Home Work: The food TV camera is hungry
field reports from my book in progress The Secret History of Home Economics
Imagine you’ve been plunked on a stage under a tent, in the middle of a field, with no running water and just an extension cord or two—and you have to cook a delicious meal. While people watch to learn how you do it.
Now add a camera. Smile, you’re a home economist in the early 1950s navigating the glamorous new medium of television!
Home economists were comfortable with the fear and farce of the high-wire live demonstration. “Betty Newton,” the Betty Crocker of Columbia Gas, practiced her choreographed motions and tray setups until they were perfect. She suspended a mirror over her demonstration counter so women in the audience could see. If they still couldn’t see, well, Betty maintained a nonstop patter narrating her actions.
"Betty Newton" of Columbia Gas cooks for a crowd.
But television made home economists nervous. There were no close-ups at the State Fair. Enter the enterprising and insightful Mary Brown Allgood, then an associate professor at Penn State. In 1953 she published Television Demonstration Techniques for Home Economists and laid the groundwork for everything from Julia to Giada.
“A good platform lecture-demonstrator who is friendly and has an iron constitution can become a good tel-a-structor just by changing a few of her techniques,” Allgood wrote.
OK, so maybe Allgood wasn’t so swift at coining a phrase. But her understanding of television’s technical and psychological demands was light-years ahead.
Allgood realized that television was a visual and intimate medium. It came into a woman’s living room. That meant that home economists should speak to the viewer individually, not to a group, she wrote.
Every episode should start with an action shot—say, a perking coffee pot. The presenter didn’t have to talk all the time: The camera did the work.
But in return, the camera was always hungry. It needed constant attention. The tel-a-structor should stand aside when she opened the refrigerator so the camera could see in. Everything should face the lens, Allgood advised: the bowl you were pouring from (“keep the forearms close to the body and twist the wrist”), the cake you were icing—“one of the most difficult problems to overcome,” Allgood wrote sympathetically. “It is a hazard that must be overcome by constant awareness.”
Given how new the medium was, Allgood had an amazing eye for the ways that the camera distorted visual reality, and shared tricks to compensate. “Flour or other dry ingredients do not show in an aluminum bowl,” she wrote, so “arrange not to show the interior until some liquid has been added.” Gas flame would be invisible unless you put pulverized salt near the burner. Dione Lucas, the first TV chef, washed her cabinets down with buttermilk to eliminate glare.
Furthermore, wooden spoons with extra-long handles looked awkward, Allgood wrote, and “watch the placement of dish towels and pan holders; they can take on queer shapes in the camera’s eye.” She was also the first home economist to note that, alas, “the television camera makes people look larger than they are.”
Philadelphia Electric home economist and TV food star Florence Hanford
The tel-a-structor should also use noise consciously, to increase interest: the hissing of steam, the snapping of a crisp vegetable. However, she should beware of unintended noise, and pad the underside of trays and bowls with moleskin so they didn’t rattle.
Finally, Allgood knew the demands of commerce. She recommended a half-hour show, which allowed time to prepare three recipes “and have plenty of time to plug the sponsors’ products.”
If the dish didn’t cook in 30 minutes? Fake it. The tel-a-structor could say the camera didn’t pick up all the brown. Or plan ahead and “have several batches of the food in different stages.” In other words, Allgood was the first to document what television now calls the swap-out, when the cook slides a raw roast into an oven and slides out the cooked one next to it. She learned the technique from the home economists at Brooklyn Union Gas.
Incidentally, the former Betty Newtons I’ve interviewed absolutely shudder at how sloppily these so-called chefs cook on television today. They let the spoon clatter in the sink! They waste so much batter! Betty Newton always scraped the bowl.
Though not a home economist, Vegan Black Metal Chef follows Allgood’s advice about hand placement, and he certainly can pitch a product--Allgood said it was more effective to include the product in a recipe than to shill it on the side.
Bits and Bites
Very psyched to say that the Robert B. Silvers Foundation has recognized The Secret History of Home Economics with its new work-in-progress grant for “supremely talented writers of essay, criticism, and political and social commentary” (thanks, Mom).
Speaking of mothers … for a non-parent, I sure am obsessed with mom media. Latest: Evil Witches newsletter, Comfort Food podcast.
In my procrastination spare time, I’m designing a few home economics–themed cross-stitch patterns. If you want to be a test-stitcher, let me know.
Recipe: Pat Schroeder’s Breakfast
In honor of primary season, I bring you a political recipe. The Sporkful podcast interviewed (former) longtime Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder about eating on the campaign trail. Schroeder, who won her seat with a child still in diapers, did not have time for domesticity, and her worst grade in high school was in home economics. (She became valedictorian anyway.) Nonetheless, women asked for her favorite recipes. So here’s what she used to send:
“Find a bowl. If it’s on the floor, wash it because the dog has probably used it. Find some cereal. Hopefully, it will be sugar-coated so you don’t have to go on a scavenger hunt for the sugar. Then get milk from the refrigerator. But it is imperative that you read the spoil date before using. When these items have been located, assemble.”
People thought her campaign staff was trying to sabotage her, she told the podcast.
When people asked Schroeder why she was running as a woman, she answered, "What choice do I have?" I think you should be able to share this post at this link. Read about marital advice, muffins and more in the Home Work archives.
Besides Allgood’s book, sources include interviews with Connie Cahill and Sheila Castellarin; “Here's What's Open for You in TV,” Iowa Homemaker, Dec. 1949; “Home Economics Television,” The Journal of Home Economics, Feb. 1952; “You're Using TV,” JHE, Dec. 1955. Schroeder recipe from Women and Elective Office: Past, Present, and Future. Eds. Sue Thomas, Clyde Wilcox. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Header photo: Bishop, Calif., Library of Congress. Allgood: Appalachian State University Historical Photographs Collection. "Florence Hanford demonstrating cooking techniques on WRCV-TV in Philadelphia," Temple University Libraries. Betty Newton: Columbia Gas of Ohio.
Written content © 2020 Danielle Dreilinger. All rights reserved.