Thanksgiving & the Queen's Beans

For Thanksgiving, we made the traditional green bean casserole. I recently learned that Associated Press food editor Cecily Brownstone was part of the history of the dish. According to the magazine Saveur:

"It wasn't until 1955, however, that the dish's most steadfast incarnation entered the scene. This enduring formula, one that many home cooks still use, called for a trinity of convenience products: canned Durkee or French's fried onions, Green Giant canned green beans, and Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup, usually accompanied by milk, soy sauce, and a dash of pepper. It was invented by the Campbell's Soup Company, which, as it still does, emblazoned its soup can labels with recipes that featured the company's products in a starring role. According to Cindy Ayers, the vice president of Campbell's Kitchens, the recipe was first tested in order to fulfill a request from Cecily Brownstone, the food editor at the Associated Press, who sought help in reproducing a green bean casserole she'd tasted at a press dinner. "We partnered with a lot of writers back then," Ayers says. "It was a pretty common practice at the time."

The dinner that Brownstone had attended took place at the home of John Snively, a wealthy citrus rancher in Florida, and his wife, May. The conceit of the event was that the Snivelys had served a replica of the evening's menu to Iranian royalty: Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi and his wife, Queen Soraya, who had recently paid a visit to the ranch. Mrs. Snively had presented a memorable meal of brunswick stew and a delicious green bean casserole made with cream sauce and mushrooms. The queen, Mrs. Snively told the assembled members of the press, had apparently loved the casserole and "had eaten [it] with gusto". With that, Brownstone had her story and, thanks to some help from the Campbell's Soup test kitchens, her featured dish. The article she wrote was headlined "Beans Fit for an Iranian Queen", and the recipe that ran with it was dubbed "Beans and Stuff", which is how the Snivelys' less than silver-tongued butler had allegedly announced the dish.

Over the years, the Campbell's Soup Company has subtly altered the recipe (which debuted as "Green Bean Bake"), but the basics have remained essentially unchanged. "They tried to create a recipe using ingredients that most consumers had on hand at the time," says Ayers. "No one had any idea that it would turn into the iconic dish that it is today."

Happy Thanksgiving from Curtis and the 11-0 Green Bay Packers!

48th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination & women's page coverage

The 48th Anniversary of President Kennedy’s Assassination in Dallas was yesterday. Dallas Times Herald women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry covered the story. Below is a portion of her experience from the book manuscript I am writing:

There was a concern about politicians and safety in Dallas prior to President John F. Kennedy’s visit. On October 24, 1963, demonstrators who were opposed to the United Nations attacked Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. He was spat on, booed and hit with a picket sign. The national media described the event as creating “an ugly impression of America is registered throughout the world.” Texas Gov. John B. Connally Jr. said the demonstration was “an affront to common courtesy and decency. The actions of a handful of people who let their emotions run away with them and are not representative of the hospitality of the citizens of Dallas or the state of Texas.”

The Dallas Times Herald printed a front page editorial: “Dallas has been disgraced. Must our city gain the reputation around the world of being a place where a guest’s life is physically endangered if he expressed an idea of which a belligerent minority mob disapproves?”

Much of the stories from reporters who covered the assassination of President Kennedy were told by male voices. During a 1996 reunion of these journalists, former Dallas Morning News reporter Mary Woodward Pillsworth said, “I’m very happy to be here as a representative of my gender.” (This led to laughter and applause.) You may notice on your list of participants that I am an addendum, and that’s rather descriptive of my role on that way as well.” She went on to note that it was because she wrote for the women’s section – the only position available to women at that time. She covered their arrival at Love Field and no women’s page reporter from the Dallas Morning News was at the Trade Mart.

The only reporter’s notebook women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry ever kept was from the story she covered on November 22, 1963 – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Her press badge was number 18. Her job was to cover the First Lady while she was in Dallas. In a newspaper profile about Vivian years later, she was quoted: “I will never throw my notes on that day away. I am the only one in America who has the entire prayer in my notebook. I looked around the room and a woman was pouring cream in her cup without knowing what she was doing. Everywhere the words were the same, ‘My God. My Dallas’ Tears flowed. Then people began to go home. Everything closed up and Dallas was a ghost town.”

The 2,200 mostly untouched steaks were picked up and thrown away. A pile of wrapped toys meant for the Kennedy children would never be picked up by the First Lady –a fact that only Vivian wrote about.

Vivian sent her society editor, Val Imm, to cover the couple’s arrival at Love Field. Castleberry would then wait at the Trade Center where the couple would have lunch. The women’s section of the Dallas Morning News only sent a reporter to Love Field – not the Trade Center. Republican Val Imm was at Love Field and noted the charisma of the Democratic president: “It was actually like waves that went out into the crowd, including myself. I was most disappointed to find that I had succumbed to this.” After the president left the airport, Imm and the rest of the reporters from Love Field went together to a local restaurant. She called into the newspaper to learn what the day’s timeline. She was told to go to Parkland Hospital because there had been a shooting. She said they raced to the hospital, breaking numerous traffic laws in their hurry to get to the hospital. She had someone hold a phone for her while she went to ask questions. She found the hospital’s priest who said of the president, “He’s dead.” Imm got on the telephone. She spoke with Bob Johnson, who was the Associated Press bureau chief and had a desk in the Times Herald newsroom. His story was the first of the wire services to report the assassination.

