Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry

By Stanley Turkel

This book is a sequel to my first hotel book, Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry AuthorHouse 2009. It tells the fascinating and unpredictable stories of seventeen hotel pioneers who were (and are) important in the development of the hotel industry in the United States. Many of them are relatively unknown and lost in the dustbin of American history.

Their biographies comprise this sequel called Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry:

Stewart William Bainum (1920-2014)
Curtis Leroy Carlson (1914-1999)
Cecil Burke Day (1934-1978)
Louis Jacob Dinkler (1864-1928)
Eugene Chase Eppley (1884-1958)
Roy C. Kelley (1905-1997)
Arnold S. Kirkeby (1901-1962)
Julius Manger (1868-1937)
Robert R. Meyer (1882-1947)
Albert Pick, Jr. (1895-1977)
Jay Pritzker (1922-1999)
Harris Rosen (1939)
Ian Schrager (1946)
Vernon B. Stouffer (1901-1974)
William Cornelius Van Horne (1843-1915)
Robert E. Woolley (1935)
Stephen Allen Wynn (1942)

As you will note, four of these great American hoteliers are alive and productive as I write this sequel: Harris Rosen, Ian Schrager, Robert Woolley and Steve Wynn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504967020

Stanley Turkel

Stanley Turkel is a recognized authority and consultant in the hotel industry. He specializes in asset management,  hotel franchising and litigation support services. Prior to forming his consulting firm, Turkel was the Product Line Manager for Hotel and Motel Operations at the International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. overseeing the Sheraton Corporation of America. Earlier, he was the General Manager of the Summit Hotel and the Drake Hotel and Resident Manager of the Americana of New York. Turkel serves on the Board of Advisors and lectures at the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management. Turkel is one of the most widely-published authors in the hospitality field. He brings many talents and accomplishments including his broad-based experience, his informed knowledge, his frequent appearances as guest speaker and his sterling reputation for integrity and honesty.

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© 2016 Stanley Turkel. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/05/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-6703-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-6704-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-6702-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number:   2009907588

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Foreword

Introduction

Stewart W. Bainum, Sr. (1920-2014):

Self-Made Billionaire and Philanthropist

Curtis Leroy Carlson (1914-1999):

From Gold Bond Stamps to One of America’s Largest Privately-Held Corporations

Cecil Burke Day (1934-1978):

Southern Baptist Founder of Days Inns of America Who Treated Everyone with Humanity and Honor

Louis Jacob Dinkler (1864-1928):

Warm Hospitality, Personal Family Tragedies and Racial Prejudice

Eugene Chase Eppley (1884-1958):

Acquisitive, Altruistic and Compassionate

Roy C. Kelley (1905-1997):

Pioneering Giant of the Hawaii Hotel Industry

Arnold S. Kirkeby (1901-1962):

Shrewd Hotelier or Mob Associate?

Julius Manger (1868-1937):

One of the Greatest Hotel Owners of the Early Twentieth Century

Robert Randolph Meyer (1882-1947):

Entrepreneur, Hotel Icon Who Left 30% of His Estate to Charity Causes

Albert Pick, Jr. (1895-1977):

The Indestructible Crown of a Good Name

Jay Pritzker (1922-1999):

Unexpected Hotelier With a Midas Touch

Harris Rosen (1939):

A Brilliant Pioneer of Hotel Development, Education and Community

Ian Schrager (1946):

Reinvented the Hotel as a Symbol of Electrifying Cultural Significance

Vernon B. Stouffer (1901-1974):

Everybody is Somebody at Stouffers

William Cornelius Van Horne (1843-1915):

American Entrepreneur Who Built the Canadian Pacific Railway and Many of the Spectacular Canadian Resorts and Hotels

Robert E. Woolley (1935):

Plumber-Turned-Hotelier Built Hotels Unlike Any Others

Stephen Allen Wynn (1942):

The Uncrowned King of Las Vegas

Bibliography

About the Author

OTHER BOOKS BY STANLEY TURKEL

Heroes of the American Reconstruction (2005)

Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009)

Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011)

Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013)

Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf (2014)

The moral in question, the high interest of the tale, is that you are in the presence of a revelation of the possibilities of the hotel– for which the American spirit has found so unprecedented a use and a value; leading it on to express a social, indeed positively an aesthetic ideal, and making it so, at this supreme pitch, a synonym for civilization, for the capture of conceived manners themselves, that one is verily tempted to ask if the hotel-spirit may not just be the American spirit most seeking and most finding itself.

