How Automats Worked

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Should Know – "How Automats Worked"

Introduction

In the January 23, 2025 episode of Stuff You Should Know, hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant delve into the fascinating world of automats—a pioneering concept in the history of dining. Inspired by Lisa Hurwitz's acclaimed documentary The Automat, the hosts explore the origins, operations, cultural significance, and eventual decline of automats in the United States. Joined by their new writer, Laura Clausen, the episode promises a comprehensive look into this unique aspect of culinary and social history.

History of Automats

The story of automats begins in Berlin, Germany, where the first automat emerged in 1895. Originally a general term for vending machines, automats quickly won a gold medal at the Brussels World Fair, igniting interest across Europe. Within five years, the concept spread throughout the continent, setting the stage for its transatlantic journey to the United States.

Josh Clark recounts, “The first automat popped up in Berlin in 1895, and the word automat was just more of a general term for a vending machine in Germany” (03:14). In the United States, automats were introduced by Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart, founders of a successful cafeteria chain in Philadelphia. Despite initial setbacks—such as a shipwreck that sank their equipment and a warehouse fire—Horn and Hardart persevered, establishing their first American automat in 1902.

By 1912, Horn and Hardart expanded to New York City, and within two decades, they operated 42 automats in New York and 20 in Philadelphia, becoming the largest restaurant chain in the country. Their success during the Great Depression is particularly notable, as automats offered affordable comfort food and a welcoming environment during a time of economic hardship.

Features and Appeal of Automats

Automats revolutionized the dining experience with their self-service model. Customers navigated through walls of glass-fronted compartments, each housing different dishes. As Laura Clausen explains, “You would put your money in and you get your food out and you go sit down” (06:19). This system allowed patrons to choose food based on visuals rather than needing to read a menu, making it accessible to non-English speakers and those with varying literacy levels.

The aesthetic appeal of automats cannot be overstated. Described as “gorgeous” and “art deco,” these establishments featured marble, stained glass, bronze accents, and large windows that flooded the interiors with light (18:47). The ambiance was both futuristic and welcoming, reminiscent of the optimistic design ethos of the early 20th century.

One of the standout features was the quality and freshness of the food. Josh highlighted, “Horn and Hardart had a different take. They had French drip coffee, which was still an exotic treat” (19:17). Their commitment to freshness meant that items like baked beans and oyster stew were regularly replenished to ensure a high-quality dining experience.

Operations Behind Automats

Automats operated with remarkable efficiency, supported by central commissary kitchens that prepared large quantities of food to be distributed across their locations. The term “nickel throwers” referred to the employees, predominantly women, who managed the coin-operated dispensing systems. These workers were essential in maintaining the flow of food and ensuring that compartments were consistently stocked.

However, the reliance on nickels presented economic challenges. In 1950, as the value of the nickel declined due to inflation, Horn and Hardart had to increase the price of their coffee from five cents to ten cents to remain profitable (22:37). This price hike, though necessary, led to a significant drop in sales—from 70 million cups a year to 45 million—highlighting the delicate balance between affordability and sustainability.

Cultural Impact

Automats were more than just places to eat; they were social hubs that embodied inclusivity and diversity long before these values became mainstream. Josh and Laura emphasize that automats welcomed patrons regardless of race, gender, or economic status. As Laura notes, “They never knew what you'd run into in an automat” (40:03), reflecting the multicultural mosaic of urban America.

Celebrity endorsements and cultural references further cemented the automat’s place in society. Icons like Audrey Hepburn, James Dean, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks frequented Horn and Hardart’s establishments, adding to their allure. Neil Simon’s nostalgic reflection captures the essence: “To have your own stack of nickels placed in your tiny hands... was a lesson in financial dealings” (28:10).

Decline of Automats

Despite their early success, automats began to decline in the 1960s due to several interrelated factors. Suburbanization led to a shift in population away from urban centers, reducing the foot traffic essential for automats’ survival. Additionally, the rise of fast-food chains like Burger King introduced a new, competitive dining model that prioritized speed and consistency over the unique charm of automats.

Laura explains, “As they started going downhill, a different kind of shopper started coming in... people that were itinerant, people that were unhoused, people that were vagrants” (44:38). This change in clientele made automats less appealing to their original middle-class patrons, creating a vicious cycle of dwindling revenues and reduced appeal.

Horn and Hardart attempted various innovations to revive interest, including themed environments like a Wild West room and beer gardens. However, these efforts were largely unsuccessful. Ultimately, the company decided to replace automats with fast-food franchises, leading to the closure of the last Horn and Hardart automat in New York City in 1991.

Legacy and Modern Attempts

The legacy of automats is evident in the fast-food industry, which adopted elements of the automat’s self-service model and efficient food distribution systems. Josh reflects, “The automat kind of helped lay the foundation for fast food” (46:29), noting similarities in the streamlined, standardized approach to serving food.

In modern times, there have been attempts to revive the automat concept with technological advancements. Examples include automated sushi conveyor belts in Japan and app-based locker systems for ordering food. While these innovations capture some of the automat’s essence, they lack the extensive human-operated backend that characterized the original automats.

Conclusion

Stuff You Should Know's episode on automats provides an in-depth exploration of this unique dining phenomenon. From their innovative beginnings in Europe to their cultural significance and eventual decline in America, automats represent a fascinating intersection of technology, society, and culinary evolution. The hosts effectively highlight how automats were not only places to eat but also social landmarks that promoted inclusivity and community. Despite their disappearance, the automat’s influence persists in today’s fast-food industry and modern automated food services, underscoring their lasting impact on how we perceive and interact with food establishments.

Notable Quotes

• Josh Clark: “Horn and Hardart was already business together... they figured out the best way to predict the future was to build it themselves.” (09:59)

• Laura Clausen: “They had a motto, which was serve everybody and serve everybody in the same way.” (39:27)

• Josh Clark: “To have your own stack of nickels placed in your tiny hands, to be able to choose your own food... was a lesson in financial dealings that not even two years at the Wharton School could buy today.” (28:10)

• Josh Clark: “There was nothing more newsy or current than that [the automat].” (03:14)

Timestamps Overview

• 00:03:14 - Introduction to the episode topic inspired by the documentary.
• 00:06:19 - Explanation of the automat’s self-service model.
• 00:09:59 - Horn and Hardart’s perseverance in bringing automats to the U.S.
• 00:18:47 - Description of automats' aesthetic and ambiance.
• 00:19:17 - Highlighting the quality of Horn and Hardart’s coffee.
• 00:22:37 - Economic challenges related to pricing changes.
• 00:28:10 - Neil Simon’s nostalgic quote on automats.
• 00:38:21 - Emphasis on inclusivity and diversity in automats.
• 00:39:27 - Laura Clausen on the egalitarian motto of automats.
• 00:40:03 - Discussion on automats as welcoming spaces for immigrants.
• 00:44:38 - Shift in automat clientele contributing to decline.

