Historic Howard Johnson’s Rego Park Mural Rediscovered

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Andre Durenceau & his similar imagery to his HoJo mural, but for the ballroom of United States Line’s America, 1932 maiden voyage, Ocean Liners Magazine

 

Michael Perlman, mperlman@queensledger.com

 

In a rare turn of events, a historically significant 39-foot Art Deco mural by the notable French artist Andre Durenceau, which was thought to have been simultaneously demolished at Rego Park’s award-winning Howard Johnson’s restaurant and reception destination in 1974, has been rediscovered. Not long after the mural’s initial rescue by preservationist Hugh Kelly, now 90, it would end up in his Weston, Massachusetts home. Fifty years later, this columnist spearheaded the rescue and transport of its three large mural canvases back to New York on September 22. It meant traveling in a sprinter van 202.6 miles from Forest Hills to Weston, followed by 242.7 miles to its storage, east of Queens. Award-winning cinematographer Alan McIntyre came along to film the preservation initiative. Next in line is its conceived restoration and installation in a museum, ideally close to its roots in Queens.

 

Featuring beautiful maidens and bold horses jumping through ribbon-like hoops, the mural once initiated distinctiveness and fantasy for patrons on the Howard Johnson’s spiral staircase that dominated an elegant two-story story rotunda, leading to rooms for banquets and wedding breakfasts.

A portion of the newly rediscovered Howard Johnson’s Rego Park mural by André Durenceau, September 1940 Fortune magazine

 

On September 8, this columnist received an email from Brett Downer of Brett A. Downer Art & Antiques in Sudbury, MA. From that moment on, it was full speed ahead to rescue it. He explained, “I am very glad to hear these historic Art Deco murals are finally back where they belong. I found Michael and his organization, Rego-Forest Preservation Council (in affiliation with the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance Foundation), while researching the murals, when I was called into an estate sale to help appraise some items. Homeowner Hugh Kelly called Debra Bacon from ConsignWorks and I to see these enormous rolled up murals. A few days before the sale, I found Michael online, and he acted immediately to try and secure the murals and return them home.”

“When my client, Hugh Kelly, shared the history associated with Howard Johnson’s memorabilia and I saw the mural, I knew we had to get the items properly appraised,” said Debra Bacon of ConsignWorks. “Brett Downer of Tremont Auctions was my first call. Luckily, he did some digging, and fortuitously introduced me to Michael Perlman. This is why I love my job. We find unique and rare items, and we don’t stop researching until we get to the bottom of it! It meant a lot to my client. I am so grateful to have acted in a small way toward saving this amazing mural and other HoJo’s artifacts, and I can’t wait to see them restored.”

Howard Johnson’s is featured in the book, “Ten Restaurants That Changed America” by historian Paul Freedman, since it pioneered on-the-road dining. The Rego Park branch at 95-25 Queens Boulevard was a Georgian Colonial style mansion-like restaurant with ballrooms, which featured a pitched roof with dormers, a cupola and clock, shutters, urns, a portico with an insignia sculpture, and a huge freestanding symbolic neon sign. It was erected in anticipation of the nearby 1939 – 1940 World’s Fair. It was nicknamed “The largest roadside restaurant in the U.S.” and won a 1st prize award by the Queens Chamber of Commerce for its architectural and civic value. At $600,000, it was regarded as the most elegant restaurant ever erected in the chain, thanks to owner Howard D. Johnson and major investor Lydia Gove. The regal Colonial and Empire Rooms were among the major attractions. Despite its popularity, standardization in the culinary industry led to the Rego Park branch’s demolition in 1974 for a banal dark glass office tower.

Andre Durenceau at work circa 1930s, Courtesy of NYPL

 

In 1964, Hugh Kelly joined Howard Johnson’s as VP of Purchasing. Years later, he was promoted to Group VP, and was based at their primary manufacturing facility in Queens Village. The Rego Park branch was a frequent destination for his company meetings. His responsibilities entailed vending, grocery, ice cream, gift shop, supply, and purchasing functions. “I reported to Howard B. Johnson, the son of the company’s founder. Howard D. Johnson was disengaged from operations at the time I joined, and I met him briefly in 1966,” said Kelly.

 

He would always notice the mural’s captivating presence upon entering. “I had no knowledge of the artist, but was struck by the power and elegance of flowing haired maidens astride powerful horses.”

