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Food Editor Virginia Heffington Fights with Liberace
In doing some research about newspaper food editor Virginia Heffington, I came across this funny clip about a fight she had with Liberace. According to the article, Heffington said: “I think we should forget the story because you’re a better piano player than you are a cook. Your beef stroganoff tastes more like canned beef stew.” Newspaper food editors often interviewed celebrities about their cooking.
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
- Dorothy Jurney, journalism history, Marjorie Paxson, National Women and Media Collection, Roberta Applegate
National Women & Media Collection
I was so excited to see this update to the National Women & Media Collection. It includes biographies of several great women’s page editors as well as some images I had never seen before. This is an image of legendary women’s page editor Dorothy Jurney interviewing Imelda Marcos in Malacanang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines, in 1969. Here is my article in Journalism History about Jurney. I had also never seen this photo of Marjorie Paxson with a giant fish in Florida. Paxson was a women’s page editor in Houston and St. Petersburg, Florida among other places. Here is my article about Paxson. Lastly, I…
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The Importance of Weddings Coverage
I loved this New York Times wedding story from yesterday that is getting a lot of buzz. From the story: “The bride, 97, is keeping her name.” While often overlooked as soft news, wedding stories can have value. They were a key part of the women’s pages for decades. As Chicago Editor Colleen “Koky” Dishon noted: “As we wrote about weddings and births and debutante balls, we learned about the importance of rites and rituals in people’s lives.” And there were journalism lessons in reporting about those rituals in the lives of women. Fort Lauderdale News women’s page editor Edee Greene pointed out that writing up engagement and wedding announcements…
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Women’s Clubs, Advertising & Wearing White Gloves
This morning I am revising an AEJMC conference paper that was called: “Mad Men and Reasonable Women: Selling Bras Rather Than Burning Them.” I am focusing 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. Jane Maas would be another example –…
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Archival Material About Ruth Ellen Church
I was researching cookbooks and food editors when I came across the promotional material for two of Ruth Ellen Church’s cookbooks (including the one above) at the Lilly Library located at Indiana University. Here is a link to the finding aid. I just placed an order for the copies. Ruth Ellen Church (who often wrote under the byline Mary Meade) was the longtime food editor at the Chicago Tribune. She is known for being the first wine editor at a newspaper.
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Chicago Tribune Beauty Editor Eleanor Nagle
- Clementine Paddleford, food history, food journalism, Jane Nickerson, Julia Child, New York Times food, Ruth Casa-Emellos
Food Editors & Cookbook Reviews
Julia Child, the cookbook author who became a television personality and a household name, knew that for her publication to be a success it had to be well reviewed. Her first cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was embraced by American newspaper food editors. Yet, before that success, she worked for years to get her book published with several stops and starts along the way. In 1954, she received a letter with the following advice on getting good press for her book: “Want big splash on household page of either Herald Trib. or Times. Trib. as you know is that dame Paddleford, knows a lot, ghastly (for me) style,…
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
