Saturday, April 22, 1967: Birth of the Big Mac

The Big Mac -- advertised as a hamburger "made with 2 freshly ground patties, tangy melted cheese, crisp lettuce, pickle and our own Special Sauce" -- is added to the menu at the McDonald's in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, thanks to Jim Delligatti (the franchise owner who created it) and Esther Glickstein (the corporate secretary who named it). Following the Big Mac's success locally, the parent company would make it available nationwide starting in 1968. (The famous "twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun" ad campaign would follow in early 1975.)

-- Above: advertisement in The Morning Herald, Uniontown, April 21, 1967

-- Below: advertisement in The Morning Herald, September 28

* "A Meal Disguised as a Sandwich: The Big Mac" (Pennsylvania Center for the Book, 2009): @

* "McDonald's: Behind the Arches" (John F. Love, 1995): @

* "Golden Arch Angel" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1993): @

* "Michael James Delligatti, Creator of the Big Mac, Dies at 98" (New York Times, 2016): @

* "Woman Who Named Big Mac Finally Recognized" (Associated Press, 1985): @

* Big Mac Museum (North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania): @ (website) and @ (RoadsideAmerica.com) 

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Tuesday, April 11, 1967: Robert Kennedy's tour of the Mississippi Delta

CLEVELAND, Mississippi -- Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., trekking through poverty pockets in rural Mississippi, said Tuesday the United States spends $3 billion annually caring for its dogs and "we could do more for children." Standing at the rear of a weather-beaten, wooden frame house near this community in the cotton-growing Delta, the senator said: "We spend about $3 billion each year on dogs. You'd think we could do more for children. I think that it is our responsibility as American citizens." Negroes in this area are increasingly being idled by the replacement of hand labor with mechanized farm equipment. ... Sen. Joseph Clark, D-Pa, said the money spent to fight poverty was inadequate but more money in itself won't solve the problem. It will take more skills and community interest to help poor people, he said. His subcommittee has been looking into War on Poverty programs for two days in Mississippi.

CLARKSDALE, Mississippi -- A Senate subcommittee, carrying volumes of testimony and memories of hungry children, returned to Washington today (April 12) after a look at poverty conditions among Negroes in the Mississippi Delta. "We need a reawakening of the social conscience of America," said Sen. Joseph S. Clark, D-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee on employment, manpower and poverty. Both Clark and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., spent a long day driving through the low-lying cotton country with stops at several ramshackle Negro homes and anti-poverty centers, interviewing dozens of Negro families. The tour, which ended here late Tuesday, came on the heels of a hearing in Jackson at which several witnesses told of widespread hunger and unemployment among Negro farm workers displaced by mechanization and reduced cotton acreage.

-- News accounts from Associated Press

-- Top photo from Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights; other photos by Jim Lucas: @ 

* "Clark and Kennedy Visit the Poor in Mississippi" (New York Times, April 12, 1967): @

* Excerpt from "Robert Kennedy and His Times" (Arthur Schlesinger, 1978): @

* "Bobby Kennedy in Mississippi" (Photos, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, 2016): @

* "Robert Kennedy's Transformation Ran Through Mississippi" (Clarion-Ledger, 2016): @
* "Bobby Kennedy chose to see problems first hand" (Bill Minor, 2008): @

* "Mississippi docs helped fight 'war on poverty' " (Minor, 2016): @
* "With RFK in the Delta," (John Carr, 2002): @

* "Delta Ephipany: RFK in Mississippi" (Ellen Meacham, 2017): @

* Interview with Marian Wright Edelman (1988): @

* Interview with Peter Edelman (1974): @

* "Poverty" entry from Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights: @

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1965: Pillsbury Doughboy

Leo Burnett creative director Rudy Perz was sitting at his kitchen table in the mid-1960s when he dreamed up the idea of a plump, dough figure that would pop out of a tube of refrigerated rolls. Since then, Pillsbury has used Poppin' Fresh in more than 600 commercials for more than 50 of its products.

     -- Summary from Advertising Age: @

     -- Image from Life magazine ad, June 10, 1966

Note: The exact date of when the first ad ran (print or TV) is unclear. In an email, Leo Burnett Worldwide says the agency won the company's refrigerated dough account in March 1965, with the idea for the Doughboy conceived in the fall of 1965, making it more likely that the character did not appear until 1966.

