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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's not here, but Chuck is Chuck's Your

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Speaker 2: nickname is Poopy.

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Speaker 1: McGhee, actually Puky mcke not both. Now let's here's the story, everybody.

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Speaker 1: I went to Mexico City again and got sick again,

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Speaker 1: thankfully at the end, and I couldn't record yesterday, but

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Speaker 1: we were in danger of missing a pubblished date for

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Speaker 1: the first time, yes in seventeen years.

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Speaker 2: Grave danger. I would say, like, it's Wednesday at three

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Speaker 2: and we need an episode for tomorrow at five am.

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Speaker 1: Right, and we've never cut it this close. So first

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Speaker 1: of all, my friend, thank you for your flexibility.

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Speaker 2: Thank you for not throwing up long enough to record

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Speaker 2: this episode.

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Speaker 1: I lasted up about an hour ago, man. And the

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Speaker 1: main problem is it's just I've been in like a

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Speaker 1: fugue state. Man. I have nothing in my body for

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Speaker 1: three days now. Yeah, so I'm just like spacey and

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Speaker 1: can I told you want to email you guys still

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Speaker 1: love this that like, I'll go thirty minutes where I

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Speaker 1: just like, I'm just so zoned out. I can't have

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Speaker 1: a I don't even have a coherent thought for a

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Speaker 1: half hour. And Josh said, well, that part sounds kind

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Speaker 1: of nice.

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Speaker 2: It really does man to be able to just turn

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Speaker 2: it off.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, I love that city. I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: keep going back. I'm gonna maybe next time drink only

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Speaker 1: bottled things and not even cocktails with ice. I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out what's triggering me. It may just be

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Speaker 1: my biome and some of the food. I don't know.

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Speaker 2: You need to learn four words in Spanish. I'll have

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Speaker 2: that neat.

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Speaker 1: Okay, it's not a bad idea, but I'm still gonna

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Speaker 1: go back. I'm gonna try it again. And this may

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Speaker 1: have also triggered my diverticulitis. Oh so that may be

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Speaker 1: why it's extending here in to day three. I don't know,

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Speaker 1: but I'm here and this gives us, dude a rare

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Speaker 1: opportunity to do anything newsy or like current if you

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Speaker 1: want to mention anything.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's what we're doing. We're doing an episode on automats.

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Speaker 2: There's nothing more newsier current than that.

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Speaker 1: That's right, automats. And we need to give a big

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Speaker 1: shout out to a documentary called The automat By from

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Speaker 1: director Lisa Hurwitz, because it's great and I saw it

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Speaker 1: a couple of years ago and that's what inspired this episode.

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Speaker 1: But I wanted to I don't want to like write

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Speaker 1: on the heels of this great doc you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of swoop in and do a podcast episode about it.

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Speaker 1: But great documentary. It's streaming on Max. Highly recommend it.

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Speaker 1: She did a great job. I can't wait to see

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Speaker 1: what she does next. And it's a big help.

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Speaker 2: Here. We have another other huge shout out to give.

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Speaker 2: This is the first episode we're doing with help from

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Speaker 2: our new writer, Laura Claus.

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Speaker 1: So, yeah, welcome aboard Laura. Laura came to us through Libya,

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Speaker 1: which is all the recommendation we needed right.

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Speaker 2: Right exactly, and she's been great. I've been thinking, Chuck,

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Speaker 2: a lot of our writers have good nicknames. Okay, Laura

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Speaker 2: spells her last name like claw claw Son, So I

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Speaker 2: think we should call Laura doctor Claw.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I thought you're gonna say the Clauster.

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Speaker 2: No, doctor Claw. It's an inspector, gadget reference doctor.

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Speaker 1: Oh okay, I never watched that.

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Speaker 2: That was good. I actually have seen it. So if

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Speaker 2: you don't have cable but you have an antenna over

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Speaker 2: the air antenna. Oh yeah, there's a station called me

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Speaker 2: TV and they just play all sorts of great reruns

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Speaker 2: and everything. Well, they just launched a whole new channel

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Speaker 2: called me TV Tunes and they show some deep cut tunes.

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Speaker 2: I mean, like Beetlejuice the cartoon. There's Scooby Doo on

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Speaker 2: at six pm Eastern every day, which makes me very happy.

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Speaker 2: But they show Inspector Gadget and I was like, this

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Speaker 2: is actually a much better cartoon than I remembered.

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Speaker 1: Uh, where is this in your off grid panic room? Like,

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Speaker 1: where are you watching antenna TV?

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Speaker 2: Oh no, I've got I've got a really high tech setup.

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Speaker 2: I have hijacked the coaxial cables throughout my house and

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Speaker 2: I connected my outdoor antenna to the indoor cable feed

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Speaker 2: so I can connect TVs throughout my house to get

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Speaker 2: the reception from the outdoor antenna.

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Speaker 1: That is the Josh Clarkiest thing I've ever heard.

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Speaker 2: It worked really well. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, So

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Speaker 2: there you go. You don't need to just stream. You

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Speaker 2: can also get free TV.

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Speaker 1: Heck yeah, man, I had free TV for many, many,

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Speaker 1: many many years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you need to be watching me TV tunes.

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Speaker 1: Chuck, all right, I'll check it out. Should we talk

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Speaker 1: auto match or did you have another announcement?

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Speaker 2: No, no, I don't have any announcements, but I do

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Speaker 2: have a question for you.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Chuck, mm hmmm?

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Speaker 2: Have you ever eaten food?

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Speaker 1: Right? By the way, this is gonna be a tough

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Speaker 1: one for me to get through for obvious reasons.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because in the first paragraph I saw the words

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Speaker 1: oyster stew earlier and I almost vomited in my mouth.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Same here, And I don't even have diverticulitis.

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Speaker 1: I have not eaten food in three days, but I

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Speaker 1: used to eat food.

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Speaker 2: Oh nice, Okay, well, Chuck, then I think you would

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Speaker 2: have enjoyed a trip to the Automat.

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Speaker 1: That's right, and we've been at it for six minutes,

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Speaker 1: we might as well go in and say that. The

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Speaker 1: Automat was a grouping of chain restaurants, self serve restaurants,

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Speaker 1: sort of like a cafeteria, but instead of being served

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Speaker 1: in a line where people would dump food on a tray,

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Speaker 1: they had these walls filled with glass fronted compartments, and

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Speaker 1: you would put in some money and a slot and

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Speaker 1: you would open the door and get your piece of

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Speaker 1: pie or your chicken pot pie or your pot roast

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Speaker 1: or whatever have you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, your oyster stew. Yeah, but you got to you

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Speaker 2: you would walk up and you just sit there with

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Speaker 2: your finger like on your lower lip, looking from case

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Speaker 2: to case, trying to figure out what appealed to you

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Speaker 2: right then, very much like you were looking at the menu,

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Speaker 2: but you were looking at the actual food you were

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Speaker 2: going to consume instead, So you didn't even need to

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Speaker 2: be able to read to know what you wanted at

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Speaker 2: this at an automat. And then, like you said, you

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Speaker 2: put your money in and you get your food out,

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Speaker 2: and you go sit down. And two people who first

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Speaker 2: went to the automat chuck, We're talking like this is

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Speaker 2: the turn of the last century when they started to

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Speaker 2: take off. This was as high tech as anything got.

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Speaker 2: Because it's really important to point out the in like

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Speaker 2: the first third at least of the twentieth century, a

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Speaker 2: lot of people in the United States didn't have a refrigerator.

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Speaker 2: They might have had an icebox, but they certainly didn't

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Speaker 2: have anything pumping free on through it. No no cable TV,

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Speaker 2: not even over the air antennas in some cases, no

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Speaker 2: Beetlejuice the cartoon, and they also so might not even

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Speaker 2: have electricity in their home. So the idea of this

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Speaker 2: futuristic serve yourself out of a glass case that's lit

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Speaker 2: kind of experience was a really big deal. And what's

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Speaker 2: even more remarkable, it's so okay, you're like, Yeah, everybody

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Speaker 2: in the nineteen tens was just a yokel by definition, right,

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Speaker 2: These things lasted until the nineteen sixties, and they were

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Speaker 2: still viewed as these amazing places to go eat.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the last one, this is remarkable, The

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Speaker 1: very last one in New York close in ninety one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: which is hard to believe. They saw a couple of

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Speaker 1: sad decades, a few sad decades before that. But we'll

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Speaker 1: get to all that. But should we go to the beginning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, let's start at the beginning. That seems appropriate.

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Speaker 1: And where else are we going to go but our

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Speaker 1: old friend Germany, Because the first automat popped up in

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Speaker 1: Berlin in eighteen ninety five, and the word automat was

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Speaker 1: just more of a general term for a ventding machine

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Speaker 1: in Germany, but it won a gold medal a couple

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Speaker 1: of years later at the Brussels World Fair. Europe kind

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Speaker 1: of got into them a little bit, and they spread

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Speaker 1: around Europe over the next five or so years before

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Speaker 1: making the leap to the United States.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it took a little college try, I guess,

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Speaker 2: the first few times for to make that leap across

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Speaker 2: the Atlantic. And it was two guys, Joseph Horn and

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Speaker 2: Frank Harder, whose last names would become synonymous with automats.

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Speaker 2: In fact, depending on what city you were in, you

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Speaker 2: would probably refer to the automat as a Horn and

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Speaker 2: hard Arc. That's just like they were like the Kleenex

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Speaker 2: of automats essentially, right. Yeah, they were already in business together.

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Speaker 2: They owned a chain of cafeterias in Philadelphia, and they said,

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Speaker 2: what's next, what will the future bring? And they figured

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Speaker 2: out the best way to predict the future was to

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Speaker 2: build it themselves. And I think they actually made a

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Speaker 2: trip to Germany and found out about the automats, and

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Speaker 2: they decided they wanted to bring it back to the

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Speaker 2: United States. And like I said, it took a few

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Speaker 2: attempts for them to actually get it to work, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Their first one in Philly, which was the first

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Speaker 1: one overall, was nineteen oh two, but the equipment, you know,

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Speaker 1: because it started in Europe, was in Europe, and they

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Speaker 1: tried to get some of the stuff shipped over there,

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Speaker 1: you know, these big beautiful cases with the coin slots

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Speaker 1: and the little windows and everything, and the ship sunk

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Speaker 1: in the Atlantic, so they lost all that gear. They

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Speaker 1: tried again, and these were victim to a warehouse fire,

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Speaker 1: but salvageble. They repaired that stuff. They got them up

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Speaker 1: and working, and they beat out their closest competitor. There

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Speaker 1: was one card Harcomb in New York that went out

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Speaker 1: of business. I think it was a little fancier. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and H and H definitely leaned toward, as we'll see,

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Speaker 1: serving just sort of solid, affordable comfort food to the masses.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And so Horn and Hard Arts automats, I think,

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Speaker 2: like you said, started in Philadelphia, and then after Harcombe

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Speaker 2: went out of business, the Horn and Hardart kind of

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Speaker 2: muscled in on that market, which is actually pretty brave

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Speaker 2: because somebody had already proven that automats may not work

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Speaker 2: in New York. Good point, But I guess they had

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Speaker 2: faith in their food. They were like, have you tried

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Speaker 2: this oyster stew? It's amazing, God of stuff saying that

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Speaker 2: and so they they hit New York I think in

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Speaker 2: nineteen twelve. By nineteen thirty two, twenty years later, they

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Speaker 2: had forty two automats in New York City, another twenty

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Speaker 2: in Philadelphia. Amazing, and H and H became the largest

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Speaker 2: restaurant chain in the entire United States. The United States

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Speaker 2: was big at the time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is like, uh, that's funny. By the way,

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Speaker 1: this is like during the Great Depression, like people were

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Speaker 1: going out of business right and left, and they actually

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Speaker 1: H and H thrived during the depression because again, everything

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Speaker 1: was really cheap. It was comforting stuff. As you'll see,

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Speaker 1: the coffee was great, the food was fresh and well,

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Speaker 1: maybe not more than anything, but additionally it was it

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Speaker 1: was it was a great place to go. They were

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Speaker 1: beautiful places. Generally, they were clean and they were safe,

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Speaker 1: and we'll get to a bunch of other ways that

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Speaker 1: they were inclusive as we go on.

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Speaker 2: They were also known because they were clean and safe

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Speaker 2: and you could get really good coffee for a nickel.

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Speaker 2: They became places where you would just go sit and

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Speaker 2: like rest your dogs, or take a load off for

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Speaker 2: a little while, or catch your breath, whatever you wanted

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Speaker 2: to do for a little while, and one of the

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Speaker 2: reasons why people did that was because part of the

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Speaker 2: allure of the automat was that there was no front

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Speaker 2: of house staff. Generally, there were no servers, there was

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Speaker 2: no matred, there was no manager. They if there was manager,

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Speaker 2: they were in the back. Yeah, So you didn't feel

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Speaker 2: like hustled or rushed or like anybody was judging you

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Speaker 2: for sitting there as long as you want nursing a

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Speaker 2: single cup of five cent coffee, and so like, Automat's

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Speaker 2: kind of kind of got that reputation where you could

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Speaker 2: just go chill out. And as big of a deal

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Speaker 2: as they were in New York and Philadelphia, they actually

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Speaker 2: didn't take off everywhere, even though people tried, because Horn

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Speaker 2: and Hardart were so successful.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's kind of hard to believe in

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Speaker 1: a way, because they were so successful there, you would

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Speaker 1: think in the other places, like of course the obvious ones.

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Speaker 1: They went to Chicago, Boston, DC, and Detroit and some

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Speaker 1: other places. But you know, those were big cities, and

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Speaker 1: it's just odd that they didn't take off there. But

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Speaker 1: we do have a quote here from New York History

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Speaker 1: from a guy or an idea rather from this guy

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Speaker 1: named Nicholas Brammel, who basically was like, you know what,

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Speaker 1: in New York, it's so dense, and they really concentrated

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Speaker 1: the restaurants around offices like in the garment district and

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Speaker 1: the financial district in Midtown where people were either shopping

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Speaker 1: or like going to work, far less in like you know,

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Speaker 1: the quieter neighborhood streets and stuff like that. So it

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Speaker 1: was just so densely packed. And everyone knows how busy

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Speaker 1: New York foot traffic is around those places. And that

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Speaker 1: was at least Nicholas Brammel's take on why they took

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Speaker 1: off in New York and Philly.

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Speaker 2: I have my own take. At the very least in Detroit,

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Speaker 2: it didn't work because of the name they used for

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Speaker 2: the restaurant. The Automat in Detroit was called Automatic lunch

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Speaker 2: Room Number one. I mean that's like, that's like the Cereal.

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Speaker 2: It's like a plain white box that says brand flakes

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Speaker 2: and just black font yeah, or beer like that beer?

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Speaker 2: Can you got me that time?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I mean I kind of like the off brand stuff,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, that's definitely weirdly vague.

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Speaker 2: That's not off brand, that's off brand awful. You want

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Speaker 2: to take a break.

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Speaker 1: H yeah, let's take a break. We'll be right back.

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Speaker 2: Take a break so you can go throw up.

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Speaker 1: Okay, we're back. I did not throw up. I think

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Speaker 1: of good. It's been subsiding every day in the in

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Speaker 1: the afternoon and I feel fine, and then in the

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Speaker 1: morning again I'm nauseous. So that's why I think it's

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Speaker 1: a diverticulitis.