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This comprehensive summary captures the essence of Josh, Chuck, and Laura's discussion on automats, providing listeners with a detailed understanding of their historical significance, operational mechanics, cultural impact, and the factors leading to their decline. The inclusion of notable quotes and timestamps enriches the narrative, offering insightful reflections from the hosts throughout the episode.

Transcript

[Josh Clark]

Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Thanks, Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC.

[Chuck Bryant]

Tired of restless nights at Lisa? They know good sleep is essential for mental, physical, and emotional health. From memory foam mattresses, hybrids that keep you cool all night long. Lisa's mattresses offer exceptional comfort and support with free delivery and 100 nights to try out your mattress in the comfort of your home. Go to leesa.com today and get 20% off all mattresses and two free pillows. That's leesa.com and use code iheart for an extra $50 off your purchase. Remember, no matter who you are, there's a Lisa just for you.

[Jerry]

Welcome to stuff you should know. A production of iHear.

[Josh Clark]

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. And there's Chuck. And Jerry's not here, but Chuck is. And Chuck's new nickname is Poopy McGee.

[Laura Clausen]

Actually, Pukey.

[Josh Clark]

Not both.

[Laura Clausen]

No. Here's the story, everybody. I went to Mexico City again and got sick again, thankfully, at the end. And I couldn't record yesterday, but we were in danger of missing a published date for the first time.

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Laura Clausen]

In 17 years.

[Josh Clark]

Grave danger, I would say. Like, It's Wednesday at 3, and we need an episode for tomorrow at 5am Right.

[Laura Clausen]

And we've never cut it this close. So first of all, my friend, thank you for your flexibility.

[Josh Clark]

Thank you for not throwing up long enough to record this episode.

[Laura Clausen]

I last threw up about an hour ago, man. And the main problem is it's just. I've been in, like, a fugue state, man. I have nothing in my body for three days now.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Laura Clausen]

So I'm just like, spacey and can I told you on an email you guys still love this. That, like, I'll go 30 minutes where I just, like. I'm just so zoned out, I can't have a. I don't even have a coherent thought for a half hour.

[Josh Clark]

I know.

[Laura Clausen]

Josh said. Well, that part sounds kind of nice.

[Josh Clark]

It really does, man. To be able to just turn it off.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. But, you know, I love that city. I'm gonna keep going back. I'm gonna. Maybe next time drink only bottled things and not even cocktails with ice. I'm trying to figure out what's triggering me. It may just be my biome and some of the food. I don't know.

[Josh Clark]

You need to learn four words in Spanish. I'll have that neat. Okay.

[Laura Clausen]

It's not a bad idea, but I'm still gonna go back. I'm gonn. May have also triggered my diverticulitis. So that may be why it's extending here into day three. I don't know. But I'm here. And this gives us, dude. A rare opportunity to do anything newsy or, like, current, if you want to mention anything.

[Josh Clark]

Well, that's what we're doing. We're doing an episode on Automats. There's nothing more newsy or current than that.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right, Automats. And we need to give a big shout out to a documentary called the Automat from director Lisa Hurwitz, because it's great and I saw it a couple of years ago and that's what inspired this episode. But I wanted to. I don't want to, like, ride on the heels of this great doc, you know, kind of swoop in and do a podcast episode about it. But great documentary. It's streaming on Max. Highly recommend it. She did a great job. I can't wait to see what she does next. And it was a big help.

[Josh Clark]

Here we have another huge shout out to give. This is the first episode we're doing with help from our new writer, Laura Clausen.

[Laura Clausen]

So, yeah, welcome aboard, Laura. Laura came to us through Livia, which is all the recommendation we needed.

[Josh Clark]

Right, right, exactly.

[Laura Clausen]

And she's been great.

[Josh Clark]

I've been thinking, Chuck, a lot of our writers have good nicknames.

[Laura Clausen]

Okay?

[Josh Clark]

Laura spells her last name like Claw, C L, A W, son. So I think we should call Laura Dr. Claw.

[Laura Clausen]

Okay, I thought you're gonna say the clawster.

[Josh Clark]

No, Dr. Claw. It's an inspector gadget reference.

[Laura Clausen]

Dr. Oh, okay. I never watched that.

[Josh Clark]

I actually have seen it. So if you don't have cable, but you have an antenna over the air. Antenna?

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

There's a station called ME tv and they just play all sorts of great reruns and everything. Well, they just launched a whole new channel called METV Tunes and they show some deep cut tunes. I mean, like Beetlejuice, the cartoon. There's Scooby doo on at 6pm Eastern every day, which makes me very happy. But they show Inspector Gadget too. And I was like, this is actually a much better cartoon than I remembered.

[Laura Clausen]

Is this in your off grid panic room? Like, where are you watching Antenna tv?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, no, I've got a really high tech setup. I have hijacked the coaxial cables throughout my house and I connected my outdoor antenna to the indoor cable feed so I can connect TVs throughout my house to get the reception from the outdoor antenna.

[Laura Clausen]

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

[Josh Clark]

It works really well.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, I love it.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, so there you go. You don't need to just stream. You can also get free tv.

[Laura Clausen]

Heck yeah, man. I had free TV for many, many, many, many years.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, well, you need to be watching MeTV tunes, Chuck.

[Laura Clausen]

All right, I'll check it out. Should we talk automats or did you have another announcement?

[Josh Clark]

No, no, no, I don't have any announcements, but I do have a question for you.

[Laura Clausen]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

Chuck, have you ever eaten food?

[Laura Clausen]

By the way, this is gonna be a tough one for me to get through for obvious reasons. Yeah, yeah, because in the first paragraph I saw the words oyster stew earlier and I almost vomited in my mouth.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, same here. And I don't even have diverticulitis.

