Women's Page History

Joan Younger Dickinson & the Ladies Home Journal

2012-01-26T05:02:00.000-08:00

Lance & I sent in our paper about wire and magazine writer Joan Younger Dickinson to a journal this week. Much of Younger Dickinson's magazine writing in the 1950s and 1960s focused on women's political & volunteer work - which was like the content found in progressive women's pages of newspapers.

We went through her papers at the University of Wyoming several years ago and presented a paper at the Popular Culture Association convention in San Francisco in 2007. My fingers are crossed that the papers finds a home.

The end of A.P.I.

2012-01-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

I was sad to hear that A.P.I. (American Press Institute) is merging with N.A.A.F. Here is more about the merger.

In the 1950s, prior to the beginning of the Penney-Missouri Awards, the seminars at A.P.I. were one of the only places that women's page editors could network. Editors Gloria Biggs, Vivian Castleberry, Anne Rowe and Dorothy Jurney attended and presented at A.P.I. Castleberry said in her oral history that API gave her the motivation to make her section progressive.

Lance and I went to a API seminar about Lifestyle Editors in Virginia a few years ago although the topics were more 1950s than Vivian likely encountered.

Writing about Beverley Morales

2012-01-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

We spent Sunday at out favorite beach - Playalinda at Cape Canaveral. It was a perfect day - 78 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I worked on my presentation on women's page editor Beverley Morales and her years at the Sun Sentinel. I will present the paper at the Florida Conference of Historians in Lake City next month.

The talk is largely based on her letters to and from Penney-Missouri Awards' Director Paul Myhre that are housed at the University of Missouri. I will be comparing and contrasting her career to other Florida women's page editors.

Drue Lytle's master's thesis

2012-01-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

I recently came across the master's thesis of Hawaii women's page editor Druzella "Drue" Lytle. She wrote "A study of the plays of Rachel Crothers," under her maiden name Druzella E. Goodwin while at Occidental College in 1937.

The UCF ILL was able to track it down and send me a copy. It was very well written although the dedication page did not include a reference to her family. I have not been able to track down information about Drue prior to her college years.

I am in the early stages of outlining Drue's life and career.

Book chapter about women and gossip

2012-01-17T13:00:00.001-08:00

I learned on Friday that my proposal for a book chapter about women and gossip had been accepted - the CFP was on H-Net. This was the call for proposed chapters.

I am looking at the concept through the role of gossip both in the political columns and the advice columns that ran in women's pages. While both kinds of columns have been discounted because either they contained "women's news" or were in the "women's sections," these columns played important roles.

One of the most significant political columnists was Vera Glaser - she is pictured above. Lance and I went through her papers several years ago at the University of Wyoming. Here is a link to part of my paper about Vera that was presented at the American Journalism Historians Association-Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, History Division, Meeting, March 2009, New York City.

This book chapter will shine the light on several marginalized women in journalism history, including Vera Glaser.

New Eleni Epstein image

2012-01-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

I just found this new image of Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein at her desk. It is available here.

I am working on a revise-and-resubmit about Eleni and her influence on newspaper fashion reporting.

Eleni Epstein: Revise & Resubmit

2012-01-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

Lance & I got great news this week about our article about Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein. It was a positive and helpful revise-and-resubmit that we should be able to complete in the next few weeks.

Fashion journalism often gets marginalized as unimportant because it is "women's news." Yet, as we proved, it is an important business with significant social and political meanings - especially in Washington, DC.

We spent several visits going through Eleni's papers at the University of Missouri in 2006 and 2007. It has taken many years to put her story together. We are so pleased to see her story closer to publication.

Mitt Romney's Father George Romney

2012-01-05T06:34:00.000-08:00

With GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in the news, I have been reminded of his father George Romney. He was a governor of Michigan in the 1960s and also worked at HUD. Women's page journalist Roberta "Bobbi" Applegate's brother Albert Applegate worked for George Romney.

(Bobbi Applegate was the first woman to work as a governor's press secretary - for Michigan Governor Kim Sigler - before moving on to become the club reporter for the women's pages of the Miami Herald. My article about her appeared in a 2008 issue of Michigan History Magazine.)

Also in 2008, I nominated and helped to induct Roberta into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

Roberta's brother Albert - the one who worked for George Romney - accepted the award on his sister's behalf. Below is the video of him speaking about Bobbi:

Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl

2012-01-02T12:53:00.000-08:00

In honor of the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl this year, here is a women's page reference from a previous Badger Rose Bowl appearance - from a former Wisconsin women's page journalist Dorothy Kincaid. Dorothy was the longtime food journalist at the Milwaukee Sentinel. (The cookbook that she edited is pictured above - I found it on eBay.)

When she retired, she shared this memory of banned from the press box during the 1963 Rose Bowl she traveled to California with the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team.

Her assignment was to write a color piece about the parade and game. She
had tried to make advance plans to cover the game knowing she would
likely not be allowed in the press box due to her gender. The plans
fell through and she asked if she could have space to file her story.
Instead, she had to file her story from a public phone booth under the
stadium as the University of Southern California marching band was
practicing.

Here is a link to the story.

End of the St. Petersburg Times

2012-01-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

Today was the first day that the St. Petersburg Times officially became the Tampa Bay Times. After a long and significant history, the St. Petersburg Times now longer exists - at least by name. Here is the story.

For many years, the St. Petersburg Times had one of the top women's pages in the country. The newspaper was one of the first to transition into a lifestyle section - although the Washington Post usually gets all the credit. (At the Times, it was known as the "Day" section.)

For many years, the women's page editor (and later the Day editor) was Anne Rowe - later Goldman. That is a photo of her below as she reported on a story about Elvis.

My article, "Anne Rowe Goldman: Refashioning Women's News in St. Petersburg, Florida," was published in the FCH Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians, March 2011, 104-111.

I hope the stories of the women of the St. Petersburg Times don't get lost as the newspaper changes its name.

Anniversary of the Death of the Miami News

2011-12-31T14:22:00.000-08:00

The last issue of the Miami News was published on December 31 in 1988. In the 1960s, it had one of the best women's pages around - headed by the wonderful Billie O'Day, who was also an accomplished musician and conductor. I hope to write more about Billie in 2012.

Happy 8th Anniversary!

2011-12-29T06:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband and research partner Lance who knows as much about women's page history as I do. It has been a wonderful eight years.

Lance, Curtis & I are celebrating our anniversary and my birthday (tomorrow) in Boca Raton. The Penney-Missouri Award-winning women's page editor from Boca was Sandra Wesley who I have been lucky enough to exchange a few emails with over the years. Above is a photo of Sandra - she is on the far left. Betty Preston (Glendale, CA, women's page editor) is in the middle and Edee Greene (Fort Lauderdale women's page editor) is on the right.

Ruth Ellen Church's college years

2011-12-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas, I received a wonderful package from the Parks Library at Iowa State University - where Chicago Tribune food editor Ruth Ellen Church earned her degree in home ec journalism. (She was in the class of 1933.)

The photo above is from the papers at Iowa State. Here is more about Ruth Ellen's cookbooks which are also there.

Here is one example of the many activities that Ruth Ellen was involved in while in college. I will blog about more of her college work next week as I work on a conference paper about Ruth Ellen's career.

My thanks to the wonderful librarians in the Park Library at Iowa State!

American Fashion & Virginia Pope

2011-12-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, Lance got me this wonderful book, American Fashion. Included in the book are the names of two significant - but often overlooked - newspaper fashion editors: Eugenia Sheppard (of the New York Herald Tribune) and Virginia Pope (of the New York Times).

Above is an article by Pope that I found online. I also found this great article about Pope - fashion editor at the Times from 1933 to 1955. According to the article, her approach for fashion writing never changed: "Keep from getting monotonous, never too effervescent, and most important, it must be accurate."

Saving the Miami Herald Building

2011-12-20T12:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the Miami Herald featured this story about a preservation group's fight to save the Miami Herald Building.

Marie Anderson was the women's page editor of the Herald when the building opened in 1963. The Miami Herald had one of the top women's page sections in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. Journalists who wrote for the section at the time included: Roberta Applegate, Dorothy Jurney, Marjorie Paxson and Jeanne Voltz.

Food Editor Jane Nickerson's Yearbook

2011-12-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

I came across the digitized yearbooks of Radcliffe University yesterday. This is the citation. Above is the 1938 yearbook page for senior Jane Nickerson who would go on to be the first food editor (in the women's pages) at the New York Times and went on to the food editor at the Lakeland Ledger in Florida.

So far, all of the food editors I have investigated have been college graduates which was unusual compared to journalists overall in the 1940s through the 1960s. Many of these women had degrees that were a mix of journalism and home economics.

