Old cooking shows-Dione Lucas

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jamiel

jamiel

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Unexpected thing to watch today--we're in the middle of having the floors refinished so have been living upstairs in the bedroom for the week. Anyway, we brought up the TV but don't have cable up here so have been channel surfing. We found RetroTV this afternoon and caught Dione Lucas (who is a predecessor of Julia Child) in a 1950s b&w cooking show. It's interesting--she apparently was English (has a very proper British accent) and is clearly working for the American Gas Association and Caloric--everything is "cooking in your Caloric range" or "in your Gas refrigerator". Just as described--retro! Apparently she was the first "name" cook with a cooking show. Anyway...quite fun!
 
Sounds like an early morning show that came on after the news and Romper Room in some Alabama town we were in traveling with dad on business. Remember that some towns had only one or two channels back then and some places had TV stations that went off the air after the noon news and came back on about 4 or 5 o'clock because they had no money to buy network programs. Anyway, the show was called the Blue Flame Kitchen and was sponsored by the gas company. Does anyone remember when the electric and gas utilities had home economists who would come out and introduce you to the features of your new appliance? Everything was done to tout the features of gas appliances, but of course they only had the stoves and the refrigerator. The Burner With a Brain was the big thing at that time. The women dressed as the dietitians they were in white starched uniforms with those funny hats like nurses used to wear, white hosiery and they clumped around the set in sensible white tie up bubbie shoes. They were all of a certain age where maybe bubbie shoes were worn all of the time anyway. My mother never wore bubbie shoes. I wonder if it was because she had no grandchildren? Like the brother and sister in Poe's Fall of the House of Usher, fate conspired with my siblings and me to bring that mishegoss to an end with our generation.

Speaking of television back then, I remember one early evening when daddy and I pulled into some small motel with one or two cars in the parking lot. The very nice lady assigned us to a room. It was nice and clean, but the TV reception was not good for what we wanted to watch; probably due more the set than anything else. Daddy called the office about it. The lady said that set was not so good (yet she had assigned that room in an empty motel) and invited us up to watch TV with her and her husband. I guess they were lonely. So we went up there and spent an hour or so watching TV and talking with them.
 
I did more research...apparently they play two episodes of this show at from noon-1 every weekday, followed by two episodes of The Doctors. The syndication of The Blue Flame Kitchen probably wouldn't be this because Dione Lucas was shilling Caloric more than gas...Jinx Falkenburg (what a name) would be more generic American Gas Assn than this. You're forgetting the virtues of having a household gas incinerator and a gaslight or two to help make your house a home.
 
Heavens, I doubt that they even taped episodes of TBFK. It was live in the studio. I something blew up they would just swing the camera away while they carted out the body.

I remember Calcinators. We had a friend in Ottawa, IL who had one in the basement. I thought it a special treat to get to follow along behind when a bag of garbage was carried down and put in it. Wouldn't you still have to deal with cans and glass?

I also remember how insanely expensive it became to operate our gas light, but before that, during a terrible ice storm which caused a power failure, the gas post lanterns scattered through our little neighborhood did help to light it at night. Ours was so bright that with the draperies open, you could safely see to walk through the living and dining room, not that that was particularly necessary.
 
Was she English or French with an accent?

Dione Lucas wasn't shy when it came to endorsement income. I really don't know how good a cook she was because all I have to go on is the old ads and some of the episodes of her cooking show which were, because of the frequent and shameless Caloric plugs (yeah, I'd choose a gas refrigerator if I weren't living on an island or Antarctica), nowhere near as much about food as Julia Child's show was.

 

Below, she's hawking a 1950's can of pork and beef by-products meant for human, not canine, consumption.

bajaespuma++11-27-2015-10-57-50.jpg
 
Dione Lucas.....

She was a graduate of the London branch of Le Cordon Bleu. So, in theory she could cook well.

Her most famous recipe, if any are recalled, is for Chocolate Roll, which is a chocolate cake baked in a "jelly roll/'Swiss' roll" pan, with a whipped cream filling. Maida Heatter includedd her adaptaion of it in several of her books.

Ms. Lucas was not very comfortable in teaching, it shows on the video. Julia was a brilliant teacher..... It is said that Ms. Lucas was better at teaching in person, than on television. James Beard was also not too gifted for television, but was much better in person.

In late life, Ms. Lucas was a severe alcoholic, and generally quite unpredictable. She was on the scene for the launch of "Mastering The Art of French Cooking," and did what she could for Mesdames Child, Beck, and Bertholle.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 

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