Friday, May 29, 2015

Vintage Travelodge Guest Pak

I bought this nifty Travelodge Guest Pak on Ebay a few years ago. Guest Pak Corp. in New York produced these boxes of toiletry samples for hotels and motels to give to their guests.

This Travelodge Guest Pak is nicely designed, with Sleepy Bear on the lid, along with an area where the motel could imprint their name. In this case, the motel is the Ontario Travelodge at 755 N. Euclid in Ontario, California.

Here's what the motel looked like (below).

The motel is still there today, but it's no longer part of the Travelodge chain.

So what's in the Travelodge Guest Pak? Let's open it up and find out. My medicine cabinet is short a few things, maybe I can save a trip to the drug store!
Hmmmm. Lots of forgotten brands and partially used samples.
• a two-ounce bottle of Lavoris (that is almost empty)
• a bottle of shampoo with no brand label – just directions on how to use it
• a bottle of Helene Curtis Conditioning Creme Rinse
• a little jar of Helene Curtis Suave Creme Hairdressing with Lanolin
• a bottle of Famel Syrup (for the relief of Coughs and Throat Irritations)
• a small tin of Stanback Analgesic Tablets
• a small plastic jar of Mum Deodorant with M-3
• an almost empty tube of Pacquins Hand Cream
• a tube of Ipana Toothpaste (with the marking NEW DESIGNS ADOPTED 1955)

On second thought, it's probably not a good idea to brush your teeth with 60-year-old toothpaste.

I'm fairly intrigued by some of the products. I wonder if the deodorant would still keep you dry? I guess Mum's the word on that.

Anyway, for more Guest Pak fun, another blogger (here) has some other samples.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

At some point I remember my Mom using Mum. As I recall you dipped your finger tips in and wiped over your arm pit. Glad they found better delivery methods. That's cool it came with those contents. rae

KoHoSo said...

Wow, what a surprise to see something from my neck of the woods on here! I lived very close to that TraveLodge in Ontario and have been in the area for a long time. It retained the brand and even the pink color scheme at least deep into the 1980s if not longer. It has been cleaned up both by management as well as the Ontario Police Department several times since then. Although Euclid Avenue also carries the California State Route 83 designation, it isn't really a travel corridor. It might have once served some of Ontario's old manufacturing businesses but, to be honest, it's mainly been a flop house since I first arrived here in 1983. It's better now than some of its low points in the past but I still wouldn't advise anybody to stay there.

FYI...I discovered your blog when "The House of Googie" posted one of your car ads. I've never been to the area you cover but I love this type of mid-century stuff and that always-in-my-mind question of "What used to be there?" Your writing makes the stories as much fun as the pictures.

Dan Brady said...

Thank you both for the comments! I was worried that no one would find this interesting but me!

KoHoSo, that's interesting that you live out in the Ontario area--I'm glad you found this post. It does seem like the current motel is stranded in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. (I "drove" by it using the Google Maps street view to see what it looked like today!) And I'm glad you enjoy the writing, although much of the time recently it is fairly humorless!