Column: Elevator operator goes down in Hotel del Coronado lore [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
The historic Hotel del Coronado has long been a tourist attraction — and so has its elevator operator, who has been at the controls of the hotel’s ornate, old-fashioned elevator for years.
Andrew Lounsbury, a 41-year fixture at the hotel built in 1888, has retired. For decades he has endeared himself to returning hotel guests with his cheerful personality and snippets of songs he sang to commemorate visitors’ home towns.
“If people were from New Orleans, I’d go into my Louis Armstrong impersonation. If they were from Chicago or New York I’d do my Frank Sinatra routine,” he says. “My family doesn’t care for my singing the way Hotel Del guests do,” he laughs.