TV cooking shows - history

[hrhwebmaster]

I was wondering if anyone knows how and when these first came on the scene? I've done an on-line search but haven't found anything helpful.

We had an early one on KPRC-TV in Houston, Jane Christopher's TV Kitchen, which was on daily for several years, live in the early 50s. It was one of my favorite shows during the day when I was home from school in the summer, though mainly for the 2 male sidekicks who played it straight most of the time but often injected humor and slapstick. Bob Dundas and Lee Gordon were their names. It was sort of like Betty Crocker meets Two Stooges. The best shows as far as I was concerned were when Christopher was on vacation and the two guys did the show themselves and the book 'The Fault Does Not Lie With Your Set' confirms those were very popular shows.

Jane Christopher's '800 Favorite Recipes' was one of the best selling cookbooks in Houston in the 50s.

I don't suppose there were cooking shows on radio. Does anybody know who gets credit for the idea first? I understand they were common on live-local tv in the early days. I haven't pinned down when the show in Houston first aired but this was years before Julia Child.

 

[moedog1]

Betty Feezer had a very popular cooking show on WBTV in Charlotte from the 50s intop the early 70s, but I don't know its exact start. And, of course, Sue Ann Nivens had a legendary cooking show in the Twin Cities that also ended in the 70s.

 

[hrhwebmaster]

> Betty Feezer had a very popular cooking show on WBTV in
> Charlotte from the 50s intop the early 70s, but I don't know
> its exact start. And, of course, Sue Ann Nivens had a
> legendary cooking show in the Twin Cities that also ended in
> the 70s.
>
Good one!

I happened to remember some old trivia -- Betty Crocker's cooking school of the air -- a daily radio program going back as far as 1924. So there were cooking shows on radio. I wonder how they demonstrated how to flip an omelet on radio?

Also came up with the fact that on the first night on the air for KLEE-TV, Houston, 1/1/49, one of the features was a cooking demonstration called 'To a Queen's Taste.'

 

[ThatManDan]

A show that featured Asian dishes was hosted by Joyce Chen on WGBH-TV in Boston.

I believe the program was syndicated to other public stations as well.

A product line bearing her name continues today.

There was also a Joyce Chen resturant for a number of years in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

[bpatrick]

> > Betty Feezer had a very popular cooking show on WBTV in
> > Charlotte from the 50s intop the early 70s, but I don't
> know
> > its exact start. And, of course, Sue Ann Nivens had a
> > legendary cooking show in the Twin Cities that also ended
> in
> > the 70s.
> >
> Good one!
>
> I happened to remember some old trivia -- Betty Crocker's
> cooking school of the air -- a daily radio program going
> back as far as 1924. So there were cooking shows on radio.
> I wonder how they demonstrated how to flip an omelet on
> radio?
>
>Another early radio cooking show was conducted by Ida Bailey
Allen on CBS in the late 1920s and most of the '30s.

As for Betty Crocker, I recall reading that the woman who
played her for many years, Adelaide Hawley, died in 2003
at age 93.

There was also Mary Lee Taylor, whose show aired on Saturday
mornings, first on CBS, then on NBC, in the late '40s and much
of the '50s.

In the Carolinas, besides Betty Feezor (whose show ran 1954-77,
IIRC), Peggy Mann was on WTVD/11 Raleigh/Durham, and Cordelia
Kelly on WFMY/2 Greensboro. Peggy Mann's show ran from the
late '50s to 1978 or '79; Cordelia Kelly was on from about 1950
to 1971. A latecomer who outlasted them all was Nancy Welch
on WSPA/7 Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville. Her show didn't
start until 1967 but lasted until the mid-'80s.