 

Kelly reminisced, “It was in the late spring of 1974 when the company announced that the unit was closing and soon to be demolished. Realizing the uniqueness of the mural, I asked the construction VP if there were any plans to save the mural. His response was ‘No, but feel free to remove it if you want it.’”

 

For Kelly, it was a labor of love. “On a Saturday morning a few weeks later, accompanied by my three young teen sons, we went to the restaurant, equipped with paint scrapers taped to long wooden poles. Working very carefully from the bottom up, we managed to separate the canvas backing on which the mural was mounted from the plaster wall, and roll the three sections on carpet rollers. The canvas backing largely protected the actual art, as it was being removed from the wall.”

Award-winning 1,000-seat Howard Johnson’s, Rego Park by Chief Architect Joseph G Morgan

 

At the time, Kelly resided in New Rochelle and stored the mural in his garage until moved with his family to the Boston area in the summer of 1975. “It was stored in my new and larger garage from 1975 to the present. After relocating to the Boston area, I stayed at HoJo until 1978, when I resigned to purchase and develop Wendy’s restaurants in Suffolk County, consisting of Boston and nearby suburbs,” said Kelly.

 

During his early career with the company in 1964, Howard Johnson’s was the dominant food service and motel provider countrywide, but by the late 1970s, he witnessed the restaurant industry’s shift to fast food entities such as McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s. “It was losing its mojo, and I had the urge to be my own boss,” recalled Kelly.

 

As for the mural, Kelly was delighted to learn from the estate liquidators that there was a search despite the odds. “For 50 years, I wondered what I would do when the time came to downsize. Knowing that it found its way ‘home’ is particularly gratifying,” he said. The donation also included an ice cream sign and a “Landmark for Hungry Americans” sign, a nationwide framed HoJo map, and three sets of letters that were salvaged from varied size trucks that once transported food and supplies to HoJo restaurants and motels. Additionally, he donated unrelated early 20^th century schoolhouse lights and framed group photos, and a hand-painted Boston taxi political sign. “The simple fact is that historic art and architecture should be preserved as one-of-a-kind artifacts. Saving things of merit and beauty has been a lifelong commitment,” said Kelly.

Howard Johnson’s at 95-25 Queens Blvd, Now Rego Park office tower

 

Embarking upon his ninth decade, he relocated to the quiet seaside village of Mattapoisett, ideal for pursuing his love of stone sculpture, wood carving, and writing. “My caring family includes five kids, 22 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren (and counting). What more could a person want?” he asked.

 

Muralist, painter, and book and magazine illustrator Andre Maurice Durenceau (1904 – 1985) was also multi-talented. As a native of Auray, France, he immigrated to America in 1923, settled in New York in the 1930s, and operated a high-ceiling but not that spacious studio at 19 West 56th Street. He was known for working in every medium he could find, including watercolor, pen and ink, oil, sculpture, and portraiture.

 

“We shall have a real Renaissance of art in America. We have new blood, vitality. Artists are thinking daring thoughts. They will do great things,” Durenceau told the New York Journal & American in January 1939. “If the artist and the architect, now, would plan together, what wonderful public buildings we would erect!” Architecturally and artistically, those wishes were seemingly fulfilled at Howard Johnson’s.

“Art is something that all can appreciate; it does not have to be stowed away in museums nor is it a luxury confined to the wealthy exclusively,” said Durenceau to The Philadelphia Inquirer in August 1950

 

His other highlights included “The Crucifixion” murals that decorated Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney’s New York home, four 40 by 50 feet murals gracing the Metals Building of the 1939 World’s Fair, and works at the Production Building and Schaefer Center. His “Water as Power” façade mural engaged Fairgoers at the Hall of Industry. His murals also traveled overseas on the SS America, SS Uruguay, SS Wilson, and SS Cleveland. Among numerous works, he designed “The Folsom Man” and “Medieval Europe” series for the National Geographic Society and “Themes of The Opera” for American Weekly Magazine. In the 1940s, he had a series of colorful and vibrant works reflecting nature for The Travelers Insurance magazine, with titles such as “A leaf that can walk” and “The acacia that says ‘Keep off!’ – twice.”