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Speaker 2: Man, that is awful. Are you going to be able

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Speaker 2: to record tomorrow?

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Speaker 1: We'll see right, No, I'll be okay, I'll be fine.

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Speaker 2: Good. I'm gonna do a lot of studying after this, okay, kid,

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Speaker 2: all right.

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Speaker 1: So we were talking about the busyness of New York

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Speaker 1: and why it worked out there, and one of the

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Speaker 1: other reasons it was really popular because, like I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: it was it was a very clean place. They prided themselves,

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Speaker 1: at least in the in the heyday decades, they did

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Speaker 1: go downhill and you know, kind of fall into a

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Speaker 1: little bit of shabbiness, but in the heyday they were

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Speaker 1: known as being really, really really clean, safe places. And

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Speaker 1: believe it or not, at the time, there were a

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Speaker 1: lot of cafeterias that like, if you were an unaccompanied woman,

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Speaker 1: they would not serve you had to be in there

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Speaker 1: with your husband, or they just served men like businessmen.

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Speaker 1: So a woman could go in by yourself, children could

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Speaker 1: go in and it wasn't like a seedy thing. Families

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Speaker 1: could feel safe and like they were in a clean

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Speaker 1: place with good food. And also a lot of these

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Speaker 1: were really really beautiful restaurants on the inside.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they were like there was a really low likelihood

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Speaker 2: that one customer was going to expose themselves to the

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Speaker 2: other customers. It just wasn't that kind of place, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: And like you said, they are gorgeous. They were Art Deco,

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Speaker 2: which was the trend at the time, beautiful, and they

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Speaker 2: would have some of them had like two story facades.

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Speaker 2: There's a lot of marble, stained glass, bronze everywhere. They

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Speaker 2: had big windows that led in tons of light. Some

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Speaker 2: of them had a mezzanine upstairs dining area, like they

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Speaker 2: were huge. And then they also paid attention to details too,

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Speaker 2: like that famous coffee that you were talking about. You

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Speaker 2: would put your nickel in this cool little dispenser and

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Speaker 2: the coffee came out of like an italianate dolphin's mouth.

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Speaker 1: That it's a beautiful like I would love to find

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Speaker 1: one of those on eBay just there there. Oh you

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Speaker 1: can buy those? How much are they?

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Speaker 2: I didn't see, but I'll get you one just just

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Speaker 2: as a present for recording today. How about that?

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Speaker 1: Well, I think in the I mean it's been a

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Speaker 1: while since it's seen the doc, but I think there

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Speaker 1: was someone that is getting like the automat machines too

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Speaker 1: and collecting in the.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, nice, pretty cool, kind of like the MERV

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Speaker 2: Griffin set. They just found them out back of a

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Speaker 2: Burger King. What you remember in Seinfeld when Cramer the

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Speaker 2: old MERV Griffin set and he started hosting the MERV

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Speaker 2: Griffin Show in his apartment.

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Speaker 1: That's right, Burger King will come back again in this episode,

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Speaker 1: believe it or not.

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Speaker 2: That's right. So you said they were rigorously clean. That

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Speaker 2: was one of the things they were known for. The

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Speaker 2: other thing they were known for was that their food

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Speaker 2: was like, like really fresh. I couldn't think of a

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Speaker 2: non offensive way to put it, but it was a

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Speaker 2: really fresh take on food.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it was as fresh as food could

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Speaker 1: be for that format.

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Speaker 2: Exactly.

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Speaker 1: Let's say that the coffee was super fresh, like after

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Speaker 1: twenty minutes, they would throw the coffee out and put

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Speaker 1: new coffee in the food they did not sell the

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Speaker 1: next day. And if you're thinking, what a lot of

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Speaker 1: food waste because they're pre making this stuff, and you know,

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Speaker 1: we'll get to that in a sec. But a little

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Speaker 1: bit of genius here is they had three different day

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Speaker 1: old shops in lower income neighborhoods in New York. So

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Speaker 1: the next day they would sell the food there at

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Speaker 1: a discount. So even if you didn't have the nickel

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Speaker 1: for the piece of pie or whatever, you might be

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Speaker 1: able to get it for like two or three cents

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Speaker 1: the next.

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Speaker 2: Day, yeah, or two and a half cents. Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: you can find it.

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Speaker 1: I'll eat a pie for a week, So I'm fine

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Speaker 1: with that.

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Speaker 2: For sure, as long as it hasn't fallen on the

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Speaker 2: street in public, for sure. And they were also known

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Speaker 2: for that really good coffee, right that came out of

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Speaker 2: dolphin's mouths. So at the time, if you were in America,

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Speaker 2: the coffee you drank and this is the I don't know,

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Speaker 2: the nineteen tens, it was boiled, yeah, and there was

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Speaker 2: no filter, no nothing, so like grounds would come out,

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Speaker 2: so your coffee was gritty. There was no filter again

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Speaker 2: to take out any of the oils. Any of the tastes.

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Speaker 2: It was harsh, harsh coffee, and that's what people drank

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Speaker 2: and you liked it, and you didn't complain because the

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Speaker 2: coffee would punch you in the face if you did.

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Speaker 2: It was that kind of coffee. Well, Horn and Hardart

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Speaker 2: had a different take. They had a French drip, right,

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Speaker 2: which is still mixed, pretty good coffee, but at the

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Speaker 2: time you had to go to New Orleans to get

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Speaker 2: coffee like that, and Horn and Heartart serving the stuff

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Speaker 2: in New York and Philadelphia at all of the sixty

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Speaker 2: plus automats for a nickel and every twenty minutes they

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Speaker 2: throw out the old coffee and bring in fresh stuff.

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Speaker 1: That's right. They sold so much coffee that they ended

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Speaker 1: up losing money on it because they kept it locked

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Speaker 1: into that nickel price for thirty eight years.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I did the math. In nineteen twelve, which

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Speaker 2: is when they hit New York, and nickel was worth

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Speaker 2: a dollar sixty today. By nineteen fifty it was worth

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Speaker 2: sixty four cents. So they started definitely losing money over

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Speaker 2: time on that coffee.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So they were losing money. They eventually

377
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Speaker 1: had to raise the price. The only thing they could

378
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Speaker 1: do was double it to ten cents. Because their slots

379
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Speaker 1: took nickels and their sales dropped a lot, from seventy

380
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Speaker 1: million cups a year to forty five million, they still

381
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Speaker 1: came out on top revenue wise, if you do the math.

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Speaker 1: But I remember watching the documentary and they were talking

383
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Speaker 1: about this. I've wondered and I haven't found my way

384
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Speaker 1: to wrap my head around how to actually do this topic.

385
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Speaker 1: But something about change like coins and how they established

386
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Speaker 1: so much commerce, like a coin slot only taking a nickel,

387
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Speaker 1: the only thing you can do is double it. So

388
00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:15,720
Speaker 1: what does that mean to the economy? Like there's something there,

389
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Speaker 1: but I'm just not quite sure how to frame it.

390
00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:19,040
Speaker 1: So maybe somebody could help me with that.

391
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Speaker 2: Maybe we could tie it into the idea that I

392
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Speaker 2: had about why everything is so much more expensive now,

393
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Speaker 2: even really maybe speaking than it used to be.

394
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Speaker 1: Yeah, because I mean the idea of like doubling the

395
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Speaker 1: cost of something is crazy, even if it's a nickel

396
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Speaker 1: to a dime. At the time, like doubling your price

397
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Speaker 1: is just insanity for a business, But there was nothing

398
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Speaker 1: else they could do.