Vivian arrived at the Trade Center mid-morning. She took notes on the seating arrangement and began interviewing those at the Center. She spoke with Judge Sarah T. Hughes, who would go on to swear in LBJ as president later that day. The Judge said it was an important day for Dallas but she was apprehensive. She said she hoped everything would go well in Dallas. Everyone was then seated to wait for the president and the rest of his party. The time for their arrival had passed and the room grew uncomfortable. She glanced over at Helen Hankins, who was one of the people in charge of handling the arrangements for the president’s visit: “One look at Helen’s face and you knew it was tragedy.”

Suddenly the door near where she was sitting burst open and she recognized the faces of press corps members. Their expressions were stark, drawn. The organ continued to play as people milled around the room. Them the music stopped. Her reporter’s notebook featured a series of starts and stops: “critical,” “faces that” and “I am not sure I can say what I have to say.” She recalled, “Dilemma. We had been told that we must keep our seats because no one would be allowed to enter the room or to move about after the President arrived. Up and down several times like a yo-yo, I tried to make up my mind whether to follow orders or to follow my instincts.” Within a few seconds she raced to the bank of telephones. Bob Hollingsworth, the Times Herald Washington bureau chief, confirmed that something horrible had occurred.

(The photo above is from the Space Walk in Titusville near Cape Canaveral.)

James Beard and Jane Nickerson

We are in the midst of packing as we move to our new house. One advantage of all this packing is re-discovering books. One book I found was the above book which consists of letters between culinary legends James Beard and Helen Evans Brown. In this book are several references to New York Times food editor Jane Nickerson.

Beard writes in a letter to Evans: "Going to four parties for Jane this week. She leaves next week for Florida, and how we all hate to see her go. She has done more for dignified food coverage than anyone. Everyone will miss her keenly, and I more than most, for she was a good friend and a most amusing person always." (p 192)

What I enjoy about this book is that these letters reveal true feelings - more so than those expressed in a media interview. Beard's feelings about Jane reveal just how significant she was in the New York food world in the 1950s. (The letters also reveal that Beard thought that Craig Claiborne was a bad replacement for Nickerson at the Times.)

I am working on a conference paper about Nickerson that establishes her place in food and journalism history.

Ruth Ellen Church Letters

I was happy to learn that there is a folder of Chicago Tribune food editor Ruth Ellen Church's letters (either to and/or from Church) in the papers of Cecily Brownstone - the longtime food editor of the Associated Press. They are in the Fales Library at NYU.

I found some great letters regarding food editors Jeanne Voltz and Jane Nickerson in this collection in the past. Here is a link to the guide to the papers. I placed my order for the Church letters yesterday.

I am working on a conference paper on the careers of Nickerson and Church. My later book proposal on food editors will also include Brownstone. The stories of these amazing women have not yet been told.

Another Ruth Ellen Church Reference

The food writer who gives the most credit to newspaper food editors is Laura Shapiro. Examples are included in her above book, Something From the Oven. She includes several references to Ruth Ellen Church, a food editor at the Chicago Tribune.

One of those references is about the popularity of making cakes - a popular topic for food writers and food historians for what a cake represents. In 1948, Church (writing under the pen name "Mary Meade") introduced the recipe feature "Cake of the Week." Church was quoted: "My staff and I have known for a long time that women love cakes, but we were somewhat surprised at the popularity of this weekly cake presentation."

As proof, Church noted that 200 women called the newspaper on the day that the recipe for Orange Lemon Sunshine Cake appeared too blurry to read. (pg 70-71)

Ruth Ellen Church Reference

I am continuing to collect references to Chicago Tribune food editor Ruth Ellen Church. There were two quote from Church in the above book:

(She was described here as a cookbook author) "No matter how man prepared foods we have with us, there's still plenty of cooking to be done." (p 158)

"Church suggested that women who relied too heavily on packaged or frozen foods would lose 'the sense of achievement and pride that there is in mixing and baking a dinner from scratch."

I was happy to see some references to Church even if there was no explanation of her long and distinguished career as a newspaper food editor.

New Mary Meade (Ruth Ellen Church) Cookbook

This cookbook written by Mary Meade (the pen name of Ruth Ellen Church) arrived on Friday. Church wrote an amazing number of cookbooks while the food editor of the Chicago Tribune from 1936 to 1974. This cookbook, The Modern Homemaker Cookbook, was published in 1966.

I am currently collecting material for a conference paper on Church's career. Her reporting and writing demonstrate that food journalism was more complex than the historical record has shown.

New Vivian Castleberry Video

I was excited to find some great clips of an interview with women's page great Vivian Castleberry. She was one of the few women's page editors included in the oral history project, Women in Journalism, by the Washington Press Club Foundation.

She spent more than two decades as the women's page editor at the Dallas Times Herald and fought for women's rights throughout her journalism career. Here is more about Vivian.

I am working on a book about Vivian that I hope to finish before the baby arrives.

Future Baby Will Have Women's Page Connection

We learned a few weeks ago that Mr. Curtis was going to be a big brother. (Below is a photo of Curtis this past weekend at Disney - he is such an Orlando child.)

We learned the day before his second birthday that Curtis is getting a baby brother. Like Curtis, the new baby will have a name with a women's page connection. (Curtis James is named for Curtis Castleberry - husband of legendary women's page editor Vivian Castleberry - and famed newspaper editor James Bellows - who was also the husband of favorite women's editor Maggie Savoy.)

The new baby will be named Paul after Paul Myhre, who was a friend, partner and champion of women's page editors. (And, because I am a good colleague, I am not due until after Spring grades are turned in.)