Henry James, The American Scene

New York: Harper & Bros., 1907

DEDICATION

For Rima Sokoloff Turkel (1930-2014)

FOREWORD

By Lawrence P. Horwitz

Executive Director

Historic Hotels of America and Historic Hotels Worldwide

Washington, DC

If you have ever been in a hotel, as a guest, attended a conference, enjoyed a romantic dinner, celebrated a special occasion, or worked as a hotelier in the front or back of the house, Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry is a must read book. This book is recommended for any business person, entrepreneur, student, or aspiring hotelier. This book is an excellent history book with insights into seventeen of the great innovators and visionaries of the hotel industry and their inspirational stories. Many of the individuals in this book stumbled into the hotel business by accident. Stanley Turkel explains that most of these great pioneers made their first success and fortune doing something else other than hotels. Fortunately for travelers today, these pioneers of the hotel industry were willing to invest what they made and learned elsewhere and apply these lessons and capital to their new hotel companies. Most made permanent changes that we take for granted today when staying in a hotel. Their legacy is that today guests enjoy a much better hotel experience and that a larger variety of hotel choices are available to travelers than at any time in the past.

Most people can name a famous building or two in their home city, a famous institution such as their symphony hall or museum, a local university or college, a famous attraction, and perhaps, a local historic site or national monument. Many of these were financed or endowed by these great American hoteliers. If I ask the question differently to persons to name a hotel in a city or distant destination, most people can name several famous hotels. Why can people recall the name of a particular hotel more frequently than they can recall the name of a building or other institution? The simple answer is that more people have a personal connection with a hotel than any other type of building. The pioneer hoteliers in this book recognized how to capitalize on these connections and create new ways for travelers to want to stay connected.

Many people have an emotional and inspired connection with one or more hotels. What are some of these connections? This might result from traveling with parents and grandparents as a child, celebrating a special family occasion such as a relative’s or family friend’s wedding, bat or bar mitzvah, first communion, milestone anniversary, special birthday, or a family reunion. The connection could result from memories of celebrating holidays such as Mothers’ Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas brunch or dinner. The connection might result from memories of visiting a hotel lobby display of holiday gingerbread houses. Of course, the connection is strong if it results from the memory of a first romantic escape with a spouse or partner, the hotel where you and your spouse stayed for your wedding night, or where the two of you enjoyed your honeymoon. The connection might result from attending a local charity event, banquet, or meeting. Great American Hoteliers gives you several snapshots of how many of these pioneers recognized the potential of these opportunities.

Unlike other famous buildings, hotels are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 52 weeks of the year. Hotels never close. Hotels provide a nostalgic connection with the past or an escape from the present. They provide a connection with celebrities, world leaders, inventors, entertainers, and events. Hotels may be the destination or the means to discovering and experiencing a city.

The author, Stanley Turkel, is a great story teller. Through the brief biographies of these great hotel industry pioneers, he provides a number of inspirational messages. This is a book about the storied careers, many of which are rags to riches, of seventeen great business people. Each person is uniquely different. At the same time, all are alike in many ways. This book is about risk takers, dreamers, inventors, entrepreneurs, innovators, visionaries, leaders, and motivators. This is a collection of stories about hotel pioneers with a passion for inventing new ways to create demand for their product. Some of these pioneers had the ability to recognize quickly the opportunities resulting from evolving trends in travels and the needs of travelers. Others created a new service, changed the size of the hotel room, and invented new conveniences that became the trend of others to follow. Can you imagine staying at a hotel without bathroom soap and shampoo, in-room TV, a private guest room bathroom with a shower or bath, air conditioning, electricity, elevators, parking, and a comfortable bed?

The stories of these developers, builders, operators, and financiers of hotels provide a great classroom for studying innovation, imagination, and invention. These individuals helped accelerate the growth of hospitality, travel and tourism industries. They have made a large contribution to making travel affordable, accessible, and safer for travelers. More than 100 years ago, many of these pioneers could visualize the future and see that affordable rail travel would create a need for affordable hotels near train stations. Less than 75 years ago, many of these pioneers could see that affordable air travel would create a need for affordable hotels near airports. Less than 60 years ago, many of these pioneers could visualize the demand for affordable, clean and efficient road-side accommodations as the growth of the interstate freeway system exploded. At the same time, many of these individuals realized these same improvements in transportation made it possible for them to build and to control a larger network or collection of hotels at first regionally, then across America, and ultimately, worldwide.