399
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:43,080
Speaker 2: But even still, even doubling the price from a nickel

400
00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,640
Speaker 2: to a dime in nineteen fifties money that was still

401
00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:49,879
Speaker 2: twenty or so cents less than what they were getting

402
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:54,040
Speaker 2: for in nineteen twelve, Yeah, adjusting for inflation. So it

403
00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:56,919
Speaker 2: sounds like to me the bigger problem is that they

404
00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,800
Speaker 2: just doubled it overnight. And again that's all they could

405
00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:03,560
Speaker 2: do because their slots only took nickels. Yeah, so that's

406
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Speaker 2: what they had to deal with. But like you said,

407
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:07,679
Speaker 2: even still they came out on top revenue wise. But

408
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:09,920
Speaker 2: I get the impression that there were probably a lot

409
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:13,280
Speaker 2: of grumblers over that kind of thing who really just

410
00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:16,280
Speaker 2: took super good cheap coffee for granted, and frankly, shame

411
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Speaker 2: on them.

412
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Speaker 1: Yeah, they also sold a lot of pie, and I

413
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:23,800
Speaker 1: do remember this from the dock. Pie was a very

414
00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,800
Speaker 1: big deal at H and H in nineteen sixty four.

415
00:21:26,840 --> 00:21:29,919
Speaker 1: Here's a pretty fun stat They sold an average of

416
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Speaker 1: eight hundred and twenty two pieces of pie in New

417
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Speaker 1: York City between eight and eleven am. And there are

418
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Speaker 1: some people who said, some historians that have said that

419
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:44,159
Speaker 1: I don't know about this, but maybe that there was

420
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Speaker 1: a desire for people to do things like eat pie

421
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:47,760
Speaker 1: for breakfast, but if you had to order it from

422
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Speaker 1: a server. You might be like, oh, you know, I

423
00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,360
Speaker 1: can't order apple pie for breakfast.

424
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Speaker 2: Right, pancakes with apples on them?

425
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. But at the autumat you could just do it,

426
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Speaker 1: you know, on the down low and be quiet about it.

427
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Speaker 1: I just I didn't know people would be judgy like

428
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,280
Speaker 1: that back then. But maybe, uh.

429
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,879
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think everybody, yeah, because they were pretty proper

430
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:08,880
Speaker 2: back then too, you.

431
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:10,840
Speaker 1: Know, pie for breakfast.

432
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Speaker 2: Even today, though I went and looked, I was like, okay,

433
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:18,080
Speaker 2: surely our attitudes have changed. No, no, they haven't. If

434
00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:21,800
Speaker 2: you look up breakfast pies, it's all like, you know,

435
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,840
Speaker 2: breakfast stuff, but in like a pie shell or something

436
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:28,000
Speaker 2: like that. There's no one out there eating actual pie

437
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:29,440
Speaker 2: for breakfast. It's insane.

438
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,680
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, because it's a dessert. It's a little weird.

439
00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:33,840
Speaker 2: First.

440
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:36,360
Speaker 1: I like the idea, but it is a dessert.

441
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,679
Speaker 2: You can make the case that almost all breakfast foods

442
00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 2: are desserts in the United States. Man, have you heard

443
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:45,800
Speaker 2: of like I hop.

444
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:48,440
Speaker 1: So after your steak dinner you can get a bacon,

445
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:50,840
Speaker 1: egg and cheese biscuit exactly.

446
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 2: I would that sounds good, although I don't like biscuits

447
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,960
Speaker 2: very much as a sandwich. I like a biscuity on

448
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 2: its own, like say cracker barrel. If you get biscuits

449
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 2: and honey, okay, really good. But if you take that biscuit,

450
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:06,600
Speaker 2: cut it in half and put anything like a a

451
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:09,960
Speaker 2: cheese or something on them, like this is grody. Give

452
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 2: me an English muffin, make it a mist Wow.

453
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:16,760
Speaker 1: Okay, never knew that. All right, still getting to know

454
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 1: each other after all these years. All right, So let's

455
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:24,080
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the nickel throwers. Because if

456
00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:26,520
Speaker 1: you're gonna require a bunch of nickels, you're gonna have

457
00:23:26,560 --> 00:23:28,640
Speaker 1: to have a bunch of nickels. And you don't often

458
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:30,680
Speaker 1: come in with a bunch of nickels as a consumer.

459
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:34,400
Speaker 1: So they had change people. They were women, basically. They

460
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,880
Speaker 1: called them nickel throwers. Yeah, and they just sat there

461
00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:42,439
Speaker 1: all day long shoving nickels across the counter, just like

462
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:44,440
Speaker 1: when I would go to the ninety nine cent movie

463
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,160
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. They had a big stack

464
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:51,159
Speaker 1: of tickets and a big stack of pennies and they

465
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:52,800
Speaker 1: would just shove it back to you in the window,

466
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:54,120
Speaker 1: and it was always a lot of fun.

467
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 2: I thought, that's funny. So I guess they decided that

468
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,239
Speaker 2: that ninety nine cent price really brought people in more

469
00:24:00,320 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 2: than a one dollar movie would. Huh maybe.

470
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 1: And I'm curious how much they would lose in a

471
00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:05,160
Speaker 1: year on those pennies.

472
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:06,760
Speaker 2: I don't know.

473
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 1: You know.

474
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: One of the things though, Chuck, did you see I

475
00:24:10,520 --> 00:24:14,480
Speaker 2: guess in the documentary the nickel throwers and like the bubble,

476
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:18,439
Speaker 2: the glass bubble, Yeah, fronted things that they said and

477
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:19,679
Speaker 2: they look like fortune tellers.

478
00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty funny, but it was part of.

479
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:23,920
Speaker 2: That whole ornate look to everything, like its just the

480
00:24:23,960 --> 00:24:26,159
Speaker 2: whole Most of those places were really.

481
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,159
Speaker 1: Pretty Yeah, absolutely, and you know, like you said, it

482
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: conveyed a sense of the future. Like kids loved it

483
00:24:32,400 --> 00:24:34,480
Speaker 1: for that reason because they were it was like being

484
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,560
Speaker 1: in the Jetsons or something. But kids also loved it

485
00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: because that gave him a sense of autonomy to go

486
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,239
Speaker 1: in there and get a couple of nickels from their

487
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 1: parents and to be able to walk up and pick

488
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:44,280
Speaker 1: something out.

489
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:46,440
Speaker 2: You got to read that Neil Simon quote.

490
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: It's great Neil Simon. I take issue with this quote

491
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: or the end of it. Oh you okay, Neil Simon,

492
00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,240
Speaker 1: the Great Neil Simon said this when he was a

493
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:57,639
Speaker 1: child about going there or as an adult, about going

494
00:24:57,680 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: there as a child, to have your own stack of

495
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,040
Speaker 1: nickels placed in your tiny hands, to be able to

496
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,200
Speaker 1: choose your own food richly on display like museum pieces,

497
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 1: to make quick and final decisions at the age of eight.

498
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,480
Speaker 1: That was a lesson in financial dealings that not even

499
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:13,639
Speaker 1: two years at the Wharton School could buy today.

500
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:18,919
Speaker 2: Maybe you look there, you think that hyperbolic. Yeah, that's

501
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 2: probably so, but it is a pretty great quote for

502
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 2: it's very sweet. So one of the things though, is,

503
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:29,760
Speaker 2: including people like Neil Simon and other people who were

504
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 2: interviewed in the Automat documentary, people tend to remember the

505
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:39,199
Speaker 2: food as like good, and it's entirely possible it was

506
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 2: for a while. But the older, the longer you go

507
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,600
Speaker 2: along in the history of the Automat, the worse the

508
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:49,119
Speaker 2: food probably got for a little while. So it's not

509
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:52,920
Speaker 2: entirely clear that that the food was actually good toward

510
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 2: the end. And we can't really say because again, the

511
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 2: last one closed in nineteen ninety one, and I'm guessing

512
00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:58,560
Speaker 2: by the time that one.

