Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time

Naturally, if your only knowledge of Fred Harvey enterprises is MGM's "The Harvey Girls," there is much more to this epic than just that. In a way, today's theme parks and themed shopping, dining and resort environments owe a great debt to the groundwork layed long before most of us might imagine. My wife remembered shopping at a Grand Canyon gift shop many years ago and coming away with a Fred Harvey logo shopping bag. "The Harvey Girls" movie was also previously her only exposure to the influence of Fred Harvey but was really absorbed in this book, particularly the interesting chapter about the movie which reveals that, in addition to showing only a small part of the overall Harvey world, the book itself was a novelization of the movie -- but the first time around, MGM stopped production, the book was published anyway and became a best seller. The success of the book and the musical "Oklahoma" inspired MGM to make "The Harvey Girls" as a musical. We had no idea of the history of this company and how much influence it had on the westward expansion of America and cannot imagine the years of research that must have gone into this book. While this is certainly an exhaustive biography of Fred Harvey and the company and family he founded, it is so much more. If you love American history, especially of the Southwest, you should read this book. If you are a train buff, you should read this book. There's even a tie in with Walt Disney! If you are interested in the beginnings of the service industry in America (and how far we have come from those original ideals) you should read this book. It is fascinating, detailed and if you are familiar with the old game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, it is a lot like that. It is amazing how interconnected many of these pioneering businesses and families were and how one thing lead to another. Once you start reading, you may not be able to put it down.

The problem I face in writing this review is that I don't have all the time and space it would take to do this incredibly well done, truly magnificent history the justice it deserves. Stephen Fried has written at least three histories in this single volume. The nominal subject is a gentleman named Fred Harvey, a name that is little known among the general public today. But Fred Harvey was very influential in shaping the development of the American West, the railroad industry (or at least part of it), creating branding and merchandising as we now know it , creating the then new habit of restaurant eating, expanding employment opportunities for women, preserving Native American culture and still more. His son carried on long after Fred Harvey died, but the Harvey empire crumbled with the modern era. Which is really a pity. I grew up in the twilight of the Fred Harvey era. I still vaguely recall how special eating at the Fred Harvey restaurant at a local railroad terminal was and think I rode on one of the last trains where Fred Harvey's company provided the dining car service. "Appetite for America" covers Fred Harvey's history. His first big day was the opening of a "eating house" for the Santa Fe, Atchison and Topeka Rail Road in Topeka, Kansas. Eating out, so to speak, was not an experience to be sought after. Places offering food were suspect for many good reasons and the victuals offered were usually mediocre on the best of days. But Fred Harvey changed that: eating at one of Fred Harvey's eating houses was virtually guaranteed a pleasant experience with tasty and nourishing food at reasonable prices. The nation was on the move with the spread of railroads - and Fred Harvey reached a deal with the Santa Fe rail road to feed its ever increasing number of passengers. A shrewd entrepreneur, Harvey realized that creating satisfied customers was the key to success. He innovated endlessly from his creation of the "Harvey Girls", well dressed, well trained servers which was very much a departure from the norm in those days, to the creation of Fred Harvey hotels and newsstands. Harvey created a vast empire of businesses, the first chain stores in fact, covering the western part of the United States. Part of it lives on in the legendary hotel on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Friedl covers everything: from Fred Harvey's childhood to the dissolution of the company in the mid 20th Century. There is so much to tell about that time and the man, his company and family, the railroads, the growth of the nation. Remarkably, Stephen Friedl in what can be fairly described as a triumph of research and good writing tells them all in great detail and interestingly. In fact, this book richly deserves more than a single reading. I could go on and on about this remarkable multiple history. Friedl even includes recipes from Fred Harvey restaurants that were renowned in their day and still read as if they would be tasty. He recounts the train trip he and

This book offers many different flavors to many different readers. It's a splendid business history of Fred Harvey - the firm of that name, not just the man who founded it, though his story is well-told here. The Fred Harvey hotel and restaurant chain, the reader will find, was the first such business model that Howard Johnson and other chains would follow - and Fred Harvey affected American cuisine as well, so readers interested in culinary history will also find this book of interest. There's more: Fred Harvey also affected American architecture and decor (e.g., the "Santa Fe" style), the growth and preservation of Grand Canyon, American attitudes on native American culture and people, and American popular culture in general. We learn how Fred Harvey would influence cinema and entertainment, from Walt Disney to the Judy Garland "Harvey Girls" film of 1945. We even learn how Fred Harvey adapted from railroad hotels to the Route 66 phenomenon and early commercial aviation as the motorcar and the airliner first appeared. And, of course, the book has plenty for fans of railroad history. The Fred Harvey chain grew with, and helped grow, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. The railroad's expansion, and decline in mid-20th Century America, shaped the Fred Harvey story as well. Its challenges from natural disasters, two world wars, flu epidemics, the demands of military mobilization -- even the Manhattan Project puts in an appearance -- show how the firm, the railroad, and American life affected each other. The book is also a splendid family saga. The generations that followed Mr. Harvey would make for lively reading, both in Fred Harvey boardrooms and in their private lives. We see early feminism in both the Harvey Girls phenomenon, Western pioneers indeed, and the pioneering women in the Fred Harvey management and family. Mr. Fried's storytelling skills are vivid and the book is an unexpected pleasure as it follows this family and this firm through over a century of tumultuous American history. Even the appendices are entertaining. Mr. Fried's personal tour, researching this book, is fun reading, his bibliographical notes are informative - there's even a few Fred Harvey recipes. (Tip to the publisher and author: given the growing number of illustrated books on railroad cuisine - the B & O, the Empire Builder, etc. - there might be a splendid coffee-table/recipe book here). Highest recommendation, to a wide range of readers.