Travel Channel

In Sam's episode on the Hotel Del Coronado, she bought a white chicken sculpture at one of the stores (probably the Babcock & Story Emporium). I've been looking for that exact sculpture for years, and would like to know if I can get any information on manufacturer or any other tips finding it. I contacted the store and asked, and bought a rooster (sight unseen) that was very cute but not the same thing. Can anyone help?

Susan

To intldoc,
This unanswered post from two years ago brings a question to my mind. On your recent visit to the Del, did you or did you not see any white ceramic chickens in your travels?
Inquiring minds want to know!

Not exactly, but ...

Of all of the shops we visited, the one most likely is that on the first floor near the Hotel Del gift shop (i.e., gift shop = all things are labelled with the HD brand in some fashion). There is a store just about opposite the gift shop that may have had ceramic roosters/chickens as it had other things that would have been in the same nick-nack country style as fowl pottery.

My guess is that if one calls the Hotel Del switchboard and asks to be connected to the "first floor country store opposite the Hotel Del gift shop" - that should do it. [The store I suspect we're discussing seems to specialize in selling a number of different large clocks as well, if that helps.] I remember the place well because it has a large stand of "canes" in front of the cash register, and I mentioned to the lady in my company that indeed I could tell by the length these were walking sticks, not canes, as the former is a walking aid and the latter is carried. All these trips to England are paying off, it appears.

Best wishes and always wonderful to hear from you, Mother O --

Intl Doc

PS I just checked thru Google and it could be the "Est. 1888" store.

I just had a brief conversation with a very confused lady friend who joined me at the Hotel Del recently, and she doubtless thought I was mad. Which of the shops at the Del, I asked, sells ceramic chickens?

She replied it is (as originaly suspected above) the Babcock and Story Emporium, on the ground (beach) level near the Babcock and Story Bar (opposite end from the restaurants). Whereas, I saw no chickens of pottery or any other composition, she advised me the place is positively lousy with them; one cannot swing a cat over one's head without hitting a clay chicken, says she. And so, for those of you in search of a place overrun by fowl statuary, the Hotel Del Coronado, Babcock and Story Emporium is the place for you. If not, the bar next door has a rather nice wine collection and serves cigars to those in that habit.

Those of you who have swung a cat and hit a ceramic chicken know at which establishment I can be found.

Best, Intl Doc

intl doc!
Very important detective work, you have done here. Bravo.
In the Del Coronado Great Hotels episode, Samantha showed a fierce determination to walk off with a fat chicken held under her armpit. She could have chosen the leopard print martini glasses as a souvenir, but no, she went for the comic effect. I seriously doubt that she actually crammed the bird into her little black suitcase and took it home, but that is something we may never know. Nor should we want to.
I wonder if Samantha may have unknowingly started a trend that forced the place you mentioned to stock this particular style of decorative livestock. Since Great Hotels went off the air, perhaps visitors are no longer flocking in to buy them. This is indeed sad. But perhaps Susan, the original poster of the question, is still drawn to poultry like a magnet to a freezer door, and will return to this thread one day and let out a cheer.
I certainly hope so.
Be aware, intl doc, that I am noting the date of your last informative post here on this thread and am therefore more than a tad skeptical about the truth of your tales. There should be absolutely no fooling around when it comes to something as important as chicken sculpture, don't you agree?
I'm off to work now, and with plenty of pranks, I assure you.


Mother O.

quote:

I am noting the date of your last informative post here on this thread and am therefore more than a tad skeptical about the truth of your tales.

Madam, you wound me! No tall tales from the likes of me, I assure you. I am flummoxed you challenge my veracity, dear lady, and surely in a matter as important as poultry pottery I would never jest.

Not to mention, this isn't a forum to make things up - although some do and are quite obvious about it. I was at the Hotel del Coronado on Friday, March 21, 2008, where I and a lady friend had dinner, walked about the boardwalk, and when it got a bit chilly walked about the interior of the hotel.

Beforehand, we had an appetizer (and a few Margueritas) at the Byzantine, right across the street. Not sure how much more detail you'd like ...

Intl Doc

Well, I think I need to get one of those plump ceramic chickens now, Mother O and Intl Doc. Suddenly it intrigues me strangely. And Tuttle Manor would certainly be changed by one, looking as it does now like a cross between an English vicarage and the professor's house that I never quite got to be. But one might fit in among the Queen Victoria bust over the fireplace, the phrenology head in the corner, the cathedral prints and the clock's ticking and just a few books. Perhaps we don't need messages in bottles anymore; we need messages in chickens.

