The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 88

2B-E Sunday, May 4, 1975 THE SHREVEPORT TIMES The Julia Child of Radio Aunt Sammy, Where Are You? PERM SPECIAL 9.. MX 8 i mm k'V VS. II3EPAKIMEMT Our Perm Specialists have the knack of the know-how to create the curls and waves that have bounced back into style. Whatever hair fashion you choose, our 11 professional cut and perm will keep it looking fresh and lovely. PERM REG.

$irOO SPECIAL S25.00 NOW FROST SPECIAL 18.50 Stylists: Charles Diven, Page Chamberlain, Karen Walsworth, Vickie Parrott, Chris Lindsey, Elese Lock, Mgr. Call 268 short wave." Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Sammy was even one of the first radio programs to include a regular cast of characters, predating Lum and Abner, Amos and Andy, One Man's Family, and the other daily serials of the 1930s. She talked with Uncle Ebenezer, her nephew Billy, the Noxy Neighbor and Percy DeWillington, the fussy eater. One of the things Aunt Sammy did was to explain to her listeners the array of new electrical gadgets that were becoming available to the often naive housewives of the era.

She told of the rural lady who thought the electricity in the wire ate up the dust gathered by her vacuum cleaner. One belle of the boondocks asked Sammy where to buy the little cubes of ice that were supposed to go in her electric refrigerator. Another was hopping mad because her washing machine didn't work. She hadn't put water in it; she thought the electricity would do the cleaning. Sammy warned her listeners, too, against radio hucksters such as "the goat gland doctor," and against phony advertising by a paper company which claimed its competitor's scratchy product would cause "toilet paper disease." Cooking Was Forte But Sammy's forte was cooking, in a day when everything was made from scratch.

She always told her listeners to copy down the recipe (or receipt, as some of the ladies of that day called it) as she read it. one-half cup of milk inhale quickly one-half teaspoonful of baking powder, lower the legs and mash two hard-boiled eggs in a seive lie flat on the floor and roll the white of an egg backward and forward And so, Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes Cookbook was born. The government printed 100,000 copies in 1927 and ran out. The demand grew so that no matter how many more were printed, they were always in short supply, especially after 1929, as the Depression put the squeeze on hard-pressed Americans. Scouts Chose Sammy The recipes were so prized that when President Hoover asked some Girl Scouts to prepare an economical dinner for him as an example of frugality, the girls chose an Aunt Sammy menu.

They whipped up a White House dinner for eight (Split Pea Soup, Meat Loaf, Baked Potatoes With Butter, Graham Muffins, Cabbage and Carrot Salad with French Dressing, Lemon Bread Pudding and Tea) for a grand total of $1.89. Today, reports Editor Greif, that meal would set you back ten dollars. But even at that, he shrugs, "When's the last time you fed the President of the United States and seven other dinner guests for less than ten bucks?" And he adds: "Where are you, now that we need you more than ever?" The publishers of Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes are really trying to answer that question. They'd like to find some of those radio actresses By Bob Swift Knight Newspapers Writer OK, radio fans, who was it who started his news program with "Attention Mr. and Mrs.

T. North America and all the ships at sea let's go to Z. Walter Winchell? That's right! Now, for ten silver dollars, what program featured the words "I have a lady in the balcony, doctor." Another winner! Dr. I. Q.

is correct. But now, fans, I've got one for you that will really separate the men from the boys uh, sorry about that the grown persons from the, ah, ungrown persons. I don't care if you're an expert on the Gypsies and the Clicquot Club Eskimos or whether you know the difference between Ben Bernie and Duffy's Taverns, you'll never guess this one: Who is Aunt Sammy and why are they looking for her? Nostalgia Freaks When I tell you, you'll be one up on all those radio nostalgia freaks who keep schlepping around asking you questions like, "What was the name of the Lone Ranger's I horse?" The answer to that one, of course: Silver. Aunt Sammy, it turns out, was the Julia Child of the 'Depression era, the Barbara Walters of the Hoover Administration, the Galloping Gourmet of the air waves in the days when radio was in its swaddling clothes. I know this because her I story is told in a book called "Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes: the Great 1 Depression Cookbook," which has just been published by Universe Books, 381 Park Avenue South, New York City, 10016, clothbound, paperback, $4.95.

