Transcript: Episode 196: Old Blue Eyes

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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 196. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/196. 

[00:00:14] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast ride up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.

[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Welcome to the show. Mahendra Doshi is a journalist, historian and author. Arriving in the United States in 1967 with just a few dollars and a fierce determination to study. He began his American journey in New Mexico and quickly found himself working in casinos in Reno, Nevada. That makes you sound you were a professional gambler but we'll get to it from there. Mahendra earned his master's degree in history. And launched a prolific journalism career, including founding an Indian newspaper and writing the first ever who's who of Indian immigrants in the United States. His latest book, Sarat to San Francisco is the first comprehensive account of how three Indian immigrants built a business empire that today accounts for more than 60% of US hotels. We are going to talk about the Patel Hotel phenomenon, the power of oral history and what it means to pursue big dreams. But before we jump in, we need to answer the call button. 

Call button rings 

The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals and in this case just nosy people who have burning questions. If you would to submit a question, you can call or text me at (850) 404-9630. Today's question was submitted by Tiffany. Why is the surname Patel so common? Is it similar to Smith in that it describes a common job or does it refer to something else as the expert on the Patel Hotels? I'm sure you have a good answer for this. Mahendra, what do you think?

[00:02:31] Mahendra Doshi: Yes. Good question to start with. Patel means, it is a surname and it means, originally one who tills the land, a farmer. So all Patel originally were farmers and then they branch out in the business and industry and all that. But Patel means in the Gujarati world, he is a farmer.

[00:03:00] Susan Barry: Very interesting. This is something that both Tiffany and I have wanted to know for a long time so I appreciate that. Very clear and good answer. You arrived in the United States in 1967 with just a few dollars. How did the first few weeks you were here shape your path?

[00:03:20] Mahendra Doshi: Oh, it was a pretty difficult first couple weeks, I probably had no chance of coming to America because the Indian government in 1960s, the war, trying to preserve the foreign exchange. The only people government was allowing was to engineers and doctors. So when I got my admission in school for journalism and history, the government says, you can't go, you can't go. We won't give you a foreign exchange but if somebody sponsors you, you may go. So I was able to go get only the sponsorship but no money. So so I, I took a chance. I said, I'll just go. And I had heard that America is a great country where people can study and earn at the same time. So I thought, well, I'm going to take a chance. So they gave me when, at the Calcuta airport eight dollars. $8 dollars only.

[00:04:24] Susan Barry: Eight dollars?

[00:04:25] Mahendra Doshi: $8 dollars only.

[00:04:28] Susan Barry: Oh my gosh.

[00:04:29] Mahendra Doshi: And, then I had to stop in Tokyo so I spent $3 for my food and all that. So I had, when I landed in Los Angeles, I had only $5.

[00:04:41] Susan Barry: Holy moly. $5. And did at the time that that wasn't very much money? Were you up to date on the exchange rate and all that stuff? Or were you like we'll see what happens?

[00:04:54] Mahendra Doshi: I was, but I said, well, somehow will I manage? Not only I had a problem at the Los Angeles because my school was in a town called Las Vegas, New Mexico. Not Las Vegas, Nevada. So my travel agent gave me a ticket for Las Vegas, Nevada from LA So could you understand my conundrum? I had no money. And the Pan American Airline, very famous airline in those days, it is extinct now, but so Pan American Counter in Los Angeles told me that you are supposed to be going to Albuquerque. That's what you tell me but now you are going to Las Vegas. I said, no, I need to go to Albuquerque. From there, I can go to Las Vegas. So they said it'll be $28. I said, I don't have $28. So they said, then you can't go. So I was a little bit kind of aggressive. I, as a journalist in my training, you have to be a little, a little aggressive. So I said, can I talk to your manager? He said, yeah, you can talk but nothing can be done. So manager, they took me in the cabin. In those days things were a little bit easier than now. And he said, what's the problem? I said, this is the problem. So he was kind of very sympathetic of my dilemma and he said, okay, if I change the ticket, how will we, Pan American, will get paid for? I said, well, when I go over there, when my money will be coming, I'll pay. I just tell him something like that. And he was nice enough to gimme a break. My first break over there.

[00:06:47] Susan Barry: Wow, that's amazing. And I don't think that would ever happen today. Maybe I'm wrong. Hopefully somebody will write and then tell us.

[00:06:56] Mahendra Doshi: No, you were right. Today it will be difficult. You would be stranded at the airport and then you’d probably call somebody you know, maybe they'll send their credit card to the airline and that. So anyway, I arrived in Albuquerque and then reached Santa Fe and from there to Las Vegas. And I just went to the dorm and says, my money's coming. Can you give me a room? He said, we don't have any knowledge that you are coming. I said, well, I don't know why.

[00:07:34] Susan Barry:  Here I am!

[00:07:35] Mahendra Doshi: Yeah. So they gave me a room in the dorm and three meals every day. And then next day I registered and I told them the same story, my money is coming. I had absolutely no idea where my money was coming from.

[00:07:54] Susan Barry:  Wow.

[00:07:54] Mahendra Doshi: Whether it'll come at all. But then what happened? I had about name of four or five people, family relations brothers, son-in-law, friends, things that. So I mentioned people like that. So I called - in those days, I didn't know how to use the phone either so I wrote them a letter. And within two weeks I had about $500.

[00:08:23] Narrator: Wow.

[00:08:24] Mahendra Doshi: They send $75, $65, $35. So you wouldn't believe it. I need to register for nine credit. And it was $10 a credit. So $90 to stay in the dorm for one quarter was $250, including three meals.

[00:08:43] Susan Barry: What?

[00:08:45] Mahendra Doshi: So things were so easy. Coffee in those days, if you who might, have read 10 cents and the donut and coffee was about 35 cents. So I got break after break, including the travel, airlines changed. So I studied one quarter and then, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, it's pretty small town, I asked for a summer job. They said, we don't have it so you need to go to big place like Los Angeles or Reno. So I said, okay. So I packed my things pretty small suitcase and on my way by ground bus to Reno. I arrived about 12 o'clock, walked to a casino and I got a job right away.

[00:09:36] Susan Barry:  That's insane. Did you, why did you pick Reno? Did it just sounded the easiest or?

[00:09:42] Mahendra Doshi: Yeah, it was. Not only that, they told me that college students go to Reno for summer jobs.

[00:09:51] Susan Barry: Ah. So how did that position change or impact your trajectory through your career?

[00:09:58] Mahendra Doshi: Okay so now I'm in Reno. I said, okay, now at least, I will be able to work. Then I was talking to a lot of students were in the casino and they said there was two jobs, some of them. So, my first session was 6:00 AM to three and then I go to the next casino from three to 11. So I worked my first job was a kitchen help, my second job to help a bartender. So good thing about me that I spoke English well and so I was able to communicate, and within two or three weeks I got promoted and then I became a waiter once I started learning how things are. So I was in a place called John Ascuaga's Nugget Parks, Nevada, which was about 10 miles of from Reno. So this was a place they had called Highline, where all those famous people perform. So when for my first day over there was, Rowan and Martin.

[00:11:15] Susan Barry: Oh wow. Rowan and Martin, famous creators of Laughin’, which was a show that I watched on Nick at Night when I was a little girl.

[00:11:26] Mahendra Doshi: And I and, Ruth Boozie passed away about a week ago and, she had character she used to come through the kitchen door. We used to see her and then she go on the stage. So I told my family, I said, I knew this lady.

[00:11:44] Susan Barry: That's crazy.

[00:11:46] Mahendra Doshi: Because I never knew that but I knew in a sense.

[00:11:49] Susan Barry: So were you saving up money for your next year's tuition? Were you sending money home all of the above or?

[00:11:56] Mahendra Doshi: No, I had absolute no need to send the money. My other three brothers were working and so I had no other pressure to send money. So I worked two jobs the whole summer and in those days the minimum wage was $1.20 and you barely…. But as a waiter, I started making something $60 a day and things that. So I was able to save close to $700 and then I thought, why should I go back to New Mexico? And and the people at the John Ascuaga's Nugget promised me that I can work while I'm going to school, part-time, 20 hours as a waiter. I said, oh, that would be nice. So I went to University of Nevada, I applied for a admission and they were able to transfer my credit from New Mexico and I was enrolled in Nevada.

[00:12:56] Susan Barry: And then you were high roller after that, huh?

[00:13:00] Mahendra Doshi: I wasn’t gambling.