* "The creation of Poppin' Fresh" (General Mills): @

* Entry from "Food and Drink in American History: A 'Full Course' Encyclopedia" (edited by Andrew F. Smith, 2013): @

* Pillsbury Doughboy Collectibles: @

* Early TV ad: @

* Obituaries for Rudolph Perz, who died in 2015: @ (Advertising Age) @ (New York Times) and @ (Washington Post) 
* Top 10 icons of 20th century (Advertising Age): @
* "Memorable advertising icons" (CBS News): @

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May 1965: Teenage diets

An Agriculture Department nutritionist contends that the teen-age girl is the poorest-fed member of the whole family. The teen-age boy also needs an improved diet. Dr. Evelyn Spindler, nutritionist for the department's Federal Extensive Service, says there is nothing wrong with a teen-ager eating a hamburger or a piece of pizza, if the youngster drinks a milkshake at the same eating, and consumes a green salad, or a banana. She says such a meal, or snack, is far better than a combination of a soft drink and potato chips.

     -- From "Nutritionist says teen-age girl poorest fed member of family" (United Press International, May 19, 1965): @

     -- Image from "Improving Teenage Nutrition" (Federal Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, December 1963): @

* "Nutritionist Says Diet of Today's Youth is Improper" (United Press International, May 25): @

* "Selected Programs on Improving Teen-Age Nutrition" (Federal Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1962): @ 

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Friday, October 30, 1964: Buffalo wings

Buffalo chicken wings are divided into two pieces (the wingtips discarded), then fried and coated with a mild, oil-based hot sauce; and served with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. They were invented by Teressa Bellissimo October 30, 1964, at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York ... No food origin story is ever simple, and even this recent and well-recorded event has three versions: 1. The wings were a spontaneous snack for Bellissimo's son Frank and friends; 2. The wings were a Friday-midnight inspiration for Catholic customers who had not had meat all day; 3. The wings had been delivered in error instead of necks and backs for spaghetti sauce or stock, and were salvaged as appetizers.

     -- From "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink" (2007)

     -- Image from Anchor Bar menu

* Anchor Bar website: @

* Entry from "Atlas of Popular Culture in the Northeastern United States" (click on "Buffalo Wings"): @

* Entry from "The Story Behind the Dish: Classic American Foods" (Mark McWilliams, 2002): @

* Entry from "Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers" (Holly Hughes, 2009): @

* "An Attempt to Compile a Short History of the Buffalo Chicken Wing" (Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, August 1980): @ 

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May 1964: Freeze-dried coffee

Maxwell House, a division of General Foods, begins test-marketing Maxim, a freeze-dried coffee, in and around Albany, New York. It would be introduced nationally in 1968.

* "A New Coffee Product" (The Knickerbocker News, May 21, 1964): @

* Advertisement (The Knickerbocker News, June 1964): @

* "Freeze-Dried Process Locks In Flavour" (The Montreal Gazette, May 11, 1968): @

* "Coffee, Instant" (from "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink," 2007): @

* "History of Instant Coffee" (from www.espressocoffeeguide.com): @

* "Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World" (Mark Pendergrast, 2010): @

* "Is There a Future for Instant Coffee?" (Smithsonian magazine, June 2014): @ 

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Monday, May 4, 1964: Bourbon whiskey

WASHINGTON, May 5 -- Congress yesterday called bourbon whisky a distinctive American drink and asked President Johnson to stop all foreign pretenders from trickling into this country. Congressional action was completed when the House passed a resolution containing praises for bourbon and pleas to stop importation of any foreign portion that tries to use the same name. The Senate passed the same resolution last September. The resolution is not a law -- but only an expression of congressional sentiment for bourbon -- and it does not require the signature of President Johnson, whose taste is reputed to run to scotch.
     -- Associated Press, May 5 (link: @)
     -- Image from Bourbon & Banter

* Text of resolution (Government Printing Office): @

* National Bourbon Heritage Month resolution, 2007 (Library of Congress): @
* "Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits" (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, U.S. Department of the Treasury): @

* "The Definition of Bourbon" (bourbonsbistro.com): @

* "About Bourbon" (www.jimbeam.com): @

* "Bourbon Whiskey" (www.barnonedrinks.com): @

* "Is Bourbon Officially America's Native Spirit?" (chuckcowdery.blogspot.com): @