Women's Page Journalists & Cooking

2011-12-12T03:31:00.000-08:00

I bought a copy of this great 1955 cookbook a few weeks ago - it was co-edited by Washington Post women's page editor Marie Sauer who I blogged about last week. The cookbook was a fundraiser for the Women's National Press Club. (The National Press Club excluded women as members until 1971.)

There were more than 140 authors in the book, making the editor note: "This book may indeed include more famous bylines - over more exclusive copy - than any other volume in history. On page 38 are recipes for "Heavenly Hamburger" and "Cheese Wafers" by Henrietta Poynter - listed as the editor of Congressional Quarterly. She was also the wife of Nelson Poynter. Together, the put out the St. Petersburg Times - one of the best places to be a women's page editor.

My favorite part of the book is that each recipe included a story - often revealing and funny - by the journalist.

Katherine Graham, the Washington Post & Marie Sauer

2011-12-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

I just received word that the Encyclopedia of the Sixties will be published at the end of the month. I wrote two entries for the Encyclopedia: one about Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham and one about the false myth of women burning their bras at the 1968 Miss America Pageant.

When it comes to women's page history, too much credit goes to the Washington Post as being the leader in transforming the women's pages into lifestyle sections. (The personal credit tends to go to editor Ben Bradlee not publisher Graham.)

I would argue that Washington Post women's page editor Marie Sauer was the true leader of women's page progress. In fact, she wanted to change the name to something more progressive in the 1950s but was turned down. The change to the Post's Style section was made upon her retirement. Here is the story about her leaving.

Thanksgiving & the Queen's Beans

2011-11-25T10:11:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-23T05:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-20T04:34:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-19T04:45:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-17T04:04:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-13T04:36:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-08T03:53:00.000-08:00

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

2011-11-01T03:43:00.000-07:00

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.)

Food Editor Ruth Ellen Church

2011-10-30T03:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I read about longtime Chicago Tribune food editor Ruth Ellen Church - who often wrote under the name Mary Meade. She was the food editor from 1936 to 1974. She was also known as the country's first wine editor.

She graduated from Iowa State University in 1933 with a degree in food and nutrition journalism. The photo above is from the Special Collections at that University. I plan to find out what information they have about her college years.

She published many cookbooks during her career that I am hoping to track down.

Sadly, she was murdered in 1991 at the age of 81. Here is the New York Times article about her death.

I plan to put together a book proposal about food editors next summer which will include Ruth Ellen Church.

Jane Nickerson & the United States of Arugula

2011-10-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

The popular book, the United States of Arugula, includes several references to the New York Times first food editor, Jane Nickerson.

In it, author David Kamp described the 1950s “emergence of a true food establishment in America, a small group of New York-based sophisticates who, via newspaper columns, magazine work, and cookbooks, had national even international reach.” He included in this group James Beard, McCalls’s food editor Helen McCully, Associated Press food editor Cecily Brownstone, Clementine Paddleford of the Herald Tribune and Nickerson. He wrote that the members of this group, “kept one another’s counsel, exchanged gossip, and stood united in opposition to the quick-bake, canned-soup mores of the domestic scientists.”

In that book, Kamp described the initial relationship between Nickerson and Claiborne, based on a profile of Claiborne that Nickerson wrote. Kamp’s version is that Claiborne, back from a Swiss cooking school, called Nickerson and pitched a profile about himself. According to Kamp, “Nickerson took the bait.” This statement is misleading. Nickerson had to write regular stories and had to have been continually looking for story ideas. Writing about a local resident about cooking would have fit the news values of her position. The profile is informative, not puffery.

Nickerson wrote: “Claiborne’s interest in fine cooking began when he was a child in Indianola, Mass. His mother was an outstanding cook in the Southern tradition. He came from a home, where, as he put it ‘elaborate food preparation was not unknown.’”

Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre Article

2011-10-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I sent off my article about Paul Myhre - director of the Penney-Missouri Awards, the top honor for women's pages in the decade of the 1960s. That is a photo of Myhre above from the Penney-Missouri Papers now at the Missouri Historical Society.

The paper, "The Wizard of the Women’s Pages: Raising the Curtain on Paul Myhre, the Man Behind the Penney-Missouri Awards and the Network of Women It Fostered," was presented at the AEJMC convention in St. Louis this past August.

It is expected to run as an invited piece in a national journal in 2012. The papers adds more detail to the changing content of the women's pages in the 1960s.

Jane Nickerson manuscript

2011-10-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

I have been working on my manuscript about NYT food editor Jane Nickerson.

The story of Nickerson’s resignation from the newspaper was explained in Craig Claiborne’s memoir, A Memoir with Recipes: A Feast Made for Laughter (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1982). He wrote that at the beginning of 1957, she told the Times that “for reasons for family” she would be resigning from the newspaper as of September 1. Claiborne, who became the NYT food editor following Nickerson, wrote:

"I was a bit startled at the news because of my respect for Jane as a journalist and also because I knew of her devotion to the job. She was a workaholic, a lady who often went into the office seven days a week to pursue her career. She was a diligent researcher with a thoroughgoing interest in learning more about the world of cuisine." (p. 125)

He also wrote of Nickerson: She "was, to my mind, the most inventive and diligent food written in Manhattan. What she did not know she researched with great gravity and concern.” (p. 122)

Eleanor Hart

2011-10-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

I just received an email from a relative of Eleanor (Ratelle) Hart. I love hearing from family members of the women I study.

Eleanor was a reporter and advice columnist for the women's pages of the Miami Herald in the 1950s and 1960s. I went through her papers at the South Florida Historical Society in Miami about three years ago and presented a paper about her last year at the Florida Communication Association conference.

My paper focused on how her column reflected the community's negotiation of change in terms of race and gender. The integration of neighborhoods and working mothers led to heated letters from readers. Advice columns, like the women's pages, are often overlooked by media critics and historians.

I am hoping to expand on the original paper for a history magazine or journal as Eleanor's columns reflect an important part of Miami's history.

Women's Page Editor Annie Lee Marshall Shelton Williams Terry

2011-10-11T03:52:00.000-07:00

I just read about the death of Texas women's page editor Annie Lee Marshall Shelton Williams Terry. Here is her obituary.

According to the obituary: "She was a writer and journalist her entire life, and loved the hustle and bustle of the newspaper office. Annie Lee graduated from Graham High School and the University of Texas in Austin with a degree in journalism. She was a member of Girl Reserves while growing up, a member of Theta Sigma Phi (National Honorary Professional Journalistic Fraternity), honorary member of the former Woman’s Forum, and a member of P.E.O. for over forty years. She was Women’s Editor at the Wichita Falls Times and Wichita Falls Record News, and wrote a column, “About People and Things” for decades. She worked for the Journalism Department at the University of Texas as a liaison between the University and the State Senate and House. Lady Bird Johnson was a classmate, and Annie Lee was often invited to the LBJ ranch."

Kay Clarenbach Presentation at AJHA

2011-10-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

I presented my paper about my search of Kathryn "Kay" Clarenbach at the AJHA Convention in Kansas City this past weekend. She had a longtime partnership with the women's page editors of Milwaukee and Madison.

In part, I showed Clarenbach's role in the National Organization for Women, although she has largely been overshadowed on a national level by Betty Friedan. They are both pictured above.

Clarenbach's role in N.O.W. was recognized in her home state of Wisconsin as demonstrated by this above the fold, front page article. (Betty's name is only mentioned in the last sentence of the story.)

Article on the Forum's Former Women's Section

2011-10-04T03:32:00.000-07:00

The North Dakota newspaper, The Forum, ran an interesting article about its old women's section. There is a timeline at the end. Here is the article.

Here is the beginning of the article: "When Syb Gullickson began working in The Forum’s “women’s section” in the late 1960s, she and other department staff had resigned themselves to several hard facts.

They knew they would probably make less than anyone else in the newsroom. And they knew they would spend hours writing stories that male reporters wouldn’t touch, including society gossip, ladies’ club news and meticulously detailed accounts of local weddings.

Yet Gullickson enjoyed writing about the people and families in these female-centric pages. In time, she became the department’s editor, shaping it into a more gender-neutral section that featured well-written, well-designed stories on relevant, sometimes gritty topics."

The feature also introduces a new women's section for the newspaper.

Jeanne Voltz Edits

2011-09-27T03:57:00.001-07:00

I spent yesterday going through the minor revisions for my article about Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times food editor Jeanne Voltz. I went through her cookbook looking for details about her personal life and for examples of cultural anthropology. Below is a stack of her cookbooks. I am missing three of her books.

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Jeanne Voltz Article Accepted for Publication

2011-09-25T05:57:00.001-07:00

My article about Miami Herald and Los Angeles Times food editor Jeanne Voltz has been accepted for publication. It should run in the Spring 2012 issue of American Journalism. I am working on the final minor revisions right now.

