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ABSTRACT
This article explores the history of the department store escalator in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. Department stores were crucial in adopting new technologies in the city. Many people first encountered ‘moving staircases’ in the aisles of the store. The installation of new escalators became an occasion for celebration, as stores emphasized their modernity and commitment to progress. Familiarity with riding on escalators could separate the urban sophisticate from the country bumpkin. Well into the 1940s, crowds greeted escalators with enthusiasm. For retailers, the technology offered new possibilities for store layouts and convenience for shoppers and employees. As the escalator became standard equipment in the modern store, the potential dangers posed to riders were downplayed.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to acknowledge support from the University of Manitoba. Thanks to Christopher Frank, Vicki Howard, and Andrew Burke for their encouragement with this project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 “Escalator at Brager’s: Moving Stairway Affords Amusement to Thousands.” Baltimore Sun, March 19, 1905, 16.
2 “Shoppers Fascinated: 17,604 Ride Penney Escalator First Day.” Argus-Leader (Sioux Falls, SD), 20 March 20, 1953, 7.
3 Howard, From Main Street to Mall, 23, 57–8. Leach, Land of Desire, 73–8.
4 Carpenter, “Escalator,” 345–6.
5 Ibid., 346.
6 Goodwin, Otis: Giving Rise to the Modern City, 106.
7 Carpenter, “Escalator,” 347. Carpenter argues that the escalator is a classic example of ‘trademark genericide’, where a once exclusive trademarked name becomes the generic term for the product.
8 “A Moving Staircase at the Crystal Palace.” Daily News (London), August 4, 1900, 9.
9 “A Moving Staircase.” Ferndale Enterprise (Ferndale, CA), April 7, 1899, 2.
10 “Moving Stairs are Coming.” Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA): January 7, 1899, 1. The story was picked up by many other American newspapers, including the Wood County Reporter (Grand Rapids, WI), Buffalo Examiner (Buffalo, NY), Peabody Gazette-Herald (Peabody, KS), and Sand beach Times (Harbor Beach, MI).
11 “No More Stairs to Climb.” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 8, 1899, 46.
12 Goodwin, Otis: Giving Rise to the Modern City, 106.
13 “Escalators Gain as Store Crowds Increase.” Dry Goods Economist, September 23, 1922, 83.
14 “Don’t Like Moving Stairways.” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), June 15, 1901, 22.
15 “New Moving Stairway: Attracts Attention of Crowds at Kann’s Spring Opening.” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), March 14, 1905, 2.
16 “Relief for Store Workers.” The Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, KS), October 1, 1903, 3.
17 “No More Stairs to Climb.”
18 “Heard About Town.” New York Times, November 16, 1900, 14.
19 “Home of the New $5,250,000 Department Store.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 6, 1906, 14B.
20 “The Man in the Street.” New York Times, April 27, 1902, 21.
21 “New Moving Stairway Installed in Store of Simpson, Crawford & Simpson.” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 20, 1900, 7.
22 “Whatchama Column.” Daily Guard (Council Grove, KS), February 24, 1917, 1.
23 “Around the City.” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), October 6, 1907, 7.
24 Ibid.
25 “The Sport of Escalating.” Boston Globe, December 25, 1910, 37.
26 “Advertisements Ask Patrons to Carry Dogs on Escalators.” San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, CA), February 22, 1931, 2. The story ran in The Boston Globe, Daily Oklahoman, Sacramento Bee, Los Angeles Times, Advocate-Messenger (Danville, KY) among other papers. I have not been able to locate the advertisement that serves as the basis for the story.
27 “Pittsburgh Has an Escalator: A Stairway that Does its Own Climbing Now a Big Feature at the ‘Big Store’.” Pittsburgh Press, December 2, 1913, 19.
28 Leach, 73.
29 Carpenter, “Escalator,” 347.
30 “Make Upper Floors Pay.” Dry Goods Economist, January 27, 1912, 87.
31 “Escalators Gain,” 94.
32 Leach, “Transformations in a Culture of Consumption,” 323; Whitaker, Service and Style; Elvins, “The History of the Department Store,” 138.
33 Lasc, “The Traveling Sidewalk,” 24.
34 Longstreth, The American Department Store Transformed, 26–7.
35 Ad for Otis Elevator Company, Dry Goods Economist, November 22, 1913, 4.
36 Ibid., 28.
37 On the controversy over women wearing crinolines and hoopskirts in public, see Remus, A Shopper’s Paradise, 67.
38 W. E. Hill, “The Escalator Riders.” Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, March 21, 1937, 10.
39 “Streamline Escalators.” The Gridley Herald (Gridley, CA), May 22, 1934, 4.
