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1944 Manhattan Room NYC Menu **SOLD**

• CATEGORIES: Advertising & Brochures, Features • TAGS: This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

UPDATE:  **SOLD** Was on eBay.

Here’s an interesting piece. There was a similar menu from the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia.

“Vintage menu from the Manhattan Room, Hotel New Yorker in NYC dated August 9, 1944. The front shows a painting by artist James Sessions which is a World War II advertisement for Willys Jeep. Overall in good condition. There is a crease mark where the menu was once folded. There are three menu items checked in pencil. See pictures for details. Measures 9″ x 12″.”

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5 Comments on “1944 Manhattan Room NYC Menu **SOLD**

  1. Steve E.

    It was interesting to see what was on the menu, the prices, and the typographical errors in the menu. Did the Willys-Overland automobile company really advertise the concept of a civilian Jeep in August 1944? The first CJ-2A was introduced in 1946. They must have been advertising the civilian concept early. Of course, nobody could predict when WWII would end. Maybe they were a little optimistic since it was essentially over in Europe at that time.

    **Steve E.**

  2. Mike Finegan

    The Willys pictures on the menu look like magazine ads that were published in the Saturday Evening Post AFTER THE WAR ENDED. Somehow the 1944 date doesn’t fit.

  3. mmdeilers Post author

    Note that the menu from Philly was dated Aug 19, 1944. So, there was some consistency in those two dates. http://www.ewillys.com/2014/02/18/1944-benjamin-franklin-hotel-menu-on-ebay/

    And, the 1946 menu is labeled as such: http://www.ewillys.com/2012/12/13/benjamin-franklin-hotel-menu-jeep-1946-dallas-tx-ebay/

    No doubt there is more to the story than these two hotels just happening to use a jeep menu. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a deeper story here.

    One thought is that these were used in conjunction with a Willys Overland Shareholder meeting? It’s possible these images came from the 1943 Willys Overland Annual Report. You can see that that 1944 report has similar, but different and more refined images.
    http://www.ewillys.com/tag/1944-wo-report/

  4. Mike Finegan

    Good point Dave, I missed that connection. So it’s possible that Willys was already planning for the Civilian market before the war ended. Kind of like “planting” a subliminal message in the minds of the public to create a market for the civilian CJ2A.

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