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2002: The Dallas Plaza and animated "Great Sign" |
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| Spend
the Night Where the Price is Right |
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Well established by the late 1950s, one branch of Alamo Plazas
fashioned a franchising program that Lee Torrance tacitly agreed
to permit. The scheme was concocted by Bill Farner who had been
an early employee of Torrance's and had become owner of several
Alamo Plazas including, Baton
Rouge, Beaumont,
Dallas,
Gulfport,
and others.
The plan was likely inspired by the rush to franchise motels
by other hospitality concerns like Howard
Johnson's and the upstart Holiday Inn chain. In fact several
people have noted the similarity of Alamo Plaza's circa 1959
road sign to Holiday Inn's "Great Sign." However the
two-part franchise offering did not follow
in Holiday Inn's lead or anyone else's, and it was dropped for
a variety of reasons a little more than a year after it had
been proposed. Remarkably fifty Alamo Plazas and Alamo Plaza
member motels were signed up and listed in their only directory
to promote franchising. |
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Had
Farner not abandoned his franchising idea, perhaps more Alamo
Plaza signs might have been erected. By 1960 the brand had
gained enough recognition that it was no longer necessary
to build Alamo-looking buildings, rather new logo-signage
was devised to represent the brand. Just as the Alamo motif
had been repeated in architecture, letterhead, matchbooks,
blotters, etc., the new sign-logo replaced the long familiar
facade, but it still reminded the public of Texas heritage
with a prominent Alamo shaped 'A' and "lone star."
Times and styles had changed rendering the Alamo facade outmoded
and outdated.
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| Follow
the Alamo Plaza Travel Trail |
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| Circa
1959: The Plantation becomes an Alamo Plaza |
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After
the original circa 1940 New Orleans Alamo Plaza location on Airline
Highway closed and was demolished in the middle 1950s, the Crescent
City was without an Alamo Plaza until the Plantation Motor Hotel
on Chef Menteur Hwy. was converted during Farner's short attempt
to franchise the brand. |
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| Circa 1959: The El
Rancho gets a new sign |
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Buying
into the franchising scheme, operators in High Springs, Florida
converted their motel into an Alamo Plaza. Complete with its Great
Sign, the location was shown briefly in a commercial for a Marriott
brand in 2004 (its Alamo Plaza name was digitally altered in the
advertisement). |
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| © 2005:
Remains of one of the last "Great Signs" |
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Not
using an Alamo Plaza "Great Sign," the motel below located
in Statesboro, Georgia was officially converted and erected its
own version of Alamo Plaza signage. |
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| Circa
1960: Statesboro joins by franchise |
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