The following text is from an employee orientation packet which I had received back in 1977:

The Stage Is Set

"FARRELL's Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants" were created in 1963 by Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy. Their desire was to recreate a segment of one of the most colorful and memorable eras in American history - the Gay Nineties.

Mr. Farrell envisioned the Parlours to be ones where the customer, by walking through the door, could step back in time some 80 years - sit on bentwood chairs under ornate Tiffany lamps and listen to the melodious tinkle of a rinky-tink piano while feasting on fabulous food and fantastic fountain fantasies.

To complete the 1890's illusion, there must be singing waiters and waitresses of that period. Mr. Farrell did considerable research and designed costumes for all of his personnel which would immediately tell the customer that this was the Gay Nineties.  He wanted his employees to do more than just serve their customers - they had to be performers.  Each day, they would project themselves into the roles they played and bring the customers into the act. Their job was to convincingly create an old-time atmosphere - to serve food and ice cream with a flair, giving each customer a visit to fondly remember.

From the first, he had no problem in getting employees because FARRELL'S quickly became known as a place where the employees, as well as the guests, had fun.  They improvised, created and entertained.  The result was an employee-employer/employee-customer relationship that continues to exist to this very day in all the FARRELL'S throughout the country.

To keep the stage setting complete, he set up standards for hiring these employees.  He hired each with all the preciseness of a movie director choosing actors and actresses, for in a sense, that was what they would be doing - acting a part.  He wanted his employees to be enthusiastic, imaginative, dedicated and above all, hapy, because if they weren't happy, they couldn't make the customers happy.  Again, because they would be dealing with food, he wanted them neat, clean and well-groomed at all times.  Age, sex, race, religion, or national origin made no difference to him, for these things had no bearing on the atmosphere he was trying to create.

From the very first, employees entered whole-heartedly into the spirit of FARRELL'S. Each came to their work stations "costumed" and ready to serve their "audiences." The transformation from the present to the Gay Nineties was always surprising - even to them. As they walked out on the "stage" of FARRELL'S they were like something out of the gaslight era.  Sideburns and moustaches were neatly trimmed, shoes highly polished, shirt freshly starched, teeth and face shining and about them a clean, fresh fragrance.  Hair was styled in the fashion popular to actors in the Nineties - neatly trimmed and closely groomed at all times.  A crisp straw hat jauntily on their heads with a brightly-colored vest as the final touch - each had stepped back 80 years in time.

Mr. Farrell's research had shown that regardless of race or color, the great majority of men in the late 1880's sported sideburns of one sort or another, wore moustaches and kept their hair trimmed and neat.  Whether FARRELL'S of 10 years ago had any bearing on the hair styles of today is perhaps questionable, but the fact remains that more and more people of today are wearing their hair in the styles of yesteryear.  FARRELL'S, then, is a boon to people of all ages.

Each woman in FARRELL'S appears at her work station after having undergone a magical change.  There they, too, are whisked back to the turn of the century.  Their Gay Nineties outfits are very feminine, as were all the women of that period.  They wear soft white blouses with long sleeves, black skirts (which don't show spots as quickly as some other color might) and a charming old-fashioned choker around the neck.  Red, white and blue ribbons in the hair complete the touch.  Shoes are always clean and she may, to really create the desired nostalgic mod, put a touch of rose water or lilac water behind her ears and on the wrists.  Makeup, to be authentic, is kept at a minimum - a little powder, a touch of rouge on the cheeks to give the appearance of blushing, and the tiniest bit of mascara - this is all that is needed to give the clean, wholesome look of a great bygone era.

From the very beginning, customers loved these nostalgic ice cream parlours and the people in them. Word quickly spread that there was a place where everyone could have fun! Young people sat and ate large, fanciful dishes of ice cream and other things, while the elderly sat, ate and listened to "their" music.

As Bob Farrell says, "We went into this business to bring back old memories and create new ones.  Ours is a make-believe world, yet one which is still very real because our employees have given reality to illusion.  Because of their total dedication to our ideals and purposes, we have created memories unlike any other in America."