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NY one of these tips, if proffered today, would probably start a Twitter war, unleashing a barrage of damning responses to make Bell Pottinger blush.
But as Frommer’s travel guides well know, things were different in the ’60s.
In a field where encountering difference was (and is) sort of the point, travel writers weren’t so good at sensitivity.
As the company celebrates its 60th year, staffers recently dove into the archives to root out some of their more alarming recommendations from the early days.
From the mildly absurd to the totally outrageous, they are a great illustration of how the world has changed. Or maybe, how it hasn’t changed that much at all … And just to be clear, modern Frommer’s apologises unequivocally for the following: 1. Free love and sexism in San Francisco At least one part of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas on $5 and $10 a Day (1962) reads more like a lad mag than a proper travel guide.
Contemplating adult entertainment in San Francisco, it compares the perks of two bars with “scantily-dressed waitresses”.
“Gold Street has the prettier girls but the Roaring Twenties is much more elaborate,” it says. Those “girls” at the latter literally swing over customers’ heads, “flashing their pretty legs” and inviting “imbibers” to “admire the view”.
The modern update says “those who go to places like this can do their own objectifying of the staff”. 2. Native advertising Miami and the Caribbean on $10 a Day (1961) recommends tourists check out “Voodoo ceremonies” — with “gyrating dances that are supposed to remind the natives of their ancestors in Africa”.
Even more outrageously, the guide goes on to call Voodoo practitioners “backward mountain people”. No. Just no.
(The guide today apologises for the “wrongheadedness”).
Just so you know, “vodou” is now considered a more appropriate spelling by scholars. As academic Saumya Arya Haas explains, “In the Americas and the Caribbean, it is thought to be a combination of various African, Catholic and Native American traditions. It is practised around the world but there is no accurate count of how many people are Vodouists.” 3. Poor animal instincts Admittedly, the world still has a long way to go but we’re a bit nicer to animals today than we were in the ’60s — at least where tourism is concerned.
While sites like TripAdvisor disassociate from operators that use animals for profit, Frommer’s promoted cockfighting in Puerto Rico (1961) and bullfighting in Mexico (1960) with no hint of concern for the suffering of the animals.
And, while Spain on $5 a Day (1966) admits that many tourists find the tradition “cruel and shocking”, it also says “You haven’t really experienced Spain until you’ve been to a bullfight.”
Today, Frommer’s admits plenty of Spaniards — and Mexicans, too — also object, and they hardly can be accused of “not having experienced” their lands. 4. Mac-Seriously!?! Published in 1965, Washington DC on $5 a Day has a glowing recommendation for McDonald’s “drive-ins”, which offer the “absolutely lowest prices for edible food anywhere in the city”.
The modern update admits that eating at a “a giant multinational fast-food chain will do virtually nothing to acquaint you with a place’s local flavour” but also points out that McDonald’s — then 10 years old — wasn’t quite the fast-food macdaddy it is today. So that’s okay then. 5. Oh craps Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas on $5 and $10 a Day (1962) mentions a common Las Vegas souvenir — a mini slot-machine that doubles as a piggy bank. Apparently these were popular with children. “In some of the hotel lobbies you’ll see kids pouring dimes into their own piggy banks and pulling the levers,” the guide says. “Nothing like getting the kids started off early.”
That would be mildly funny if we didn’t think they weren’t joking. 6. Peeping in Japan Japan on $5 and $10 a Day (1969) waxes lyrical about the maze of narrow, residential streets in a part of Nagasaki. It gets creative on the question of what a wandering tourist might spot there.
“A gnarled old lady, seated naked on a small bath stool … A young woman, about to undress, stops startled as she catches sight of a gaijin (foreign) face passing the window.”
So basically, go here and you’ve got a good chance of catching the locals in various states of undress.
And if you don’t succeed, there’s always San Francisco ….