The Washington Post's David Von Drehle wrote about his neighbor who lived to 109. This included an account of his father’s death in an elevator:
'Around 10 a.m. on May 11, 1914, Charlie's father rose from his desk in the downtown Kansas City office where he worked selling life insurance, donned his coat and hat, and set out on an errand. When he reached the elevator in the corridor -- one of the early electric passenger cars -- he might have noticed that the usual operator was not at the controls. The door was open. A substitute stood with his hand on the lever.
As my friend’s father moved into the car, the operator unexpectedly put the elevator in motion. The box lurched upward, doors still open. This created an empty space between the unmoving floor of the hallway and the rising floor of the elevator, which was now waist-high. It happened so quickly that instead of stepping into the car, the unlucky man put his foot into the open space beneath.
His upper body pitched onto the elevator’s floor, his legs dangling in the abyss of the shaft. In an instant, the climbing car crushed his torso against the upper door frame so violently that the impact left a dent. Horrified, the inexperienced operator panicked and threw the elevator into reverse. When the compartment lurched downward, Charlie’s father slipped loose, his body following his feet into the shaft, where he plunged nine stories to his death. He was 42 years old.’
Yes and in more than one building. My family went to NYC for a vacation in the late 1950s. The hotel elevator had an operator. We used to shop at the Friendship Heights Woodward and Lothrop department store in the 1950s and 60s until it closed. Their elevators had operators. I’m sure there were others.
I suppose it was the early 60s but the building with my doctor and dentist had an operator for the elevator. It cost a lot of money to buy a new fangled self serve elevator.
The last time I rode in an elevator that had an operator was in the mid '50s, I was 5 or 6-years old. The Operator wore a uniform and I remember my grandmother chastising me because I made fun of his hat, I thought it look like the hat an organ grinder’s money might wear (like an upside tuna can…).
The operator had only a single “throw switch” Up, Stop, and Down. The elevator went full speed in either direct when positioned all the way Up or Down, and he controlled the speed by positioning the switch closer to the Stop. The truly professional could bring the elevator to a stop, exactly even with the floor without any abrupt stops…
One time, late in the afternoon, I was going with my grandmother to see her lawyer on the 10th or so floor. Since there was no one else on board, he let me operate it with him, his hand on mine… (what a memory for a 6-year old…).
And you are not necessary safe in an automated elevator… Warning, some might find these videos disturbing…
Our Otis elevators were prone to problems. We had passenger and a freight elevator. People liked to use the freight elevator. One night the lady from personnel took the freight elevator and it stopped. She was short and could not reach the phone mounted too high in the elevator. I think the security guard finally rescued her. We had the phone moved down after that. I always make sure I have made a pit stop before getting on an elevator. Having a bag lunch along too would be a nice touch, but then might have to share.
This Ferrari should have made a Pit Stop also before getting on the elevator… L L…
A brand-new Ferrari Roma worth $243,360 has been destroyed after plummeting down an elevator shaft that had malfunctioned at a car dealership in Florida.
When I was a child during WWII, I never saw an automated elevator. My grandmother used to drag me with her on her shopping excursions to Buffalo, an hour and a half away. The operators announced the goods available on each floor ending every stop with “watch your step” because the did not always stop even with the floor. The clerks sent the money up to the office with an compressed aur powered tube and your change and receipt came back down.
She carried no goods with her as she moved from store to store. THey all showed up at our home the next day via Downtown Merchants delivery. We had a nice leisurely lunch in one of the fine places to ear including Hengerer’s Tea room or Laube’s Old Spain.
We got produce ay Braymillers Market just south of Hamburg and cheese at the Swiss Cheese factory in Eden on the way home. Braymillers produce market is still there.
Ha ha. I remember as a kid at the s and l store and maybe others, they had a cable going from the check out counter up to the second floor office and a little brass can rode on the cable. They’d put your money in the can and pull the lever and up it went to the office. A few minutes later down it would come again with the change. Never figured out how they could get it to go uphill.
The banks though all use the vacuum tubes though at the drive through. Warning not to put a lot of change in them or they’ll get stuck, and that’s a mess.
'"They came from folks who were agricultural workers and domestic workers and laundresses," [historian Blair LM] Kelley said. "And elevator operators. My mother wanted me to know that being an elevator operator was a really good job at one point."'
on a recent edition of Marketplace: https://www.marketplace.org/2023/06/14/in-black-folk-the-history-of-the-black-working-class-is-a-family-story/
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