[Laura Clausen]

I have not eaten food in three days. But I used to eat food.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, nice. Okay, well, Chuck, then I think you would have enjoyed a trip to the automat.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right. And we've been at it for six minutes. We might as well go ahead and say that the automat was a grouping of chain restaurants. Self serve restaurants, sort of like a cafeteria, but instead of being served in a line where people would dump food on a tray, they had these walls filled with glass fronted compartments and you would put in some money and a slot and you would open the door and get your piece of pie or your chicken pot pie or your pot roast or whatever have you.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, your oyster stew. Yeah. But you got to. You would walk up and you just sit there with your finger like on your lower lip, looking from case to case, trying to figure out what appealed to you. Right then very much like you were looking at the menu, but you were looking at the actual food you were going to consume instead. So you didn't even need to be able to read to know what you wanted at this. At an automat. And then like you said, you put your money in and you get your food out and you go sit down. And to people who first went to the automat, Chuck, we're talking like this is the turn of the last century when they started to take off. This was as high tech as anything got. Because it's really important to point out in like the first third, at least of the 20th century, a lot of people in the United States didn't have a refrigerator. They might have had an icebox, but they certainly didn't have anything pumping Freon through it.

[Laura Clausen]

No cable tv?

[Josh Clark]

No. No cable tv. Not even over the air antennas in some cases. Yeah, no Beetlejuice, the cartoon. And they also might not even have electricity in their home. So the idea of this futuristic serve yourself out of a glass case that's lit kind of experience was. Was a really big deal. And what's even more remarkable is. So, okay, you're like, yeah, Everybody in the 1910s was just a yokel by definition. Right, right. These things lasted until the 1960s, and they were still viewed as these amazing places to go eat.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. I mean, the last one. This is remarkable. The very last one in New York closed in 91.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Laura Clausen]

Which is hard to believe. They saw a couple of sad decades, a few sad decades before that, but we'll get to all that. But should we go to the beginning?

[Josh Clark]

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

[Laura Clausen]

And where else are we going to go but our old friend Germany? Because the first automat popped up in Berlin in 1895, and the word automat was just more of a general term for a vending machine in Germany, but it won a gold medal a couple of years later at the Brussels World Fair. Europe kind of got into them a little bit, and they spread around Europe over the next five or so years before making the leap to the United States.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And it took a little college try, I guess, the first few times, for it to make that leap across the Atlantic. And it was two guys, Joseph Horne and Frank Harder, whose last names would become synonymous with automats. In fact, depending on what city you were in, you would probably refer to the automat as a Horn and Hardart. That's just. They were. It was like. They were like the Kleenex of automats, essentially. Right.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

They were already in business together. They owned a chain of cafeterias in Philadelphia. And they said, what's next? What will the future bring? And they figured out the best way to predict the future was to build it themselves. And I think they actually made a trip to Germany and found out about the automats, and they decided they wanted to bring it back to the United States. And like I said, it took a few attempts for them to actually get it to work. Right.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. Their first one in Philly, which was the first one overall, was 1902. But the equipment, you know, because it started in Europe, was in Europe. And they tried to get some of the stuff shipped over there. You know, these big beautiful cases with the coin slots and the little windows and everything. And the ship sunk in the Atlantic, so they lost all that gear. They tried again. And these were victim to a warehouse fire, but salvageable. They repaired that stuff. They got them up and working, and they beat out their closest competitor. There was one called Harcomb in New York that went out of business. I think it was a little fancier. And H and H definitely leaned toward, as we'll see, serving just sort of solid, affordable comfort food to the masses.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And so Horn and Hardart's automats, I think, like you said, started in Philadelphia. And then after Harcomb went out of business, Horn and Hardart kind of muscled in on that market, which is actually pretty brave because somebody had already proven that automats may not work in New York.

[Laura Clausen]

Good point.

[Josh Clark]

But I guess they had faith in their food. They were like, have you tried this oyster stew? It's amazing.

[Laura Clausen]

Gotta stop saying that.

[Josh Clark]

And so they hit. They hit New York, I think, in 1912. And by 1932, 20 years later, they had 42 automats in New York City, another 20 in Philadelphia.

[Laura Clausen]

Amazing.

[Josh Clark]

And H and H became the largest restaurant chain in the entire United States. The United States was big at the time.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. And this is like. That's funny, by the way. This is like during the Great Depression, like, people were going out of business right and left, and they actually, H and H thrived during the Depression because, again, everything was really cheap. It was comforting stuff, as you'll see. The coffee was great. The food was fresh and. Well, maybe not more than anything, but additionally, it was. It was a great place to go. They were beautiful places. Generally. They were clean and they were safe. And we'll get to a bunch of other ways that they were inclusive as we go on.

[Josh Clark]

They were also known because they were clean and safe and you could get really good coffee for a nickel. They became places where you would just go sit and rest your dogs or take a load off for a little while or catch your breath, whatever you wanted to do for a little while. And one of the reasons why people did that was because part of the. The allure of the automat was that there was no front of house staff generally. There were no servers, there was no maitre d. There was no manager. They. If there was a manager, they were in the back.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So you didn't feel, like, hustled or rushed or like anybody was judging you for Sitting there as long as you want, nursing a single cup of 5 cent coffee. And so like automats kind of, kind of got that reputation where you could just go chill out. And as. As big of a deal as they were in New York and Philadelphia, they actually didn't take off everywhere, even though people tried. Because Horn and Hardart was so successful.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of hard to believe in a way, because they were so successful there, you would think. And the other places, like, of course the, the obvious ones, they went to Chicago, Boston, D.C. and Detroit and some other places. But you know, those are big cities and it's just odd that they didn't take off there. But we do have a quote here from New York history, from a guy, or an idea rather from this guy named Nicholas Brommel, who basically was like, you know what, in New York, it's so dense. And they really concentrated the restaurants around offices, like in the garment district, in the financial district, in Midtown, where people were either shopping or like going to work, far less in like the. The quieter neighborhood streets and stuff like that. So it was just so densely packed and everyone knows how. How busy New York foot traffic is around those places. And that was at least Nicholas Brommel's take on why they took off in New York and Philly.

[Josh Clark]

I have my own take.

[Laura Clausen]

Let's hear it.

[Josh Clark]

At the very least in Detroit, it didn't work because of the name they used for the restaurant. The automat in Detroit was called Automatic Lunchroom Number One. I mean, that's like that cereal. That's like a plain white box that says Bran Flakes in just black font. Yeah, or beer. Like that beer can. You got me that time.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, yeah. I mean, I kind of like the off brand stuff, but yeah, that's definitely weirdly vague.

[Josh Clark]

That's not off brand. That's off brand.

[Laura Clausen]

Awful.

