and lettuce are examined in bulk at the “back of the house” in an industrial kitchen. At 13:00, dish washers are seen in use and food is prepared in bulk. At 14:45, a cafeteria is shown. At 15:00, a school cafeteria is shown.
At 16:00 a new phenomenon is shown, the drive in. As it happens this is Bob’s Big Boy, possibly the first location in Glendale. At 16:10 food is served “a la car” and a hamburger is eaten by a waiting guest. At 16:40, a high end restaurant is seen with guests enjoying a romantic meal. At 18:10, a group of Harvey Girls is seen being trained to be good servers and waitresses. At 19:30, some typical meals from the 1940s are seen including lobster, spaghetti, steak, hot dogs, cold cuts, roast, eggs, fish and more. (Although while the narrator talks about the food being from a wide number of nations, most of these dishes seem far from exotic).
We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: “01:00:12:00 — President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference.”
This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