 

Jim Trent serves as president of the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance Foundation, where this columnist is a longtime member. “We as members of the Foundation are immensely grateful to Hugh Kelly for wanting to assure the survival of the mural by donating it to us. It is a generous gesture on his part to gift this treasure. I am elated that this famous and beautiful Howard Johnson’s, which should never have been torn down, had something of value that survived its unfortunate destruction. I am even further surprised that it survived in storage until the present day. I estimate that it is a major discovery of an important piece of period art. Although it is important for the mural to be restored and displayed anywhere, its final home surely should be in Queens.”

 

Trent, who has memories of dining at several HoJo branches, recognizes how the mural is representative of the era’s artistic style. “The flowing lines express movement, the colors are soft and restful, and the overall composition exudes elegance. I am willing to bet that the sight of the mural uplifted and transported patrons to a fantasy story. It certainly elevated the experience of what otherwise might be viewed as a run-of-the mill casual dining event to arriving at a restaurant of upscale quality. The Rego Park location was not far from the 1939 – 1940 World’s Fair, and must have felt like an extension of that fair’s look of hope for the future, with its commanding presence.”

Performing the historic mural rescue in MA, Hugh Kelly, Osmond Fletcher, Michael Perlman, Jean Baptiste Gamaliel

 

By 1975, over 1,000 Howard Johnson’s restaurants existed, but the final NYC branch shuttered on Broadway and 46^th Street in 2005 and was demolished. Artwork, such as Durenceau’s mural in Rego Park was a means of outstanding personalization that elevated patrons, in addition to the quality and variety of food of an extensive menu that Trent recalls throughout the chain. He reminisced, “They were known for their fried clams, choice of 28 ice cream flavors, and salt water taffy sold in boxes at the cashier. The earlier Howard Johnson restaurants were beautiful in their Colonial Revival architectural garb, and especially their towers. Unfortunately, in later years, their contemporary style buildings were not as pleasing. Towers became stylized, looking nothing like earlier ones, but at least they kept the notion of a tower, much as McDonald’s retains an arch on their signs, although the arch is gone from the restaurants.”

 

Transporting the mural canvases in a sprinter van on September 22, embarking from Forest Hills, was a worthwhile expedition, and the commute was planned in less than 24 hours’ notice. “It was an honor and a privilege to help, and now a great mission was accomplished,” said Jean Baptiste Gamaliel of Live Sound Grace, Inc, who was in partnership with fellow mover Osmond Fletcher for the nearly 450-mile roundtrip commute.

 

His “word of mouth” company was established in 2020. “We understand the challenges behind moving, as well as event planning, and we are here to help everyone, including organizations and religious groups. Sometimes people don’t have friends or family to assist, so it is a relief to have someone you can rely on in a time of need,” said Gamaliel. Additionally, he pursues old-school music and sound system engineering, and offers the option for guests to travel in a luxury 15-passenger van or in groups up to 35 in a spacious modern-day bus. “I can move rare art or your possessions from state to state or even Canada. We are there to get you where you need to be and we are one call away at 516-343-7932,” he continued.

 

Besides being on a mission, Gamaliel could not deny sharing his thoughts. “Andre Durenceau’s artwork is unique and exquisite, as he was a historical, mystical, angelic, and futuristic artist. You can feel his emotions. I am hoping to see his mural displayed in a Queens museum. His artwork is classic, beautiful to look at, and made with pure expression.”

 

“His mural is an imaginative masterpiece worth restoring, and the valuable preservation work will allow thousands of viewers to enjoy his art,” said Amanda S. Stevenson, a document examiner, librettist, and composer from Easton, PA, who feels fortunate to have befriended Durenceau.

 

She shared a first-hand account. “In the late 1960s, MGM advertising executive Silas F. Seadler took me to Andre’s studio within walking distance of MGM’s offices. Andre Durenceau and Kay Kaplan, his muse, publicist, and sales representative were in high spirits. Si Seadler got great publicity and commissions for Andre with his friends Joan Crawford and Neil Vanderbilt, Jr.”

 

Stevenson was also fond of his personality. “Andre was not a self-absorbed artist, but welcomed friendship and was happy to share his talent and answer any questions. He enjoyed our comments. Andre was animated, more like a movie star than an artist. Having over 2,000 art books at home, I know how talented Andre was, and also the importance of having a great sales representative like Kay Kaplan.”

Would your museum be interested in displaying the historic mural? Contact mperlman@queensledger.com

Placing 1 of 3 mural canvases into the sprinter van in MA, Photo by Michael Perlman