513
00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:00,200
Speaker 1: Closed it's probably wasn't too good.

514
00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 2: Right, You shouldn't really compare the food in general over

515
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 2: the course of the history of the automat to that

516
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 2: last one. But I'm guessing it was probably pretty decent

517
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 2: for a while based on some of the stuff I'm reading.

518
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: I bet it was pretty good, if for no other

519
00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:16,280
Speaker 1: reason than in the nineteen twenties and thirties and forties

520
00:26:16,280 --> 00:26:20,160
Speaker 1: and fifties, they use real food, right, and real ingredients,

521
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:22,320
Speaker 1: and it wasn't like it is today. So I just

522
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: think by virtue of that, it was probably not bad.

523
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, I'm with you, So, Chuck, I say,

524
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 2: we talk about how automated the automat really was, because

525
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:35,560
Speaker 2: it turns out not really. It was really a facade. Literally,

526
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,240
Speaker 2: it was a facade of food that seemed to be

527
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:44,320
Speaker 2: mysteriously conjured out of nowhere, possibly by robots.

528
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:46,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was one of the selling points that,

529
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,639
Speaker 1: you know, another piece of pie on a tiny plate

530
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: would pop into that window when one went out. It's

531
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:56,479
Speaker 1: not like it just stayed empty. I guess if they

532
00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,840
Speaker 1: ran out of pie, it would or they'd probably put

533
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:01,520
Speaker 1: you know, something else in there. But they had a

534
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: huge actually a few different central commissaries in the city

535
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:07,960
Speaker 1: where they would make all the stuff. They would ship

536
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: it over there, and they had tons and tons and

537
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:16,399
Speaker 1: tons of worker bees behind the scenes doing all that stuff.

538
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 1: They had these rotating drums that would do the work

539
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 1: of filling the actual slots. But there had to be

540
00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: someone filling those drums. So it wasn't a bunch of

541
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,359
Speaker 1: robots back there. It was not George Jensen. It was

542
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,760
Speaker 1: just a bunch of people plating stuff up and putting

543
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: it in the drum to put in the window.

544
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,159
Speaker 2: Yeah. So say that you went up and you're like,

545
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 2: I'm going to have that delicious bowl of bubbling, greasy

546
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 2: oyster stew that's just sitting there looking at me in

547
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:43,080
Speaker 2: the face. I think one of those oysters might still

548
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,040
Speaker 2: be alive. That's how good it was. Right, And you

549
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 2: put your nickel in and you pull the lever correct.

550
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:52,399
Speaker 1: I don't remember if there was a lever, but that

551
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 1: sounds about.

552
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,440
Speaker 2: Right, or like you pulled the like you were buying

553
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:57,600
Speaker 2: cigarettes as a kid when you were fourteen in a

554
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:01,360
Speaker 2: coin operated machine, that kind of lever what I'm talking about, right.

555
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: Well, I didn't like you did, but sure I saw

556
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,159
Speaker 1: the bad kids doing that exactly.

557
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,240
Speaker 2: So you would do something like that and then either

558
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,440
Speaker 2: it would open like it would allow the little glass

559
00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:13,840
Speaker 2: compartment window to open up so you could get your

560
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 2: oyster stew or what have you from inside, or it

561
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:21,320
Speaker 2: might rotate a drum like you were saying, so that

562
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 2: that oyster stew was now available to you. And you'd

563
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 2: open the window, and then there would be an open

564
00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,880
Speaker 2: compartment in the back of the drum that somebody who

565
00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 2: was working the back of the automat cases would see

566
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 2: was empty and would put a new thing of oyster

567
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 2: stew in there, and then the whole thing would just continue.

568
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,480
Speaker 2: I also saw that some of them had a photo

569
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,640
Speaker 2: of the food and that yeah, you would like open

570
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 2: the case and just pull it out, and then the

571
00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 2: people in backwood notice that that one was empty. But

572
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 2: suffice to say, however the food came out, there was

573
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 2: a way to see in the rear that that compartment

574
00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 2: needed refilling. And one of the things Horn and Hardart

575
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 2: was known for was armies of people who made sure

576
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 2: that that food was there, that the compartments were full,

577
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:10,719
Speaker 2: and that the food was fresh too, that the salisbury

578
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:13,640
Speaker 2: steak wasn't getting jiggly. You know what I mean.

579
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: I'm struggling.

580
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.

581
00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 1: I know you're doing it on a purpose. It's all fun.

582
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 2: That last part was purpose.

583
00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: For a while there they didn't have hot windows. They

584
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: just had the cold windows, so the hot food was

585
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 1: served from a steam table. But it was not too

586
00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 1: long until they had the hot windows and the cold windows,

587
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 1: or the hot cases. Probably how they treated their workers

588
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: is a matter of debate. They struck a couple of times.

589
00:29:43,360 --> 00:29:47,200
Speaker 1: Nineteen thirty seven they struck. They had three thousand employees

590
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: at the time. That failed. That organizing effort did not hold.

591
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: Then again in nineteen fifty two they struck again, and

592
00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:02,080
Speaker 1: eventually New York State Supreme Court Justice Melvin Barash was

593
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: one of the people trying to organize at the time

594
00:30:03,840 --> 00:30:05,920
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty two and in nineteen ninety one he

595
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: said the conditions were straight out of the nineteenth century.

596
00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,680
Speaker 1: That effort failed other people. If you watch the documentary,

597
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:17,120
Speaker 1: the son of the president of the company said, no,

598
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: it was great. We had company picnics and Christmas parties

599
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: and like every it was really really really.

600
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:29,720
Speaker 2: Great that I loved the workers, Yeah, exactly. There was

601
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 2: also an actor named Apache Ramos, who is best known

602
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,560
Speaker 2: for playing one of the orphans in The Warriors, but

603
00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 2: also is lesser known as having managed the Fat Boys

604
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:40,920
Speaker 2: in the eighties.

605
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,560
Speaker 1: Oh the Warriors. That Warriors.

606
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:47,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, like, come out and play a patchie ramos.

607
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:48,760
Speaker 1: Okay, I'll have to check that guy out.

608
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 2: Oh man, he had a magnificent afro in that in

609
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 2: that movie.

610
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 1: Yep, I totally know exactly the guy.

611
00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 2: Yeah what a great Yeah. But he also managed the

612
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 2: Fat Boy like the Fat Boys are back, uh huh.

613
00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 2: In the eighties, he worked at an automatic and so

614
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,680
Speaker 2: did his grandmother. I'm assuming one or the other got

615
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,120
Speaker 2: the other one the job. But he remembered that the

616
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 2: horn and Hardart would throw holiday parties for the workers

617
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:19,720
Speaker 2: children around like Christmas time. Oh man, can you imagine

618
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 2: how beautiful those places looked when they were decorated for

619
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 2: Christmas parties in like the fifties and sixties. Like I

620
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 2: if you know, people are like, if you could ever

621
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:31,600
Speaker 2: go back in time, what would you do? I would

622
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 2: go to that Christmas party?

623
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure. This reminds me of a childhood

624
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 1: trauma that I suffered because growing up, my sister had

625
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,800
Speaker 1: a best friend whose father worked for Craft Foods and

626
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,800
Speaker 1: they had a big craft like they rented six flags

627
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 1: or something. It was some big thing every year. Wow,

628
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: my brother's best friend worked for Coca Cola, and every

629
00:31:56,080 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: year they had the big Coca Cola picnic thing. I

630
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,640
Speaker 1: had nobody an never got to go in. Every single

631
00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: year I had to watch Scott and Michelle go to

632
00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: the craft event in the coc event.

