The joys of electricity (in the kitchen)

JERRY PERSON

I remember when I attended high school in the distant past that a

majority of the girls in school took home economics classes so they

would be prepared for a married life. In the class, they would become

familiar with kitchen appliances and the tricks to fixing meals for

their husbands and children and also how to plan large parties.

This was the time when the majority of married women stayed at

home to manage that huge and complex job. Of course, they got out of

the house by joining clubs and women’s organizations -- Woman’s Club,

church-sponsored groups, card parties, etc.

As every woman knows, it is not a simple matter to plan a large

party with so many different food dishes along with table settings

and the thousand little details involved. In those times, it was a

badge of distinction for many women to show off their culinary

talents at those card parties or social events by preparing

delightful looking and tasty dishes.

Yes, I know that today, it is a dying art, or as Peg Bundy on the

TV show, “Married With Children,” would say to her husband while

standing in front of the stove, “Al, what is this thing in the

kitchen?”

“It’s a stove, Peg, a stove.”

“Oh!”

In an endeavor to aid the ladies in what was new in the world of

culinary arts, our local newspaper, the Huntington Beach News,

brought to our city a noted home economist.

The News arranged to have Isabel Franklin and her all-electric

Happy Kitchen cooking school for a two-day event at the old Memorial

Hall in 1938. The two-day cooking and home-making event was held on

Sept. 21-22.

Franklin had been nationally known and popular home economists in

1938.

The ladies of our town were invited to attend her all-electric

cooking school, where they would learn many new and stimulating

ideas, practical suggestions and clever hits in preparing meals for

their families and how to throw large dinner parties.

Franklin showed the ladies how to prepare meat dishes and how to

prepare vegetables without boiling in water. Her two-hour lectures

featured such topics as how to make mouth-watering meals from

inexpensive foods to lavish party desserts.

The ladies attending this event would be eligible to win prizes

donated by several of our downtown businesses. The W. Frank Helm

Electric store donated an all-electric Silex coffee maker with tray,

while Tovatt’s Hardware gave the lucky winner a cocktail tray and

pick set. J.H. Estus, our General Electric dealer, and his manager

Jack Crum gave out certificates worth from $5 to $35 toward G.E.

appliances in their store to ladies drawing the lucky numbers.

Warner Hardware put in its store window a display of many of the

latest electric appliances and Sol White’s laundry supplied all the

tea towels during the event.

But it was Isabel Franklin that the women came to see and hear.

The first day brought in more than 300 ladies and they learned to

prepare a dinner of sausage with peaches and leftover vegetables and

an apricot upside-down cake for dessert.

The second day saw even more ladies as 500 women crowded the hall

to watch Franklin prepare a pot roast dinner in a modern electric

range. With the pot roast, she included a potato and onion side dish

and everyone held their breath, lest the lemon souffle for dessert

might fall.

During the event Franklin gave away these meals to the ladies

holding the lucky ticket. Victoria Bowen won the grand prize of the

grill waffle iron combo with serving tray and dishes.

I wonder how many husbands came home from work to a fancy meal,

just like the ones their wives watched Franklin prepare during those

two days in the Happy Kitchen in 1938.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.