Automat

Automat on a 1904 postcard

An automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines.

Concept

Horn & Hardart postcard explaining how food was served in an automat.

Originally, the machines took only nickels.^[1] In the original format, a cashier would sit in a change booth in the center of the restaurant, behind a wide marble counter with five to eight rounded depressions in it. The diner would insert the required number of coins in a machine and then lift a window, which was hinged at the top, to remove the meal, which was generally wrapped in waxed paper. The machines were filled from the kitchen behind. All or most New York automats also had a cafeteria-style steam table where patrons could slide a tray along rails and choose foods, which were ladled out of steaming tureens.

Inspired by the Quisiana Automat in Berlin, the first automat in the U.S. was opened June 12, 1902, at 818 Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by Horn & Hardart.^[2] The automat was brought to New York City in 1912 and gradually became part of popular culture in northern industrial cities. Horn & Hardart was the most prominent automat chain.

In its heyday, recipes were kept in a safe, and described how to place the food on the plate as well as how to make it. The automats were popular with a wide variety of patrons, including Walter Winchell, Irving Berlin and other celebrities of the era. The New York automats were popular with out of work songwriters and actors. Playwright Neil Simon called automats "the Maxim's of the disenfranchised" in a 1987 article.^[3]

Decline

Short-lived modern automat in Manhattan's East Village

The format was threatened by the growth of suburbs and the rise of fast food restaurants catering to motorists (with their drive-thru windows) in the 1950s; by the 1970s, their remaining appeal was strictly nostalgic. Another contributing factor to their demise was undoubtedly the inflation of the 1960s and 1970s, making the food too expensive to be bought conveniently with coins, in a time before bill acceptors commonly appeared on vending equipment.^{[citation needed]}

At one time there were 40 Horn & Hardart automats in New York City alone. The last one closed in 1991 after the company, which was exiting the restaurant business, failed to find a buyer for it. At the time, the quality of the food was described by some customers as on the decline.^[3][4]

Automat in Berlin, Germany (1954)

In an attempt to bring back automats in New York City, a company called Bamn! opened a new East Village store in 2006.^[5] The store did not last, however, and quietly closed in March 2009.^[6]

Other versions

Another form of the automat was used on some passenger trains, the last United States example being an automat car on Amtrak's short-lived Lake Country Limited service to Janesville, Wisconsin, in 2001. These were limited by mechanical problems, since the machines were not intended for the bumpy ride on the rails, and state laws that prohibited alcoholic beverages from being sold by a machine.

By country

Japan

In Japan, in addition to the numerous vending machines (自販機, jihanki), some of which sell prepared food, many restaurants also use food ticket machines (食券機, shokkenki), where one purchases a meal ticket from a vending machine, then presents the ticket to a server, who then prepares and serves the meal. (See Wikipedia in Japanese for an example.)

The Netherlands

FEBO in Amsterdam selling various hot, deep fried snacks. These outlets are open 24 hours, and are popular with locals, and those leaving clubs and bars late at night.

The Dutch FEBO stores provide a variety of burgers, sandwiches, and croquettes in vending machines that are back-loaded from a kitchen. Their automat is called automatiek.

Automats in media

• The setting and title for Edward Hopper's painting "Automat."
• The workings of an automat were shown in Easy Living (1937).
• In The Devil and Miss Jones (1941), Charles Coburn got his finger caught in an automat window offscreen.
• An automat is featured in Ladies' Man (1947), according to IMDB.
• "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," sung by Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), contains the line "A kiss may be grand but won't pay the rental on your humble flat or help you at the automat."
• In the Looney Tunes cartoon "A Hare Grows in Manhattan," Bugs Bunny enters an automat and hits the chasing dog in the face with several pies.
• In a 1960 episode of The Flintstones, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble visit a local automat, named the Bedrock Rock-o-Mat.
• In The Apartment (1960), Jack Lemmon says to Shirley MacLaine that "last Christmas [he] had an early dinner at the Automat."
• In That Touch of Mink (1962) Doris Day’s friend Audrey Meadows stocks the machines in an automat, and there is a lengthy (humorous) scene set there.
• In Hercules in New York, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hercules declares the food he and Arnold Stang obtain at a New York City Automat "fit for the Gods."
• The Ultravox song "My Sex" includes the lyric "Sometimes I'm an automat."
• Tom and Charlie make plans in the Horn & Hardart in the 1990 film Metropolitan.
• The exterminators eat in an Automat in the 1991 film Naked Lunch
• An Automat is featured in the 1998 film Dark City.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has a replicator-based self-service restaurant called the Replimat, as a play on automat.
• In the television program "Star Trek: Enterprise", the design of the titular ship's canteen is structured similar to an automat, with individual servings of food delivered via a wall of two-way shelves with glass opening doors, though no payment is required.
• In a 1967 episode ("It's a Mod Mod World," Part 1) of the sitcom That Girl, struggling actress Ann Marie (played by Marlo Thomas) was able to have a cheap lunch by first buying a bowl of hot water and some crackers from an automat. She then created a rough approximation of tomato soup by pouring freely available ketchup into the hot water. Her efforts catch the eye of a famous English photographer, which establishes the premise for a two-part episode.
• In the LucasArts game Grim Fandango (1998), Manny Calavera's client Celso ends up working at an automat in Rubacava, which Manny eventually turns into a casino.
• In the original play of The Odd Couple by Neil Simon, the character Speed says, "Are you listening to this? Martha and Gertrude in the Automat."
• The main character Ralphie visits a Horn and Hardart's in New York in the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.
• In Thirty Day Princess (1934) Sylvia Sidney's character is seen stealing food from an Automat.
• In the book 6-321, by Michael Laser, the Automat is mentioned several times.
• In the 1968 album An Evening With PDQ Bach [Vanguard CD-79195], one of the tracks employs an instrument named a hardart. The piece is called Concerto for Horn and Hardart.
• In a 1956 episode of The Honeymooners called "Finders Keepers," Ralph and Norton search for prize money, but get arrested for creating a disturbance in an automat across Grand Central Station, according to TV.com.
• "Colored Spade" from the hit Broadway musical Hair makes mention of Horn & Hardart in its lyrics ("table cleaner at Horn & Hardart's").
• In the pilot episode of the AMC drama Mad Men, the men from the ad agency attend a bachelor party at a strip club. After they sit down, a number of women join them at their table. One man says, "where did they come from?" and another replies, "they work at the automat."
• In the 1967 Universal Studios film Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jimmy and Millie are sitting on the ledge of the 19th floor of a tall skyscraper in New York, where he has just saved her from falling to her death. He proposes taking her out to dinner, to which she responds, "Alright, but dutch treat at the Automat."

References

External links

• In Praise of the Automat - slideshow by Life magazine