Freelan Oscar Stanley
American inventor and entrepreneurWikipedia
47
MENTIONS
8
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 47 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Freelan Oscar Stanley".
Oct 20, 2026
speaker_0HOST
I have played the piano all my life.
speaker_0HOST
And a couple of years ago, we went to the Stanley Hotel, you know, the one from The Shining in Estes Park, Colorado.
speaker_0HOST
And we stayed for a couple of days.
speaker_0HOST
In the piano bar, there is a beautiful, fully restored Steinway piano from the early 20th century in their wine bar.
speaker_0HOST
Most places that have one will not let you touch them because...
speaker_0HOST
Well, ivory is a highly porous substance, and keys can get discolored very easily, so touching them a lot is not good.
speaker_0HOST
The man who built the hotel, F.O. Stanley, had a wife named Flora, and that was her personal piano.
speaker_0HOST
To make a long story short, the bartender at the wine bar encouraged me to play that piano, and I did.
Monica MartinHOST
gosh like ammo like it's terrible um so the floor of this room disintegrated and quickly and then elizabeth wilson fell through the second story and she landed in the the dining room this was called the mcgregor dining room um and that that the dining room was immediately below uh room 217. so she survived the two-story fall um and she but she ended up with two broken ankles um and then some there's some like medical history a report saying that she also went into a brief coma Probably shock for sure.
Monica MartinHOST
And then FO Stanley, he was a pretty stand-up guy.
Monica MartinHOST
He paid for all of her medical expenses.
Monica MartinHOST
So then, and then once she recovered, he asked her to come back to her job.
Sheri LynchHOST
So The Stanley Hotel all by itself has a reputation.
Sheri LynchHOST
Long before the movie The Shining was ever released in theaters, um, it was built by a gentleman named Freelan Stanley.
Sheri LynchHOST
And back in, like, 1903, he got taken out by tuberculosis, and back then, you know, we didn't have antibiotics, and the treatment for tuberculosis was fresh, dry air, lots of sunlight, and a good, healthy diet.
Sheri LynchHOST
So a lot of people with, um, tuberculosis, especially wealthy people, thought that the air in the Rocky Mountains had curative powers.
Sheri LynchHOST
And Freelan Stanley, for whom the hotel is named, he's one of those guys, and he had a friend named John Walker, who, um, sold Cosmopolitan Magazine [laughs] to William Randolph Hearst and headed for the Rockies.
Sheri LynchHOST
Aren't, isn't it wild how these people are all connected to each other?
LamarPANELIST
It, it is, yeah.
Sheri LynchHOST
So S- so Freelan Stanley and his wife Flora showed up in Denver in 1903, and, um, he arranged to be treated by a doctor in Denver who was the expert on tuberculosis in America.
AngelaHOST
I'm Angela, and each week, I help you take simple, safe steps so you can plan your trip even before you feel ready and build confidence as you go.
AngelaHOST
Since it's October, I thought it would be fun to share a little bit of the spooky side of Colorado, starting with The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.
AngelaHOST
If you haven't been to Estes Park, it's a mountain town right next to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado's most visited national park.
AngelaHOST
Estes Park is the gateway to the east side, so many people stay in town while they explore the park.
AngelaHOST
But there's plenty to enjoy in Estes Park itself, too.
AngelaHOST
You can walk around downtown, explore the shops, and spend time along the Riverwalk.
AngelaHOST
And if you enjoy history or ghost stories, you can add a visit to The Stanley Hotel.
AngelaHOST
I was born and raised in Colorado, and I was very excited when I finally had the chance to stay there.
Monty MaderHOST
Bye.
Andy JonesHOST
The second man was Freelan Oscar Stanley, born in Kingfield, Maine in 1849.
Andy JonesHOST
One of the identical twins, he and his brother Francis made their first fortune inventing a dry photographic plate they sold to George Eastman.
Andy JonesHOST
In 1897, they built a steam-powered automobile, the Stanley Steamer.
Heidi WongHOST
While no one died in the fire, it was definitely ominous.
Heidi WongHOST
The property remained in shambles until 1909, when a man named Freelan Oscar Stanley bought it.
Heidi WongHOST
Freelan Oscar Stanley, known as F.O. Stanley, was a Gilded Age success story.
Heidi WongHOST
Born in 1849, he made his fortune co-inventing the Stanley Steamer automobile, one of the first steam-powered cars in America.
Heidi WongHOST
But in 1903, Stanley was diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Heidi WongHOST
Before it became known as the place where Stephen King had a dream so vivid it inspired The Shining, it already had a ghostly reputation.
Heidi WongHOST
Let's go back to 1911.
Heidi WongHOST
Freelan Oscar Stanley was still running the hotel.
Richard EstepGUEST
Um, and it reminds me of so many archetypal cliche ghost stories in which, um, uh, people are met, you know, um, by, by a figure they don't know is a ghost.
Richard EstepGUEST
When I used to give tours at The Stanley Hotel, um, F.O. Stanley, the founder of the hotel, uh, his, his ghost, um, has been seen multiple times, and there was one story of a, of a little girl that, uh, got lost and was brought back to the front desk, and when she was asked who brought her back, the little girl pointed to the portrait of F.O. Stanley and said, "That was the man."
Tim DennisHOST
Oh, wow.
Richard EstepGUEST
You know? So I kinda love that vibe about the Churchill Suite.
Jared PolinHOST
I was looking at Instagram this morning, and I got an Insta story or a reel about somebody.
Jared PolinHOST
And it was this guy named Freeland Oscar Stanley.
Jared PolinHOST
Now, it gives you...
Jared PolinHOST
Oh, just the cursory information of how he opened some lodge or something up in Colorado, and he lost money doing it, but it's the coolest lodge, and it's still there, and he lost money and whatever.
Jared PolinHOST
And they also started a company with his twin brother called Stanley Automotive, which was the Stanley steamer car.
Jared PolinHOST
And I found it to be interesting.
Jared PolinHOST
And I wanted to know more about this Freeland Oscar Stanley guy and how it pertained to photography.
Jared PolinHOST
And so I went down the rabbit hole of reading the Wikipedia.