Promoting the Golden West: Advertising and...
Transcript of Promoting the Golden West: Advertising and...
Promoting the Golden West: Advertising and the RailroadAuthor(s): Alfred RunteReviewed work(s):Source: California History, Vol. 70, No. 1, Railroads in California and the Far West (Spring,1991), pp. 62-75Published by: California Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25158553 .Accessed: 08/12/2011 12:52
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For their campaigns to advertise western travel adventure, railroad companies
employed some of the leading commercial artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. One of the most prolific of these was W. H. Bull, the creator of this 1898 poster promoting the Southern Pacific Company's famed "Sunset
Limited" passenger train between New Orleans and California. Bull's art also
graced the advertising materials of the Union Pacific and other western lines.
Courtesy Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
62 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
Promoting the Golden West:
Advertising and the Railroad
by Alfred Runte
In these days of color television and lifelike pho tography, the unique artistry and elegance of
rail travel promotion have long since been for
gotten. Gone, after all, are America's great trains, those whose arrivals and departures excited daily comment. Explore carefully, then, the following
pages. Note how it used to be during advertising's golden age, the period from roughly the turn of the
century through the late 1950s. This was the time when all advertisers, including the western rail
roads, relied heavily on accomplished commercial
artists. The railroads' objective was simple and
straightforward?to persuade tourists, potential settlers, sportsmen, and health-seekers to book
passage on company trains and coastal steamships. To encourage wanderlust, railroad art and adver
tising called upon many images, from breathtaking scenery to exotic native cultures, to evoke the
desired sensations of mystery, adventure, and inno
cent romance. In the promotion of California in
particular, the western railroads reached into the
living rooms of the American public with the assur
ance that the anticipations of traveling did not
lapse west of the Rocky Mountains. In California were wonders galore, from Yosemite and the High Sierra to the rugged Pacific Coast. Every train to
California was indeed a magic carpet, a means to
one of the most varied and exciting destinations
on earth.
As railroad executives once knew intuitively, the
major selling point of their passenger trains was not speed, but rather high adventure. As much as
transportation, western trains were an experience.
Accordingly, anything that added to the experi ence, most notably the establishment of national
parks, was almost certain to win the support of
leading rail officials. Thus, as early as 1871 and the
discussion of creating Yellowstone National Park,
Jay Cooke and Company, managers and financiers
of the Northern Pacific Railroad extension pro
ject, evinced a strong and growing interest in rail
travel promotion. A $500 loan from Cooke to the renowned painter Thomas Moran?allowing the
artist to travel through Yellowstone?may be said
to have launched the Northern Pacific's distin
guished promotional work.1
In 1892 the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail
way also invited Thomas Moran west to paint the Grand Canyon. Although the Grand Canyon
would not receive protected status until 1908 as a
national monument, the Santa Fe Railroad, like the
Northern Pacific, proved instrumental in bringing another western wonderland to public attention.2
So too, in California, the Southern Pacific Railroad
began promotion on a grand scale in 1898 with the
publication of Sunset magazine, under the direc
tion of the company's passenger department. True
to form, the very first issue, published in May 1898, featured Yosemite Valley, which the railroad
had already been promoting for several decades.3
Indeed, there is now little doubt that the Southern Pacific Railroad also figured prominently in the establishment of the national park around the valley in 1890.4 As John Muir himself admitted to the Sierra Club at its annual meeting in 1895: "Even the soulless Southern Pacific R.R. Co., never counted on for anything good, helped nobly in pushing the bill for this park through Congress."5
For the next quarter century, the western railroads
loosed a flood of stationery, postcards, calendars,
timetables, guidebooks, and advertisements, each in some way distinctly representative of regional sce
nery and culture. Although people were unaware of
it at the time, the peak in railroad travel was finally reached just prior to World War I; when rail travel
promotion resumed after the war in the early 1920s, automobile travel was already making serious
inroads into rail passenger service. No matter, the
SPRING 1991 63
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Thomas Moran's painting of the Grand Canyon, com missioned by the Santa Fe Railroad, now hangs in the Santa Fe Art Collection at the company's headquarters in Chicago. Courtesy Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad
Company.
railroads at least held their own during the decade. But then came the disruption of rail service caused
by the Great Depression and the demands of World War II. Consequently, not until the late 1940s were
the lines fully prepared to attempt recapturing the business they had long since lost to America's love affair with the private car.