Now, I'm in no position to judge it as a cookbook, I note it contains recipes for such gourmet delicacies as Scalloped Parsnips, Spring Onions on Toast, Fried Cucumbers and, of course, that great American favorite, Jellied Fish Salad. Fascinating Account But its editor, Martin Greif, has put together a fascinating 176 pages, including 30 pictures and 90 recipes. His lengthy introductions to the book is the meat and potatoes of it for me. As he explains it, "Aunt Sammy" was born as a radio personality in 1926, the child of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which used the newfangled medium of radio offer homemaking advice to housewives.

Despite all we see and read about the Roaring Twenties and The Great Gatsby, not everybody back then was Charlestoning around with a hip flask and a Stutz Bearcat. Most of America lived on rural farms or in small towns, and it was to this audience that Aunt Sammy spoke, the first of the "radio cooks." Radio was a static-filled, fade-in and fade-out thing in those days, but already it was becoming a staple of American entertainment along with movies and mah-jongg. Crystal sets and battery-powered Atwater Kents were bringing into the living room such stalwarts as The Gold Dust Twins, The Silver-Masked Tenor and The Happiness Boys. Enter Aunt Sammy (spouse to Uncle Sam, you see) with a 15-minute daily program of warm, motherly advice called "The Housekeeper's Chat." Aunt Sammy was portrayed over the years by 150 radio actresses, who stood before primitive microphones at stations across the country, reading government-prepared scripts. She recited verse, told how to choose linoleum, explained about vitamins, delivered frugal advice on how to use leftover pickle juice, gave etiquette lessons and even told jokes: "What in the world is a radio bob?" "Why, that's a Dillard's An Original "Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes" was published in 1927 by the U.S.

Government Printing Office complete with a radio microphone under the title. This one comes from the kitchen of Mrs. Morgan G. Sanders, who is 84 and lives in Tyler, Tex. She is the former Florence Wren of Marshall, Tex.

who portrayed Aunt Sammy over the years, from 1926 until she was finally done in by the government's other popular program, "The Farm and Home Hour." (Even I can remember the Farm and Home Hour, with its theme music, "The Stars and Stripes Forever," to which we'd sing: "Be kind to your fine feathered friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother poop oaoBfltoiiflamaflp oooo eon 1 No Gift Is Good Enough For Your Mother But come see how we've tried. Mother's Day May 11 Radio Nostalgia Continues Does Anybody GIFT REGISTRATION FOR BRIDES BankAmencard Master Charge Sometimes, what with static and facing radio signals, her listeners got things garbled. Sammy told of the young husband who tried to copy down a recipe for his bride but got two stations at once and wrote: "Hands on hips, place one cup of flour on the shoulders, raise knees and depress toes and mix thoroughly in Drama Into Homes THE WTLERLS PANTRY 280 Southfield Road Shrevcport, Li. 71105 2 By Bob Swift Knight Newspapers Writer In our last episode, I was just warming up my nostalgia tubes to talk about old radio programs when I ran out of space. I was telling about one 'of radio's pioneer programs, a Depression Era show called Aunt Sammy's Housekeeper's fchat.

"Now, I'm not old enough to REMEMBER that program myself," I told the kids as they were reading my column and trying to puzzle out words like "Herbert Hoover." "Do you remember Samuel f.F. B. Morse, Dad?" asked a smart aleck who was watching a rerun of "The Beverly Hillbillies" from behind a Conan comic book. "That was the telegraph, punk," I said kindly. "Get your feet off the coffee table." But I got to thinking, as it were, about Nostalgia and 7 What It Means To Me, and soon I was lost in reverie, which is eight miles out on the (Continued on Page 27-E) Replacement or Money Refunded Give bright and beautiful white jewelry Pamper mother with Summer white jewelry.

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