Kick Your Cares Down The Stairs

What famous motel chain got its name from a movie? No, not the "White Men Can't Jump Lodge." From the 1942 film starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, it's "Holiday Inn."

The story goes that when motel founder Kemmons Wilson was planning his chain in 1952, architect Eddie Bluestein named the place after the Crosby/Astaire vehicle as a joke, and the handle stuck. Other movies from the same year were "The Mummy's Tomb," "The Corpse Vanishes," and "Bambi," so he chose well.

"Holiday Inn" is a terrific picture, about a singer and a dancer who start a swinging joint that's only open on holidays. This allows for lots of Irving Berlin musical numbers based around Valentine's Day, the Fourth of July, and so on, with an unfortunate blackface segment for Lincoln's birthday (he freed the slaves, get it?). Of course, the most famous piece of all is saved for the song "White Christmas." What, you thought the song "White Christmas" debuted in the film "White Christmas?" That's just silly.

Here's a great video review of "Holiday Inn" -- with clips -- from the New York Times.

Do I Know You?

What do Starbucks, hermit crabs, and pod people have in common? They all cozy up inside the shells of their former inhabitants, while maintaining the same outward appearance. Such is the case with the Hollywood Econolodge.





















For those of you not as steeped in the minutiae of motel architechtura as your Humble Narrator, the sign is a dead giveaway that this was once a TraveLodge. See for yourself:

Think of this the next time you're on the road and see a motel sign that looks vaguely familiar, but don't know why. Or think of something else. It's your brain.

Incidentally, my family's TraveLodge in Alamogordo was changed to the "All-American Inn" after my mother bought it from the company, then when she sold it, the new owners turned it into an "Economy Inn." Econolodge -- Economy Inn... a clear pattern is emerging for the inhabitants of former TraveLodges, and unless I'm badly mistaken, it all points to someone named Bob Econo.

Necessary Roughness

All motels should be required by law to have a rock design element as groovy as the Hollywood Downtowner:





















Here's a gratuitous close-up -- make it your wallpaper, and live the dream every day!

Note Slipped Under Your Door

Dear Tenant of the Sunset Pacific Motel, Hollywood, CA:

We regret to inform you that, as you failed to vacate the premises by the required noon check-out time, you have been sealed in. Do not be alarmed, as the renovation/demolition process should take no more than fourteen months. Please call the front desk with any questions. (NOTE: Front desk reduced to rubble.) Thank you for your stay!

Best,
The Management

Motel Names I Don't Understand, Part II

In Las Vegas, where lodging establishments have catchy handles like "Caesars Palace" and "Bellagio" and "Circus Circus," "TOD" is a bit of a puzzle. And isn't "Motor Motel" redundant? Still, it's Strip-adjacent and has rooms for $19, so if you don't mind enigmas, bunk here and save your dough. You'll have a few chances to spend it elsewhere. Trust me.

flickr photo by roadsidepictures

This Intergalactic Flight is Non-Smoking

A room number on a door at the Space Age Lodge in Gila Bend, AZ...

A River Runs Through (Under) It

Believe it or not, the Sundowner Motel in Caldwell, ID, has a small river running underneath it:

















This photo is part of a whole Flickr gallery on the Sundowner, made as part of a location scout for a film called "Unicorns: The Movie." Anything combining mythical beasts with roadside lodging gets our movie dollars.

The Most Effective Way to Cool

Vintage postcard of the Gables Motel in Fresno, still there off Highway 99. "Cooled by refrigeration" is kind of like saying "heated by heat," but to California motorists sweating it out with no A/C, it probably sounded pretty sexy.

Off the Beaten Path

Desert Gothic Paradise: the Yucca Motel in Gila Bend, AZ.















We slowly cruised the parking lot, admiring the buildings and snapping pics, when someone whistled to get our attention. An older man came walking over, and because I live in a large, exciting urban environment, I naturally assumed his intention was to soundly beat us. But he couldn't have been nicer, and wanted to know if we were looking for a guest he could help us find. He identified himself not as the manager, but a friend of the manager who was just looking after the place for a while. That's small-town, and I would do good to remember my own small-town roots, where you trust people first, and frantically scan for escape routes second.

Motel Alpha

What do motelians generally agree is the world's first motel? That would be the aptly-named Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo, built in 1925.














Back then, the drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco couldn't be made in one day, what with the sorry roads and slow speeds and general 1925-ness of it all. So builder Arthur Heineman selected San Luis as the halfway point for a new enterprise, an alternative to pulling over for the night and pitching a tent by the side of the road. We know the term "motel" is a combination of "motor" and "hotel," but people back then seeing the sign just thought Heineman was simple and couldn't spell. So he had to get creative, first hyphenating "Mo-Tel," and then putting a smaller "H" under the larger "M." Travelers eventually said, "Oh, we get it!", and a phenomenon was born.