* "Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage" (Michael R. Veach, 2013): @ 

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October 1963: Ronald McDonald

In 1960 the McDonald's franchise in Washington, D.C., decided to sponsor a local children's television program called "Bozo's Circus." Bozo was played by Willard Scott, who later gained fame as a television meteorologist and write. Scott subsequently was asked to play Bozo at the grand opening of another McDonald's outlet in the area. Sales in Washington grew by a whopping 30 percent per year during the next four years. In 1963 the television station decided to drop "Bozo's Circus," which lagged in the ratings. The local McDonald's franchise chose to produce their own television commercials starring another clown. Previously McDonald's franchises had not independently developed television commercials. The owners of this establishment wondered what to name the clown, and an advertising agency proposed "Archie McDonald," which offered an allusion to McDonald's golden arches symbol. But there was a sportscaster in the Washington area named Arch McDonald, so another name had to be found. Using a simple rhyme, Willard Scott came up with the name Ronald McDonald. Scott played Ronald McDonald in the first television commercials, which were broadcast in October 1963.
-- From "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink" (2007)

* Video of ad (from www.vintageTVcommercials.com): @

* Excerpt from "Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want To Know About Fast Food" (Eric Schlossler and Charles Wilson, 2006): @

* "The Sign of the Burger: McDonald's and the Culture of Power" (Joe L. Kincheloe, 2002): @ 

* McDonald's website: @

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October 1963: Self-cleaning oven

General Electric introduces the P-7 model. GE's description: "The P7 Pyrolytic Oven heats to about 880 degrees Fahrenheit (471C) during the cleaning cycle. That is about twice the temperatures used for normal cooking. At this high temperature, food soil decomposes from the oven walls, top, bottom, rack and even the oven light crystal. The cleaning cycle takes 1.5 to 3 hours to complete depending on the amount of soil. Only a small amount of light ash remains after the cleaning cycle is complete. The ash is similar to that of a cigarette."

     Ad from November 15 issue of Life magazine.

* "Housewives' Dirtiest Jobs Gets An Electrical Heave Ho!" (Daytona Beach Morning Journal, October 10, 1963): @

* "Revolutionary Range Cleans Oven" (Milwaukee Journal, October 10): @

* "This Oven Cleans Itself!" (Toledo Blade, October 10): @ 

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1963: Origin of chicken nuggets

In 1963, (Cornell University professor Robert C.) Baker and his colleague Joseph Marshall proposed a first-ever "chicken stick," made of ground, blended and frozen chicken. Keeping the stick together without a sausage-like skin, and keeping the breading on through freezing and frying, were major advances.

     -- From "The Lost History and Unintended Consequences of the Chicken Nugget" (Maryn McKenna, wired.com, 2012; full story: @)

* "The Father of the Chicken Nugget" (Slate, 2012): @

* "The invention of the Chicken McNugget" (www.marketplace.org, 2013): @
* Baker obituary (New York Times, 2006): @

* "How 'Barbecue Bob' Baker Transformed Chicken" (Cornell University, 2012): @

* "Generations & Innovations, Robert C. Baker '43" (Cornell, 2013): @ 

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May 1963: Weight Watchers

Two years after it began with get-togethers among friends in the New York apartment of Jean Nidetch, Weight Watchers International is incorporated and formal meetings begin. (Nidetch, left, at one point weighed 214 pounds.)

* Timeline (through 2003; from Weight Watchers website): @

* About Jean Nidetch (from biography.yourdictionary.com): @
* "The First Biggest Loser" (from The Daily, 2011): @

* "Weight Watchers at 50: A lot has changed but mission has not" (Tampa Bay Times, 2013): @ 

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Monday, February 18, 1963: San Francisco coffee

The San Francisco Chronicle publishes a front-page story on the city's coffee "crisis" -- the poor quality of coffee served to restaurant patrons. It would make famous the headline "A Great City's People Forced to Drink Swill." (The Chronicle would report in 1995: "The crusade continued for several weeks. The results: Street sales of the newspaper soared -- and the coffee served in upscale restaurants improved markedly.")