[00:13:03] Susan Barry: Well, I know I'm skipping several important parts of your life and your career but I really wanna dig into your most recent book, Sarat to San Francisco. How did you get started on this project? Because while you had some experience in the casino, you were not a hotel person, so to speak, so what made you decide to write this book? How did you find this story?

[00:13:30] Mahendra Doshi: Well, I was a journalist and I was well-known among the communities. I used to write articles about of various activities and all that. So one and I'm not a Patel, I'm Doshi. Patels are farmers. I am more a business person, my family. So in India, your last name tells you something. So, India being a caste based country and your profession is known according to what caste you are. Anyway so I was not a Patel, I was a journalist. So some of the people approached me and said, Hey, you know Patels have become a dominant horse in the American hospitality landscape and, we have no history.

Why don't you write about it? So I said, okay. And I had heard about Patels having so many hotels and motels, but I had not known about the scope of what they had achieved. So I started the research and I went to the Berkeley University of California, Berkeley. It is one of the biggest South Asian library called Bancroft Library.

And I couldn't, I couldn't find anything about the Patels. And I went to Stanford. Stanford is nearby my house so I went there, couldn't find anything. So I thought maybe I would do the oral history. So I met few Patels and the San Francisco area is actually where the Patel Hotel business expanded.

[00:15:12] Susan Barry: You're in a perfect location already in Northern California.

[00:15:14] Mahendra Doshi: And so many descendants of the original hoteliers are living in the San Francisco area. So I met one Patel that led me to another, that led me to another hotelier. And I finally found out that Patel didn't start the hotels in 1970s. They started coming in 1907. And the three hotels, who were the original founders of the hotel business, came in 1922, 1937, and 1930. So that led me to the children of these three founders.

[00:16:05] Susan Barry: So your approach to the research I know involved a lot of the taking of oral history. Is that story of the Patel hoteliers well known in the Indian community? Like did you have a lot of people to talk to?

[00:16:21] Mahendra Doshi: Yeah, absolutely. I interviewed almost 160 Patel. But most of them are hotelier. And then I didn't limit myself to the bay area. I went to Dallas, Texas, Houston. I went to Boston. I interviewed wherever there was sources that I can rely on. And most people opened their heart, their heirlooms, and their home and I was able to get their diaries, their momentos, their photographs and whatever I can put my hand on that would be helpful and I did that.

[00:17:07] Susan Barry: It would be absolutely impossible to describe the entire backstory, all the twists and turns and all of the things that you cover in your book. But are there a couple of key points in the story or key turning points, as it were, that you think our audience should know about?

[00:17:28] Mahendra Doshi: Absolutely. The key turning point, there are several. First of all, there was a general belief among Indian communities and the college South Asian department professors. That Patel business started when the Indian men of Uganda throughout a lot of Indians and they came here and started expanding but that was not true. So Patel business started in actually 1942 when in the middle of the war, president Roosevelt declared Japanese were enemies of United States.

So they, he ordered them into the camps. So one of the founders who living in Sacramento while waiting for a farm job and this lady had ordered to report to the camp so she approached this Patel. His name was Kanji Manchu Desai. He was a Patel but his family collected revenue. They call himself, called themselves Desai.

So he said, I am in the internment camp and I'll be there I don't know how long. Would you run my hotel? The guy says, why not? I never ran the hotel but I'll so he said, “Okay, if you gimme $350 down, I'll give you higher lease, $75 a month, and my hotel is 32 room, single room occupancy hotel, single room occupancy hotel is a place where the eight by eight room, bathroom is down, and there is no service you to provide you just collect the rent. In 1942, in that hotel, it was called Hotel Ford on the 6th Street and Kell Street.

[00:19:30] Susan Barry: Wow.

[00:19:31] Mahendra Doshi: In Sacramento. That was the first hotel. Hotel name of the hotel was Ford Hotel and this Kanji Manchu say, “Hey, this is a better thing to do than working in 110 degree temperature in Sacramento area. So I like this.” So it was probably making no more than 65, $70 a month because rate rates were so so... $50 a day or $350 a week, you provide no service. Only thing you do is clean the bathroom and change the bedsheets once a week.

[00:20:13] Susan Barry: That's why he thought he could do it, even though he had no experience. He like, “Eh, it's fine. They're only paying a quarter a day!”