633
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 2: Man, that's terrible.

634
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just it still sticks with me after all

635
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: these years.

636
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:14,720
Speaker 2: Your friend Richie was like, well, my dad owns the

637
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,400
Speaker 2: tire shop. So you come to that. We don't really

638
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,120
Speaker 2: have a party, but we stand around.

639
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,520
Speaker 1: Should we take another break? Yeah, all right, we'll take

640
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:26,960
Speaker 1: another break and talk about the inclusivity of the automat

641
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 1: right after this.

642
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:59,800
Speaker 2: Okay, Chuck, just before we took a break, you nailed

643
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 2: it up on the head. You said, we're talking about

644
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 2: the inclusivity of the automatic and in particular the horn

645
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 2: and Harder automat, which again they were synonymous with automats.

646
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 2: They were one of the earliest chain restaurants in the

647
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 2: United States to integrate, not discriminate against their clientele, not

648
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:22,840
Speaker 2: just you know, like unescorted women, God forbid, but also

649
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 2: racially speaking, economically speaking, like like whoever came to a

650
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 2: horn and hard are automat to eat was treated equally

651
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 2: and that was huge. I mean we're talking starting in

652
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 2: the nineteen tens. Yeah, that was an enormous deal. And

653
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:41,280
Speaker 2: that's something that I mean, my hat's off to them

654
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:41,560
Speaker 2: for that.

655
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. They had a motto which would serve

656
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: everybody and serve everybody in the same way, which is

657
00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:51,040
Speaker 1: a great quote. And Colin Powell, former Secretary of State,

658
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: is in the documentary and it's a great, really sweet

659
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: interview and he said, the one we would usually go

660
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 1: to is automat on forty second straight, forty Sive Street.

661
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:02,560
Speaker 1: I never even thought about the fact that I'm a

662
00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,000
Speaker 1: black kid. Should I go into horn and hardart? Is

663
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:08,480
Speaker 1: it okay to go to the automat? All? The automats

664
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,759
Speaker 1: had that beautiful diversity that didn't exist in most of

665
00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:14,040
Speaker 1: the rest of the country, of economic standing, of color,

666
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,719
Speaker 1: of ethnicity, of language. You never knew what you'd run

667
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:17,880
Speaker 1: into in an automat.

668
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:22,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty cool. There was also a historian named

669
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,239
Speaker 2: Lisa Keller I believe in the documentary pointed out that

670
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,680
Speaker 2: if you were an immigrant, this was a great place

671
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,479
Speaker 2: for you to go because you just went and looked

672
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:32,319
Speaker 2: at the food and put your nickel in. You didn't

673
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 2: really have to be able to read or speak English,

674
00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 2: and you could still get a good meal of boysters too.

675
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,279
Speaker 2: I can't wait to see what Aaron Cooper does with this.

676
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:50,480
Speaker 1: Yeah. They were also known for their celebrity fans. They

677
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 1: had those one very famous Esquire spread. Of course, this

678
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:55,799
Speaker 1: is for Esquire, so it was all set up. But

679
00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty one, Audrey Hepburn was a photograph for Esquire.

680
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: So cute shopping at an automat, very cute. But in

681
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,880
Speaker 1: the documentary Reiner and Brooks, you know, Carl Reiner and

682
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:09,720
Speaker 1: mel Brooks loved the automat and they talked with great

683
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:13,399
Speaker 1: adoration about their childhood of going to those restaurants.

684
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:17,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and James Dean his favorite big beans in the

685
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,360
Speaker 2: world were horn and hard arts big.

686
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,480
Speaker 1: Beans, James bean more like, that's right.

687
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,239
Speaker 2: He really knew what he was talking about too. That's

688
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:27,280
Speaker 2: how he died in that car accident. He was eating

689
00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:29,320
Speaker 2: some big beans at the time and lost control of

690
00:35:29,320 --> 00:35:33,799
Speaker 2: the steering wheel. God, that's not true, everybody. We did

691
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:36,840
Speaker 2: a short stuff on it, so, yeah, exactly, don't at me.

692
00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 1: So, I guess we're at the sad point, like so

693
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 1: many of these episodes that we do on a cool

694
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:46,000
Speaker 1: thing from the past. Where the decline begins. The nineteen

695
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,400
Speaker 1: sixties is when that started, although they were still like

696
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: a huge deal culturally. You know, everyone knew about the

697
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:54,839
Speaker 1: automat and I don't think we mentioned you know, at

698
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: a certain point in New York City, they were so

699
00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:58,759
Speaker 1: famous that it was like, when you go to visit

700
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 1: New York, you would go to an auto that just

701
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: for that experience.

702
00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 2: Right, Like how like when we were kids, you went

703
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:06,399
Speaker 2: to that city's like hard rock cafe to get the.

704
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:09,480
Speaker 1: Yeah sure remember that, oh man, totally Yeah.

705
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,560
Speaker 2: You wear with your Panama Jack sunglasses and everybody at

706
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,320
Speaker 2: home would be like, you had a great summer obviously.

707
00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:17,839
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my band did one gig at the hard

708
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,279
Speaker 1: Rock Cafe here in Atlanta one time.

709
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 2: Wow, wed they put your guitar up under a glass case?

710
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 1: They did.

711
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:24,840
Speaker 2: It'd be pretty sweet.

712
00:36:25,920 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: But the sixties is where things really started to struggle,

713
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:34,759
Speaker 1: even though they were again still popular culturally. Stockholders were

714
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:40,800
Speaker 1: involved by that point obviously, just revenues started dropping. The

715
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,279
Speaker 1: suburbs was a big cause of it. You know, when

716
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,800
Speaker 1: people started moving out to the suburbs, offices and office

717
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:50,800
Speaker 1: complexes started getting built in the suburbs, and people started

718
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:52,759
Speaker 1: shopping at malls in the suburbs, and there were fewer

719
00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 1: and fewer people just you know, walking around New York

720
00:36:56,239 --> 00:36:59,359
Speaker 1: doing things like shopping and going to their office. So

721
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,920
Speaker 1: it it started to sort of slowly drop and slowly

722
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:05,239
Speaker 1: drop until they got a little weird with some of

723
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:05,760
Speaker 1: their ideas.

724
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,160
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, wild West Room. I could not find a

725
00:37:09,200 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 2: picture of that, but apparently one of the automats this

726
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,879
Speaker 2: one in Times Square they put a Wild West Room

727
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 2: inn in nineteen sixty six. I mean, I'm sure people

728
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:20,160
Speaker 2: would have gone crazy for that in nineteen sixty six.

729
00:37:20,239 --> 00:37:24,480
Speaker 1: Not a wild restroom. That's every restroom in New York City.

730
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:26,360
Speaker 2: There's like a ton of potted plants and a tiger

731
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:26,719
Speaker 2: in there.

732
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:30,080
Speaker 1: Right. They also tried to beer garden, They tried the

733
00:37:30,160 --> 00:37:33,719
Speaker 1: roller skate waiters thing. They tried entered you know, live

734
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:38,000
Speaker 1: bands and dancing and stuff like that. But eventually Horn

735
00:37:38,040 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 1: and Hardert looked at each other and they said, well

736
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 1: this has clearly seen its best days. The silver lining

737
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:48,239
Speaker 1: is as we are sitting on a bunch of really

738
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:49,560
Speaker 1: valuable real estate.

739
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:51,480
Speaker 2: I know, like forty buildings in Manhattan.

740
00:37:51,800 --> 00:37:53,399
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they don't feel too bad.

741
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:55,880
Speaker 2: They were doing okay, no, but instead of selling them,

742
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 2: they said, hey, I've got an idea. Let's remove the

743
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 2: automat and put burger Kings in instead. They have franchises,

744
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:04,840
Speaker 2: So that's where you would have gotten your old automat

745
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:07,399
Speaker 2: cases is in the back of a burger King.

