Last Day at the Automat: Radio Documentary by Sound Portraits

[Photo: ]

Last Day at the Automat
Recorded in New York City.

A chapter of American history quietly drew to a close in New York City on April 9, 1991, when the country's last Horn & Hardart Automat shut down. During the Depression, there were hundreds of these Automats, mostly in New York City, dispensing macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and coconut cream pies from their famous windowed, coin-operated compartments. David Isay visited the last of them, on 200 East 42nd Street, on the day it closed.

Reporter: David Isay

Please consider supporting the work of Sound Portraits and StoryCorps by making a donation.

This piece is available in the following audio formats [4:25 min]:

28.8 kbps Real Audio

56 kbps Real Audio

ISDN Real Audio

intro

transcript

YOU ARE HERE: home > on-air > american talkers > LAST DAY AT THE AUTOMAT

| top of page

Sound Portraits Productions, 80 Hanson Place, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Telephone (646) 723-7020 | Fax (646) 723-7026

	email this page

home \| ON-AIR \| in-print \| about \| education \| support \| store