[Josh Clark]

You want to take a break?

[Laura Clausen]

Uh, yeah, let's take a break. We'll be right back.

[Josh Clark]

Take a break so you can go throw up. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Thanks. Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com bank capital1na member FDIC.

[Jerry]

Tired of restless nights at Lisa. They know good sleep is essential for mental, physical and emotional health. From memory foam mattresses to hybrids that keep you cool all night long. Leesa's mattresses offer exceptional comfort and support with free delivery and 100 nights to try out your mattress in the comfort of your home. Go to leesa.com today and get 20% off all mattresses and two free pillows. That's L-E-E-S-A.com and use code iheart for an extra $50 off your purchase. Remember, no matter who you are, there's a Lisa just for you.

[Jon Stewart]

Catch Jon Stewart back in action on the Daily show and in your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondents and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now. Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Matt Levine]

The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers.

[Amanda Mull]

So that's why we created the Big Take from Bloomberg podcasts to give you the context you need to make sense of it all.

[Matt Levine]

Every day in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters.

[Amanda Mull]

You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine.

[Josh Clark]

A lot of this meme stock stuff is, I think, embarrassing to the Sec.

[Amanda Mull]

Amanda Mall, who writes our BusinessWeek Buying Power column.

[Jerry]

Very few companies who go viral are, like, totally prepared for what that means.

[Amanda Mull]

And Zoe Tillman, senior legal reporter.

[Jerry]

Courts are not supposed to decide elections. Courts are not really supposed to play a big role in choosing our elected leaders. It's for the voters to decide.

[Matt Levine]

Follow the Big Take podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen.

[Laura Clausen]

Okay, we're back. I did not throw up. I think I'm good. It's been subsiding every day in the afternoon, and I feel fine.

[Josh Clark]

Good.

[Laura Clausen]

And then in the morning again, I'm nauseous. So that's why I think it's a diverticulitis.

[Josh Clark]

Man, that is awful. Are you gonna be able to record tomorrow?

[Laura Clausen]

We'll see.

[Josh Clark]

All right.

[Laura Clausen]

No, I'll be okay. I'll be fine.

[Josh Clark]

Good.

[Laura Clausen]

I'm gonna do a lot of studying after this.

[Josh Clark]

Okay, good.

[Laura Clausen]

All right. So we were talking about the busyness of New York and why it worked out there, and one of the other reasons it was really popular because, like I mentioned, it was a very clean place. They prided themselves at least in the heyday, decades, they did go downhill and, you know, kind of fall into a little bit of shabbiness. But in the heyday, they were known as being really, really, really clean, safe places. And believe it or not, at the time, there were a lot of cafeterias that like, if you were an unaccompanied woman, they would not serve you. You had to be in there with your husband. Or they just served men like businessmen. So a woman could go in by herself, children could go in. And it wasn't like a seedy thing. Families could feel safe, like they were in a clean place with good food. And also a lot of these are really, really beautiful restaurants on the inside.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, they were like, there's a really low likelihood that one customer was going to expose themselves to the other customers. It just wasn't that kind of place. Right.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And like you said, they are gorgeous. They were art deco, which was the trend at the time. Beautiful. And they, they would have. Some of them had like two story facades. There was a lot of marble, stained glass, bronze everywhere. They had big windows that let in tons of light. Some of them had a mezzanine, upstairs dining area. Like they were huge. And then they also paid attention to details too, like that famous coffee that you were talking about. You would put your nickel in this cool little dispenser and the coffee came out of like an Italianate dolphin's mouth.

[Laura Clausen]

That it's a beautiful. Like, I would love to find one of those on ebay.

[Josh Clark]

Just they're there.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, you can buy those. How much are they?

[Josh Clark]

I didn't see, but I'll get you one just as a present for recording today. How about that?

[Laura Clausen]

Well, I think in the. I mean, it's been a while since I've seen the doc, but I think there was someone that is getting like the automat machines too, and collecting and restoring them.

[Josh Clark]

Wow, nice.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, pretty cool.

[Josh Clark]

Kind of like the Merv Griffin set. They just found him out back up at Burger King.

[Laura Clausen]

What I never heard.

[Josh Clark]

You remember in Seinfeld when Kramer found the old Merv Griffin set, started hosting the Merv Griffin show in his apartment?

[Laura Clausen]

That's right. Burger King will come back again in this episode, believe it or not.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. So you said they were rigorously clean. That was one of the things they were known for. The other thing they were known for was that their food was like really fresh. I couldn't think of a non offensive way to put it, but it was a really fresh take on food.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, I think it Was as fresh as food could be for that format.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly.

[Laura Clausen]

Let's say that the coffee was super fresh. Like after 20 minutes they would throw the coffee out and put new coffee in the food they did not sell the next day. And if you're thinking God what a lot of food waste cause they're pre making this stuff. And we'll get to that in a sec. But a little bit of genius here is they had three different day old shops in lower income neighborhoods in New York. So the next day they would sell the food there at a discount. So even if you didn't have the nickel for the piece of pie or whatever, you might be able to get it for like two or three cents the next day.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, or two and a half cents. If you could find a half cent.

[Laura Clausen]

I'll eat a pie for a week. So I'm fine with that for sure.

[Josh Clark]

As long as it hasn't fallen on the street in public. For sure.

[Laura Clausen]

No street piece.

[Josh Clark]

And they were also known for that really good coffee. Right. That came out of dolphins mouths. So at the time, if you were in America, the coffee you drank, and this is the, I don't know, the 1910s, it was boiled and there was no filter, no nothing. So like grounds would come out. So your coffee was gritty. There was no filter again to take out any of the oils, any of the tastes. It was harsh, harsh coffee. And that's what people drank. And you liked it and you didn't complain because the coffee would punch you in the face if you did. It was that kind of coffee. Well, Horn and Hardart had a different take. They had French drip. Right. Which is still makes pretty good coffee. Yeah, but at the time you had to go to New Orleans to get coffee like that. And Horn and Hard are serving the stuff in New York and Philadelphia at all of their 60 plus automats for a nickel. And every 20 minutes they throw out the old coffee and bring in fresh stuff.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right. They sold so much coffee that they ended up losing money on it because they kept it locked into that nickel price for 38 years.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, and I did the math. In 1912, which is when they hit New York, a nickel was worth $1.60 today. By 1950 it was worth 64 cents. So they started definitely losing money over time on that coffee.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, for sure. So they were losing money. They eventually had to raise the price. The only thing they could do was double it to 10 cents because their slots took nickels and their sales dropped a lot. From 70 million cups. A year to 45 million. They still came out on top, revenue wise, if you do the math. But I remember watching the documentary and they were talking about this. I wondered, and I haven't found a way to wrap my head around how to actually do this topic, but something about change, like coins, and how they established so much commerce, like a coin slot only taking a nickel, the only thing you can do is double it. So what does that mean to the economy? Like there's something there, but I'm just not quite sure how to frame it. So maybe somebody could help me with that.