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Miami News' Billie (Womack) O'Day Images

2011-09-23T13:18:00.000-07:00

In going through my files I came across these great images of Billie O'Day, women's page editor of the Miami News in the 1960s. (Her real last name was Womack but she used the pen name Billie O'Day in both her byline and her professional life at this time.)

In the top photo, Billie is in the coat on the far left as she won a Penney-Missouri Award for top women's page in her circulation size.

The second photo is from a Columbia, Missouri hotel room. Billie is giving a thumbs-up and that is Miami Herald women's page editor Marie Anderson nearest the camera. I love the smoke and the liquor bottles as these otherwise serious journalists are enjoying time together.

The women's page community was a strong one in the 1950s and the 1960s, especially the women in Florida.

Pioneering Journalist Jean Otto Dies

2011-09-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

I recently learned that Milwaukee Journal reporter and editorial writer Jean Otto died. Here is her obituary.

She started in the women's pages of the Journal in 1968 and four years later, she became the first woman to serve as an editorial writer with The Milwaukee Journal. And one of the few women in that position in the country. She was later named editor of the newspaper's expanding Op-Ed page.

In 1979, she became the first female president of the Society for Professional Journalists.

She wrote a book about her life: First Love: Memoirs of a First Amendment Freedom Fighter.

Beverley Morales Presentation

2011-09-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

I will be presenting the paper "Pioneering Journalist Beverley Morales: Redefining Women’s Page Content in 1960s Florida," at the Florida Conference of Historians next Spring in Lake City, Florida.

Beverley Brink Morales (pictured above) was a ground-breaking journalist who spent much of the 1960s in South Florida. It was a significant time for women’s page editors as women’s news was being redefined as a mix of traditional and progressive content. Florida was a significant place for women’s page journalists as they won a majority of Penney-Missouri Awards – the top recognition for women’s pages – throughout the 1960s. Morales won a prize in the first year of the Awards for the women’s section that she had helped create at the upstart Sun Sentinel newspaper. Her career also included becoming a successful grant writer in the years after the women’s pages disappeared. This paper is a description of Morales’ Florida career and how she re-invented herself after the end of the women’s pages in the early 1970s.

It is the story of a previously unknown Florida journalist who helped redefine the concept of women’s news in her state and the industry. It also addresses challenge that women’s page journalists faced as their sections were eliminated. The scholarship adds to the limited literature on women’s page journalists. Material for the paper comes from the papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards at the Missouri Historical Society and interviews with Morales’ sisters.

Bringing Back Home Ec

2011-09-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

Last week, the NY Times ran an editorial about reintroducing home ec as a way to fight obesity. Here is a link to the story.

As I have written: For too long, women’s pages, which included food, have been looked at as sections that simply reinforced a traditional role for women. This was once how home economics was viewed, too. It was simply a place that reinforced women’s traditional roles. As one home economics scholar wrote, “Home economics has not fared well at the hands of historians. Until recently women’s historians largely dismissed home economics as little more than a conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen.” In recent years, historians have re-evaluated the value of home economics and in doing so, raised the status of the field. It is time to do the same for food sections.

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Debating David Kamp's Version of Food History

2011-09-06T03:54:00.001-07:00

As I re-read David Kamp's book, The United States of Arugula, I am again surprised by The lack if women's roles, outside of a handful of names. Like other food historians, he minimizes the role of NY Times food editor Jane Nickerson. He writes of the food editor who followed Nickerson, "Claiborne treated food as a journalistic beat, a daily responsibility to sniff out what was going on in America's more creative kitchens." (p. 70)

I have many examples that Nickerson was already doing that prior to Claiborne. After all, her column was called, "News of Food."

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Collecting Jane Nickerson Articles

2011-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

Today I am analyzing some of the article I have collected by New York Times food editor Jane Nickerson. They reveal a variety of topics, many that could be considered hard news.

In the limited world of newspaper food history, Craig Claiborne is
given enormous acclaim. In fact, in June 2011 the New School devoted a
panel to “Craig Claiborne and the Invention of Food Journalism.” The
program noted: “His career skyrocketed when The New York Times hired
him as its first food columnist in 1957. Claiborne's columns, reviews
and cookbooks introduced Americans to a wide range of international
and ethnic food. Other newspapers followed The New York Times’s lead,
and soon a cadre of authoritative newspaper food writers helped attune
millions of Americans to the finer points of good food and cooking.”

This is an overstatement and excludes the career of Jane Nickerson,
who was at the New York Times prior to Claiborne and was likely the
first food editor at the newspaper. My examination of her work shows that too much credit has gone to Claiborne while Nickerson laid the groundwork for food news at the Times.

Food Ethics Article Out for Review

2011-08-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

I heard from the editor of Gastronomica yesterday and the article that Lance I wrote is going out to reviewers. Our article is "Food Fight: Accusations of Press Agentry, a Case for Ethics, and the Development of the Association of Food Journalists." In it, we look at the role of food editors, and Milwaukee Journal food editor Peggy Daum specifically, in the development of codes of ethics that related to food journalism - a cornerstone of the women's pages.

Final edits on Eleni Epstein

2011-08-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

We have finished our final edits of our article about Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Estein. She won the first fashion award in the Penney-Missouri Award. Her papers are in the National Women and Media Collection - the only fashion editor in the Collection.

The article goes off to a journal for review next week.

Another Jeanne Voltz reference

2011-08-21T13:25:00.001-07:00

I have been reading the book, Secret Ingredients, by Sherrie Inness as a possible text for my graduate class which will include material on gender and food. In the book, I came across the name of Jeanne Voltz who was a food editor in the women's pages of the Miami Herald and the L.A. Times.

In this book, Inness refers to Voltz's natural food cookbook: "A return to simple foods is surfacing in unexpected places - the lunch bag of a businessman escaping the devastation of martini lunches." (p 89)

My article about Voltz has been revised and resubmitted.

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Eleni Epstein & Fashion Journalism

2011-08-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

I am working on revising my article about Washington Star Fashion Editor Eleni Epstein. It is a biographical piece that I am reworking and adding a section about other overlooked fashion editors. Fashion is one of the four Fs of the women's pages.

I make the argument that these women are worthy of study for the contribution they made to journalism history. They contributed to the social, economic and textile development of their communities. Because these women covered soft news, rather than hard news they have been largely left out of much of journalism history. They deserve to be included just as food journalism is just now earning respect. In the summer of 2011, the Bible for journalists, the Associated Press Stylebook, added a special section devoted to food reporting. According to a press release, the reason for the new section was: ““With all the cooking shows, blogs and magazines focusing on food, as well as growing interest in organic and locally sourced foods, our new food section feels timely and on trend,” said Colleen Newvine, product manager of the AP Stylebook. Fashion journalism also deserve to have its stature raised and its content studied.

AEJMC Talk About Feminism

2011-08-13T11:26:00.001-07:00

Today, Lance and I gave our final AEJMC talks in St. Louis. We both addressed feminism. I concluded my talk with a collection of quotes that Los Angeles Times women's page editor Maggie Savoy used to explain feminism to men. For example: "Now, fellas, I know this whole lib thing comes as a shock. Who needs another revolution? This one for heaven's sakes, threatens apple pie. Don't worry, men. Apple pie will not disappear. You may just have to bake it."

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Talk about Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre

2011-08-12T06:38:00.001-07:00

This afternoon I am speaking on an AEJMC panel about using archives. I will address the partnership between Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre and women's page editors in the 1960s. It is based on the PMA papers at the Missouri Historical Society. That is an image of Paul below.

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False Start, a Heavy Burden and Hugs: Female Firsts in Newspaper Management

2011-08-11T04:51:00.001-07:00

Today I am presenting a research paper at AEJMC in St. Louis about three female firsts in newspaper management: Gloria Biggs, Carol Sutton and Janet Chusmir. That is a photo of Janet below. All three women spent the early part of their careers in the women's pages.

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Off to AEJMC in St. Louis

2011-08-09T04:28:00.000-07:00

Today we are off to the AEJMC Convention in St. Louis where I present four papers - all with a connection to the women's pages. It is our first time back in the three years since we left St. Louis.

St. Louis was the hometown of Carol Sutton, pictured above. She was a women's page editor in Louisville who rose to the position of managing editor - the first woman to do so at a newspaper that her family did not own. I will be speaking about her this week.

More on food editor Jane Nickerson

2011-08-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

In my research on NY Times and Lakeland Ledger food editor Jane Nickerson, I came across this in-house ad. It adds some new information about her work in her years between the newspapers while she was also raising her children. As I suspected, she continued to freelance and did not leave journalism completely.

The Significance of Jane Nickerson

2011-08-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

In journalism history, there is always the question of whether a topic or subject is significant. This is my rationale for why Jane Nickerson is important to study. First, her role as first food editor at the NY Times, the nation’s newspaper of record is clearly significant. Unfortunately, her successor Craig Claiborne has widely overshadowed Jane’s role. (To his credit, he does note her accomplishments in his memoir.)

Second, examining her overall career gives journalism history a richer understanding of women’s roles in the industry. If we are to believe the current story of Jane’s career, she left the NY Times to raise her children – it is almost as if she retired from journalism. The truth is that while she did take time off to raise her children, she also spent many years as a food editor at the NY Times-owned Lakeland Ledger and wrote one of the most important cookbooks on Florida food.

Third, the role of food journalism in newspapers has been dismissed as fluff or pandering to advertisers. This was far from the truth. After all, Jane’s NY Times column was called: “The News of Food.” And, there was plenty of news to be found. Above it just one example I have discovered.

Penney-Missouri Awards at 12 Years

2011-08-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

I recently came across this article from the 1972 Penney-Missouri Award Program. (This was the top honor for women's pages. It was sponsored by the J.C. Penney Company and overseen by the Missouri School of Journalism.) In it, Paul Myhre who oversaw the program wrote about the first dozen years of the program. The program notes that Paul had passed away the previous September.

"So women remain women: Talented, arbitrary, competent, charming, capricious creatures. They are the liberationists; the serious career types; and those who guide and rear the family first and still. Others are finding their first voices, for better or worse. Many millions more are working out of necessity, many are listening and reacting."

He concluded: "After all, hasn't this been the objective of Penney-Missouri Award for more than a dozen years? Helping people report family news more accurately, honestly and creatively than before?"

The papers of the Penney-Missouri Awards are now at the Missouri Historical Society.

Raising the Curtain on Paul Myhre, the Man Behind the Penney-Missouri Awards and the Network of Women It Fostered

2011-08-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

Today I was working on my AEJMC paper, "The Wizard of the Women’s Pages: Raising the Curtain on Paul Myhre, the Man Behind the Penney-Missouri Awards and the Network of Women It Fostered." In writing the panel presentation, I came across the letter and speech below between Miami Herald women's page editor Marie Anderson and Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre. The exchange indicates the special friendship that Paul had with the women's page editors during the 1960s.

Huffington Post Introduces a Women's Page

2011-08-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

It was announced yesterday that the Huffington Post will now have a women's section.

According to the blog: "HuffPost Women is a site for women looking to redefine success and what it means to live a healthy, happy, well-rounded life. It will highlight an approach to living that centers on the happiness that comes from feeling good by doing good; that draws attention to the importance of "unplugging and recharging"; that cheers on the continued shattering of glass ceilings; and that embraces a fearless attitude about work, love, money, beauty, relationships, and friendships -- with the understanding that fearlessness is not the absence of fear, it's the mastery of fear. It's about getting up one more time than you fall down."

It is interesting that when newspapers eliminated the women's pages in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was considered progress. It was a sign that news about women would no longer be marginalized in a special section. Now, 30-plus years later, the media model returns to having a special section for women.

As for the argument that these new sections are taking a more progressive approach compared to women's sections of the past, I would counter that history never really examined the content of these sections. It was easier to declare its contents as "fluff." But, in reality, many of these sections had a rich mix of content.

Women's Pages, Women's Clubs and Wearing White Gloves

2011-08-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

I am finishing up a paper for the upcoming AEJMC Convention in St. Louis. It is part of the Research Panel Session: Mad Men, Working Women, and History. My paper is called "Mad Men and Reasonable Women: Selling Bras Rather Than Burning Them."

I am going to focus on how women were making some inroads in 1960s adverting in products aimed at women, arguing that the selling of lipstick or bras should not be looked at as “lesser than” the selling of other products especially at a time when there were limited areas for women to claim authority. For a framework, I am making a comparison of Mad Men’s Peggy to Helen Gurley Brown who was a successful advertising copywriter before her time at Cosmo. I am concluding with the idea of re-considering Betty’s limited housewife role as she was also a clubwoman – an often ignored important role for women in communities.

It is the clubwomen and their work that was covered in the women's pages of newspapers. In re-watching Mad Men episodes, I was struck by the white gloves of the 1960s era. This led me to look back at some of my women's page images. I noted that there were several images of the women's pages journalists wearing hats and gloves, such as the above image of Marie Anderson and Dorothy Junrey - the one wearing the gloves in steamy Miami.

Great News About Billie Womack O'Day

2011-07-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with the nephew of Miami women's page editor Billie Womack. (Her radio and pen name was Billie O'Day.) She is alive and alert in a Miami nursing home. We plan to make a trip down to meet her. Her nephew also mentioned that she had kept her papers which should be a gold mine for historians.

Billie's career is truly amazing. She had an impressive musical career - including conducting a symphony in the evenings after her work at the newspaper.

I learned about Billie because of her winning several Penney-Missouri Awards - the top honors for women's pages.

I am working on an article about Billie's career.

St. Pete Beach & Dorothy Jurney's brother

2011-07-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

We are back from our Poynter trip and our stay on St. Pete Beach. Legendary women's page editor Dorothy Jurney's brother, Dick Misener, was the mayor of St. Pete Beach in the 1970s. We also drove over the bridge named in his honor.

While at Poynter, I read portions of a book about newspaper editor Eugene Patterson. Above is a letter from Patterson to Jurney. It can be found in her papers in the National Women and Media Collection. My article about her was published last summer in Journalism History.

Henrietta Poynter and the St. Petersburg Times/Poynter Institute

2011-07-19T10:18:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, we are traveling to St. Petersburg for a three-day workshop at Poynter. It is named for St. Petersburg Times Publisher Nelson Poynter – although I always think that it should also be named for his second wife, Henrietta, who wrote editorials for the newspaper with her husband. Together, they created Congressional Quarterly. She had an impressive background with a 1922 journalism degree from Columbia University and then an editor for Vogue and Vanity Fair before marrying Nelson. She was the first woman to serve on the American Committee of the International Press Institute. A friend described her as "an earthy highbrow ... the most unboring person I ever knew." Nelson said of Henrietta to a friend: "You knowe, that woman scares me." The friend noted that the quote was said with pride. That is a photo of her above.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the St. Petersburg Times had one of the most progressive women’s pages in the country. In the 1950s and into the early 1960s, its editor was Gloria Biggs who was mentored by both Nelson and Henrietta Poynter. She won an early Penney-Missouri Award – the top recognition for women’s pages. She was forced out of the position when Don Baldwin became managing editor of the newspaper and wanted his own young staff. This may have worked out for the best as Gloria went on to Gannett newspapers and eventually became the chain’s first female publisher. (I presented a biographical paper about Gloria Biggs at this year’s Florida Historical Quarterly Meeting in Jacksonville. I am presenting a paper about her role as publisher, along with two other female newspaper executives, at this year’s AEJMC Convention in St. Louis.)

Anne Rowe Goldman took over for Biggs as part of Baldwin’s Kiddy Corps. In the book about the newspaper, A Sacred Trust, it was noted that Rowe became Henrietta’s protégé. (pg 235) Rowe also won Penney-Missouri Awards and was part of the team that redesigned into in a DAY section. My paper on Rowe Goldman was published in this year’s FCH Annals: Journal of the Florida Conference of Historians.) She went on to be an ombudsman at the newspaper – likely one of the first women in that position in the country.

Baldwin went on to head what is now the Poynter Center – initially known as the Modern Media Institute.

Helen Wells and the Miami Herald

2011-07-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

In my continued work on the women's pages of the Miami Herald, I am looking into the career of Society Writer Helen Wells. The photo above is from her 1969 retirement party held at Marie Anderson's house. A Google News search revealed that she was also a longtime society editor at the Miami News.

The above 1952 clip noted that she did club work in Washington D.C. prior to coming to Miami. It also noted that she served as a Gray Lady for the Red Cross during World War II. Here is an interesting online exhibit about the Gray Ladies.

Wells died of a fire in her home in Coral Gables in March of 1983. I am in the process of collecting some of her columns.

Women's Page Editors and Dogs

2011-07-15T07:19:00.000-07:00

We just adopted a five-year-old puggle (a mix of a pug and a beattle) named Pugsley. The video above is our son Curtis meeting his new dog.

Several women's pages editors had dogs. Marjorie Paxson who was a women's Paged editor in Houston, Miami and St. Petersburg, always had a dog. When she was interviewed for the Washington Press Club Foundation's Women in Journalism oral history, she had a dog named Typo.

When she became a publisher in Muskogee, Paxson became known in the community for bringing her miniature dachshund, Tiger, to work. She said, “He was a small dog and so I thought he needed a name that would boost his ego.”

