When Joseph Stalin died in 1953, this D.C. restaurant celebrated
The first thing Seidel did after Stalin died was put a sign in the window of his place that read, “1203 Restaurant Invites You to enjoy ‘FREE BORSHT’ in Celebration Of STALIN’S DEATH.” The second thing he did was alert the media.in front of 1203. In one, she’s erecting the sign. In the other, she’s handing a bowl — presumably of beet soup — to aIt would be an exaggeration to say the photos went viral. Answer Man could find only a handful of papers that ran them.
That paper’s editorial page noted that “one should say nothing of the dead unless it be something good,” then proceeded to make an exception for Stalin: “For his name is inscribed in history in letters too large and too lurid to be ignored, and the mere mention of it requires also a mention of all the wickedness associated with it.
Bob Seidel was no stranger to publicity stunts. In June of 1950, workers at District dairies went on strike. A city law prohibited the sale of milk by any dairy not licensed by the D.C. Health Department. The 1203 Restaurant got around this by buying milk from a dairy in Annapolis and giving it away free. Seidel put up a sign trumpeting his largesse.Though Seidel had purchased enough milk to fill 2,000 glasses, he gave away only 200 on the first morning.
And it wasn’t the last time Seidel tried to drum up business on the coattails of the news. A year after the death of Stalin, he responded to an increase in the price of coffee by putting a sign in the window of 1203 reading “To H--- with Coffee. Let’s drink Tea. 5¢ a cup.” Unlike the milk, the tea caught on.
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