ED’S KEY COLLECTION…. “the beginning”…

Ed Soulie was born in San Francisco. He graduated from Lowell High School in downtown San Francisco. He then attended Hotel and Restaurant School at the City College of San Francisco. After graduation, he went to work as a Maitre D at the Carmel Valley Inn, and promoted to Food and Beverage Manager, and then became the Assistant Manager of the largest night club west of Chicago.

During the Korean War, Ed enlisted in the Navy for four years. When he returned home, he starting working with his father and brother at the family hotel, but after a year in the business, he realized this was not for him.

At a Hotel Association Christmas Party Ed met Stanley Rosenthal. Stanley took a liking to Ed and in 1954, he started working for Stanley. In March 1960, Ed decided to start his own company. R.G.S. Inc. (Ramallah, Gallo, Soulie). Ed decided “as a hobby” that every time he opened a new account, he would keep the hotel key. This was “the beginning” of his hotel key collection.

His colorful hotel key collection includes leather hand tooled key holders, large skeleton keys, solid brass key tags, and many Reno Nevada tags that sparkle with glitter. Some of these hotels you won’t find anymore, like the Mapes in Reno, which was demolished.

You may still find a few mom and pop hotels that still have the old hotel keys, but most have long been replaced with the electronic locks and key cards that are widely used today.