|
"White Tower" by Paul McGehee. One of the great hamburger joints of yesteryear, the White Tower restaurant chain began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin back in 1926 within easy walking distance of Marquette University...and its throngs of hungry students. That first strategically-placed White Tower restaurant being an overwhelming success, they soon expanded to 130 locations in several cities over the next few years. During the hard times of the Great Depression, it became known as a place to you could go to get a good, hot hamburger for only a nickel. The company's famous motto to promote multiple purchases of the little hamburgers was "Buy a Bag Full"...many took them up on it over the next few decades! In the early days of White Tower their easily-recognizable gleaming white tile buildings, built in Art Deco style, were meant as a visual symbol of cleanliness and purity in an era when conditions in the meat packing industry were sometimes of dubious hygiene. The White Tower restaurants even hired young ladies as Towerettes, a wait staff dressed as nurses to drive home the message! The White Tower restaurant chain, begun by John and Thomas Saxe, eventually grew to a whopping 230 locations by the 1950s. Tom's son Brock eventually took over and the chain continued to thrive into the 1980s when competition from larger fast-food concerns eventually changed things for little corner burger joints everywhere. Today, there is only one restaurant in the nation operating as a White Tower, a location in Toledo, Ohio. The White Tower depicted in this colorful scene was one located in New York City in the early 1930s. "White Tower" is faithfully reproduced from McGehee's beautiful color pencil original as a hand-signed limited edition of only 500 archival quality prints. Image size 12 3/8" x 10 7/8".
|