Today, many of the pioneers described in this book could be called Disrupters. Disrupters are businesses or business leaders who through their innovations are having a dramatic impact across their industry. Well-known disrupters today include individuals such as Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Howard Shultz (Starbucks), Mark Zuckerberg (FaceBook), Larry Page and Eric Schmidt (Google), Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick (Uber), and Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Stanley Turkel’s two books, Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry and Great American Hoteliers, Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry, are together an excellent compilation of the careers of many of the disrupters of the hospitality, travel and tourism industries.

Stanley Turkel is one of the most distinctive and widely-published authors in the hospitality field. Two of his hotel books, Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry and Built to Last: 100+Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi, have been promoted, distributed, and sold by the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute. A third hotel book, Built to Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York was called passionate and informative by The New York Times. His fourth hotel book Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt and Oscar of the Waldorf was described by the New York Times as a fact-filled book (that) explains, among other things, the history of the hyphen (recently excised) in the name of the Waldorf Astoria…. All of his books are worth reading. Collectively, Turkel provides an insight into some of the pioneers who created the American hospitality industry and risked their wealth to build hotel companies.

In 2014, Stanley Turkel was named the recipient of the Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year Award. Before an audience of his family, many great leaders, owners, and management from the finest historic hotels across America, he accepted this distinguished award on October 2, 2014 at the Historic Hotels of America Annual Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner at The Hotel Hershey® (1933) in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In 2015, for the second consecutive year, he was named the recipient of the Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year Award. He accepted this distinguished award on October 8, 2015, following his keynote address to attendees at the Historic Hotels of America annual conference at the French Lick Resort: includes French Lick Springs Hotel (1845) and West Baden Springs Hotel (1902).

The Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year Award is presented to an individual for making a unique contribution in the research, and presentation of history and whose work has encouraged a wide discussion of greater understanding and enthusiasm for American History.

During the nomination and interview process, I meet many authors and historians. At a meeting and interview with Stan Turkel, I was impressed with his extensive background and knowledge of historic hotels. Even more impressive to me is his ability to tell the stories of the how and why. Turkel stimulates significant interest in hotels. He makes you want to travel back in time to the early days of these historic hotels and feel as if you were there with the great American hoteliers. He points out the importance of hotels and hoteliers in the U.S. commerce and history while telling us about many inventions that we take for granted in hotels today such as indoor plumbing, elevators, indoor electric lights, and more. Turkel brings the stories of these treasured historic hotels to life.

When I informed Stanley Turkel that he had been selected as Historic Hotels of America 2014 Historian of the Year, he sent me an email with the following: as Omar Khayyam, poet and prophet wrote more than 800 years ago, in the four parts of the earth there are many that are able to write learned books, many that are able to lead armies, and many also that are able to govern kingdoms and empires, but few there be that can keep a hotel. Stanley Turkel wrote, I am delighted and thrilled, it is a wonderful honor to be recognized as the recipient of the prestigious Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year.

When I told Stanley Turkel that for the second consecutive year, he had been named Historic Hotels of America 2015 Historian of the Year, he sent me an email with this response, According to Dr. Samuel Johnson, ‘There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn,’ and his email continued, according to Mark Twain, ‘All saints can perform miracles but only a few can manage a hotel.’"

Likewise, I am delighted and honored to write this foreword for Stanley Turkel. I enjoyed reading Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (Volumes 1 and 2). He inscribed a copy of volume 1 for our young son, Joshua Leo Horwitz, with the following message: Study the past in order to understand the present and predict the future.

Great American Hoteliers, Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry makes it easier to study the past and understand the great entrepreneurs and passionate business people that have contributed to the hospitality industry. He makes history fun, interesting, and relevant. He also has a unique way of sharing the achievements of each pioneer along with the contributions each has made. Collectively, through the stories of these great American hoteliers, he has provided a blue print for success: innovate, invent, focus, anticipate, dream, and take risks.

About Historic Hotels of America

Historic Hotels of America is the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for recognizing and celebrating the finest Historic Hotels. Historic Hotels of America was founded in 1989 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation with 32 charter members. Today, Historic Hotels of America has more than 275 historic hotels. These historic hotels have all faithfully maintained their authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity in the United States