And now the amazing part -- the Motel Inn is still standing. Unfortunately, it is fenced off and abandoned, so it is no longer someplace you can stay for the night. Unless, ironically, you want to revert back to the days of a pitched tent by the side of the road.





















flickr photo by Matt(mistergoleta)

The Final Frontier

The sign for the Moon Motel in Howell, New Jersey.

This classic bit of moteliana conjures up images of lunar journeys, space exploration, and truckers on waterbeds watching color TV. The future never looked brighter!

photo by Jenny and Andy Wood

Motel Names I Don't Understand, Part I

Flickr image by Fixed Image

Beauty Falls

One poster screamed, "Niagara and Marilyn Monroe: The two most electrifying sights in the world!" That's truth in advertising. Niagara (1953) was Monroe's first big starring role, as a fatale of the femme-est variety who runs around on her husband as they stay at the Rainbow Cabins motel, the famous falls thundering in the background of nearly every scene. The production actually built the faux-tel on location beside the falls, and a single building from the set still stands to this day.

SPOILER ALERT: Monroe's life may have ended too soon, but her on-screen personas always fared better -- except in Niagara, her only movie where her character dies.

Somebody's Lying

Photos from Flickr: _RedShoesGirl_, gtown eric, oldohioschools, Auberon, G A R N E T

Check-Out Time is Late Cretaceous

Want a nice, quiet room, but also have a fondness for enormous, roaring thunder lizards? The Raptor's Nest Inn in Belle Fourche, SD is a dinosaur-themed boutique motel that caters to the fossil hunters of the Black Hills, although "respectable Sturgis Motorcycle Rally goers" are also welcome. All of the rooms are non-smoking except the Pachycephalosaurus Room and the Edmontosaurus Room, perhaps as a nod to the only two dinosaur species that went extinct from second-hand smoke.

Now Anything Is Possible

They laughed and said it couldn't be done, but here it is: A hotel and a motel, blissfully joined together. In Lone Pine, CA, this is the Dow Hotel, built in the early 1920s...












...and the Dow Villa Motel, added onto the hotel right next door in three sections from 1957-1963.









Alysia and I stayed here recently, in the Hotel portion. We bunked in the old Manager's Apartment, where the person running the place used to live, and it was delightful. Nice to see a hotel and a motel getting along so well for almost fifty years. Bodes well for us.

Photos from dowvillamotel.com

Your Room Is Ready... For Demolition

Several photos of an eight-room abandoned motel on Highway 127 in Shoshone, CA. Research has revealed it was built in the 1930s, but the name is unknown, as there is no sign, which is the opposite of the problem plaguing the Cavalier Motel. Not to play matchmaker, but maybe these two should hook up?

Touch Up Your Routes

Here's an iconic image of Route 66 in Albuquerque taken by Ernst Haas in 1969:













And here is the same stretch today, posted on flickr by rmadlo119:











As you can see, the TraveLodge became "University Lodge," in much the same way that my family's TraveLodge became "All-American Inn." (There was a time in the late 80s when the corporation sold off a lot of its properties to franchisees.) But the Aztec Motel is still the same (well, not quite -- it's now covered in folk art, but that's another post). The 7-11 is where "Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks used the pay phone to call authorities with her phony story that she'd been kidnapped, and Solano Drive runs between University Lodge and the 7-11.

What this is all leading to is this: Just two blocks down Solano from this photo is where Chris and Alysia lived for several happy years. Now THAT'S history you can use!

It Ain't Much, But It's A Lot

Many is the time that an old motel will be leveled, leaving nothing but an empty lot... and the sign. Why the sign is left behind I do not know, but I imagine it is so pictures like this can be taken, of the (former) Cavalier Motel on 4th Street in Albuquerque.

Because the "C" is capitalized, I can only assume this Cavalier was a supporter of Charles I of England, who in all likelihood was asked to join in the king's struggles against Parliament because everyone liked his heated pool.











flickr photo by Nrico

What A Lovely Daughter You Have

The Farmer's Daughter motel, across from the Farmers Market in Los Angeles:

Not only do they offer the closest Market-adjacent beds in town, there is an employee who conducts "Contestant Orientations" for folks headed to The Price Is Right at CBS Television City, also across the street. Plus the Daughter is where Alysia and I voted in the 2003 California Recall Election, thereby completing the lodging/game show prep/democracy trifecta.

But mostly, I just love the icon. Steve Wynn might have had a little more success if his hotels boasted his saucy silhouette.