VINTAGE OCEAN CITY, MD

 

Using my collection of old hotel, motel and assorted ephemera from Ocean City, MD I created this first of several collages. Many who have seen it get a big chuckle from the old brochures highlighting dirt-cheap room rates. One includes a $3 per day charge for boys and men who stay in the attic dorm at the Royalton Hotel on 11th St. Of course an electric fan is included for the guests staying up there. It's all great fun and endless hours of studying the assortment of authentic, vintage ads. Creating the collages has been  a very satisfying experience. Sharing some of this "stuff" that I have accumulated over the years gives my work an added focus. And it makes it somewhat easier for me to explain my overall  body of work to those who do not have the collector's gene. Get a load out of this brochure from the Majestic Hotel on 7th Street. My cousins stayed here every summer for countless seasons.

Majestic Hotel's 1969 Room Rates

There are floor plans, lists of kitchen accessories, details of room views, and winter home addresses included in my piece.  Here's a good example of the McCabe's rates and they even give you  S & H Green Stamps!

 It's all here at the McCabe - cheap rates, kitchen utensils and a private bath.

Speaking of private baths - one summer for two weeks, at the age of 12, my girlfriend Charlotte and I had a rented room at the Royalton Hotel. Her parents were on the first floor with an ocean front balcony and lots of privacy from us. We were happily situated on the second floor of the old hotel with twin beds and a sink. The toilet and bath tub were down the hall. It never occurred to us that we needed our own bathroom. We were overjoyed at the independence the modified American plan offered to us. We ate our full breakfast (included in the $50 weekly rate) served in the dining room, swam all day long,  and then consumed a big dinner in the same dining room attended by our young waitress named Judy. At night we judiciously spent our allowances, saved up all winter, on the rides and pinball machines. We checked in with her parents several times per day of course but I don't believe we ever ate a meal with them. After all, by the time Charlotte and I were wandering around OC's honky-tonk, her elegant parents were probably still having apéritifs in their suite. In the days of OC's tightly enforced liquor license laws, the hotel did not serve cocktails.
If you haven't bought or seen this collage in person stop in the Ocean City Lifesaving Museum at the end of the boardwalk. They have (16" x 20") posters of it on display and for sale, too. And check out their fabulous collection of Old Ocean City artifacts and stories.

The Old Commander Hotel - Ocean City, MD

“The Commander Hotel” 2008

oil on canvas (12” x 24”)

The long-gone, original Commander Hotel at 14th St. & Boardwalk was the scene of the first and last time I had to wear starched crinolines underneath my organdy dress while vacationing in Ocean City, MD. One day at the age of five I decided to leave our family’s apartment which we rented for half a season that summer. I wanted to join my grandmother at her elegant retreat on the boardwalk. There we took an afternoon nap prior to dining in the formal restaurant. In the days before air-conditioning we relied on sea breezes to cool us. The guests’ rooms had a latching louvered door for privacy so that air could flow freely throughout the hotel. The two foot gap at the bottom allowed me to eavesdrop on the activity in the hallway while pretending to nap before eating dinner in my best Sunday dress. Nana loved to live properly in public and so later we dined sitting up straight while using the correct flatware. After dinner we sat on the porch and rocked in the wicker chairs while watching all the families "walk the boards." The next morning I was glad to return to the chaotic apartment where I could wear my bathing suit and matching beach jacket as I had my lunch at the kitchen table. More than likely I was barefoot as well.

9th Street Hangout - O.C., MD

So the car radio reports that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge traffic is backed-up today. This is normal for the start of the Memorial Holiday weekend. After all, our families in the greater Baltimore area have been going there for almost one-hundred years. I imagine this scene of 9th Street at the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD taking place around 1964. We were coming of age and it was our first summer to act cool playing the pinball machines. The Beach Club had its live “jam sessions” every weekend afternoon and that was the only time that summer when we did not hear “House of the Rising Sun” drifting into the salty air from the jukebox. Hess Apparel was on the corner though we were not yet appreciative of their tasteful fashions. However we did love the Alaska stand with its milk shakes and hot dogs for lunch when we were allowed that special treat. The big old George Washington Hotel was always a welcome sight because it marked our 9th Street hang-out at least for a few more summers.