Fred Harvey

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Frederick Henry Harvey

Born	June 27, 1835(1835-06-27) London, England
Died	February 9, 1901 (aged 65) Leavenworth, Kansas

Frederick Henry Harvey (June 27, 1835–February 9, 1901) was an entrepreneur who developed the Harvey House lunch rooms, restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels, which served rail passengers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Gulf Coast and Santa Fe Railway, the Kansas Pacific Railway, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, and the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. His partnership with the Santa Fe began in 1876 after a failed 3 year business venture with another partner. At its peak, there were 84 Harvey Houses, all of which catered to wealthy and middle-class visitors alike. They continued to be built and operated into the 1960s. Harvey was the head of the Fred Harvey Company, which operated the hotel and restaurant chain under the leadership of his sons and grandson Nick Harvey until 1968 when it was sold to the Hawaii-based conglomerate Amfac, Inc.

When Fred Harvey died (of intestinal cancer), there were 47 Harvey House restaurants, 15 hotels, and 30 dining cars operating on the Santa Fe Railway. His last words to his sons were reportedly "Don't cut the ham too thin, boys."

A Fred Harvey museum is located in the former Harvey residence in Leavenworth, Kansas. A movie musical entitled The Harvey Girls, starring Judy Garland, Cyd Charisse, and Angela Lansbury, and based on a near-pulp novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams was made in 1946. It won the Academy Award for Best Song for "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe."

Harvey is also known for pioneering the art of commercial cultural tourism. His "Indian Detours" were meant to provide an authentic Native American experience by having actors stage a certain lifestyle in the desert in order to sell tickets to unwitting tourists.^[1] Fred Harvey's feats of marketing did not stop at the attraction either, as for tour guides he used attractive women in outfits becoming their figures. This same tactic was adapted to his Harvey Houses as well.^[2]

Fred Harvey was also a postcard publisher, touted as "the best way to promote your Hotel or Restaurant." Most postcards were published in co-operation with the Detroit Publishing Company. Their Arizona "Phostint" postcards are collected worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

The Casa del Desierto ("House of the Desert") located in Barstow, California is seen here in 2006. The Spanish-Moroccan designed structure took two years to construct, and opened its doors on February 22, 1911.