I've never been to the Del. Never been to San Diego. And I've certainly never been to Hawaii. But while snugly home at Tuttle Manor for the day (no post-birthday celebrations here -- mine's a few months off yet), what should I stumble across during lunch but a stray episode of Girl Meets Hawaii? And this was an odd episode, the haunted one, that I must confess I'd only seen a few minutes of before. Certainly a curious one. Does this mean more Hawaii ones to follow (I'd be able to see Thursday's). Another Travel Channel mystery.

I hope Samantha is feeling clear-headed, fresh and happy today. And got something more than a glazed chicken for her birthday.

Oh, intl doc, I sincerely apologize if I have wounded you, one of Samantha’s boldest knights. Of course I believed you, as your account was quite detailed and convincing.

It’s just that I have learned from experience that it is ALWAYS a wise move to think twice about believing anything that is said, sent or even posted on April Fool’s Day!
Which of course it is today. I was posting quickly at a time when I have no business being on the internet, and at the time it did not occur to me that anyone would take me seriously, especially regarding this particular topic.

As for you, Captain Tuttle, don’t expect me to believe for two minutes that you would want a chicken sitting next to Queen Victoria’s bust on your mantel. And I wouldn’t believe for even two seconds that you have “just a few books” sitting on the shelves of Tuttle Manor.

If I didn’t see it with my own failing eyes when I just checked on the schedule here, I would NEVER believe that the Travel Channel would, out of the blue today and with no fanfare, put on the rarest show of the Girl Meets Hawaii series at midday! But it is true. And it is one I have never seen, too. They will be airing Girl Meets Hawaii all this week at 12:30. Believe me, people, it's REALLY true. Too bad the Forum for that show is gone forever.
Maybe mod ben will find it some day.
And maybe one day they will surprise us all and bring back the best of the Great Hotels series. The Del Coronado was certainly one of those. Such a plan just might rope in some new viewers before the new series starts up in June.

Here’s hoping everyone had an uneventful April Fool’s Day.

Mother O.

Indeed one must question at this point if the sage Intl Doc is so thick he cannot recall that April Fools day is April 1 - every year.

Verily, he is that thick to be sure.

With apologies, Mother O, for not connecting the dots, and allow me to echo your sentiments in regard to the chicken next to Capt Tuttle's Queen Victoria bust. Everyone knows that chicken pottery should be paired only with George III.

Best and j'regrete -

Intl Doc

I saw the Girl Meets Hawaii too! I was so excited! I've never seen that one before.

I got fooled, just once. I was watching Dancing with the Stars and they did a segment about what the stars do in their free time... It took me a while, but then I was like "Wait... there is no way that Marlee Matlin is a volunteer narcotics officer."

Oooh the chicken was at the Del? Ok, I remember now. No wonder I couldn't find it when I was at the Broadmoor...

Of course I would be deeply honored to have a Samantha-favored Del Coronado chicken on the mantelpiece (it may not fit, however, and people might start making "bwok bwok bwok" chicken noises once they saw it - quite a nuisance). And anyone possessing a true Samanthan souvenier would be luckier than he or she might realize. Once I passed up the chance to buy a neat little Admiral Nelson bust in London that to this day bothers me that I left behind. My favorite memento from last fall's trip was a part of a torn up love letter prop from the Globe's version of Love's Labour's Lost which I discretely swooped off the stage at intermission since I was leaning right there below it as a groundling. But it's no plump ceramic chicken, to be sure.

In the matter of errata, I'm told by my lady counterpart that the name of the restaurant we visited opposite the Del is the Brigantine, not the Byzantine. I stand corrected - which happens more frequently as I grow older, I've noticed.

Best, Intl Doc

At least it wasn't the Brigadoon, Intl Doc, which can't be found when you try to go back to it. Then you really think you're getting senile.

For any interested in learning more about the Hotel Del's 120th anniversary this year, check out the magazine at:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ksl/2008_platnm/#/2

or the brochures at:
http://www.kslresorts.com

It also freatures Austin's Burton Creek Spa & Resort property I've mentioned a few times herein. Definately not for the faint of checkbook, but if one can handle the freight it's worth the price of admission. [Bring your golf clubs to the Burton Creek, by the way. Best 54 holes in Texas - challenging, quite pretty too.]

Intl Doc