food journalism
- Arizona Republic, Dorothee Polson, food history, food journalism, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Dorothee Polson
Day 11 of Women’s History Month features Arizona Republic food editor Dorothee Polson. She was a Vesta Award winner for top newspaper food writing and knew Arizona women’s page editor Maggie Savoy who I blogged about earlier this month. I came across an oral history with Dorothee. It is available here. In the history, Dorothee mentions Maggie and her experiences as a food journalist. Here is one of my favorite parts as she described coming to Phoenix in 1962:“I think it helped me that there had not been a food section, because there were no rules and regulations to follow. I could just do whatever I wanted to. And I…
- Florida Women's Pages, food history, food journalism, Jeanne Voltz, women's history month, women's page history
Women’s History Month: Jeanne Voltz
Day seven of Women’s History Month features my final Miami Herald women’s page journalist: food editor Jeanne Voltz. Here is a link to my article about Voltz’s career at the Los Angeles Times where she went after many years at the Herald. Like several food editors, Voltz wrote several cookbooks – including one of my favorites, The Florida Cookbook. Today, Voltz’s recipe for Green Corn Tamales can be found on the Food Network website with a note giving credit to her acclaimed book, Barbecued Ribs, Smoked Butts, and Other Great Feeds. James Beard, a well-known name in food and a contemporary of Julia Child, wrote of the book, “Jeanne Voltz…
You May Also Like
Writing Women into the Curriculum
- Florida Women's Pages, food editors, food history, food journalism, Jeanne Voltz, journalism history
Great Image of Food Editor Jeanne Voltz
I love this great image of Food Editor Jeanne Voltz. She is getting ready to fly with USN Blue Angels, Miami, 1956. I noticed the image on her daughter Jeanne’s Facebook page and I appreciate her letting me use it. In the 1950s, Jeanne Voltz was the food editor at the Miami Herald before moving on to the Los Angeles Times in 1960. Here is how she is described in her obituary: “She was one of the first newspaper food editors of the modern era, when the sections were edited by journalists rather than by the advertising department.” There has been an over generalization that food journalism was run by…
You May Also Like
Writing Women into the Curriculum
-
Clementine Paddleford Clips
I recently came across this clip written by New York Herald Tribune food writer Clementine Paddleford. Here is a great article about Clementine. Her papers are at Kansas State University. Her writing had considerable reach but she has largely been overshadowed by the New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne.
-
Day Six: Women’s Page History in 7 Objects
The sixth object representing women’s pages is a cookbook. Most newspapers put out a cookbook at some point. Sometimes the books were a creation of the newspaper’s food editor, such as the Arizona Republic’s Dorothee Polson’s Pot au Feu. Other times, the books were a collection of recipes from readers, such as the Milwaukee Journal’s Peggy Daum’s Best Cook on the Block Cookbook.
-
Media’s Coverage of the Pillbury Bake-Off
This is great background for the book chapter I am writing about the intersection between food advertisers and food editors. The Pillsbury Bake-Off was often newsworthy but some editors were worried about offering free advertising. For example, in 1971, at the Louisville Courier Journal, the editor noted that the $25,000 prize at the time made the Pillsbury Bake-off newsworthy. Yet, the newspaper did not want to provide free publicity so the name “Pillsbury” was not used in the story. Interestingly, the statement was made at a food editors conference that Pillsbury sponsored. Here is a story about it. New York Times’ food editor Jane Nickerson wrote about the first Pillsbury…