Her mother was shocked when she learned that Tiger accompanied her daughter to the office. Her mother said, “‘I don’t know about your taking that dog to the office, Marjorie. What will they think?’ And I said, ‘Mom, I am ‘they.’’ That’s when it got through to her that her daughter was really the boss. More about Paxson is available here.

Roberta Applegate and the Miami Herald

2011-07-14T07:37:00.001-07:00

Today I am going through some papers of Roberta Applegate that are house in the National Women and Media Collection. I have examined Roberta's work as a women's page journalist in Michigan but have not looked as closely at her work at the Miami Herald. She was the club editor for the women's pages during the 1960s. This was at a time when there hundreds of women's clubs in Miami. She worked legendary women's editor Marie Anderson.

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Kathryn "Kay" Clarenbach's Papers & AJHA

2011-07-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

I just received the good news today that our panel has been accepted by the American Journalism Historians Association. It's called: “Into the Archives: A Look at Some Major American Resources.” I will be speaking about going through the papers of Kathryn "Kay" Clarenbach at the University of Wisconsin last summer.

Clarenbach was a leading feminist but not always the most visible person. Much of her work was done behind the scenes although she did serve as the first president of the National Organization for Women. She was also the chair of the Wisconsin Commission on the Status of Women – one of the most active state commissions in the country and considered a model for other states to follow. She served in these positions while also working as the head of Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin. She left her papers to the University when she retired – a total of 112 boxes of materials.

I am writing about how the media covered Clarenbach's role as an advocate for women. I am looking at the newspaper coverage in the women's pages, the news sections and editorials.

Unlike the national mainstream media which often ignored or mocked feminism, Wisconsin newspapers took on a nuanced coverage of the issue. And, when it came to the editorial page coverage, Clarenbach usually won.

I am looking forward to speaking about Clarenbach in Kansas City in October.

A visit from Holly and a reminder of Beverley Morales

2011-07-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we traveled to St. Petersburg to see one of our former SIUE student-turned-journalist Holly who was in town to go through a Poynter workshop. She works at the Rapid City Journal in South Dakota. Her visit reminded me of Florida women’s page editor Beverley Morales. She, and her first husband Hector, ran the Beulah Independent in North Dakota during the 1950s. Above is an example of one of the issues. Beverley wrote the editorial.

Holly and I talked about some issues in the Native American community which also reminded me of Beverley. She ran the Native American newspaper, A’tome in Lame Deer, Montana in the 1970s and married Jack Badhorse. I have tracked down several issues of the newspaper in the archives at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I did my undergrad. There does not seem to be any mentions of the newspaper in the literature on Native American newspapers.

Beverley also wrote her University of Wyoming master’s thesis about four Native American newspapers.

Former First Lady Betty Ford Has Died

2011-07-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

First Lady Betty Ford has died. She was often interviewed by women’s page editors who covered the wives of politicians.

While much of the American fashion world has focused on New York City and Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s, Washington, D.C. was often the place for fashion to be showcased. The wives of political leaders could set – or reject – trends in the clothing they wore to the various formal functions they attended. This was, of course, before there were many female lawmakers who could set the trends themselves.

And these women were often listening to what Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein had to say. For example, Epstein recalled getting a phone call from First Lady Betty Ford after Epstein had written about the New York designer Albert Capraro. Ford soon began wearing the designer’s clothes. Epstein held the power to impact what a first lady would wear.

I am rewriting a paper about Eleni Epstein based on materials from several archives.

Miami Herald’s Margaria Fichtner Retires

2011-07-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Her FB post made me wonder and sure enough, the Miami Herald’s Margaria Fichtner has retired. She served in many positions at the newspaper, most recently its Arts Editor.

Here is a great post about her. This was my favorite part: “But, we simply could not allow more than four decades of such talent, tradition and history walk out the door without note. Especially since she was once Herald Club Editor. As in: she handled coverage of women’s clubs, a truly astounding concept on several levels.” (For me, this was a moment of admiration for a woman who had witnessed such change since her start in 1968.)

I was sad to see her gone from the Herald. For me, Margaria was a connection to the women of the Herald who paved the way for later women journalists. She helped me understand Marie Anderson, a favorite research subject, in a new way as I only knew Marie through her papers. She knew of the other women I have studied: Dorothy Jurney, Marjorie Paxson, Jeanne Voltz and my current subject, Helen Muir.

I remember when Margaria emailed me that Miami Herald furnishings writer Jo Werne had died. I had read so many of Werne’s articles and felt so connected to the Herald women, that I cried upon hearing the news. I remember thinking that I was comforted that I heard it from Margarita and not just reading the newspaper obituary.

I was just thinking about Margaria as I read one of Jo’s letters last week. (She had written to the director of the Penney-Missouri Awards after one of her articles won a reporting prize in 1973.) It was smart and funny and included a personal comment. She wrote that she was about to get married to Charles and pondered about the wedding location as her family was in Ohio and his family was in Texas. I was wondering if the nuptials ever took place.

Happy retirement, Margaria. Thank you for your helpful emails and please stay on FB, in case Miami Herald history help is needed.

Learning More About Food Studies

2011-07-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

I just signed up for my first online class for a graduate certificate in food studies at Boston University. I am going to explore more about an important element of the women's pages: food sections.

I have been collecting the names of important food editors. Most recently, I came across a cookbook edited by Dorothy Kincaid at the Milwaukee Sentinel from 1962 to 1966. She was a graduate of the Minnesota School of Journalism.

She served as the Sentinel's women's page editor from 1966 to 1974. Like so many women's page editors, she lost her position as editor when the section turned into the Trend section. She became a reporter for that section.

Dorothy Roe and Trial Coverage

2011-07-06T06:55:00.001-07:00

All of the coverage of the Casey Anthony trial (a local story for us here in Orlando) has me thinking about one of the few roles for women in journalism outside of the women's pages: as "sob sisters." These women covered trials in a sensational way. One woman who was first a sob sister and then a longtime women's page editor for the Associated Press.

Here is from an earlier post on Dorothy:

Dorothy Roe was born in 1905 in Alba, Missouri. She graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1924 and soon began her career as a reporter in El Dorado, Arkansas. It was a weekly newspaper that soon became a daily paper. Roe described it as an ideal first job in the booming city. She wrote for both morning and evening editions, covering police, courts and oil field exposes. She also sold advertising and wrote a shopping column.

She then joined the Los Angeles Examiner. During her brief time there, she wrote, sold and illustrated a shopping column. Missing her journalism experiences, she moved on to Chicago to write Sunday features for the Hearst morning newspaper. She soon worked for the Universal Service in New York. For the first six years, she wrote for the national desk. Most frequently, she covered murder trials and kidnappings.

In 1941, she joined the Associated Press in New York. She wrote that she found women’s page journalism, “surprisingly exciting, after her long experience in the more lurid phases of straight news reporting.” She also noted, “hemlines often make headlines” and she was able to do pioneering work on women’s news. She was the main women’s editor for the Associated Press for 19 years. In 1959, she earned the Missouri Honor Medal. She later taught at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Her papers are in the National Women and Media Collection. I have done some initial collecting of her papers.

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Dear Abby and Ann Landers

2011-07-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the birthday of two advice columnists whose work usually ran in the women's pages. According to the National Women's History Museum, born on July 4,1918: Twins Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer and Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips - columnists writing as Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren or Dear Abby. When it came to the "F" of fmaily in the women's pages, it was these writers who led the way.

Many newspapers also including a local advice columnist. My favorite was Eleanor Hart at the Miami Herald. I presented a paper about her work last fall. Here is more about her.

Advice columns had a powerful role in communities and nationally but few have been studied on an academic level.

Dorothy Jurney & Marie Anderson image

2011-07-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

In honor of my son's current favorite animal, I am posting a photo of Miami Herald women's page editor Marie Anderson and Detroit Free-Press women's page editor Dorothy Jurney riding an elephant.

In was taken on November 17, 1969 in Cambodia. The two women often traveled together both across the country and internationally.

The image can be found in the papers of Marie Anderson in the National Women and Media Collection which has been (sadly) moved to the Missouri Historical Society.

More on the Music Career of Women Page Editor Billie O'Day

2011-06-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

I have long been interested in the story of Billie O’Day. I first learned of her as a winner of two Penney-Missouri Awards (the top recognition for women’s pages) for her work in the women’s pages of the Miami News in the 1960s. I also knew that she had quite a career in music and radio.

Yesterday, someone posted to this blog his memories of Billie’s work at Radio WIOD. This caused me to look back over Billie’s career.

Billie Corinne Womack (O’Day was her radio name that she began using as her own name) was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1919. As a child she both played football and music instruments. She earned an undergraduate degree in music at Hendrix College.

