I have been reading this book about the history of Milwaukee (my hometown) television. It features a page on Breta Griem. She was a home economist who had a cooking show on WTMJ-TV and wrote about food for the women’s pages of the Milwaukee Journal in the 1940s and 1950s.

Griem’s WTMJ show was called “What’s New in the Kitchen” and was part of a block of daytime shows that were aimed at women and children beginning in 1949. Her show lasted 13 years and led to numerous awards.

Here is a passage (pg 60) about Griem’s unscripted, live show:
“I remember we had a kitchen program – as almost every early television station did, I guess, and the kitchen was not a fully-equipped kitchen. We had an arrangement of rolling platforms on which to put the essentials of a set for a given show. When we didn’t need it, we rolled it into the corner of a studio and brought in something else.

As a result, the sink was not equipped with running water. There were pans of water underneath the counter. And Breta Griem, who was a fabulous character, was doing her kitchen show one day and she got a frog in her throat.

She just reached underneath for a glass of water, and realized that it was the soapy dishwater that she had washed the dishes in. But nobody knew that until after the program. She didn’t grimace or make any face.”

While Julia Child has received so much attention for her cooking show – many local television stations included cooking and home economics programs aimed at women.

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I have been reading this book about the history of Milwaukee (my hometown) television. It features a page on Breta Griem. She was a home economist who had a cooking show on WTMJ-TV and wrote about food for the women’s pages of the Milwaukee Journal in the 1940s and 1950s.

Griem’s WTMJ show was called “What’s New in the Kitchen” and was part of a block of daytime shows that were aimed at women and children beginning in 1949. Her show lasted 13 years and led to numerous awards.

Here is a passage (pg 60) about Griem’s unscripted, live show:
“I remember we had a kitchen program – as almost every early television station did, I guess, and the kitchen was not a fully-equipped kitchen. We had an arrangement of rolling platforms on which to put the essentials of a set for a given show. When we didn’t need it, we rolled it into the corner of a studio and brought in something else.

As a result, the sink was not equipped with running water. There were pans of water underneath the counter. And Breta Griem, who was a fabulous character, was doing her kitchen show one day and she got a frog in her throat.

She just reached underneath for a glass of water, and realized that it was the soapy dishwater that she had washed the dishes in. But nobody knew that until after the program. She didn’t grimace or make any face.”

While Julia Child has received so much attention for her cooking show – many local television stations included cooking and home economics programs aimed at women.

Please follow and like us: