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Arthur Frommer, famed travel guide innovator, has died at 95
New York — Arthur Frommer, whose “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day” guidebooks revolutionized leisure travel by persuading average Americans to take budget vacations abroad, has died. He was 95.
Frommer died from complications of pneumonia, his daughter Pauline Frommer said Monday.
“My father opened up the world to so many people,” she said. “He believed deeply that travel could be an enlightening activity and one that did not require a big budget.”
Chris Melzer / picture alliance via Getty Images
Frommer began writing about travel while serving in the U.S. Army in Europe in the 1950s. When a guidebook he wrote for American soldiers overseas sold out, he launched what became one of the travel industry’s best-known brands, self-publishing “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day” in 1957.
“It struck a chord and became an immediate best-seller,” he recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 2007, on the 50th anniversary of the book’s debut.
The Frommer’s brand, led today by Pauline Frommer, remains one of the best-known names in the travel industry, with guidebooks to destinations around the world, an influential social media presence, podcasts and a radio show.
Frommer’s philosophy – stay in inns and budget hotels instead of five-star hotels, sightsee on your own using public transportation, eat with locals in small cafes instead of fancy restaurants – changed the way Americans traveled in the mid- to late 20th century. He said budget travel was preferable to luxury travel “because it leads to a more authentic experience.” That message encouraged average people, not just the wealthy, to vacation abroad.
It didn’t hurt that his books hit the market as the rise of jet travel made getting to Europe easier than crossing the Atlantic by ship.
The books became so popular that there was a time when you couldn’t visit a place like the Eiffel Tower without spotting Frommer’s guidebooks in the hands of every other American tourist.
Seth Wenig / AP
Frommer’s advice also became so standard that it’s hard to remember how radical it seemed in the days before discount flights and backpacks.
“It was really pioneering stuff,” Tony Wheeler, founder of the Lonely Planet guidebook company, said in an interview in 2013. Before Frommer, Wheeler said, you could find guidebooks “that would tell you everything about the church or the temple ruin. But the idea that you wanted to eat somewhere and find a hotel or get from A to B — well, I’ve got a huge amount of respect for Arthur.”
“Arthur did for travel what Consumer Reports did for everything else,” said Pat Carrier, former owner of The Globe Corner, a travel bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The final editions of Frommer’s groundbreaking series were titled “Europe from $95 a Day.”
Frommer guides reborn
The concept no longer made sense when hotels couldn’t be had for less than $100 a night, so the series was discontinued in 2007. But the Frommer publishing empire didn’t disappear, despite a series of sales that started when Frommer sold the guidebook company to Simon & Schuster. It was later acquired by Wiley Publishing, which in turn sold it to Google in 2012. Google quietly shut the guidebooks down, but Arthur Frommer – in a David vs. Goliath triumph – got his brand back from Google. In November 2013 with his daughter Pauline, he relaunched the print series with dozens of new guidebook titles.
“I never dreamed at my age I’d be working this hard,” he told the AP at the time, age 84.
Frommer also remained a well-known figure in 21st century travel, opinionated to the end of his career, speaking out on his blog and radio show.
He hated mega-cruise ships and railed against travel websites where consumers put up their own reviews, saying they were too easily manipulated with phony posts. And he coined the phrase “Trump Slump” in a widely quoted column that predicted a slump in tourism to the U.S. after Donald Trump was elected president the first time.
Depression-era roots
Frommer was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, and grew up during the Great Depression in Jefferson City, Missouri, the child of a Polish father and Austrian mother. “My father had one job after another, one company after another that went bankrupt,” he recalled. The family moved to New York when he was a teenager. He worked as an office boy at Newsweek, went to New York University and was drafted upon graduating from Yale Law School in 1953. Because he spoke French and Russian, he was sent to work in Army intelligence at a U.S. base in Germany, where the Cold War was heating up.
His first glimpse of Europe was from the window of a military transport plane. Whenever he had a weekend leave or a three-day pass, he’d hop a train to Paris or hitch a ride to England on an Air Force flight.
Eventually, he wrote “The GI’s Guide to Traveling in Europe” and, a few weeks before his Army stint was up, he had 5,000 copies printed by a typesetter in a German village. They were priced at 50 cents apiece and distributed by the Army newspaper, Stars & Stripes.
Shortly after he returned to New York to practice law at the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, he received a cable from Europe. “The book was sold out, would I arrange a reprint?” he said.
Soon after, he spent his month’s vacation from the law firm doing a civilian version of the guide. “In 30 days I went to 15 different cities, getting up at 4 a.m., running up and down the streets, trying to find good cheap hotels and restaurants,” he recalled.
The resulting book, the very first “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day,” was much more than a list. It was written with a wide-eyed wonder that verged on poetry: “Venice is a fantastic dream,” Frommer wrote. “Try to arrive at night when the wonders of the city can steal upon you piecemeal and slow. … Out of the dark, there appear little clusters of candy-striped mooring poles; a gondola approaches with a lighted lantern hung from its prow.”
Frommer eventually gave up law to write the guides full-time.
Daughter Pauline joined him with his first wife, Hope Arthur, on their trips starting in 1965, when she was 4 months old. “They used to joke that the book should be called ‘Europe on Five Diapers a Day,'” Pauline Frommer said.
In the 1960s, when inflation forced Frommer to change the title of the book to “Europe on 5 and 10 Dollars a Day,” he said “it was as if someone had plunged a knife into my head.”
Dispelling false impressions
Asked to summarize the impact of his books in a 2017 Associated Press interview, he said that in the 1950s, “most Americans had been taught that foreign travel was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially travel to Europe. They were taught that they were going to a war-torn country where it was risky to stay in any hotel other than a five-star hotel. It was risky to go into anything but a top-notch restaurant. … And I knew that all these warnings were a lot of nonsense.”
He added: “We were pioneers in also suggesting that a different type of American should travel, that you didn’t have to be well-heeled.”
To the end of his life, he said he avoided traveling first class. “I fly economy class and I try to experience the same form of travel, the same experience that the average American and the average citizen of the world encounters,” he said.
As Frommer aged, his daughter Pauline gradually became the force behind the company, promoting the brand, managing the business and even writing some of the content based on her own travels. Her relationship with her father was both tender and respectful, and she summed it up this way in a 2012 email to AP: “It’s wonderful to have a working partner whose mind is a steel trap and who doesn’t just have smarts, but wisdom. His opinions, whether or not you agree with them, come from his social values. He’s a man who puts ethics at the center of his life, and weaves them into everything he does.”
In addition to Pauline, Frommer’s survivors include his second wife, Roberta Brodfeld, and four grandchildren.
Taipei, Taiwan — Numerous children were injured by a vehicle outside an elementary school in central China’s Hunan province on Tuesday, reports said. Hours after the incident, the casualty count was unclear and authorities had yet to clarify if it was an accident or a deliberate attack. The incident follows a series of recent killings or attacks in China by people in vehicles or wielding knives, including others at schools.
Students were arriving for classes around 8 a.m. at Yong’an Elementary School in the city of Changde when a small white SUV drove into a crowd of children and adults, according to state media. Few details were released, reflecting China’s reflexive inclination to suppress news about crime, protests and major accidents that could erode public confidence in the ruling Communist Party’s self-declared ability to maintain social order.
Several adults were also injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said, adding that the driver was subdued by parents and security guards and some of the injured were immediately sent to the hospital.
Social Media/via REUTERS
Police in the city’s Dingcheng district, where the school is located, issued a statement saying no one had life-threatening injuries and identifying the driver as a 39-year-old man surnamed Huang, who was under detention. It said the incident was under investigation but gave no word on the cause or other details.
Footage posted on Chinese social media showed the injured lying on the road while terrified students ran past the gate and inside the schoolhouse.
Comments on Chinese internet sites reflected anger and frustration with recurring incidents of violence against citizens by those venting anger at society.
Elif Acar/Anadolu/Getty
While China has much lower rates of violence than many countries — personal gun ownership there is illegal — knifings and the use of homemade explosives still occur.