* Text of story: @

* Anniversary story from the Chronicle's The Big Event site: @
* "The State of the American Newspaper: The Battle of the Bay" (American Journalism Review, 1999): @

* Excerpt from "Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love" (David Talbot, 2012): @

* Excerpt from "Fat Man on the Left: Four Decades in the Underground" (Lionel Rolfe, 1998): @ 

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Friday, February 15, 1963: Irradiation

   The process of irradiating food is approved by the U.S. government, with the first food being canned bacon (to preserve it longer). In August, wheat and wheat powder would be added (to kill insects). The labeling symbol for irradiated foods would be adopted in 1986.

   From a U.S. Department of Agriculture fact sheet (link below):
   Food irradiation is a technology for controlling spoilage and eliminating foodborne pathogens. The result is similar to pasteurization. The fundamental difference between food irradiation and pasteurization is the source of the energy used to destroy the microbes. While conventional pasteurization relies on heat, irradiation relies on the energy of ionizing radiation. Food irradiation is a process in which approved foods are exposed to radiant energy, including gamma rays, electron beams and X-rays. ... Irradiation of meat and poultry is done in a government-approved irradiation facility. Irradiation is not a substitute for good sanitation and process control in meat and poultry plants. It is an added layer of safety.
* USDA fact sheet: @
* Summary from U.S. Food and Drug Administration: @
* Summary from Cooperative Extension Service, University of Georgia: @
* Historical milestones (also from University of Georgia): @
* U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (pages 548-549; 1964): @
* "Irradiated Food Questioned" (FDA news release, 1965): @
* "Irradiation of Foods -- An FDA Perspective" (1986): @
* Safety of Irradiated Foods" (J.F. Diehl, 1995): @
* "Food Irradiation: A Reference Guide" (Vanessa M. Wilkinson and Grahame Warwick Gould, 1996): @ 
* "Food Irradiation: Available Research Indicates That Benefits Outweigh Risks" (General Accounting Office, 2000): @

* "Irradiation and the 'Ick Factor' " (New York Times, 2011): @ 

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January 1963: Electric knife

General Electric Co. introduces the electric carving knife (also marketed as a "slicing knife") at the biannual exhibition of the National Housewares Manufacturers Association in Chicago.

From patent filing (July 1963):
   Over the past ten or fifteen years, there has been a tremendous increase in the use of household appliances to assist the housewife in her everyday chores. This is particularly true with respect to electrically powered hand-held appliances for the kitchen where increased time and effort for food preparation has resulted from the increase in average family size and in home entertainment. ... Accordingly, it is one object of this invention to produce an electrically operated slicing knife of low cost, lightweight construction having its components designed for convenience of mass production.

From Changing Times: The Kiplinger Service for Families (April 1963): "Latest kitchen tool is the electric-powered knife. Plug it in, press the control switch and its twin 9-inch blades vibrate at a speed of 2,000 times per minute. Big advantage of the knife: You can slice without sawing."

* "Carve Turkey 'Life a Professional': From Engine Blades to Knife Blades GE Leaves Nothing to Chance" (from GEreports.com): @

* "Gracious Entertaining with General Electric" (1963 video): @

* "Now ... Carve with Power" (Popular Science, December 1964): @
* "Electric Knives Multiply" (Milwaukee Journal, September 1966): @
* "Power Tool for the Dining Room: The Electric Carving Knife" (from "Stud: Architectures of Masculinity," edited by Joel Sanders, 1996): @
* International Housewares Association website: @ 

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Sunday, September 30, 1962: Farm labor unions

The National Farm Workers Association, led by Cesar Chavez, holds its first convention in Fresno, California. (In 1966 the group would merge with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to form the United Farm Workers union.)

* Chavez entry from County of Los Angeles Public Library: @

* United Farm Workers chronology (from www.ufwfoundation.org): @

* "Broad Shoulders" (Smithsonian magazine, 2005): @

* "The Fight in the Fields" (PBS documentary): @

* "Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa" (Jacques E. Levy, 2007): @

* Farmworker Movement Documentation Project: @

* Photo gallery (Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University): @ 

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Thursday, July 26, 1962: 'The French Chef'

Julia Child's cooking show is first broadcast for a local audience on public television station WGBH in Boston. The show would begin airing nationally on February 11, 1963.