She moved to Miami with her mother in 1943 and began taking graduate classes at the University of Miami. She played violin for the University of Miami Symphony for four years.

In 1944, she became the music librarian at Radio WIOD. She then teamed up with Jack Berry for the weekday program “Billie and Jack.” In 1949, she became the conductor of the Miami Symphonic Society Orchestra. She was named the Miami Young Woman of the Tear in 1954 for her work at Radio WIOD.

She was hired as the club editor at the Miami News in 1958 and soon became the women’s editor at the newspaper. She won Penney-Missouri Award in 1962 and 1963. She continued to be a conductor until at least 1964, according to a newspaper article. After the end of the women’s section, she was a music and television editor at the newspaper. She retired from the News in 1984 and I lost track of her after that.

I am hoping to learn more about her musical background for a history magazine article.

Women's Page Editor Peggy May Dies

2011-06-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

I just learned that Northern Florida women's page editor Peggy May has died.

According to her obituary: For many residents, Peggy is best known for her contributions to the Northwest Florida Daily News over five decades.

She was hired in December 1963 at age 35 as the “society editor” and quickly became the “women’s editor.” From there, she held many jobs at the newspaper, which evolved from the Playground Daily News to the Northwest Florida Daily News during her tenure.

For the last decade of her career, Peggy was a lifestyle writer who focused on food and religion stories.

This was my favorite part of her obituary: "Peggy had a gift for spotting a word that was out of place and was particularly attentive to grammatical errors.

Several days before she died, a nurse told Peggy that she needed to get her “laying in the bed right.”

Even in her weakened state, Peggy caught the error.

“Lying in the bed right,” Peggy said quietly."

Edee Greene letter to Paul & Mary Myhre

2011-06-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

I came across this letter from Fort Lauderdale News women's page editor Edee Greene to Penney-Missouri Award Director Paul Myhre and his wife Mary. Over the years the three became good friends, as noted in the tone of the letter.

In this letter Edee mentions having lunch with Beverley Morales who was pregnant with Maria at the time. I am working on a paper about Beverley right now. Her long career has taken some time to document.

My article about Edee is currently under review at a journal. She was the funniest of the women's page editors. Her letters are as funny as her columns were.

Milwaukee Journal's Aileen Ryan

2011-06-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I am working on revisions for the article I am working on the women's section of the Milwaukee Journal. I am focusing on the work of fashion editor Aileen Ryan - a three-time Penney-Missouri Award winner.

During her first summer of work in 1921, Ryan attended a meeting to hear Milwaukee Journal Editor Marvin Creager say he was happy to have females on the staff because “women have cleaned up newspaper offices.” Ryan later recalled the statement made her feel as though she had been hired to use a mop.

Ryan started under the editorship of women’s page journalist Elizabeth B. Moffet. Moffett had been recruited from the Kansas City Star, where she had pioneered a new method of covering fashion that went beyond simply promoting the clothing of the advertisers. Moffet was hired because the Milwaukee Journal publisher wanted to “handle fashion news with more objectivity.” Moffett would visit the local fashion houses and bring along an artist to sketch the clothing. She would then give a critical analysis of the styles.

During her first trip to New York, the fashion capital of the country, she made fashion journalism history. It was 1931 and at that point, only magazine reporters and buyers were allowed into the fashion shows. Ryan would not accept that policy. She knocked on as many as 12 showroom doors a day and got access to about a third of them. She recounts that no one had heard of the Milwaukee newspaper, but she eventually prevailed and sent clips of her stories to those New York designers. Ryan said that eventually “the New Yorkers began to understand the value of what I was doing.”

Ryan continued to fight for more access each year, and she slowly was able to get access for her photographer, too. This meant other newspapers had to buy their fashion photographs from the Milwaukee Journal. In 1937, images from Ryan’s trips to the fashion shows in Europe became the first color photos in the Journal.

During Ryan’s reign, Wisconsin played an important role in the fashion world: Milwaukee was a major textile-manufacturing center in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1963, Ryan convinced the Milwaukee-area apparel and textile makers to unveil their products in Milwaukee before the New York shows. As part of that drive, she helped to establish the Heritage Milwaukee event to promote local companies such as the Junior House (now J.H. Collectibles) and the Great Lakes Mink Association. The showings at the event attracted newspapers from across the country, including the International Herald Tribune and the New York Times. As many of two dozen fashion editors would make the trip to Milwaukee for the event – putting the city on the fashion map.

According to the late Milwaukee public relations executive Lyn Skeen, Milwaukee’s fashion industry was larger than its brewing industry at the time: “Fashion was big business in our state.” And a 1969 article in the New York Times, noted that Wisconsin ranked fourth nationally as a producer of women’s fashion apparel, behind California, New York and Texas.

Paul Myhre and Drue Lytle's fight to improve the women's pages

2011-06-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today I went through letters between Paul Myhre (director of the Penney-Missouri Awards - the top recognition for the women's pages in the 1960s) and Drue Lytle, women's page editor at the Honolulu Advertiser.

By the early 1960s, Drue oversaw 15 reporters including stringers from eight major military bases on Oahu. Her section placed at the Penney-Missouri Awards in 1962 and 1963.

Yet, despite her recognitions for her work, she was in a constant battle with management to improve her section. She wrote in a 1964 letter to Paul Myhre: “My pages seem uninspired and I don’t know much to do about it. I have so much mish-mash that the boss says I MUST run – bridge, horoscope, today’s spiritual thought, Ann Landers and the like. It doesn’t leave much elbow room to do the flashy local stuff.”

He responded: “Sympathize with what you call the ‘mish-mash’ that the boss orders. That really eats up space. Why don’t you work out a schedule of two or three features to hit hard every week or drop a series on an important issue every now and then.

Drue listened to that advice and encouraged her staff to conduct issue-based series. Two of those series - one about child abuse and another about the drug LSD - went on to win the Penney-Missouri Award for investigative reporting. Both series were written by Pat Hunter who I will be writing about later this week.

A belated Happy Father's Day

2011-06-20T12:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Father's Day. We spent the weekend visiting big trucks (that's son Curtis James featured above in a fire truck) and then at the beach.

My son is forever connected to the women's pages. He is named for Curtis Castleberry - the husband of of Dallas women's page editor Vivian Castleberry. He is the wonderful father of five daughters. The two Curtises met last fall at a celebration for Vivian.

His middle name is in honor of James Bellows - the husband of women's page editor Maggie Savoy and a wonderful editor, himself. Jim died while I was pregnant with Curtis. I did get to interview him about Maggie by phone before he passed away.

Happy belated Father's Day.

Researching Pat Hunter

2011-06-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

I am doing some work on Hawaii women's page journalist Pat Hunter today. Above is her story - one in a series - about divorce law in Hawaii.

Hunter won two Penney-Missouri Awards for investigative reporting - one for a story about child abuse and another about LSD in which she used the drug as part of the story.

A wonderful librarian in Hawaii has located Hunter's obituary and an editorial tribute to her at my request. I plan to create an outline about her career and impact.

Finding Beverley Morales' thesis

2011-06-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

I recently got the nicest email from Beverley Morales' sister which reminded me to get back to work on telling Beverley's story.

Beverley was an award-winning Florida women's page editor in the 1960s. (She won a Penney-Missouri Award while she was at the Sun-Sentinel.) She also had a career in investigative reporting and was a successful grant writer.

Yesterday, I discovered her University of Wyoming master's thesis: "Press coverage of Native American affairs focusing on four Montana and Wyoming newspapers." I just ordered a copy of the thesis.

I am continuing to work on an article about Beverley and her colorful life. I am largely focusing on her editing of the Native American newspaper, A'Tome.

J.A.H. Book Review

2011-06-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

My book review of Freedom for Women: Forging the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1953–1970 has been published in this month's Journal of American History.

Here is part of the review: "Giardina’s role as an organizer in the movement makes her story unique. (In addition, a transcript of Giardina’s oral history is available at the Smathers Library at the University of Florida.) This book includes her views after decades of retrospection. She wrote that the purpose of her study was to highlight the role “the non-feminist social movement played – movements in which women held a contradictory position of more equal partnership and freedom for contribution.” She met her goal.
The book does have its weaknesses, though. Giardina noted movement leaders would only speak to female reporters, and thus these journalists became enlightened about gender inequity. This is an overstatement. Many female journalists – mostly from the women’s pages – were well aware of the principles of feminism. What Giardina does not note is that some feminist leaders also refused to speak to some of these women’s page journalists, preferring to speak to only those few women in the news sections.