[Josh Clark]

Maybe we can tie it into that idea that I had about why everything is so much more expensive now, even relatively speaking, than it used to be.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. Cause I mean, the idea of like doubling the cost of something is crazy, even if it's a nickel to a dime at the time. Like doubling your price is just insanity for a business. But there was nothing else it could do.

[Josh Clark]

But even still, even doubling the price from a nickel to a dime in 1950s money that was still 20 or so cents less than what they were getting for it in 1912, adjusting for inflation. So it sounds like to me the bigger problem is that they just doubled it overnight. And again, that's all they could do because their slots only took nickels. So that's what they had to deal with. But like you said, even still, they came out on top revenue wise. But I get the impression that there are probably a lot of grumblers over that kind of thing who really just took super good cheap coffee for granted. And frankly, shame on them.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, they also sold a lot of pieces. And I do remember this from the doc. Pie was a very big deal at H and H in 1964. Here's a pretty fun stat. They sold an average of 822 pieces of pie in New York City between 8 and 11am and there are some people who said, some historians that have said that. I don't know about this, but maybe that there was a desire for people to do things like eat pie for breakfast, but if you had to order it from a server, you might be like, oh, you know, I can't order apple pie for breakfast.

[Josh Clark]

Right. I guess I'll have the pancakes with apples on it.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, exactly. But at the Automat you could just do it on the down low and be quiet about it. I didn't know people would be judgy like that back then, but maybe.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think every. Yeah, because they were pretty proper back then too. You know, pie for breakfast, even today. Though I went and looked, I was like, okay, surely our attitudes have changed. No, no, they haven't. If you look up breakfast pies, it's all like quiches, you know, breakfast stuff, but in like a pie shell or something like that. There's no one out there eating actual pie for breakfast. It's insane.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, because it's a dessert. It's a little weird, for sure. I mean, I like the idea, but it is a dessert.

[Josh Clark]

You can make the case that almost all breakfast foods are desserts in the United States. Man. Have you heard of like ihop?

[Laura Clausen]

So after your steak dinner, you get a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly. I would.

[Laura Clausen]

That sounds good.

[Josh Clark]

Although I don't like biscuits very much as a sandwich. I like a biscuit on its own. Like say a cracker barrel. If you get biscuits and honey, really good. But if you take that biscuit, cut it in half and put anything like an egg, cheese or something on it, I'm like, this is grody. Give me an English muffin. Make it a mix.

[Laura Clausen]

Wow. Okay. Never knew that. All right. Still getting to know each other after all these years. All right, so let's talk a little bit about the nickel throwers. Because if you're going to require a bunch of nickels, you're going to have to have a bunch of nickels. And you don't often come in with a bunch of nickels as a consumer. So they had change people, they were women, basically. They called them nickel throwers and they just sat there all day long shoving nickels across the counter. Just like when I would go to the 99 cent movie when I was a kid, they had a big stack of tickets and a big stack of pennies and they would just shove it back to you in the window. And it was always a lot of fun.

[Josh Clark]

I thought, that's funny. So I guess they decided that that 99 cent price really brought people in. More than a $1 movie would, huh?

[Laura Clausen]

Maybe. And I'm curious how much they would lose in a year on those pennies.

[Josh Clark]

I don't know. You know one of the things though, Chuck, did you see, I guess in the documentary the Nickel Throwers and like the, the bubble glass. The glass bubble fronted things that they said and they look like fortune tellers.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, it's pretty funny.

[Josh Clark]

But it was part of that whole ornate look to everything. Like just the whole. Most of those places were really pretty.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, like you said, it conveyed a sense of the future. Like kids loved it for that reason because they Were. It was like being in the Jetsons or something. But kids also loved it because that gave them a sense of autonomy to go in there and get a couple of nickels from their parents and to be able to walk up and pick something out.

[Josh Clark]

You got to read that Neil Simon quote. It's great.

[Laura Clausen]

Neil Simon. I take issue with this quote or the end of it.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, you. Okay.

[Laura Clausen]

Neil Simon. The great Neil Simon said this when he was a child about going there, or as an adult, about going there as a child. To have your own stack of nickels placed in your tiny hands, to be able to choose your own food richly on display like museum pieces, to make quick and final decisions. At the age of eight, that was a lesson in financial dealings that not even two years at the Wharton School could buy today. Maybe a little hyperbole there.

[Josh Clark]

You think that's hyperbolic?

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, probably so.

[Josh Clark]

But it is a pretty great quote, for sure.

[Laura Clausen]

It's very sweet.

[Josh Clark]

So one of the things, though, is including people like Neil Simon, other people who were interviewed in the Automat documentary, people tend to remember the food as, like, good. And it's entirely possible it was for a while. But the older the. The. The longer you go along in the history of the Automat, the worse the food probably got for a little while. So it's not entirely clear that. That the food was actually good toward the end. And we can't really say because, again, the last one closed in 1991, and I'm guessing by the time that one.

[Laura Clausen]

Closed, it probably wasn't too good.

[Josh Clark]

Right. You shouldn't really compare the food in general, over the course of the history of the Automat to that last one. But I'm guessing it was probably pretty decent for a while, based on some of the stuff I'm reading.

[Laura Clausen]

I bet it was pretty good, if for no other reason than in the 1920s and 30s and 40s and 50s. They use real food.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Laura Clausen]

And real ingredients. And it wasn't like it is today. So I just think by virtue of that, it was probably not bad, you know?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I'm with you. So, Chuck, I say we talk about how automated the automat really was, because it turns out, not really. It was really a facade, Literally, it was a facade of food that seemed to be mysteriously conjured out of nowhere, possibly by robots.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. And that was one of the selling points that, you know, another piece of pie on a tiny plate would pop into that window when one went out. It's not like it just stayed empty. I guess if they ran out of pie. It would. Or they probably put, you know, something else in there. But they had a huge. Actually a few different central commissaries in the city where they would make all this stuff. They would ship it over there. And they had tons and tons and tons of worker bees behind the scenes doing all that stuff. They had these rotating drums that would do the work of filling the actual slots, but there had to be someone filling those drums. So it wasn't a bunch of robots back there. It was not George Jetson. It was just a bunch of people plating stuff up and putting it in the drum to put in the window.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So say that you went up and you're like, I'm gonna have that delicious bowl of bubbling, greasy oyster stew that's just sitting there looking at me in the face. I think one of those oysters might still be alive. That's how good it. And you put your nickel in and you pull the lever. Correct.

