No One Asked Me But... Remembering John Curry

My consulting, writing and speaking activities are busier than ever. For example, I just reached a milestone when my 175th article was published last month. Wonder why I've been busy? My 2008 speaking engagements included the following:

2/11/08 Lecture: “How to Become a Great Hotel Consultant” at the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism & Sports Management

3/5/08 Lecture: “Great American Hotels and Hoteliers” at the Harvard Club of New York

3/28/08 Moderator: “Fair Franchising is not an Oxymoron” at the AAHOA Convention in San Antonio

4/3/08 Lecture: “You Are the YMCA: How to Improve Customer Service” at the West Side YMCA

4/7/08 Featured Speaker: “Hotel Franchising in a State of Transition” at the CHOC Owners Summit in Dallas

4/16/08 Lecture: “Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry” at the NYU Osher Institute

10/1/08 Lecture: “History of U.S. Hotels” at the NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management

10/6/08 Lecture: “American Reconstruction” at the NYU Lifelong Learning Center

12/1/08 Lecture: “Great American Hoteliers” at the NYU Lifelong Learning Center

By the way, I am available as a featured speaker at your company or organization on the above subjects and:

• From Ragas to Riches: The Origin and Growth of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association
• Franchise Advisory Councils: Powerhouses or Powerpuffs?
• Henry Morrision Flagler: The Robber Baron who Invented Florida
• Fred Harvey: Great Food, Unique Hotels and the Harvey Girls

Remembering John Curry

ISHC member Maurice Robinson took the time and effort to make the following correction to my heartfelt recollection of John Curry:

With all due respect, I think you might have gotten one of the facts wrong in your short remembrance of John Curry. His family actually owned and ran the Yosemite Camp and Curry Company, not Amfac. Amfac was indeed the successor firm the Fred Harvey Company- one of the great hospitality pioneers of the Wild West- but they were not related at all to the Curry family, and Amfac never ran the Yosemite concession (although they bid for it unsuccessfully when Curry’s contract ended in 1991). As an aside, the current incarnation of Amfac is called Xanterra and operates concessions in the many other National and State Parks. They are about to be acquired by Phil Anschuty’s firm, AEG, so yet another name change might be in the offering.

Sure enough, on October 7, 2008, Xanterra Parks and Resorts announced completion of sale to the Anschutz Company:

Xanterra Parks & Resort owns and operates concessions- including lodges, restaurants, stores, tours and activities- in Yellowstone, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Zion Crater Lake, Petrified Forest and Rocky Mountain National Parks as well as Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Ohio State Parks. The company also operates the Silverado Resort in Napa Valley, California, and owns and operates the Grand Canyon Railway based in Williams, Arizona.

Quote from an Old Spiritual:

This train don’t carry no liars,no pocket pickers and no bar flyers,This train is bound for glory,This train.This train don’t carry nothin’ but therighteous and the holy, this train,

Stanley Turkel, MHS, ISHC, is a New York-based hotel consultant specializing in hotel franchising issues, asset management and litigation support services. He is also available for due diligence studies for an acquisition, a third-party audit of a marketing or operational problem, an expert review of a management contract or a franchise agreement, or litigation support. Mr. Turkel is a member of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants and can be reached at 917-628-8549 or email at stanturkel@aol.com 

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Additional reading:

 Is Hotel Franchising Important?