[00:20:19] Mahendra Doshi: Yeah. Yeah. And then he had quite a few accolades who he followed because he was a leader, kind of that. So he said, you live free in my hotel but you helped me clean the bathroom and do that. So he had a 30 room and probably occupancy rate was no more than 80, 60, 80%. So he had a room to provide and then this guy was a gold hearted man. He said, “Hey, this is a better world than working in the farm. So if you are a Patel, lease a hotel.” In 1940s. If you are a foreigner, particularly if you are from Asian countries, you cannot own anything, you can lease. So you, you was able to help few people lease hotels in Sacramento area. And then by 1947 he moved to San Francisco where he released a hotel, Gold Hill, and then lot of Patel followed him and he, by 1952, he created 30 Patels hoteliers in San Francisco in a single room occupancy hotel.

[00:21:37] Susan Barry: Wow. Was it similar to your situation where he and his two kind of other founders of the movement were sponsoring people to come from India or were they teaching people who were already in the US how to do what they did

[00:21:54] Mahendra Doshi: In those days? They were illegal themselves. All three partners.

[00:21:59] Susan Barry: Oh, I see.

[00:22:00] Mahendra Doshi: So America had two laws, laws of immigration, laws of 1917 and immigration law of 1924, which disbarred Asians from coming to America. So so only way you can come is illegally. One of the founders came through the Mexico. Two guys came from Panama. They got into the boat. They got two days of transit visa in New York and they have the bus or the train to Oakland and went to the farms and started working. This is how they did. And they were subject to immigration, race. All the time. They were discriminated. These three founders were discriminated. And but they were in a position they couldn't go back or they couldn't stay but they somehow managed to stay. And this opportunity in the form of World War II came, Japanese were thrown into the internment camp and they got into the hotel business. That's the founding of the Patel Hotel business in America. The year was 1942.

[00:23:15] Susan Barry: We to make sure that our listeners come away from every episode of Top Floor with some practical, tangible tips to try either in their businesses or in their lives. And surely they can get some good hopping a train across the country advice from your book but for you - for anyone considering an oral history project, what is your advice for building trust and getting something meaningful out of the interviews? Not just yes, no, maybe so.

[00:23:53] Mahendra Doshi: It's pretty easy. Sometimes you want to write your family history or you want to write cultural history of your association and if there is nothing about them in internet. So what you do is, to do the oral history. If you find the people you think they know, you approach them and you need to tell them exactly what you're doing and then try to collect as much, if they have a momentos, there were diaries, they have a photograph. All this, will help you write something about their association or that individuals.

[00:24:35] Susan Barry: Did you get a lot of names from other people? Like, you interviewed one person and then she told you, oh, you have to talk to my cousins A, B and C.

[00:24:45] Mahendra Doshi: Absolutely. My book, I got hold of one person, then he led me to another, then he led me to a third person. And then it mushroomed to an extent that, I got what I needed.

[00:25:04] Susan Barry: to 160 people?

[00:25:07] Mahendra Doshi: Yeah. 160 people. And they all. We're so happy. Couple of the partners told me, Hey, I am glad you are doing it because my father passed away and my mother is still alive and if you don't interview her, whatever she knows will be lost to the history. So one advantage I had, the wife of one of the original founders was still alive and there are still four ladies who her husband came in fifties and, forties and they and she was neve able to fill me all the details.

[00:25:50] Susan Barry: Wow. That's some real primary sources.

[00:25:53] Mahendra Doshi: Absolutely.

[00:25:55] Susan Barry: What do you think the lessons are for younger generations of hotels or from immigrants to draw from this history and this story?

[00:26:07] Mahendra Doshi: Absolutely. See, most of the second and third generations who are running the current hospitality industry for the Patels, they are not too much aware of what these original founders and 30 other Patel suffered. Discrimination, immigration raid, and they build this business by their sweat, by their hard work and they are now this new generation is getting the benefit of that. So they need to realize that this thing just didn't occur. It took while, it took sacrifice, and it took hard work to do what they are at this stage in their life because of the sacrifice from the previous, people, previous ancestors.

[00:27:06] Susan Barry: Yes. Your book might be turned into a movie. Do you have a cast in mind or people that you think should play the roles or are you just excited to see what will happen?

[00:27:21] Mahendra Doshi: No, my movie is actually going to be a documentary. Actually the movie, a short version is already made and Tribeca Festival in New York on June 9th next month is showing it. And I'm going to be in New York in those days.