[Laura Clausen]

I don't remember if it was a lever, but that sounds about right.

[Josh Clark]

Or like you pulled. Like you were buying cigarettes as a kid when you were 14 in a coin operated machine. That kind of lever is what I'm talking about. Right.

[Laura Clausen]

Well, I didn't like. You did, but sure, I saw the bad kids doing that.

[Josh Clark]

Exactly. So you would do something like that. And then either it would open, like it would allow the little glass compartment window to open up so you could get your oyster stew or what have you from inside, or it might rotate a drum like you were saying, so that that oyster stew was now available to you. And you'd open the window and then there would be an open compartment in the back of the drum that somebody who was working the back of the automat cases would see was empty and would put a new thing of oyster stew in there and then the whole thing would just continue. I also saw that some of them had a photo of the food and that. Yeah, you would, like, open the case and just pull it out. And then the people in back would notice that that one was empty. But suffice to say, however the food came out, there was a way to see in the rear that that compartment needed refilling. And one of the things Horn and Hardart was known for was employing armies of people who made sure that that food was there, that the compartments were full and that the food was fresh, too. That the Salisbury steak wasn't getting jiggly. You know what I mean?

[Laura Clausen]

I'm struggling.

[Josh Clark]

I'm sorry.

[Laura Clausen]

I know you're doing it on purpose. It's all fun.

[Josh Clark]

That last part wasn't on purpose.

[Laura Clausen]

For a while there, they didn't have hot windows. They just had the cold windows. So the hot food was served from a steam table. But it was not too long until they had the hot windows and the cold windows or the hot cases. Probably how they treated their workers is a matter of debate. They struck a couple of times. 1937, they struck. They had 3,000 employees at the time. That failed. That organizing effort did not hold. Then again, in 1952, they struck again. And eventual New York State Supreme Court Justice Melvin Barash was one of the people trying to organize at the time in 1952 and in 1991, he said the conditions were straight out of the 19th century. That effort failed other people. If you watch the documentary, the son of the president of the company said, no, it was great. We had company picnics and Christmas parties, and it was really, really, really great.

[Josh Clark]

Daddy loved the Workers.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, exactly.

[Josh Clark]

There was also an actor named Apache Ramos, who is best known for playing one of the orphans in the warriors, but also is lesser known as having managed the Fat boys in the 80s.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, the Warriors. That warriors, yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Like, come out and play. Yay.

[Laura Clausen]

Apache Ramos. Okay. I'll have to check that guy out.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, man, he had a magnificent Afro in that movie.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, yep. I totally know exactly the guy. Yeah. What a great afro.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. But he also managed the Fat Boys. Like, the Fat Boys are back in the 80s. He worked at an automat, and so did his grandmother. I'm assuming one or the other got the other one the job. But he remembered that the Horn and Hardart would throw holiday parties for the workers children around, like, Christmas time. And, oh, man, can you imagine how beautiful those places looked when they were decorated for Christmas parties in, like, the 50s and 60s. Like, you know, people are like, if you could ever go back in time, what would you do? I would go to that Christmas party.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. Yeah. For sure. This reminds me of a childhood trauma that I suffered because growing up, my sister had a best friend whose father worked for Kraft Foods, and they had a big Kraft, like, they rented Six Flags or something. It was some big thing every year.

[Josh Clark]

Wow.

[Laura Clausen]

My brother's best friend worked for Coca Cola, and every year they had the big Coca Cola picnic thing. I had nobody, and I never got to go. And every single year, I had to watch Scott and Michelle go to the craft event in the Coke event.

[Josh Clark]

Man, that's terrible.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. It still sticks with me after all these years.

[Josh Clark]

Your friend Richie was like, well, my dad owns the tire shop. So come to that, we don't really have a party, but we stand around.

[Laura Clausen]

Should we take another break?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, all right.

[Laura Clausen]

We'll take another break and talk about the inclusivity of the Automat right after this.

[Josh Clark]

Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank Guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast, too. Thanks Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com Bank Capital One NA Member.

[Jerry]

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[Matt Levine]

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[Amanda Mull]

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[Matt Levine]

Every day in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters.

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[Josh Clark]

A lot of this Meme stock stuff is, I think, embarrassing to the sec.

[Amanda Mull]

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[Jerry]

Very few companies who go viral are, like, totally prepared for what that means.

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[Josh Clark]

Okay, Chuck, just before we took a break, you nailed it on the head. You said, we were talking about the inclusivity of the automat, and in particular, the Horn and Hard automat, which they were synonymous with. Automats. They were one of the earliest chain restaurants in the United States to integrate, not discriminate against their clientele. Not just, you know, like, unescorted women, God forbid, but also racially speaking, economically speaking. Like. Like whoever came to a Horn and harder Automat to. To eat was treated equally. And that was huge. I mean, we're talking starting in the 1910s. That was an enormous deal. And that's something that. I mean, my hat's off to them for that.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, for sure. They had a motto, which was serve everybody and serve everybody in the same way, which is a great quote. And Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, is in the documentary, and it's a great, really sweet interview. And he said the one we would usually go to is Automat on 42nd Street. I never even thought about the fact that I'm a black kid. Should I go into Horn and 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 never knew what you'd run into in an automat.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, that's pretty cool. There was also a historian named Lisa Keller, I believe, in the documentary, pointed out that if you were an immigrant, this was a great place for you to go, because you just went and looked at the food and put your nickel in. You didn't really have to be able to read or speak English, and you could still get a good meal of oyster stew. I can't wait to see what Aaron Cooper does with this.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. They were also known for their celebrity fans. There was one very famous Esquire spread. Of course, this is for Esquire. So it was all set up. But in 1951, Audrey Hepburn was photographed for Esquire.

[Josh Clark]

So cute.

[Laura Clausen]

Shopping at an automat. Very cute. But in the documentary, Reiner and Brooks, you know, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks love the automat, and they talk with great adoration about their childhood of going to those restaurants.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And James Dean, his favorite baked beans in the world were Horn and Hardarts baked beans.

