- Self - Comedian: Of course, when you say "Automat" or "Horn & Hardart", very few people know what you're talking about. But, one of the greatest inventions in sane centers of paradise, where these places that had little glass windows, framed in brass, with knobs. And if you put two nickels into the slot next to the windows, the windows would open up, and you could take out a piece of lemon meringue pie for ten cents. And you could eat it. And that was called the Automat.
- Self - Co-Author, 'The Automat': What is in effect, the first Horn & Hardart cafeteria, was not really efficient. Fortunately, Horn & Hardart had a chief engineer named John Fritsche.
- Self - Automat Historian: Fritsche developed a lot of patents related to the Automat technology. He introduced the fundamental innovation of the drum. He found ways to make them hold both hot and cold food. He changed the way the coin slots worked.
- Self - Co-Author, 'The Automat': Fritsche came up with the vending machine wall and all the little doors.
- Self - Automat Historian: America at this time had a real fascination with machine age technology and anything that acted like that had a big attraction. And very quickly, Horn & Hardart's new Automat was a success in Philadelphia. And the decision to expand to New York was an obvious one. It was the next, really large, industrial urban center.
- Self - Co-Author, 'The Automat': And that was the beginning of one of the most successful restaurant chains in America, ever.
- Self - Architectural Dealer: The Automat closing, unfortunately, said something about the way that the world was going to be. They had been the most optimistic, imaginable places. But, an original Automat converted to a Burger King - this was exactly the opposite.
- Self - Automat Historian: Around the time Horn & Hardart were opening their first restaurants in Philadelphia, the automatic restaurant was showing up in various parts of northern Europe. These restaurants were basically dumb waiter systems where you would order something in a dining room upstairs and that order would be conveyed to people downstairs who'd prepare the food and then send it up via a small dumb waiter. Frank Hardart discovered this Automat in Germany and arranged to import the enitre Automat along with some engineers to install it in what was then the first automatic restaurant in America.
- Self - Great Nephew of H&H Founder: I'm standing at the corner of Third Avenue and 42nd Street. This location was the last Automat that existed.
- Self - Executive Chairman, Starbucks: It was the excitement, discovery, surprise, and delight, on my first visit as a young boy, that inspired me to think about the experience I wanted to create at Starbucks.
- Self - New York City Historian: Horn & Hardart is a cultural icon in New York. In the immigration wave from the 1880s to 1920, the immigrants who came to New York were looking for something American - and Horn & Hardart served as an Americanization process. If you cold go there, you could feel like you were part of the larger American stream. Horn & Hardart, like the subway linked us, were universally accessible. It didn't matter whether you were rich or poor, when you had to travel, you took a subway, when you had to eat, you went to the Horn & Hardart. We know you don't need English, because, nobody has to speak. In a land of foreigners, that became a place of identification and you feel almost patriotic.
- Self - New York City Historian: Social custom was changing slowly. Women started being able to go out to eat on their own. And women of the 1920s went to Horn & Hardart.
- Self - Co-Author, 'The Automat': It was a place a woman would feel comfortable and safe and they had good quality food.
- Self - Comedian: That was the great thing about the Automat. You didn't need a lot of money, you needed a lot of nickels; but, you didn't need a lot of money.
- Self - Automat Historian: Between the 1880s and 1920 or so, the number of stenographers in New York City jumped from 5,000 to 300,000. This enormous growth in the number of women in the workforce, meant that there was enormous growth in the number of women who needed to eat lunch out of their homes.
- Self - Architectural Dealer: My responsibility, I think, about the Automat, has more to do with the concept of the Automat than it does with the machines themselves. It started with a set of principals. Mr. Horn and Mr. Hardart said you can do something the right way, you don't have to compromise, it's harder that way, it's more work, but, you can do it - and you ought to do it. That's what they said. And then they proved it - by doing it.
- Self - Comedian: I've been to Paris, I've been to Vienna, I've paid $35 for a cup of coffee, not half as good as that nickel Horn & Hardart coffee. And if I could save enough nickels, I could have two cups.
- Self - U.S. Supreme Court Justice: On Saturdays, I took piano lessons on West 73rd Street and on 72nd Street there was an Automat. I could usually find a table upstairs where I could read a book or do homework while eating lunch.
- Self - U.S. Secretary of State: The one we would usually go to is the Automat that was at 42nd Street. We never even thought about the fact that I'm a black kid, should I go into Horn & Hardart? Is it okay to go to the Automat? All the Automats had that beautiful diversity that didn't exist in most of the rest of the country - of economic standing, of color, of ethnicity, of language. You'd never know what you'd run into in an Automat.
- Self - U.S. Secretary of State: This photo was taken when I was about seven years old, living in the south Bronx, immigrant family, not making a great deal of money. So, you have to understand we almost never went to a restaurant. I don't ever remember going to a restaurant anywhere in the south Bronx. We always ate at home or over at a relative. So, going to an Automat was not just the experience of seeing this mechanized food delivery system, it was going to a restaurant. And as a kid it was such a thrill to walk into this place. Sparkling. It shone - it literally blasted you with the marble and with the tables that were marble. And there it is. This wall of little compartments. The beautiful chrome rimmed knobs. And you knew that it was somebody behind those little compartments, you never saw them, but you knew they had to be there. And, better than that, the food was good.