746
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:11,760
Speaker 1: I was just about to improvise one of those terrible, terrible, terrible,

747
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: terrible Burger King commercial songs.

748
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 2: That's that's one of the big drawbacks to watching Me

749
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:19,480
Speaker 2: Trevy tunes.

750
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 1: Oh oh, is that on there too?

751
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 2: There's this one Burger King that keeps playing over and

752
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 2: over and over again. I had to hit myself in

753
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:27,840
Speaker 2: the knee with the hammer to get it out of

754
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:28,279
Speaker 2: my head.

755
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:31,600
Speaker 1: Well, is this whole new campaign with a guy that's singing, Yeah,

756
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:32,399
Speaker 1: that can't sing.

757
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:35,520
Speaker 2: Don't don't do it. No, no, no, that's like my oysters too.

758
00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,239
Speaker 1: Well, I guess I won't do a song right now.

759
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:46,080
Speaker 2: Actually I know exactly why now we're even exactly so yeah,

760
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:48,440
Speaker 2: I guess you can. Just if you can mute the

761
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,720
Speaker 2: the the TV fast enough, then you can keep watching

762
00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 2: me TV tunes.

763
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, all right, So burger Kings went in, Automats

764
00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:01,200
Speaker 1: were going downhill. Another thing that happened was as they

765
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:07,479
Speaker 1: started going downhill, a different kind of shopper started coming

766
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 1: in there. People that were itinerant, to people that were unhoused,

767
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,120
Speaker 1: people that were vagrants and just sort of coming through

768
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:16,440
Speaker 1: town who knew that they could hang out there for

769
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:18,800
Speaker 1: that nickel cup of coffee for hours and hours and hours.

770
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,000
Speaker 1: And when that starts happening, families stopped coming in, and

771
00:39:23,040 --> 00:39:25,919
Speaker 1: it just creates this sort of vicious cycle where your

772
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:29,440
Speaker 1: clientele is different and it's not seen as that safe

773
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:30,840
Speaker 1: middle class space any longer.

774
00:39:31,040 --> 00:39:33,400
Speaker 2: No, in those same families, they're like, Oh, let's go

775
00:39:33,440 --> 00:39:35,480
Speaker 2: down to the automat step in and they're like, oh,

776
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,520
Speaker 2: it's ced here, So they stopped coming in, which just

777
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:42,239
Speaker 2: reinforced the ability of the homeless population to hang out.

778
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:44,520
Speaker 2: And Horn and hard Art. Horn and hard Art's whole

779
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:46,960
Speaker 2: thing was serve everybody, and serve everybody the same way.

780
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:49,840
Speaker 2: So as far as I ever saw, they weren't exactly

781
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:53,279
Speaker 2: rousing vagrants who were hanging out drinking like a cup

782
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:58,360
Speaker 2: of coffee. And it just was basically the same story

783
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,080
Speaker 2: as the inner city in the United States in the

784
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:05,600
Speaker 2: sixties and seventies. They once the suburbs rose and everybody

785
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,799
Speaker 2: moved out of there, and the neighborhoods and the communities

786
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,919
Speaker 2: that did survive had US interstates built right through their neighborhoods.

787
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 2: Things just took a turn for the worse, and the

788
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:19,719
Speaker 2: automat was not immune to that whole thing.

789
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Another big part of that is, like these this

790
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,480
Speaker 1: huge central commissary kitchens where they were cooking all this

791
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 1: stuff is an excellent, excellent, efficient way to do it

792
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:35,040
Speaker 1: when you are booming with business. Once business drops and

793
00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:37,520
Speaker 1: you're not cooking, you're not needing to cook as much.

794
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,960
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, your the economy of scale isn't

795
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,480
Speaker 1: there any longer, and you have these huge places with

796
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 1: fewer employees and less food being pumped out, and it's

797
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:48,800
Speaker 1: just it was just a downward spiral. It's very sad.

798
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:54,760
Speaker 2: Yep. So the other thing too is it's it's interesting

799
00:40:54,800 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 2: and I think it's kind of appropriate that Horn and

800
00:40:56,719 --> 00:41:00,680
Speaker 2: Hardart got into fast food franchises because the automat kind

801
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 2: of helped lay the foundation for that. But rather than

802
00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,279
Speaker 2: hundreds of different dishes, which is apparently what Horn and

803
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 2: hard are offered at each of their automats, you know,

804
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,680
Speaker 2: fast food has like ten and like yess, you can

805
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:16,440
Speaker 2: have it your way, but really you can have it

806
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 2: your way choosing from these five ingredients or whatever. And

807
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:26,040
Speaker 2: there were much like downscale like surroundings. It was just

808
00:41:26,120 --> 00:41:31,160
Speaker 2: like the Automat's vision with all of the glitz and

809
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:35,759
Speaker 2: idealism removed from it. Then you have fast food franchises.

810
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, basically that last one that closed in ninety one.

811
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: It was the last one starting in nineteen seventy seven

812
00:41:43,800 --> 00:41:46,680
Speaker 1: at two hundred East forty second Street. So right there,

813
00:41:46,719 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 1: you know, sort of your time square. Sure, and it

814
00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:54,879
Speaker 1: lasted fourteen years on its own as a nostalgia piece

815
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:57,560
Speaker 1: basically before becoming a gap.

816
00:41:57,840 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 2: That's right, it's the gap.

817
00:41:59,360 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 1: What else?

818
00:42:01,920 --> 00:42:05,000
Speaker 2: So, like you said, if you went to New York,

819
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:07,399
Speaker 2: like you go to the Empire State Building, you might

820
00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 2: go see a Broadway play and you would go eat

821
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 2: it in an automat. That's just how iconic it was, right.

822
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:15,760
Speaker 2: It popped up like anytime you're trying to get across

823
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,439
Speaker 2: how New York your your movie was like, there would

824
00:42:19,440 --> 00:42:22,680
Speaker 2: be a scene in an automat or something like that. Yeah.

825
00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 2: Francis Ford Coppola apparently directed a movie in the sixties

826
00:42:26,960 --> 00:42:31,640
Speaker 2: that featured an automat called Automat Now then showed up

827
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:36,680
Speaker 2: and I'm kidding it showed upga it Now I'm a

828
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:40,239
Speaker 2: little slow dog. Hey, I think you're doing magnificent for

829
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:42,479
Speaker 2: considering what you've been through the last couple of days.

830
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:44,480
Speaker 1: Man, I've been through apocalypse now.

831
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,640
Speaker 2: Bugs Bunny went to an automat and the hair grows

832
00:42:47,680 --> 00:42:48,360
Speaker 2: in Manhattan.

833
00:42:48,880 --> 00:42:52,960
Speaker 1: That's right. What the flintstones? They even had a flintstone

834
00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:55,240
Speaker 1: automat in a nineteen sixty two episode.

835
00:42:55,600 --> 00:42:57,839
Speaker 2: And there's a book that I think I've heard of,

836
00:42:57,880 --> 00:42:59,880
Speaker 2: but I'd never read from the mixed up files of

837
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 2: this is Basil E. Frank Weiler.

838
00:43:02,040 --> 00:43:02,920
Speaker 1: That sounds familiar.

839
00:43:03,520 --> 00:43:05,319
Speaker 2: Well, the thing that sounds familiar to me is that

840
00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 2: these kids hide out living in the Metropolitan Museum of

841
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:11,800
Speaker 2: Art in New York.

842
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: Oh, that's the Royal Tanne Bombs that's.

843
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:20,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guarantee homage to that then. Yeah. But anyway,

844
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,160
Speaker 2: in this children's book, these kids are runaways and they

845
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:27,359
Speaker 2: live in MAT That's the Met, right. The Met isn't

846
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 2: the opera house, it's the art museum.

