{"id":288,"date":"2015-12-01T23:34:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T22:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cabophoto.com\/blog\/?p=288"},"modified":"2017-09-28T14:23:42","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T13:23:42","slug":"visiting-jeannie-a-stay-at-the-ohaire-motor-inn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cabophoto.com\/blog\/visiting-jeannie-a-stay-at-the-ohaire-motor-inn\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Jeannie – A stay at the O’Haire Motor Inn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I was a boy, one of my favorite TV shows was I dream of Jeannie<\/em> with Barbara Eden playing a 2,000-year-old genie who gets freed from her bottle by an astronaut (played by Larry Hagman) with whom she falls in love. A few years ago I bought all episodes of the series on DVD and had a great time indulging in the atmosphere of the 1960s.<\/p>\n

What I didn\u2019t know then is that I would get to know this special ambience firsthand, live and in 3D.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

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The Room Status Control Board at the reception desk. The different color lights indicate the status of each room.<\/div><\/div><\/div>

In September of this year, I drove to Great Falls, Montana. It was a stop on my way to the Missouri Breaks (more on that area in a later post). I had read about a bar that was supposed to be quite noteworthy, the Sip \u2018n Dip Lounge<\/em>. It\u2019s a tiki bar that opened in 1962, a time when Polynesian themes were \u2018in\u2019, and intended to take a look at and possibly photograph this establishment.<\/p>\n

What I didn\u2019t know before is that the Sip \u2018n Dip<\/em> is located inside a motel, the O\u2019Haire Motor Inn<\/em>, that perfectly preserves the style of the decade during which America, as ordered by John F. Kennedy, would put a man on the moon, both the Rolling <\/em>Stones and the Beatles<\/em> gained world-wide popularity, Barbie<\/em> became a top-seller and technological advances were greeted with an innocent optimism that is hard to imagine in our time.<\/p>\n

When Edgar O\u2019Haire opened this motel in 1962, he already had 12 years of experience running a smaller one in Shelby, which incidentally is one if my favorite towns on the Montana Hi-Line. He centered the design of the building around the travelers\u2019 convenience, including features like a heated parking garage, TV and hi-fidelity music systems in every room, an indoor pool and a helipad that was popular with ranchers who came in with their \u2018choppers\u2019. With electronics just taking off at the time he built the motel, O\u2019Haire had a Room Status Control Board<\/em> installed. This allowed the staff to monitor the state of every room from the reception area and signal the maids when to clean a unit.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>