[Laura Clausen]

James Bean, more like.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. He really knew what he was talking about, too. That's how he died in that car accident. He was eating some baked beans at the time and lost control of the steering wheel. That's not true, everybody. We did a short stuff on it, so.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, exactly.

[Josh Clark]

Don't me.

[Laura Clausen]

So I guess we're at the sad point, like so many of these episodes that we do on a cool thing from the past, where the Decline begins. The 1960s is when that started. Although they were still like, a huge deal culturally, everyone knew about the automaton. And I don't think we mentioned, you know, at a certain point in New York City, they were so famous that it was like when you go to visit New York, you would go to an automat just for that experience.

[Josh Clark]

Right. Like how, like when we were kids, you went to that city's like, Hard Rock Cafe to get the T shirt. Remember that?

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, man, totally.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. You wear it with your Panama Jack sunglasses, and everybody at home would be like, you had a great summer, obviously.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, yeah. My band did a one gig at the Hard Rock Cafe here in Atlanta one time.

[Josh Clark]

Wowee. Did they put your guitar up under a glass case afterwards?

[Laura Clausen]

They did.

[Josh Clark]

That'd be pretty sweet. They should.

[Laura Clausen]

But the 60s is where things really started to struggle. Even though they were, again, still popular culturally, stockholders were involved by that point, obviously, just revenues started dropping. The suburbs was a big cause of it. When people started moving out to the suburbs. Offices and office complexes started getting built in the suburbs, and people started shopping at malls in the suburbs. And there were fewer and fewer people just, you know, walking around New York doing things like shopping and going to their office. So it just. It started to sort of slowly drop and slowly drop until they got a little weird with some of their ideas, Right?

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Wild West Room. I could not find a picture of that. But apparently one of the automats, this one in Times Square, they put a Wild west room in in 1966. I mean, I'm sure people would have gone crazy for that in 1966.

[Laura Clausen]

Not a wild restroom. That's every restroom in New York City.

[Josh Clark]

There's like a ton of potted plants and a tiger in there.

[Laura Clausen]

Right. They also tried a beer garden. They tried the roller skate waiters thing. They tried live bands and dancing and stuff like that. But eventually Horn and Hardart looked at each other and they said, well, this has clearly seen its best days. The silver lining is we are sitting on a bunch of really valuable real estate.

[Josh Clark]

I know, like 40 buildings in Manhattan.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. And so they're. Don't feel too bad. They were doing okay.

[Josh Clark]

No. But instead of selling them, they said hey, I've got an idea. Let's remove the automat and put Burger Kings in instead of franchises. So that's where you would have gotten your old automat cases is in the back of a Burger King.

[Laura Clausen]

I was just about to improvise one of those terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible Burger King commercial songs.

[Josh Clark]

That's one of the big drawbacks to watching me TV tunes.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, oh, is that on there, too?

[Josh Clark]

There's this one Burger King ad that keeps playing over and over and over again. I had to hit myself in the knee with a hammer to get it out of my head.

[Laura Clausen]

Well, it's this whole new campaign with a guy that's singing.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah.

[Laura Clausen]

That can't sing.

[Josh Clark]

Please don't do it.

[Laura Clausen]

No, no, no, I won't.

[Josh Clark]

That's like my oyster stew.

[Laura Clausen]

Well, I guess I won't do a song right now.

[Josh Clark]

Actually, I know exactly why. Now we're even.

[Laura Clausen]

Exactly.

[Josh Clark]

So, yeah, I guess you can just. If you can mute the TV fast enough, then you can keep watching me TV tunes.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah.

[Jerry]

Yeah.

[Laura Clausen]

All right. So Burger Kings went in. Automats were going downhill. Another thing that happened was as they started going downhill, a different kind of shopper started coming in there. People that were itinerant, people that were unhoused, people that were vagrants and just sort of coming through town who knew that they could hang out there for that nickel cup of coffee for hours and hours and hours. And when that starts happening, families stop coming in. And it just creates this sort of vicious cycle where your clientele is different and it's not seen as that safe middle class space any longer.

[Josh Clark]

No. In those same families, they're like, oh, let's go down to the automat stuff. Step in. And they're like, oh, it's CD here. So they stopped coming in, which just reinforced the ability of, like, the homeless population to hang out in Horn and Hardart. Horn and Hardart's whole thing was serve everybody and serve everybody the same way. So as far as I ever saw, they weren't exactly rousting vagrants who were hanging out, drinking, like a cup of coffee. And it just. It. It just was basically the same story as the inner city in the United states in the 60s and 70s. Once they. Once the suburbs rose and everybody moved out of there, and the neighborhoods and the communities that did survive had us interstates built right through their neighborhoods. Things just took a turn for the worse. And the automat was not immune to that whole thing.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, Another big part of that is like this huge central commissary kitchens where they were cooking all this stuff is an excellent, excellent, efficient way to do it when you are booming with business. Right. Once business drops and you're not cooking, you're not needing to cook as much. All of a sudden, the economy of scale isn't there any longer, and you have these huge places with fewer employees and less food being pumped out. And it was just a downward spiral. It's very sad.

[Josh Clark]

Yep. So the other thing too is it's interesting, and I think it's kind of appropriate that Horn and Hardart got into fast food franchises because the automat kind of helped lay the foundation for that. But rather than hundreds of different dishes, which is apparently what Horn and Hard are offered at each of their automats, you know, fast food has like 10 and like, yes, you can have it your way, but really you can have it your way choosing from these five ingredients or whatever. And there were much like, downscale, like surroundings. It was just like the automat's vision with all of the glitz and idealism removed from it. Then you have fast food franchises.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, basically. That last one that closed in 91, it was the last one starting in 1977 at 200 East 42nd street, so right there, you know, sort of near Times Square.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Laura Clausen]

And it lasted 14 years on its own as a nostalgia piece, basically, before becoming a Gap.

[Josh Clark]

That's right, It's a Gap.

[Laura Clausen]

What else?

[Josh Clark]

So like you said, if you went to New York, like, you would go to the Empire State Building, you might go see a Broadway play and you would go eat at an Automat. That's just how iconic it was. Right. It popped up, like anytime you're trying to get across how New York you're. Your. Your movie was like, there would be a scene in an Automat or something like that. Yeah. Francis Ford Coppola apparently directed a movie in the 60s that featured an automat called Automat now that showed up in. I'm kidding. It showed up in, like.