Chinese schools have been subject to numerous attacks by people armed with knives or using vehicles as weapons. A stabbing attack at a vocational school in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi on Saturday left eight people dead and 17 others injured.
That came shortly after a man drove his car into people at a sports facility in the southern city of Zhuhai, leaving 35 people dead and 43 others injured.
In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, and 15 others were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”
The same month, a Japanese schoolboy died after being stabbed on his way to school in the southern city of Shenzhen.
The Chinese government generally censors internet content it deems overly sensitive or political, and some images of the school incident were quickly taken down. Most Western social media sites and search engines like Google are blocked in China, limiting available content even while some people use tools like VPNs and send news through Chinese social media before the censors have time to catch it.
Ahead of the release of “Gladiator II,” starring Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington, the “60 Minutes: A Second Look” podcast team searched through years of interviews with the acclaimed actor, digging up never before aired footage from throughout Washington’s career.
Washington spoke with Ed Bradley in 1999, for a 60 Minutes piece aired in 2000, about why he didn’t initially like being compared to Sidney Poitier and why he wasn’t being offered romantic films. They spoke again in 2005, when Washington was performing on Broadway. Washington was also interviewed by Bill Whitaker in 2016, when they discussed his approach to directing “Fences,” whether he would ever join a superhero franchise and the role of race in his work.
Denzel Washington in 2000
Bradley first profiled Washington in 2000. Washington had done more than 20 movies by that point, but very few romantic films.
“I’m not offered any,” Washington said at the time, adding that he thought it came down to business.
“I think that if it was a love story with myself and a Black woman, it’s not big business in Hollywood,” Washington said. “So they, maybe they’re not interested.”
While already an Oscar winner in the best supporting actor category at the time of the interview, Washington had not yet taken home the Academy Award for best actor. He was nominated for his role in that year’s “The Hurricane” and was previously up for the award in 1993 for “Malcolm X,” going up against Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Robert Downey Jr. and Stephen Rea. He recalled not expecting to win in ’93.
“Because I knew, I could see, I could read the leaves. I could see what was happening,” Washington said. “You know, there was a lot of, there was a groundswell of, uh, you know, Al Pacino had been, has, had been nominated for the eighth time. Had he not won, he would have been 0 for 8. You know, I voted for Al Pacino. I wanted to see him win.”
By 2000, Oscar or no Oscar, many considered Washington one of the greats, but it was another actor whose name came up time and time again. Sidney Poitier was the first Black performer to win the Academy Award for best actor in 1963. Initially, Washington said he would get upset when he heard the comparison.
“And the reason was, I said, you know, isn’t it a shame that there’s only one person to be compared to? You know, I would almost be insulted by that to say, ‘Oh, you’re like the next Sidney.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, you mean there’s been nobody in between? He’s the only one? Who else was acting while Sidney was acting? Who else is acting now? I’m not one,’ I don’t, I’m not too keen on that,'” Washington said.
However, Washington didn’t feel like he had to carry the torch.
“There are other actors now like Sam Jackson, or Lawrence Fishburne, or Michael Wright, or Will Smith. You know, and other young actors coming along,” Washington said. “I’m not the only one — I’m not even the biggest one of that group!”
Denzel Washington in 2005
Bradley interviewed Washington again in 2005. At the time, Washington was on Broadway, appearing in a modern day production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.” He played Brutus, one of the leaders of the plot to kill Caesar.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to get back on the stage, to get back to my roots,” Washington said at the time. “And I get so few opportunities to get on the stage, So when I do, I really like tackling Shakespeare, which is the toughest and the most rewarding.”
Washington was making big money for acting, but he was also venturing into the world of directing with “Antwone Fisher,” which he directed and starred in. Bradley asked if Washington preferred acting or directing.
“I look at Clint Eastwood as the model. That’s, I like the way he’s doing things and that’s how I’d like to do it,” Washington said. “Just, you know, segue right on into, into more and more filmmaking.”