[00:27:43] Susan Barry: I didn't know that. So I think we have some breaking news on the Top Floor Podcast that everyone needs to see.

[00:27:50] Mahendra Doshi: It's called Patel Motel Story. And it is produced by an enterprise group of young Indians who were born here. Couple of them worked for ESPN and now they are independent and so the movie is already made and I'm going to be on the red carpet.

[00:28:12] Susan Barry: Oh, I'm so excited. I'm gonna have to look. We will link to that in the show notes so everybody can check it out. Well, we have reached the fortune telling portion of the show so now you have to predict the future maybe beyond the Tribeca Film Festival extravaganza. And then we'll come back later and see if you got it right. What is a prediction that you have about the future of immigration?

[00:28:36] Mahendra Doshi: Under the present political environment, immigrations are taking a big hit and they are kind of made a scapegoat for a lot of other things. But we must tell everyone that this country was built on immigration. Absolutely. And, our population, our birth is declining. And so we would definitely need the technicians, IT people, doctors, laborers and so on.

[00:29:16] Susan Barry: And hoteliers.

[00:29:19] Mahendra Doshi: Of course, and hoteliers.

[00:29:21] Susan Barry: If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about the way that we preserve history, what would it be?

[00:29:30] Mahendra Doshi: I would like to have the digital world that we have now. We have a iPhone, we have, all kinds of internet. I wish we had that in 1930s and 40s.

[00:29:46] Susan Barry: So you would take a time machine back in history. I see, I see.

[00:29:51] Mahendra Doshi: Of course, it is a kind of thing that couldn't happen however, would've been made my job so easy and I would been able to write something that I missed. In those days all these people, how they lived, what was their social life, and things that.

[00:30:12] Susan Barry: Interesting. Okay folks, before we tell Mahendra goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told

Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”

[00:30:28] Susan Barry: Mahendra, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock?

[00:30:33] Mahendra Doshi: Very interesting. I have to go back to 1970.

[00:30:37] Susan Barry: Oh, good. That's exactly where I was hoping you would go.

[00:30:41] Mahendra Doshi: And I was working in, John Ascuaga's Nugget, which is still in existence in Spark, Nevada, as a waiter. While I was waiting to have a customer come in, my captain, the maitre de came in, he said, can you join two tables? You have a VIP coming.” And I said, “Really? Who is that VIP? It is not Ruth Buzzi right?” He said, “No, no, no.” So while I was assigned the silverware, put wine glass to the right placem and within 20 minutes, Frank Sinatra and Barbara and Barbara Marx came in with a group of four or five other people. And I waited on them, but I wasn't ever allowed to talk to him. It just serve him. The captain was monopolizing the serving part.

[00:31:39] Susan Barry: Ah, so you didn't get to have the interaction, you just had to bring the plate. Do you remember what he had to eat?

[00:31:45] Mahendra Doshi: I think it was a, it was a steak plate so he probably had a prime rib.

[00:31:50] Susan Barry: Okay.

[00:31:51] Mahendra Doshi: And the important part, you wouldn't believe how much tip he gave me. He gave me a hundred dollars beer.

[00:31:59] Susan Barry: What? In 1970? A hundred dollars. That's one the fifth of your annual tuition, right? Or one half of your annual tuition?

[00:32:10] Mahendra Doshi: Correct. And that a hundred dollars would be right now, probably five to $700. Maybe more.

[00:32:15] Susan Barry: Oh my gosh. Definitely more. Absolutely. I was afraid you were gonna say he didn't tip you at all and I was, oh, come on, Frank.

[00:32:25] Mahendra Doshi: The people said, “Why didn't you get that hundred dollars signed by him?” I said I had no access to him. And then the other people said, “Why didn't you frame that hundred dollars?” I said, “I needed money!”

[00:32:37] Susan Barry: Are you crazy? Frame a hundred dollars bill. The story is better than a framed $100 bill for sure. Mahendra Doshi, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners got some. Really interesting history to dig into and I really appreciate you riding up to the top floor.

[00:32:58] Mahendra Doshi: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

[00:33:02] Susan Barry: Thanks for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/196. Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer, and all around Genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen and your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like. 

[00:33:38] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 8504049630 to be featured in a future episode.