Their efforts were nonetheless sincere and monu
mental. By the early 1950s the western trains
had been completely reequipped with new sleep ers, coaches, diners, and?most significant of
all?vista-dome lounges and coaches. Predictably,
railroad promotion itself returned in all its color and elegance. Once more advertising focused on
western scenery and the national parks, further
highlighting the trains themselves as magic car
pets of romance and adventure. Perhaps the coun
try's all-time favorite train was the new California
Zephyr, inaugurated in 1949 as a joint venture of the
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Denver, Rio Grande & Western, and the Western Pacific rail
roads. Its 2,000-mile journey from Chicago to Oakland included such breath-taking scenery as
Colorado's Front Range and California's Feather
River Canyon. Well into the 1950s, the California Zephyr set the standard for the restructuring and
redesigning of every classic western passenger train.
[Text continues on page 73]
64 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
Railroad Advertising of the Far West:
A Portfolio
Founded in 1898 and managed until 1914 by the South- HH^J ([ jf ll ^1 fW^ Cn^ ̂Hl^l ern Pacific Company, Sunset took the lead in the Bj^^^. [\
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W^?i -f '^KmmW^^B^M^^^^^^ "Apache Trail," by the famed California artist ^?^-n3"i ^Ih^^^^^^^^H^''^^ Maynard Dixon. Early in the twentieth
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CALIFORNIA HISTORY 65
NATIONAL PARK f NATIONAL PARK * Northern Arizona Northern Arizona
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Railroad advertising rarely achieved greater color and ^BH^^^^B^^^^^^^^^I^^^^B^^I elegance than when the national parks were the objects ^Hk^^^^^^^I^^^^^^^^^^BIIS^H of promotion. In addition to promoting the national ^flSH^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HP*9i parks of California, principally Yosemite, the Southern B9ttH?^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B^^^BiiiSl Pacific supported the establishment in 1902 of Crater B^^^t^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HS^BIB Lake National Park, Oregon, and the railroad made l^S^r^^^^fl^l^^^^^^l^HwSRI the new park a favorite attraction to lure tourists to HB% ^ r^^^^BH^^H^^^^^^BBBII the Pacific Northwest, as in this 1916 travel brochure ^HB^ ^v^^vi^IHMh^^^^^^HP^V
(right). In California, the Southern Pacific and the ^^^Bfa^Hm!^^^5^^S!^P^I^ra^B Santa Fe competed for Yosemite-bound traffic, and ^5^^^BXBhM1^ w3B^ both roads publicized the park lavishly. In Arizona, |BI|^|mW^B|||BIm however, the Santa Fe enjoyed exclusive rights to I^I^IUi^^^^^SBlEI^^^^BSH^^B carry rail passengers to the South Rim of the Grand ^^^^^^^^^BBBP^VII^^IIHQQ! Canyon via its branch line from Williams to El Tovar. H^^^^^^^^I^E^^tS^^II^RSH Accordingly, the Santa Fe, by means such as this 1953 R^Ci^^^H^^HV^^BK^^^iwW^^
pamphlet (above), encouraged all of its California- RHE^^^H^^B ^B^HO ^F^^mI bound travelers to include a stopover at the Grand E^>^MHB^^mBh3BP^ *"' 9^
Canyon. Courtesy California State Railroad Mf?? I^^pJf^^BH^
Museum, Sacramento. |Qma\ j^
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Southern Pacific
66 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
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Whenever there was a special occasion where large numbers of people would gather?a festival, world's fair, trade exhibition, or major convention?one or
more of the western railroads was sure to be among its principal supporters and publicists. During the 1915 season, the Union Pacific and other lines saturated the traveling public with advertising for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and the Panama California International
Exposition, held simultaneously in the newly constructed Spanish-Colonial-Revival style buildings in San Diego's Balboa Park (left). In 1939, the Santa Fe portrayed San Francisco's Golden Gate International
Exposition as a display of all that was progressive and futuristic (above). Courtesy California State Railroad
Museum, Sacramento.
CALIFORNIA HISTORY 67
California California the Golden State the Golden State
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Among those who produced main-line landscapes for the major western railroads, few are better remembered than the artist Maurice Logan, who worked especially for the Southern Pacific, as in this painting of a South
west Indian woman he did for the cover of a lavish
large-format pictorial "View Book" (right) of scenes
along the railroad's famed "Sunset Route" between New Orleans and San Francisco, ca. 1920. Logan
con
tributed paintings of numerous other California and far western subjects for railroad advertising pamphlets in the 1920s and 1930s, including one of Arizona dude ranches (lower left, 1928) and one of the coast along the Santa Barbara Channel (upper left, 1927). Courtesy
California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento.
