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Photos 2005: Courtesy of Steven LJ Russo
Simple Simon met a pieman
Going to the fair;
Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
"Let me taste your ware."
Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
"Show me first your penny."
Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
"Indeed I have not any."
 

Left: Many locations like Lake George featured Simple Simon and the Pieman exterior greeter figurals made of metal (see Waterbury). After renovations, Lake George's was painted and moved inside.

Below: Carried to another level, Lake George also had an etched in glass Simple Simon and the Pieman in one of its dining rooms. Locations in Times Square, Canton, and Puerto Rico also features similar displays of the logo.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

While Howard D. Johnson (HDJ) was not the first man to discover the importance of branding, he was certainly among the most successful. He repeated his name, logos, and colors at every chance and on everything he produced. By the mid 1960s, Howard Johnson's was the second most recognized brand in the United States.

Devised in the middle 1930s by John E. Alcott at the behest of HDJ, Simple Simon and the Pieman remained in HoJo's stable of imagery, but was placed into semi-retirement after 1966. It turned out that the Orange Roof resonated more with customers! The Simple Simon and the Pieman logo was briefly revived in 1984 near the Company's end, and then redesigned in the early 1990s during the ill-fated FAI era.

Right: Incredibly Lake George continued to use some of its vintage Simple Simon and the Pieman logoed china.
 
 
 
Steven LJ Russo, who has paid Lake George several visits, discovered that the Restaurant still served Howard Johnson's Tendersweet® Fried Clams as recently as 2005!
 
 
 
Photograph March 22, 2001: Courtesy of Dan Doanhue
 
 
Photographs March 22, 2001
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Celebrating its heritage as a Howard Johnson's and its role in serving the area, a large wall hanging was commissioned to commemorate the Lake George Restaurant's important spot and was displayed in one of the location's dining rooms. Note that the artists depiction shows the restaurant in its pre-1960s Nims-type form.
 
Photograph 2005: Courtesy of Steven LJ Russo
 
 
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