So I’m watching Michael Nesmith’s Elephant Parts the other day, and a question comes to mind- What is the origin of the drive-in roller skating car hop?
It seems from what I’ve read that the roller skating rink boom of the late 40’s and early 50’s is said to be a cause of local drive ins trying out the idea of putting skates on their carhops.
Wish I had better documentation than claims on pinterest and 1950’s nostalgia sites though.
I wonder about the whole idea of the drive-in restaurant, where you order at the car window, and it’s brought to your car on a tray that hangs on the window. Where did that come from?
Several sources I’m finding with a quick googling indicate that the first drive-in restaurant was Kirby’s Pig Stand, which opened in Dallas in 1921, and later expanded to other cities.
Food and Drink in American History: A “Full Course” has a section on carhops.
Carhops in fact and fiction is the best article I found.
Tray service started around 1920, with boys carrying trays to cars. They were called tray boys, and the trays were fastened to windows. Girls were brought on later, because of the reason you’d suppose. Skates probably became a thing in the 1930s, with carhop itself becoming a word in 1937. Some sites say that carhop was coined to resemble bellhop, but the Food and Drink page claims it was because they “hopped” on cars’ running boards. I think the former is far more plausible.
I couldn’t find a 1937 cite, but there was an article in the Longview [TX] News-Journal in 1938 talking about the thousands of southern girls taking jobs as “car hops.” People were already protesting the shortness of the outfits. I put in the link, but it’s probably paywalled for you.
The thought of a tray full of frosty mugs of A&W root beer hanging on a car window evokes all manner of nostalgia in me. There was no bigger treat than that in the mind of Young Boy Mustard.
mmm
Same here, though in my case, it was at the Dog & Suds which was up the road from my childhood home. For years, I had a child-sized Dog & Suds mug, which I am pretty sure that my parents “forgot” to put back on the tray before we left the restaurant one time.
Will any of that tell me about roller skating car hops?
The article from Smithsonian Magazine linked to upthread says, “He also points out that in the original days of drive-in restaurants, the reason that servers wore roller skates was to increase speed and service.”
Two questions. 1) Did you read the links? 2) What is it that you want to know that the articles don’t say?
Yes, I read the links. The first link mentioned in brief that, among other gimmicks, roller skates were used to drum up customers, the second link was about the hardships females faced as carhops(with no mention of roller skates at all, as far as I can tell), and the third link required my credit card info to access their 7 day free trial.
What do I want to know that wasn’t covered in the articles? How about what was asked in the OP.
Easy. Somebody thought to put the girls on roller skates. Nobody knows who or when. It caught on.
Thanx for your contribution, but post #4 actually gives us a good bit of solid info about the subject.
I’ve heard, but it might be a tall tale, the skating might have started at Drive-In movies in New Jersey.
What’s your problem? That article gives exactly one line on the history of skates, the one that Dewey_Finn already quoted. That’s not a “good bit of solid info” nor does it answer the question of origin.
You don’t like me, I gather. But I gave a good bit of solid info to an FQ question. Take your personal animosity elsewhere.
Modhat on: Please cool off, your reply is very out of proportion to anything Czarcasm typed. You’re the only one showing personal animosity in this thread.