68 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
SUNSE^O U T FI
CALIFORNIA HISTORY 69
Perhaps the most lavish of railroad advertising art promoted the famous passenger trains that carried travelers to the Far West, often
in the lap of luxury. Above is the cover from an early-twentieth-century pamphlet
depicting the "Overland Limited," a cross
country train jointly operated by the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railways,
as it traversed the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake. Below is a brochure (ca.
late 1930s) that tried to lure passengers aboard one of the new streamliners of the
period, the "City of Los Angeles," operated jointly between Chicago and Los Angeles by the Chicago & Northwestern and the Union Pacific. In addition to sumptuous
food and sleeper service, the train offered
passengers the comfort of air conditioning, the convenience of a passage of a mere
thirty-nine and three-quarter hours, and such amenities as valet service, clothes
washing and drycleaning, haircuts, shampoos, facial massages, and attendance
by a registered nurse/stewardess. Courtesy California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento.
Overland
LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY FIRST CLAS&r^
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70 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
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Industrial design, like experience advertising, is a nearly-forgotten art. During the height of the streamliner era (1935-1965), the western railroads celebrated the aesthetic beauty, not just the efficient operation, of their
passenger trains. Top: The conviction that
technology might complement the western
landscape is gloriously represented on the cover of this 1949 pamphlet inaugurating the
Western Pacific's famed "California Zephyr," while the advertising text proclaimed that
"Every mile is a scenic thrill, when you ride the California Zephyr." Bottom: A 1950
SouthemPadficbrochurepromised California travelers a choice from the company's many sleek streamliners. Courtesy California State
Railroad Museum, Sacramento.
CALIFORNIA HISTORY 71
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Railroad commercial art depicting the varied attractions of California was certain to include the romance of early Spanish colonial settlement, as suggested by a 1950s Southern Pacific pam phlet featuring restored Mission Santa Barbara and Hispanic cultural survivals in the region (lower). Female charms also typically adorned the pages of railroad advertising. The sedate,
maidenlike figure pictured on an early-twentieth century Union Pacific booklet (upper) contrasts
with the lively dancer on the cover of the more modern Southern Pacific pamphlet (lower) and testifies to the changing attitudes toward
women in American culture. Courtesy California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento.
SANTA SANTA BARBARA BARBARA
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72 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
By I960, the vista dome in particular was standard
equipment on every major route. "Look Up; Look
Down; Look All Around," the Zephyr itself proudly admonished its patrons. Truly, in the invention of
the vista dome, the western railroads had found
the perfect marriage between the best in regional scenery and the best in rail passenger design.6
But suddenly, that heritage became history. Virtually overnight, America's railroads had a
change of heart about their passenger business.
Put simply, the trains failed to make a profit on all but the most popular routes. It was partly, critics
charged, the railroads7 own fault. They scrapped many basic amenities and the lure of adventure
advertising just as their new equipment and pro motions were starting to work. In either case, even
among the few western railroads still committed to
rail passenger service, only one or two name pas
senger trains survived by the end of the 1960s. Since May 1, 1971, a nationwide rail passenger
network has survived under the National Rail
road Passenger Corporation, popularly known as
Amtrak. In testimony to the continuing popularity of its long-distance western routes?now rented
from the original railroads?fully three-fifths of all Amtrak revenues are generated outside city corri
dors. In the West, the average distance traveled is
1,000 miles; in the Northeast Corridor between
Washington, D.C, and Boston, it is barely 100. In other words, ridership in the West is ten times
more lucrative per passenger than ridership in
the Northeast. To be sure, the twenty percent of
Amtrak's business that generally travels in the West
and South is worth far more to the company than
all of the rest of Amtrak's riders combined.7 If Amtrak were a private corporation, its response
would be obvious?to place its greatest emphasis on the long-distance trains, those that are the least
sensitive to delays, operating constraints, and air
line competition, but that still generate the largest revenues. But Amtrak is quasi-public, not private. Its management feels compelled to invest in poten tial voters as well as
self-supporting riders. As long as half of Amtrak's total ridership comes from the
Northeast Corridor, politics more than economics
will determine which portion of the country receives the most service.8
Perhaps this scenario was inevitable; still, rail
passenger enthusiasts cannot help wondering what
would happen if Amtrak gave the western trains the attention their historic significance suggests they in fact deserve. The western trains are already sold out for the summer season months in advance.
