10 thoughts on “TBT: The Harvey Girls (1946), Part 1 – The ‘Good’ Girls

  1. One of my novels “Sunset and Steel Rails” is about a proper young Boston lady who goes West as a Harvey Girl in the late 1880s; there is some absolutely fascinating material out there about the Fred Harvey Company. It wasn’t just that he made it a policy to hire female waitstaff for his railroad concession restaurants, and paid them very well for their work, but the ladies earned seniority, and the opportunity to advance. One of their perks was a pass for free travel anywhere on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. He also had a nationwide hospitality corporation about a hundred years before such a thing became wide-spread. Not only the railway restaurants on the AT & SF, but the dining cars on the railway, and a number of high-end hotels, some of which are still in operation. The Fred Harvey Company maintained a central laundry facility, had their own cattle ranch to supply beef, had a central training facility at Newton for new staff … and kickstarted Santa Fe western style as part of their operations in New Mexico.
    Alas, the movie was almost a last horrah for the company, what with long-distance auto travel overtaking that of train travel after the end of WWII…
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0989782050/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i12

  2. it’s all very 1940’s does late Victorian, but pretty accurate compared to normal 1940’s does Period flicks!

  3. Thanks for the post and research!
    I just heard of this movie for the first time recently. Now it’s on my To Watch list! I’m a sucker for musicals.

  4. This was nice. I rememberseeing this year’s ago and since I’m a Garland fan enjoyed it. This post makes me want to see it again. Why does Cyd wear her hair down in the Wait and See number? And who dubbed her singing voice?

      1. Thanks. I wondered if it was Marnie Nixon. She did Deborah Kerr’s in King and I

  5. My mother loved this movie, and actually bought me a Harvey House book. Which made me weirdly nostalgic and hungry.

  6. I dig Judy’s travelling suit, but after seeing Angela Lansbury in the background, I can’t wait for the Bad Girls post! I wish I could do that hair.

    Also, I must be a smidge younger than you, because I associate Lansbury with Murder, She Wrote.

  7. I love this movie. It’s such fun to watch. And I can tolerate the 40s influence on the fashions and hairstyles.

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