Furthermore, Giardina’s reference to writer Helen Dudar and her Newsweek cover story about the movement in which Dudar was “converted by her assignment” was a simplistic explanation for women journalists of the time. What Giardina leaves out is significant. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, female reporters across the country sought a bigger role at their publications only to be rejected. This included Newsweek, where women were restricted to researchers and filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit. In other words, choosing the freelancer Dudar as an example of progress or enlightenment was an insult to the qualified women already on the staff.

While much of the women’s liberation movement scholarship has involved the East Coast, it is interesting to finally hear the story of Florida feminism. What could use further exploration is the role of women’s page journalists and clubwomen of Florida who were laying the groundwork for questions of equality for women. For example, the Fort Lauderdale News’ women’s page editor Edee Greene used her columns and her clout to establish a domestic violence center and threatened to launch a protest against a restaurant’s male-only lunch policy in the 1970s. She did not need anyone to raise her awareness about inequities for women."

First Female Editor at the New York Times

2011-06-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

It was announced last week that Jill Abramson has been named the editor of the New York Times. The first time a woman will be in that position in the newspaper's 160 year history.

The Women's Media Center has a great article about the promotion. Here is a portion of it:
"The news last week of Jill Abramson’s promotion to executive editor of the New York Times cheered feminists and female journalists alike, perhaps no one more than the women who sued the newspaper in 1974 over sex discrimination in hiring, pay and promotion.

“Finally! I thought I was not going to be able to hold my breath long enough,” said Betsy Wade, a former foreign desk copy chief who under her married name, Elizabeth W. Boylan, was the first named plaintiff in the 1974 lawsuit. “I’m immensely pleased. Just delighted.”
“I was very pleased. I said to myself ‘well, it’s about time!’” added Grace Glueck, a former art critic who was also among the seven named plaintiffs."

There was a women's page journalist turned bureau reporter who had to sue for sex discrimination. Her name is Mary Lou Butcher and she sued the Detroit News after being marginalized due to her gender. I presented a paper on her lawsuit that I hope to turn into a paper.

Editor J. Edward Murray

2011-06-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

While many male editors did understand what it was that women's page editors were trying to do to improve content, several others did. In that category, I would include J. Edward Murray or J.E.M. Letters found in several archives demonstrate his mentoring of women and his value of women's pages.

One example was found in the papers of women's page pioneer Dorothy Jurney in the National Women and Media Collection. Jurney worked with Murray in the New Direction for News project, which documented news coverage of women’s issues, in more than a decade of her retirement. In their correspondence, Murray mentioned the difficulty that he and other male editors faced during the early years of women’s liberation: “Some editors, like me, who have tried their best for a long time to learn how to be fair concerning the news of women now find themselves too often accused of never having thought about the problem at all.”

I have long regretted that I never got to interview J.E.M. Then, I came across this column, Belated Thanks to an Editor. In it, the writer noted that J.E.M. declined to be interviewed just a few months before his death. Somehow this made me feel better. Maybe he would have declined my request, too.

I plan to write a paper about the male editors who supported the progressive women's page editor.

New Gloria Biggs' letters

2011-06-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

I recently received a new file of letters from Florida women's page editor Gloria Biggs during the 1970s and 1980s. They are at the Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University. Most of the letters were back and forth between Biggs and George Beebe about her work with the World Press Freedom Committee.

My favorite part of the file was a handwritten note from Biggs on a February 9, 1978 letter. She wrote: "P.S. I know you're as delighted as I am about Marj Paxson's promotion to publisher."

Marjorie Paxson was a Florida women's page editor who became the fourth female publisher in the Gannett newspaper chain. Biggs had been the first.

Those Florida women's page journalists had a strong bond.

UCF course release to study food content

2011-06-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

I just learned I received a course release from UCF for Spring 2012 to study one of the topics of the women's pages: food. In particular, I will look at the intersection of food policy and media coverage. Little is known about the coverage of food news in the women's pages.

This will build on the research I am currently doing on the work of the New York Times food editor Jane Nickerson in the post-World War II years.

Peggy Daum article revisions

2011-05-31T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today I am working on revisions of my article about Milwaukee Journal women's page journalist and later food editor Peggy Daum.

Daum had a strong journalism background that she applied to her beat – food. Barbara Dembski, the Milwaukee Journal's assistant managing editor of features, said Daum never abandoned her audience. She said of Daum: “Despite her national stature in food journalism, she never forgot who her section was for. She wrote it for the typical, salt-of-the-earth, best cook on the block.”

And those neighborhood cooks, her readers, regularly called her with questions about new dishes and in later years questions about new grocery store items like tofu or cilantro. Yet some Milwaukee recipes so defined the community that calls to the newspaper were not necessary. “If you are making German potato salad, you already know how,” Daum said in 1988. “The right way to make it is the way your mother and grandmother made it. You may argue about it with someone down the block, but you don’t call me.”

My Talk about Gloria Biggs at the Florida Historical Society Meeting

2011-05-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

New Gloria Biggs Papers

2011-05-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I discovered a collection that had a folder of papers from women's page editor and then publisher Gloria Biggs. The papers are from her time post-publisher working with the World Press Freedom Committee.

Her official papers are in the National Women and Media Collection in Missouri. I am presenting a paper about on Biggs at the Florida Historical Society's annual meeting in Jacksonville this weekend. It is called: “I Weep When I Read the Lines about Not Being a Feminist”: Gloria Biggs’ Transition from Women’s Page Editor to Publisher.”

Entertainment Tonight & Jim Bellows

2011-05-23T08:19:00.000-07:00

Entertainment Tonight has been in news a lot lately as Mary Hart leaves after 29 years. In many news stories, including this N.P.R. story, Hart is credited with discovering that there was news in entertainment.

The truth is that it was Jim Bellows was really the one who created a news focus for the entertainment show. (Prior to the 1990s, the show included investigative elements – different than the content today.) He was the one who hired Hart.

This is a quote from John Goldhammer: “John Bellows added his very special touch to every corner of Entertainment Tonight. He created an investigative team, establishing for the first time a truly unprecedented (and many times unwelcomed by ‘the biz’) dissection of problems inside the halls of the entertainment business. It is doubtful the series would have survived without his name, reputation, and skill brought to this new venture.”

As Bellows wrote in his book, The Last Editor, “Whether you are a TV show or a newspaper, you are still dealing with the same ingredient – news. I knew news.” (pg 252)

Prior to his tenure at E.T., he was a great supporter of women at the newspapers where he was an editor. In the 1960s, he was married to women’s page editor Maggie Savoy.

Jane Nickerson's review of the Joy of Cooking

2011-05-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is a NY Times review of the Joy of Cooking by Jane Nickerson. It is referenced in the book about the mother - and later daughter - who created the cookbook: Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking. Nickerson's review is credited with the initial success of the book.

I am currently working with a student on an independent study about Jane Nickerson - the first food editor of the New York Times. We are started by looking for references of Nickerson in the various book histories of the NY Times. Typically, the women's pages have been excluded in newspaper histories. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by finding references to Nickerson. If not, I will have even more reason to publish an article about her work.

The Women's Pages at the Charlotte Observer

2011-05-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the above book about the history of the Charlotte Observer. While there were some references to women’s pages, there was no references to the work of Miami Herald women’s page editor Dorothy Jurney who went to the Observer in the 1950s to improve its women’s section.
Here is the explanation from Jurney’s oral history:
Jurney: It was while I was at the Miami Herald that Lee Hills asked me to go, on three different occasions, to the Charlotte Observer after Jimmy Knight had bought it. It wasn't a very good newspaper. In fact, it didn't take me long after my first trip to Charlotte to realize that the composing room was running the editorial department, the news department. Deadlines were set by the composing room. As I recall, I don't think the newsroom of the Charlotte Observer was even dummying inside pages. I think the composing room decided where those stories were going to be. I have confidence that the Observer did indeed dummy—the editors dummied—the front page and the second front. I don't think—

Jurney: I think the composing room did it all. They just threw the stories onto those page forms where they fit most easily, with no significance as to the content. So I got in touch with Lee and told him this and he and Jimmy Knight very quickly sent Bill Sandlin—who was the foreman or superintendent of production for the Miami Herald—they sent Bill Sandlin up to Charlotte to get this straightened out and Bill got it straightened out very quickly.

Kasper: So that's an example of the kind of expertise that you were able to offer that made you important to these meetings.

Jurney: Yes. Yes.

Kasper: And made you important to the Knight organization—important enough that they sent you not only to these executive committee meetings, but around the country to various—
Jurney: And, in Charlotte, as I say, I was there on three different occasions, not of long duration, maybe only two to three weeks the first time, maybe four or five weeks the second and third time. I worked very closely with the women's editor. They only had society sections so that we tried to change that some.

