Here’s my second menu in the short-lived “Modern” series, which used the photos from the previous “Art Nouveau” series but replaced the busy background with a clean white space and a few blue pinstripes. (My other menu in this series shows Yosemite Falls.) An Art Nouveau menu dated January 1935 uses the same front and back cover photos as this one, which is dated September 1935.
Click image to download a 1.7-MB PDF of this menu.
This menu was used on the Challenger, which commenced service in June, 1935 as a coach section of the Los Angeles Limited, returning the latter to an all-Pullman train, a status it lost with the onset of the Depression in 1930. True to the advertising as a low-cost train, this menu offers a “Challenger” breakfast for 25 cents ($4.50 in today’s money) consisting of bacon and eggs, rolls or toast, and coffee or milk. Other meals are as expensive as 65 cents ($12 today).