847
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 1: The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the Met.

848
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:34,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, right, Well, one of the things that they

849
00:43:34,520 --> 00:43:37,640
Speaker 2: do is they feed themselves by going to the automat.

850
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,960
Speaker 1: Oh that's fun. And I did not know he totally Yeah,

851
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:43,879
Speaker 1: let's call him homage. You're kinder than I am.

852
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,080
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Wes Anderson does not rip stuff off. He

853
00:43:47,640 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 2: lovingly pays homage to it.

854
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:54,600
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. Pat Boone tried his version of

855
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:56,839
Speaker 1: the automat called the Dino Matt in nineteen sixty two,

856
00:43:57,280 --> 00:44:00,920
Speaker 1: which was frozen food that was then microwave. That did

857
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 1: not work out too well, that's supprising. But there were

858
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:06,160
Speaker 1: a few other things over the years that were tried

859
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:08,600
Speaker 1: like this that did not take off like the automat did.

860
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:10,720
Speaker 2: My favorite was the Andy Matt.

861
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's up with that?

862
00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 2: Andy Warhol. This is just what an artist he was.

863
00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:17,560
Speaker 2: He could just talk about it. He just mention something

864
00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:19,880
Speaker 2: in passing and people are still talking about it fifty

865
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,840
Speaker 2: years later. But he said that he was going to

866
00:44:22,920 --> 00:44:25,359
Speaker 2: come up with the chain of Andy Matts, which are

867
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 2: like automats, but instead of having to go get your

868
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,040
Speaker 2: food from a case, you would sit down on like

869
00:44:32,080 --> 00:44:35,480
Speaker 2: a red mohair banquette and order through a pneumatic tube

870
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:40,520
Speaker 2: and you would order frozen food and champagne. That's what

871
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:42,320
Speaker 2: he was going to offer at the Andy Matt.

872
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 1: Oh, that's funny, but that never happened at all, right,

873
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:45,560
Speaker 1: just an idea.

874
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:48,000
Speaker 2: No, I didn't, but there's some people who are trying

875
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 2: to revive it.

876
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:51,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there are things like this. I mean

877
00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:53,480
Speaker 1: Japan has stuff like this, right.

878
00:44:53,640 --> 00:44:55,800
Speaker 2: They have what's called katain zushi.

879
00:44:56,320 --> 00:44:56,960
Speaker 1: Okay, what's that.

880
00:44:57,280 --> 00:44:59,640
Speaker 2: It's the sushi that comes around in a conveyor belt.

881
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 1: Now, but they I've seen little windows as well of things.

882
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: It may not be hot food, maybe it's other things.

883
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure that they do. I remember going to

884
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,560
Speaker 2: Toledo Hospital visit my mom when she's at work, and

885
00:45:10,640 --> 00:45:14,839
Speaker 2: they had basically auto sandwiches Like I always just thought

886
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 2: it was like a like a vending machine, a vending machine. Yeah,

887
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:21,000
Speaker 2: but they know it was an automat basically. Yeah.

888
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:23,600
Speaker 1: There's a place in Brooklyn called the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop.

889
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:26,799
Speaker 1: I think there are like twelve of them and here

890
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:29,400
Speaker 1: in Canada and they I just looked up a picture

891
00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,200
Speaker 1: of them, and they they had these little automat kind

892
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 1: of like cubbies that you order through an app like

893
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:39,000
Speaker 1: a locker system. And I've also seen. I think it

894
00:45:39,040 --> 00:45:40,839
Speaker 1: was a shark tank product that I ended up seeing

895
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: in a hotel where it's like a machine that gives

896
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,760
Speaker 1: you like a cheeseburger or a pizza like but made

897
00:45:46,760 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: to order, so like you can say what kind of

898
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:51,360
Speaker 1: pizza you want and it'll it's just got this machine

899
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:54,120
Speaker 1: inside it'll, you know, load it up with whatever and

900
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:56,000
Speaker 1: then bake it and then it spits it out in

901
00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes or whatever. So things kind of like this

902
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:01,560
Speaker 1: but not not truly automat stuff.

903
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:04,080
Speaker 2: One of the things you can choose for that pizza

904
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:07,400
Speaker 2: maker is I don't want the cheese to scald the

905
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:10,799
Speaker 2: roof of my mouth, right, And the pizza machines like, yeah, yeah, sure, sure,

906
00:46:10,920 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 2: definitely not.

907
00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:14,399
Speaker 1: And then they have a hidden camera on you, right

908
00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:16,800
Speaker 1: and spit out a picture of you going, ah.

909
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:21,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, damn it, you got anything else?

910
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:25,320
Speaker 1: I have nothing else. I don't think I have to puke.

911
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:26,880
Speaker 1: I think this is the best I've felt in a

912
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,360
Speaker 1: few days. So hopefully that.

913
00:46:28,560 --> 00:46:30,960
Speaker 2: That makes me feel good about the effect I have

914
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:31,399
Speaker 2: on you.

915
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:35,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a little josh, a little side cup of

916
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,520
Speaker 1: oyster stew. I'm back on my feet again.

917
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:41,719
Speaker 2: There you go. Well, since Chuck's back on his feet again. Obviously,

918
00:46:41,760 --> 00:46:44,600
Speaker 2: anyone who's ever listened to this show before knows that

919
00:46:44,719 --> 00:46:46,359
Speaker 2: he just unlocked the listener mail.

920
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 1: That's right, this is short and sweet. This is kind

921
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,640
Speaker 1: of fun because it's a this is coming out tomorrow

922
00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 1: and it's a correction on an episode that was just

923
00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:58,239
Speaker 1: out awesome. So maybe for a change we won't get

924
00:46:58,239 --> 00:46:59,759
Speaker 1: like four hundred emails from crafters.

925
00:47:00,200 --> 00:47:04,080
Speaker 2: Okay, oh yeah, hey guys, are the.

926
00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:07,160
Speaker 1: High Times episode In Martha Stewart, hodgepodge is a big

927
00:47:07,239 --> 00:47:09,920
Speaker 1: jumble of things that don't go together. Modgepodge is the

928
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,839
Speaker 1: craft supply. Just don't want you to embarrass yourselves at

929
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,360
Speaker 1: the craft store. That is from Kelly.

930
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 2: Modgepodge is what you use to glue together a big

931
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:19,840
Speaker 2: jumble of things that don't go together.

932
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:20,960
Speaker 1: Exactly.

933
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:23,839
Speaker 2: That's a great Kelly. Thank you, and to the other

934
00:47:23,920 --> 00:47:26,480
Speaker 2: thousand of you who wrote in. It's nice to know

935
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:29,160
Speaker 2: that there are people out there still using modgepodge.

936
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:30,080
Speaker 1: It's fun.

937
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's fun to say, and it's got

938
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:34,080
Speaker 2: a cute label too.

939
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:36,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, magpodge is really a lot of fun.

940
00:47:36,040 --> 00:47:38,359
Speaker 2: I enjoy it for sure. And we heard from Martha

941
00:47:38,440 --> 00:47:41,480
Speaker 2: Stewart too. She said, yes, I have Modgepodge laying around.

942
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:45,480
Speaker 2: Think Jerry got in touch with there and asked, that's right. Well,

943
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:49,040
Speaker 2: if you want to be like who Kelly? If you

944
00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 2: want to be like Kelly and right in to gently

945
00:47:51,000 --> 00:47:53,440
Speaker 2: correct us, we love that kind of thing. You can

946
00:47:53,480 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 2: send it via email to stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

947
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:03,200
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

948
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:07,480
Speaker 1: more podcasts myheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

949
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:13,920
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.