Women Wearing Pants

2011-05-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

My paper, "Who’s Wearing the Pants? How The New York Times Reported the Changing Dress of Women," has just been published in the current issue of Media Report to Women.

The wearing of pants was a controversial topic, symbolizing the concern over the changing role of gender roles in society. For some people, pants were another step toward equality for women. For others pants meant losing femininity – almost to the point of androgyny. After all, “the meaning of clothing is culturally defined.” To learn more about the national conversation, the New York Times coverage over a 25-year period was examined through the newspaper’s database. Each article that came up with a search for “pants” or “trousers” that ran from 1950 through 1975, was examined.

In a women's page example, Fort Lauderdale News women’s page editor Edee Greene and her staff wore pants to work as their form of protest on August 26, 1970 - Women's Strike for Equality Day. I learned this in a letter that she wrote to Penney-Missouri Awards Director Paul Myhre

Hints from Heloise and the Honolulu Advertiser

2011-05-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have been collecting information about Drue Lytle and Pat Hunter who were women's page journalists at the Honolulu Advertiser. Drue won several Penney-Missouri Awards for top women's section in the 1960s. Pat won a Penney-Missouri Award for investigative reporting.

I recently learned that the housekeeping column "Hints From Heloise" originated in Drue's section:

"Heloise has decided that she wanted to write a column in a newspaper for to help housewives, She marched to the office of the Honolulu Advertiser to see the editor to discuss her idea. She even offered to work for free for 30 days and the editor took a chance—The Readers’ Exchange column began in 1959. It was such a success by 1961 that Time magazine did an article on Heloise.

Later in 1961, King Features Syndicate convinced Heloise to syndicate her column with a new title, Hints from Heloise. By 1962 it was running in 158 newspapers and in 1964 it was appearing 593 newspapers in America and abroad."

I am hoping to interview the current "Heloise" (who is her daughter and shown above with her mother) about memories of the Advertiser in the 1960s.

A.P. Stylebook includes a food section

2011-05-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press has announced that the new stylebook includes a new section on food writing. According to the press release: "“With all the cooking shows, blogs and magazines focusing on food, as well as growing interest in organic and locally sourced foods, our new food section feels timely and on trend,” said Colleen Newvine, product manager of the AP Stylebook. “With this new addition to the AP Stylebook, The Associated Press is proud to bring clarity to the writing that describes and informs the new food movement.”

This information really dismisses the important role of one of the four Fs of the women's pages. (The other three are family, fashion and furnishings.) The food editors of women's pages were covering recipes and food news going back for decades prior to the introduction of the Food Network, Top Chef and food blogs.

Penney-Missouri Awards Director Paul Myhre

2011-05-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

I had the most pleasant surprise yesterday morning. I received an email with the subject line “Paul Myhre.” It was from his son.

I have been a Paul Myhre fan for at least a decade. He has been the center of my research as the one who brought the women I studied together. His letters back and forth to the women’s page editors – especially those in Florida – chronicled the struggles and the friendships that became the basis of my work. It also led me to love Florida while living in St. Louis. (Many of the Award winners were from Florida newspapers.)

Back in 2000, I was a doctoral student at the University of Maryland. My dissertation advisor Dr Maurine Beasley suggested that I study women’s pages – one of the only places for women in journalism for decades. She guided me to the archives at the National Women and Media Collection (NWMC) at the University of Missouri, which housed the papers of several women’s pages editors and the awards for the top women’s pages in the 1960s. The thought at that time was the women‘s pages were little more than fluff – simply reinforcing traditional messages that kept women in the home.

Yet, over the past decade I discovered and proved that these sections – and the women’s page editors – were much more complex than that. Yes, there were stories about food and fashion. Many of these women liked to cook and wear a colorful hat. Yet, they were also well aware of pay inequity and sexual harassment because they experienced that, too. Their sections reflected the mix of interests, or what I call quilted news. My dissertation told the story of three of these women. What I then realized was that there were many other women whose stories had not been told. I set out to change that.

So, back to Paul. He was the director of the Penney-Missouri Awards at the University of Missouri throughout the 1960s. Thanks to Nancy Beth Jackson, his papers were saved and given to the (NWMC) that was housed in the Western Historical Manuscript Collection in the Ellis Library. Paul’s papers were unprocessed – meaning that it was box after box of letters without any organization. During the five years that I was a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (suburban St. Louis), my husband and I made many trips to go through those papers. (And this is significant in that my husband is from Kansas and does not willingly go to the University of Missouri. Luckily, he understood the need to tell the stories found in those papers.)

I made so many trips to go through those papers that eventually the papers were processed – the archivists used my blog as a reference. Four years ago, the National Women and Media Collection – started by women’s page editor Marjorie Paxson – celebrated its 20 Anniversary and I was asked to speak at the celebration. This led to me interviewing for a job at Mizzou which then led me to interviewing for my current job at the University of Central Florida.
Paul, and his wife Mary, were central to the fight to improve the status of women in newspapers. Decades later, his papers allow me to tell their stories. I now must get to work telling Paul’s story.

Tucson women’s editor Betty Milburn

2011-05-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

I recently came across the 2008 obituary of Tucson women’s page editor Betty Milburn Schumacher.

According to her obituary:
"She was Woman’s View editor from 1950 to 1970. Under her guidance, the women’s section expanded its coverage from social news, fashion and food to coverage of women in politics, the feminist movement, and consumer and family issues.

Mrs. Schumacher wrote a social column for the section. She covered fashion shows in major cities around the country and also wrote for the newspaper from food conventions."

I hope to learn more about Betty and her women's section. That is her on the right in the above photo.

Dorothee Polson Cookbook: Pot au Feu

2011-05-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the 1971 cookbook Pot au Feu written by Arizona Republic food editor Dorothee Polson. (Pot au feu is French for "pot on the fire.") It's a great mixture of food stories, recipes and anecdotes about her three children. Much of women's page content consisted of food news and family columns.

One of the columns in the book is "Working Mother Makes Rules." She notes, "I happen to be one of those statistics, the 1-of-every-3 homemakers who hold jobs; the 1-out-of-5 mothers who juggle careers."

In the column, she gives advice on her rules for combining work and newspapering. This was my favorite tips was: "Forget schedules. Take it one crisis at a time."

We are going to try the recipe for "Paul's Salad Dressing" later this week.

Dorothee is one of the many food editors I am collecting information about.

In other news, this is the THIRD ANNIVERSARY of this blog! Thanks to all of you who read it.

Re-evaluating the women's pages

2011-05-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

The State Journal-Register featured the above photo on its blog this week, along with the following information:
"It was a different era in 1958. Different enough, in fact, that newspapers frequently cordoned off “women’s news” from the rest of the paper in special sections.

Today’s photo comes from such a section in the Illinois State Register on March 13, 1958. Pictured is dental assistant Carol Kornfeld. Carol was the Register’s “Beauty of the Week,” said the headline below the picture. A note from the Register women’s page editor, Margaret Turnbull, says this is the second in a series. We’re not sure how long this tradition continued.

Other headlines from that day’s Register women’s section include, “Menu Tips and Tricks for the Working Wife,” “Women’s Group Names Hostesses for Reception” and “Sandra McKeever Becomes Bride of Jerry W. Beaver.” Yes, things have changed."

There is no question that some women's pages focused on tradition, physical beauty, etc. Yet, I wonder if there was some progressive content mixed in, too. That has been the case in so many newspapers that Lance and I have studied.

Another way of looking at this photo is to note that it featured a woman in the workforce. Maybe this served as an important role model for a young reader.

AEJMC: Commission on the Status of Women paper

2011-05-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

Lance and I learned that our paper, "A False Start, a Heavy Burden and Hugs: A Study of the Female “Firsts” in Newspaper Management" has been accept by the Commission on the Status of Women of AEJMC.

We looked at the careers of three women: Gloria Biggs as the first female publisher of her non-family owned newspaper in 1973, Carol Sutton as managing editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in 1974 and Janet Chusmir as executive editor of a major metropolitan newspaper in 1987. Their stories are important to understand how progress was made and how it was slowed. It also provides perspectives about the different paths to newspaper management for women. Lastly, the media coverage demonstrated that the role of gender continued to be a news value long after “firsts” had been achieved in other industries.

All three journalists were women's page editors before being promoted to management. Both Carol and Janet were also mothers.

We're looking forward to presenting the paper in St. Louis in August.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T04:46:00.000-07:00

Several women's page journalists were mothers, including Vivian Castleberry, Edee Greene, Jane Nickerson and Dorothee Polson. They each had at least three children while also working as journalists. This was at a time when there was no daycare or maternity leave. These women had to pave their own ways as working mothers.

A special recognition of my favorite toddler who loves pudding. He is taking his mother to the beach today. Happy Mother's Day!