Motel Monday: Ladies on Diving Boards!

I spent a majority of the morning digging through In The Heart of Downtown trying to figure out a theme for this week's Motel Monday post. After an hour of banging my head, I determined that I was going to share postcards of pools. For some reason, i decided that was "too easy," so I narrowed it down from there to people around the pool and then slimmed it down to nothing but motel postcards featuring ladies on diving boards. These ladies appear to have no desire to actually go in to the pool, just pose and look pretty for the camera to help drum up some business.
Enough of my ramblings, I now present to you: LADIES ON DIVING BOARDS

The Nautilus Motel - Cape Coral, Florida

Horse Cave Motel - Horse Cave, Kentucky

Skyport Lodge Motel - Inglewood, California

Bidwell's Motel and Apts. - Pocatello, Idaho

Empress Motel - Atlantic City, New Jersey

Flamingo Motel - Anaheim, California

Sea Castle Motel - St. Petersburg, Florida

Holiday Motel - Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

George Washington Motor Lodge - King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Texan Motel and Lodge - Lake George, New York

Town and Country Motel - Pecos, Texas

Desert Inn Resort Motel - Miami Beach, Florida

Sahara Motor Hotel - Blythe, California

Atlantic City Speedway - Pleasantville, New Jersey

This is an undated brochure (but I think it's from 1964) for the upcoming Auto Race season at the Atlantic City Speedway on W. Washington Ave. in Pleasantville, New Jersey.
The Speedway was built int 1950 and lasted until 1979. I found a little bit of information from EHT.com:

The EHT Speedway was located on Washington Avenue, Egg Harbor Township, but it was called the Atlantic City Speedway or the Pleasantville Speedway because back then EHT did not have its own identity. We were always considered part of someone else's town. Usually we were called the town name that was closest to what ever the attraction was, hence the name Pleasantville Speedway.

From 1950 to 1979 and for only $1.25 Southern New Jersey race fans, kids and local residents could go to the races every Saturday night and have a great time rooting for their favorite driver. Food and souvenirs were available. After the races many drivers would pose for photos with their cars, and if you were lucky you might be allowed to climb into one of the race cars.

Cars would roar past the stands (on the left) and around the track. Some of the stock cars (as they were called back then) were sponsored but many of the cars were owned by the men who drove them. They would work on their car all week during the evenings, then race on Saturday night and hope they didn't crash or do anything that would cost money to repair.

Motel Monday: Colonial Times

co·lo·ni·al  (k-ln-l)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, possessing, or inhabiting a colony or colonies.

2. often Colonial

a. Of or relating to the 13 British colonies that became the original United States of America.

b. Of or relating to the colonial period in the United States.

3. often Colonial Of, relating to, or being a style of architecture and furniture prevalent in the American colonies just before and during the Revolution

These motels mainly center around the architectural meaning. While not flashy, these really scream "down home" and I bet that's what the moteliers were trying to convey.

Colonial Statler Hilton Inn - Wakefield,  Massachusetts

Colonial Motel - St. Augustine, Florida

The Captain's Table Menu - Wildwood Crest, New Jersey

A 1970s menu from a seafood restaurant in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey.

Motel Monday: Sands Across America

This week's Motel Monday theme is motels either called the Sands or featuring Sands in the title. The Sands name appears all over the country after the Sands Hotel opens in late 1952 in Las Vegas, Nevada. I guess that owners felt that if they named their motels after the famous casino/hotel that travelers would think they had landed someplace classy and extravagant.
See all the selection by clicking on the read more button below.

Sands of Tempe Motor Hotel - Tempe, Arizona

Sands Motel - Sacramento, California

Motel Monday: The Orange Roof

This weeks Motel Monday theme is all about Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges. Howard Johnson's was originally a restaurant and then expanded successfully (until the late 1970s) into the Motel Business. They are still a chain of hotels all of the globe but these postcards are dedicated to their motel past and their signature orange A-framed roof. See all 12 images after the jump.

Here's a little history (from Wikipedia):

By 1954, there were 400 Howard Johnson's restaurants in 32 states. About 10% were company-owned turnpike restaurants that were extremely profitable. The rest were franchises.

Also that year, the company decided to open the first Howard Johnson's motor lodge in Savannah, Georgia. The company employed architects Rufus Nims and Karl Koch to oversee the design of the rooms and gate lodge. Nims had previously worked with the company to design Howard Johnson's restaurants. The restaurant's trademark simple Simon and Pieman was now joined by a lamplighter character in the firm's marketing of its motels. According to cultural historians, the chain became synonymous with travel among American motorists and vacationers in part because of Johnson's ubiquitous outdoor advertising displays.

In 1959, Howard Deering Johnson, who had founded and managed the company since 1925, turned the reins over to his son, then 26-year-old Howard Brennan Johnson. Howard Deering Johnson would observe his son's control of the company until his death in 1972. He died at the age of 76.

By 1961, the year the Howard Johnson's Company went public, there were 605 restaurants, 265 of them company owned and 340 franchised, as well as 88 franchised Howard Johnson's motor lodges in 32 states and the Bahamas.

In 1961, Johnson hired famed New York chefs Pierre Franey and Jacques Pépin to oversee food development at the company's main commissary in Brockton, Massachusetts. Franey and Pépin developed recipes for the company's signature dishes that could be flash frozen and delivered across the country, guaranteeing a consistent product.

Haverhill, Massachusetts

Ithaca, New York