40 Ad for Frederick Loeser & Co., Brooklyn Times Union, November 13, 1899, 12.
41 Ad for Kaufmann’s Big Store, Pittsburgh Press, November 18, 1924, 18.
42 Ad for Otis Elevator Company, Dry Goods Economist, June 27, 1914, 60.
43 Ad for Macy’s, New York Times, September 78, 1913, C1.
44 Ad for Macy’s, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 4, 1917, 3.
45 Ad for Sibley’s, Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), December 9, 1939, 17.
46 Jane Rogers, “Hints for Homemakers.” The Index (Hermitage, MO), December 13, 1934, 4.
47 “Kaufmann’s to Remodel Expand Store.” Pittsburgh Press, February 23, 1929, 2.
48 Ad for Kaufmann’s Big Store, Pittsburgh Post, December 6, 1924, 10.
49 “White House Completes $1,000,000 Modernization.” El Paso Times, January 2, 1949, 13.
50 Thomas F. Conroy, “Retailers in Move to improve Stores.” New York Times, March 10, 1935, 19.
51 Howard, From Main Street to Mall, 95.
52 Esperdy, Modernizing Main Street, 148–50. Esperdy is primarily focused on the modernization of building facades, but one could argue that retailers’ investment in ‘facelifts’ for old buildings extended to installation of new lighting and escalators to update the interiors as well as new signage, plate glass and exteriors.
53 “Going Up!” The Monitor (McAllen, TX), March 7, 1951, 10.
54 “Escalators at Younkers Open: Thousands See Iowa’s First Moving Stairs.” Des Moines Register, October 21, 1939, 5.
55 “Install Escalator in Department Store.” Dayton News (Dayton, OH), August 8, 1937, 20.
56 “Work Begun on Half Million Dollar Installation of Escalators at Hess Bros. to Match Metropolitan Stores.” The Morning Call (Allentown, PA), February 11, 1947, 5.
57 “Miller’s Open Escalators at 9 Today.” Knoxville Journal, December 9, 1947, 1.
58 “Rites to Open Escalators in Sibley Store.” Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, NY), September 23, 1936, 16.
59 Ad for J.C. Penney, Spokane Chronicle (Spokane, WA), September 9, 1948, 70.
60 Ad for Bon Marché, Spokesman Review (Spokane, WA), September 10, 1948, 30.
61 “On the Moving Stairs.” New York Times, November 10, 1901, 3.
62 Ibid.
63 “More Fun.” Tampa Times (Tampa, FL), November 25, 1947, 2.
64 Hitt, “Neighborly Neighbors” (syndicated cartoon), Bristow Daily Record (Bristow, OK), July 13, 1938, 5.
65 Other communities carrying the cartoon included Canandaigua, NY, Port Huron, MI, Casper, WY, Grand Junction, CO, and Hutchinson, KS.
66 “On Escalator, Miss Wayne Finds Thrill Dafoe Missed.” Des Moines Tribune, December 21, 1932, 14.
67 “Things of Interest on First Visit.” Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ), June 24, 1909, 3.
68 O. O. McIntyre, “New York Day by Day.” The Star Press (Muncie, IN), June 30, 1937, 4.
69 “To Probe Safety of Moving Stairways.” The Day Book (Chicago, IL), August 1, 1916, 1.
70 “New Variety Among ‘Dips’: Escalator Pickpocket Latest of Thieves.” Boston Post, June 20, 1918, 9.
71 “Hearn Concern Sued for $25,000.” Poughkeepsie Eagle-News, April 26, 1933, 5.
72 “Seeking $10,000 from Bamberger’s.” Central New Jersey Home News, November 15, 1938, 9.
73 “The Reader’s Courtroom.” Morning News (Wilmington, DE), August 8, 1950, 8.
74 “Negligence – Escalator Not an Attractive Nuisance.” Michigan Law Review, Vo. 38 (1939): 265.
75 “Four Escalators in New Stvore.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 17, 1914, 12.
76 “New Escalators for Gimbels.” Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, May 28, 1937, 14.
77 “S & C Becomes More Safety Conscious!” Store Chat (publication of Strawbridge and Clothier, Philadelphia), August–September 1957, 11.
78 “Strand.” Tulsa Daily World (Tulsa, OK), May 18, 1916, 11.
79 “Charlie Chaplin in the Floorwalker at Lyric Two Days.” Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette (Fort Wayne, IN), May 15, 1916, 7.
80 Howe, “Charlie Chaplin in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 58.
81 Edward J. Bartnett, “Escalators Show Popularity Rise.” New York Times, November 6, 1960, R1.
82 Williams, The Electric Century, 176.
83 Siu, “The Escalator,” 669–70.
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Notes on contributors
Sarah Elvins
Sarah Elvins is Professor of History at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, where she teaches courses on American cultural history. She is the author of Sales and Celebrations: Retailing and Regional Identity in Western New York State, 1920–1940 (Ohio University Press, 2004) and a range of articles on the history of retailing, consumption, cross-border shopping, and food.