A perspective on the history of valet parking...
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines valet parking as:
Parking arrangements provided by a commercial establishment, such as a restaurant, whereby patrons leave their cars at the entrance and attendants park and retrieve them.
When the first Model T Ford rolled off the assembly line, a new era was ushered into the world. The automobile brought with it the possibility for suburbs, rapid transportation, self-commuting, and the all-important Sunday drive. Less predictable, was the automobile's inherent need for its own self-storage. After all, when not in use, a car needed to exist somewhere. Being the size that cars were and their immediate popularity, cars were soon taking up a lot of space. It got to be that finding a space to put your car while visiting an urban locale became quite a challenge.
In 1946, poet Omar Barker mused about this challenge in his poem City Ditty...
Here lies an urban gentleman,
Who failed to make his mark,
He died with his lifetime squandered,
Hunting some place to park.
Valet parking service probably first appeared in America in the 1930's. Valet parking was offered in urban areas where parking was scarce such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Yet nowhere did valet parking flourish as well as it did in Los Angeles. Curb-side service quickly became the norm in the City of the Automobile. Pictures of the Hollywood elite tossing their keys to the friendly valet became an instant symbol of status across the country.
Today, valet parking can typically be found in places such as restaurants, theatres, hotels, casinos and airports. However, more and more different kinds of locales are adopting the practice of using a valet including hospitals, movie theaters, shopping malls, grocery stores and condominiums.