Life, 1922-04-13 · page 29 of 34
Life — April 13, 1922 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily a **hotel chain advertisement** rather than satire or political commentary. It promotes the Statler hotel chain operating in Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, and St. Louis, plus the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York. The small boxed excerpt at top quotes the "Statler Employees Service Codes," establishing the brand's philosophy: employees cannot argue with guests or refuse service—management must resolve complaints immediately. The main text below is a direct appeal from Statler management emphasizing that their hotels want customers' "friendship" and "good-will" regardless of whether guests actually book rooms. The pitch emphasizes **courteous service and positive employee-guest relations** as their distinguishing feature. This reflects early-20th-century hotel industry competition based on service quality and hospitality culture rather than amenities alone. The tone is earnest corporate messaging, not humor or satire.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Hotels Statler 27 Buffalo —- Cleveland ~- Detroit - St. Louis A new Hotel Statler (r100 rooms, 1100 baths) is now building at Buffalo to open early in 19233 500 more rooms will be added later. with a Guest. He must adjus the Guest's sati ror to adjust it, in any Statlerope, t the matte; isfaction, or Wrangling h. rated Hotel, Fat once to call his Supe- as'no place —from page 5 of the Statler Employees Service Codes. An Advertisement to People Who Don’t Know Us There’s many a reader of Life who knows the Statler and Pennsylvania hotels by name and reputation only. If you are one of them, please keep right on reading for a minute—for it is you whom we ate hoping to reach with this advertisement. I want to emphasize to you, as sincerely and energetically as I can, that these hotels want your friendship. Whether or not you visit the five cities in which there are Statler-operated hotels—whether or not we ever sell you a dollar’s worth of anything—your good-will is important to us, just the same. And I think that perhaps the biggest claim the Statler-operated hotels have upon your friendship—or anybody’s—is based upon the way people are treated in these hotels — the human relations with employees and management which the arriving guest finds. The most distinctive mark of these hotels and the thing which has contributed most toward giving them the good- will of people like you, is this: In the Statler-operated hotels you are prom- ised courteous, helpful, interested service from every employee with whom you come in con- tact. You won’t find argument or surliness or evasion here—nor a we-do-as-we-please attitude toward guests. And the reason you won’t, is simply because we don’t have peo- ple (if some slip in they don’t stay long) who can’t or won’t understand and carry out our in- structions about how our guests are tobe treated. P7202 n Hotel Pennsylvania ork, The Largest Hotel in the World Opp. Pennsylvania Terminal, N comicbooks.com