No less than in the past, tourists heading west by rail revel in the beauty of the landscape, in the life and changing kaleidoscope of new people and
Typical of early graphic art used by California railroads is this 1880 brochure produced by the Central and Southern Pacific railroads to advertise the tourist attractions of central and northern California. Courtesy California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento.
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SPRING 1991 73
places. Granted, the riders are modern, but their
emotions and expectations are very much the same.
It follows that the heritage of discovery, not simple economics, is Amtrak's true hope for profitability and viability in the years to come.
California in particular is still fortunate to enjoy some of the best of Amtrak's trains. Although bear
ing little resemblance to the original configuration of five vista domes (and no longer routed through the Feather River Canyon), Amtrak's version of the
California Zephyr remains one of the most popular rides in the country, offering the American River
Canyon, Donner Pass, Donner Lake, and the
Truckee River Canyon in grand compensation for its historical passage of the Sierra farther north.
Similarly, the Coast Starlight, operating between Los Angeles and Seattle via Oakland, parallels the
rolling breakers of the Pacific Ocean for 110 miles between Oxnard and Surf, California. Sixty and
more years after Maurice Logan produced evoca
tive paintings for Southern Pacific Railroad pam phlets, the coast route continues to thrill more
than a half million rail passengers annually.9 The point again is that traveling by rail is still
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Sunset Magazine booth of the Harriman Lines (Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads) at the international exposition in London, 1909. Since their founding in the early 1860s, both the Southern and Union Pacific companies provided patronage for important western artists to document construction and to furnish images for advertising. The great photographers Alfred Hart and Carleton Watkins often worked for various Southern Pacific lines, while Andrew J. Russell photographed the building of the Union Pacific's portion of the first transcontinental
railway. Later, in 1898, the Southern Pacific founded Sunset as its leading instrument of regional advertising. The magazine commissioned or purchased work by the best writers and artists. To lure tourists to journey to the American West, the magazine's 1909 London booth displayed a
Watkins photograph of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park (framed and hanging above the
doorway) and two paintings (the cowboy and the Indian mounted on a horse) by the great western artist Maynard Dixon, a frequent contributor to Sunset. Courtesy Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
74 CALIFORNIA HISTORY
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considered by its patrons to be an experience. So
too, the examples of railroad art reproduced on
these pages have long been referred to as "expe rience advertising." The financial motives of the
railroads and the practical uses of rail travel for the
passengers are deliberately absent or understated.
It is the scenes, the experience, that are meant to
do the selling. Such attempts at understated selling are still
common to the travel industry; however, color pho
tographs have replaced paintings as the primary means of illustration. Lost, as a result, is some
thing of that former sense of anticipation, that
wonderful feeling of fantasy that only works of art can fully arouse. Unlike modern photography, the
paintings of yesteryear heightened one's expecta tions of mystery and romance. Photography can
be too revealing, robbing its subject matter of all
powers of suggestion. Such is the price of accuracy. Indeed, with tour
ism everywhere on the rise, transportation compa nies might well reconsider those colorful lessons
from the past.10 Tourists still seek romance and high adventure. When the railroads of North America
A billboard along San Francisco's Main Street in 1949 advertised the Southern Pacific's new streamliner service to Portland, for a fare that certainly evokes an
earlier era. Courtesy California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento.
knew how to market such intangibles, profits rather than losses were consistently the rule. Only the commitment to imaginative advertising, not the
public's appreciation of it, has somehow slipped away. It follows that the road back to profitability
?and adventure?lies in the truth of that once
familiar slogan: "Getting there is half the fun."@
See notes beginning on page 138.
Alfred Runte is a public historian and author living in Seattle. A specialist on the national parks, he received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
His highly-acclaimed National Parks: The American Expe rience (University of Nebraska Press, 1979) has now appeared in a second, revised edition (1987), and he has also recently revised his popular Trains of Discovery: Western Railroads and the National Parks (Roberts Rinehart, 1990). Runte's latest work is Yosemite: The Embattled Wilderness (Uni
versity of Nebraska Press, 1990).
SPRING 1991 75