The Automat (2021)

Lisa Keller: Self - New York City Historian

Quotes 

• 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.