- Self - U.S. Supreme Court Justice: It was a good place to eat. The food was delicious. The prices were right. But, more than that, it was the fact that there were all kinds of people - from poor people to matrons in furs.
- Self - Son of President of H&H: In 1953, the company served 2,206,000 beef pies, 1,427,000 chicken pies, 10,652,000 dessert pies, 3,388,000 hamburgers, 4,886,000 chop sirloins, 6,527,000 loaves of bread, 314,000 gallons of baked beans, and 2,355,000 pounds a macaronis. That's a lot of food - and we were feed 800,000 people a day.
- Self - Automat Historian: Horn & Hardart was loosing money on every cup of coffee that they sold. Post-war inflation made everything more expensive and the nickel was no longer worth what it once was. They waited as long as they could afford to, until finally Horn & Hardart raised the price of coffee. But, the vending machine couldn't take pennies. So, Horn & Hardart had to go to ten cents. They doubled the price. The results were disastrous. The number of cups of coffee sold immediately dropped 70 million a year to 45 million.
- Self - Co-Author, 'The Automat': Jack Benny liked the Automat. He decided to launch a TV series there. He had a reputation of being cheap. And he invited all the celebrities, Helen Hayes and people like that, in their long gowns and their tuxedos. And when when they got to the Automat, Jack Benny gave them a roll of nickels.
- Self - Executive Chairman, Starbucks: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. And as a young boy, I had always heard about New York City and Manhattan. I must have been about 10 years old when my Aunt Shirley took me into Manhattan for the first time in my life. She took me to Radio City Music Hall. It was amazing. We got out of Radio City and she said I'm going to take you to a very special place. Walked in, I remember putting money in the window and the next thing I knew, the window opened and I received an apple pie. And at that age, of 10 or so, I was mystified. How did this happen? And I remember asking my Aunt and she said there's a magician on the other side. And I believed that and I have never stopped threading everything we've done at Starbucks with that initial experience.
- Self - Actor: [Horn & Hardart] They also sponsored a television show that was on Sundays called, "The Children's Hour"... Ed Herlihy, he was the announcer... I had been a child performer and I knew some of the kids, they could do things I couldn't even dream of doing... They auditioned hundreds of children every month... You'd be surprised how many people got there start on The Children's Hour": Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Fisher, Lesley Uggams, Arnold Stang, Frankie Avalon, Bernadette Peters, Gregory Hines, Madeline Kahn...
- Self - Philadelphia Mayor: For years, I thought Horn & Hardarts was only in Philadelphia. Yes, they had good food; but, it was an important place for me and other people. I can say there were parts of Philadelphia that were segregated, a lot of skating rinks and bowling alleys. But, Horn and Hardarts was a nice place where African Americans could go and feel dignified.
- Self - Art Director, H&H: It was the age of the fancy coffee shop. And, so, they were fancy and not very good. And Horn & Hardart, the food was wonderful; but, the experience people had in there was not not always the best. There's a story about a southern girl who came to New York. She said, "I went into Horn & Hardart and I tried the baked beans and, mmm, they were fine. And the candied sweet potatoes, they were just like down home. And then I had some of that lemon meringue pie. And then the man sittin' across the way from me, he flopped it out right in my pie."
- Self - Architectural Dealer: I think that the principals that they pioneered and the ideals that they had, are still alive today. Anybody can do anything and embrace the notion that you can be successful by being as inclusive as possible, as democratic as possible, as generous as possible, and still make it.
- Self - Comedian: And that was the end. And it was too bad, because, it was such a great experiment. It had some style and it was different. The marble. The brass. The floors. The pillars. The chatter. The coffee. It was the Automat.
- Self - Comedian: Carl liked baked beans. We both love baked beans. He loved creamed spinach, like I like creamed spinach. But, mostly, we really loved - the pies. The strawberry rhubarb. Great crust. Great tartness in the rhubarb. The strawberries were sweetened with sugar.
- Self - Comedian: If we didn't have that we'd settle for an apple pie, which was also very good.
- Self - Comedian: Lemon meringue not only looked big, but, you could smash your face into it.
- Self - Comedian: Chocolate pudding pie, which only came in the winter.
- Self - Comedian: Carl mentioned, probably, the chocolate pudding pie with the cream - he liked that.
- Self - Comedian: We waited patiently all year for it. That was the best pie.
- Self - Comedian: Really, there was nothing like their cocoanut custard pie. It was truly heaven. I mean, how could anybody think of putting together the cocoanut and the custard and the cream. Cocoanut custard pie - God made that.
- Automat Patron: Oh, fuhgeddaboudit! Are you kidding me? The baked beans are the best. For a nickel. Right? You don't get nothin' for a nickel today.
- Self - Comedian: [singing] This one was the top, There was nothing like the coffee at the Automat, Its aroma and its flavor were supreme, From a silver dolphin spout, the coffee came right out, Not to mention at the end a little spurt of cream!
- Self - Automat Historian: Even though Horn & Hardart only operated in two cities, in it's day and for many decades, it was the largest restaurant chain in America, by any measure. The number of restaurants it had, the number of people it served every day, the number of people it employed, it was a true phenomenon of its time.