Denzel Washington in 2016
In 2016, Bill Whitaker interviewed Washington while he was in the middle of directing and acting in the film adaptation of August Wilson’s play, “Fences.” Wilson insisted on a Black director for “Fences.” At the time, Washington told Whitaker that for him, it was not so much about race as it was about culture.
“I’m sure Scorsese could have directed ‘Schindler’s List.’ And Spielberg probably could have directed ‘Goodfellas,'” he said.
He went on to explain: “You know, there’s things specific to the Italian American culture that Scorsese understands that you and I may not understand or Spielberg may not understand. And there are things specific to Jewish American or whatever culture that you and I may not understand that Spielberg would understand,” Washington said, adding, “So I know what it smells like when hair is being hot combed on a Sunday morning when my sister’s getting ready to go to church or something. There’s a particular smell that’s specific to our culture, I think.”
By 2016, Washington was fronting big budget movies like “The Equalizer,” “American Gangster” and remakes of “The Manchurian Candidate” and “The Magnificent Seven.” Studio executives told Whitaker that Washington was a game changer, an actor who defied categorization and had appeal across the board.
“I guess you can cultivate it to a degree, but fundamentally, I’m just trying to be the best actor I can be. To do the best I can with the ability that I have,” Washington said during the 2016 interview.
They also touched on superhero movies, but Washington felt he “may be a little beyond the tights years.”
Denzel Washington now
Washington will turn 70 in late December, and will have been acting for nearly 50 years. Despite his success and experience, he says “Gladiator II,” also starring Paul Mescal, is the biggest film he has ever worked on. He stars as Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer hungry for power.
“Every scene I did with him was never how I expected it to go,” Mescal told podcast host Seth Doane during a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview. Mescal called it a dream and said it was “very thrilling to be five feet in front of his face watching him do that.”
Next year, Washington will return to Broadway to star in “Othello.”
Austin, Texas — Texas public schools could use teachings from the Bible in lessons as an option for students from kindergarten through fifth grade under a proposal that drew hours of testimony Monday and follows Republican-led efforts in other states to incorporate more religious teaching into classrooms.
Teachers and parents gave impassioned testimony for and against the curriculum plan at a meeting of the Texas State Board of Education, which is expected to hold a final vote on the measure later this week.
The Board heard from more than 150 people about the new proposed curriculum during more than 8 hours of testimony, CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV reported.
Testimony was expected to resume Tuesday, CBS Austin affiliate KEYE-TV said.
The curriculum – designed by the state’s public education agency – would allow teachings from the Bible such as the Golden Rule and lessons from books such as Genesis into classrooms. Under the plan, it would be optional for schools to adopt the curriculum though they would receive additional funding if they did so.
Some complained that the proposal contradicts the public school mission.
“This curriculum fails to meet the standard of an honest, secular one,” educator Megan Tessler said. “Public schools are meant to educate, not indoctrinate.”
Others strongly backed the idea.
“Parents and teachers want a return to excellence,” Cindy Asmussen, one of those testifying, told the panel. “Stories and concepts in the Bible have been common for hundreds of years,” and that, she said, is a core part of classical learning.
Education officials were expected to vote Friday on whether public schools would be given the option to teach the curriculum.
The proposal to incorporate religious teaching in Texas public schools mirrors a similar trend elsewhere in the country. In Oklahoma, state officials are seeking to include the Bible into public school lesson plans. In Louisiana, a federal judge recently quashed a requirement to have the Ten Commandments displayed in all public classrooms.
Educators, parents and advocates weighed in at the State Board of Education’s final meeting of the year, where many opponents argued that the proposal’s emphasis on Christian teachings would alienate students of other faiths. Those in favor testified that it would give students a more holistic educational foundation.
Religious experts and the Texas Freedom Network, a left-leaning watchdog group that monitors the state’s education board, said the curriculum proposal focuses too much on Christianity and dances around the history of slavery.
The program was designed by the Texas Education Agency earlier this year after passage of a law giving it a mandate to create its own free textbook. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has publicly supported the new materials.
Republican lawmakers in Texas have also proposed displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms and are likely to revisit the issue next year.