* Video of Child preparing boeuf bourguignon (first national show in 1963): @

* "Julia Child's 'The French Chef' " (book by Dana Polan, 2011): @

* From www.pbs.org: @

* Timeline from The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts: @

* Excerpt from "Icons of American Cooking" (Victor Gerachi and Elizabeth S. Demers, 2011): @

* "Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian" website: @

* "Our Lady of the Kitchen" (Vanity Fair, August 2009): @

* "TV: Pummeling and Shaking Turkey, It's Ebullient 'French Chef' " (New York Times, November 1970): @

* Earlier post on "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (October 16, 1961): @

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Monday, July 9, 1962: Andy Warhol's soup cans

The first one-man exhibition for artist Andy Warhol opens at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, consisting of 32 silk-screened portraits of Campbell's soup cans.

From the September 1962 issue of Artforum magazine -- what's said to be the first published review of the exhibition (by Henry T. Hopkins):

Andy Warhol, Ferus Gallery: To those of us who grew up during the cream-colored thirties with "Big-Little Books," "Comic Books," and a "Johnson and Smith Catalogue" as constant companions, when "good, hot soup" sustained us between digging caves in the vacant lot and having "clod" fights without fear of being tabbed as juvenile delinquents; when the Campbell Soup Kids romped gaily in four colors on the overleaf from the Post Script page in The Saturday Evening Post, this show has particular significance. Though, as many have said, it may make a neat, negative point about standardization it also has a positive point to make. To a tenderloin oriented society it is a nostalgic call for a return to nature. Warhol obviously doesn't want to give us much to cling to in the way of sweet handling, preferring instead the hard commercial surface of his philosophical cronies. But then house fetishes rarely compete with Rembrandt in esthetic significance. However, based on formal arrangements, intellectual and emotional response, one finds favorites. Mine is Onion.

Photos: The top photo, taken by Seymour Rosen, shows how the works were arranged at the 1962 show: like cans on a supermarket shelf. The bottom photo shows how they have been more typically displayed over the years, most recently at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where the set is part of the permanent collection.

* "Campbell's Soup Cans" (from Museum of Modern Art): @

* Warhol's 32 Soup Flavors" (from Smithsonian Libraries, Washington): @

* "The Origin of Andy Warhol's Soup Cans or the Synthesis of Nothingness" (from www.warholstars.org): @

* Abstract Expressionism, 1962 timeline (from www.warholstars.org): @

* www.warhol.org (Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh): @

* www.warhola.com (The Andy Warhol Family Album): @

* "Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol" (book by Tony Scherman and David Dalton, 2010): @

* "Andy Warhol and the Can That Sold the World" (book by Gary Indiana, 2010): @

* Announcement for exhibition opening: @

* Essays for 2002 show at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles: @

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Monday, October 16, 1961: 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'

Written by Simone Beck, Louisette Berthole and Julia Child, the influential cookbook is published by Alfred A. Knopf. Craig Claiborne of The New York Times wrote: "... it will probably remain as the definitive work for nonprofessionals. ... It is written in the simplest terms possible and without compromise or condescension. The recipes are glorious ... All are painstakingly edited and written as if each were a masterpiece, and most of them are."

* "Julia Child, the French Chef" (chapter from "Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine): @

* "My Life in France" (book by Child and Alex Prud'homme): @

* Child entry from "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink": @

* Boeuf Bourguignon recipe: @

* Omelette recipes: @

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Monday, September 18, 1961: Pork belly futures

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange begins trading pork belly futures.

From a 1991 article by The Associated Press: "A pork belly futures contract is an obligation to deliver or take delivery of 40,000 pounds of frozen bellies on a future date at a specified price."

From a 2010 article in The Wall Street Journal: "The pork belly, a slab of frozen meat from which bacon is cut ... earned the exchange the nickname 'The House That Bellies Built.' ... The contract started ... as a way for meat packers and food companies to manage their price risk of bacon. Pork bellies were frozen and stored away in winter, and then thawed out in the summer to accommodate the annual summer increase in demand for bacon as the nation munched through millions of bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. The seasonal pattern gave rise to the need for producers to hedge against price fluctuations."

Photo from Chicago Tribune, 1967.

* "History of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange" (from 1970): @

* Timeline: @

* "The Ode: Pork Belly Futures (1961-2011)" (from canadianbusiness.com): @

* Trade in Pork Bellies Comes to an End, but the Lore Lives" (New York Times, July 2011): @

* "End of an Era: R.I.P. Pork Belly Futures" (July 2011): @

* CNBC video (2010): @

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