[Laura Clausen]

I get it now. I'm a little slow.

[Josh Clark]

Foggy. Hey, I think you're doing magnificent for considering what you've been through the last couple days.

[Laura Clausen]

Man, I've been through Apocalypse Now.

[Josh Clark]

Bugs Bunny went to an Automat. And the Hair Grows in Manhattan.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right. The Flintstones. They even had a Flintstone automat in a 1962 episode.

[Josh Clark]

And there's a book that I think I've heard of, but I never read, from the Mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

[Laura Clausen]

That sounds familiar.

[Josh Clark]

Well, the thing that sounds Familiar to me is that these kids hide out living in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, that's Royal Tannenbaums.

[Josh Clark]

That's. Yeah, I guarantee he's an homage to that. Then he must have. But anyway, in this children's book, these kids are runaways and they live in Met. That's the Met. Right? The Met isn't the Opera House, it's the Art museum.

[Laura Clausen]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the Met. Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. Right. Well, one of the things that they do is they feed themselves by going to the automat.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, that's fun. And I did not know he totally. Yeah, let's call an homage. You're kinder than I am.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah. Wes Anderson does not rip stuff off. He lovingly pays homage to it.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right. That's right. Pat Boone tried his version of the Automat called the Dynomat in 1962, which was frozen food that was then microwaved. That did not work out too well.

[Josh Clark]

That's surprising.

[Laura Clausen]

But there were a few other things over the years that were tried like this that did not take off like the automat did.

[Josh Clark]

My favorite was the Andy Mat.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. What's up with that?

[Josh Clark]

Andy Warhol. This is just. What an artist he was. He could just talk about. He just mentioned something in passing, and people are still talking about it 50 years later. But he said that he was going to come up with the chain of Andy mats, which are like automats. But instead of having to go get your food from a case, you would sit down on, like, a red mohair banquette and order through a pneumatic tube, and you would order frozen food and champagne. That's what he was going to offer at the andymat.

[Laura Clausen]

Oh, that's funny. But that never happened at all. Right? Just an idea.

[Josh Clark]

No, it didn't. But there's some people who are trying to revive it.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, I mean, there are things like this. I mean, Japan has stuff like this. Right.

[Josh Clark]

They have what's called Katen Zushi.

[Laura Clausen]

Okay. What's that?

[Josh Clark]

It's the sushi that comes around on a conveyor belt.

[Laura Clausen]

No, but I've seen little windows as well, of things. It may not be hot food. Maybe it's other things.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I'm sure that they do. I remember going to Toledo Hospital to visit my mom when she was at work, and they had basically automat sandwiches. Like, I always just thought it was like a.

[Laura Clausen]

Like a vending machine.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, vending machine, yeah. But they. No, it was an Automat, basically.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah. There's A place in Brooklyn called the Brooklyn Dumpling Shop. I think there are like 12 of them here in Canada. And they. I just looked up a picture of them, and they had these little automat kind of like cubbies that you order through an app, like a locker system. And I've also seen. I think it was a shark tank product that I ended up seeing in a hotel where it's like a machine that gives you, like, a cheeseburger or a pizza, but made to order. So, like, you can say what kind of pizza you want, and it'll. It's just got this machine inside that'll, you know, load it up with whatever and then bake it, and then it spits it out in 15 minutes or whatever. So things kind of like this, but not truly automat stuff.

[Josh Clark]

One of the things you can choose for that pizza maker is, I don't want the cheese to scald the roof of my mouth. And the pizza machine's like, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Definitely not.

[Laura Clausen]

And then they have a hidden camera on you, right. And spit out a picture of you going, ah, Yep.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Damn it. You got anything else?

[Laura Clausen]

I have nothing else. I don't think I have to puke. I think this is the best I've felt in a few days. So hopefully that holds.

[Josh Clark]

That makes me feel good about the effect I have on you.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, just little Josh, little side cup of oyster stew. I'm back on my feet again.

[Josh Clark]

There you go. Well, since Chuck's back on his feet again, obviously anyone who's ever listened to. To this show before knows that he just unlocked listener mail.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right. This is short and sweet. This is kind of fun because it's a. This is coming out tomorrow, and it's a correction on an episode that was just out.

[Josh Clark]

Awesome.

[Laura Clausen]

So maybe for a change, we won't get, like, 400 emails from crafters.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. Oh, yeah.

[Laura Clausen]

Hey, guys. Re the High Times episode and Martha Stewart Hodgepodge is a big jumble of things that don't go together. Mod Podge is the craft supply. Just don't want you to embarrass yourselves at the craft store. That is from Kelly.

[Josh Clark]

Mod Podge is what you use to glue together a big jumble of things that don't go together.

[Laura Clausen]

Exactly.

[Josh Clark]

That's great, Kelly. Thank you. And to the other thousand of you who wrote in, it's nice to know that there are people out there still using Mod Podge.

[Laura Clausen]

It's fun.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. I mean, it's fun to say. And it's got a cute label, too.

[Laura Clausen]

Yeah, Mod Podge is really a lot of fun. I enjoy it for sure.

[Josh Clark]

And we heard from Martha Stewart too. She said, yes, I have Mod Podge laying around. Jerry got in touch with her and asked.

[Laura Clausen]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

Well, if you want to be like who, Kelly? If you want to be like Kelly and write in to gently correct us. We love that kind of thing. You can send it via email to stuffpodcastheartradio.com.

[Jerry]

Stuff youf Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[Josh Clark]

Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One Bank Guy. It's pretty much all he talks about in a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Thanks Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com Bank Capital One NA Member FDIC Catch Jon Stewart back in action.

[Jon Stewart]

On the Daily show and in your ears with the Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. From his hilarious satirical takes on today's politics and entertainment to the unique voices of correspondence and contributors, it's your perfect companion to stay on top of what's happening now. Plus, you'll get special content just for podcast listeners, like in depth interviews and a roundup of the week's top headlines. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Matt Levine]

The forces shaping markets and the economy are often hiding behind a blur of numbers.

[Amanda Mull]

So that's why we created the Big Take from Bloomberg Podcasts to give you the context you need to make sense of it all.

[Matt Levine]

Every day in just 15 minutes, we dive into one global business story that matters.

[Amanda Mull]

You'll hear from Bloomberg journalists like Matt Levine.

[Josh Clark]

A lot of this meme stock stuff is, I think, embarrassing to the SEC.

[Matt Levine]

Follow the Big Take podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever.