Fred Harvey: The man who invented waitresses
| Without Fred Harvey, there wouldn’t be “Flo” |
Author and journalist Stephen Fried spoke to a standing-room-only crowd at Kansas City’s National Archives last night about his new book, Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West (Bantam, $27). The book is the first in-depth history of restaurateur Fred Harvey, his family and his dining empire that was based, during its glory years, in Kansas City.
Harvey’s accomplishments in creating America’s first restaurant company are legendary. And Fried pointed out that Harvey didn’t just change the way Americans ate outside of their own homes — he reinvented the American work force.
Before Harvey began hiring women as the tidy, well-coifed Harvey Girls in his restaurants in 1883, most servers in American restaurants were male. Between 1883 and 1950, the Fred Harvey Company hired more than 100,000 female employees.
As it turns out, racism was his motivation for creating the Harvey Girl.
