Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Radio Day Celebration

Thank God it’s Monday, again. I always look forward to Mondays, as they’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. Therefore, happy Monday.

#TheRecipeDetective

#NationalRadioDay

Tomorrow is National Radio Day, among other things. Radio was a major cornerstone in the success of the family recipe business that Mom and Dad built. She always described her wonderful experiences with radio shows (as well as the people she got to know) in almost every book and newsletter issue that she wrote.

Mom’s last book, Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 4), a revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition), offers special thank you notes from Mom to radio hosts, with whom she spoke, on a regular basis, and helped her grow her business.

THANK YOU [AGAIN], TO…

…Bob Allison & his “Ask Your Neighbor” radio program on WWJ-Radio, Detroit, MI – which has been broadcasting since 1962, for moral support and interest in my research and development of recipes that imitate restaurant and commercial food products. You’ve been a great friend over the years.

…Art Lewis & his “Listen to the Mrs.” program on WSGW-Radio, Saginaw, MI – which has been on the air since 1952, and …Warren Pierce of WJR-Radio, Detroit, MI, which has been on the air since 1976 – for putting me in touch with some of the most responsive and enthusiastic listening audiences.

…Jim White, Ann Keefe & Art Fleming of KMOX-Radio, St. Louis, MO – for all the great years we visited on the air, sharing secrets of some giants in the food industry with your nationwide audience.

…Bob Cudmore of WGY, Schenectady, NY – whose listeners have become good friends over the many years of our radio visits with your wonderful audience.

…Ralph Story of KNX-Radio, Los Angeles, CA – for introducing me to your west coast audience, which offered me many new restaurants to investigate.

…Bob Barry of WEMP-Radio, Milwaukee, WI – whose newsletter to the radio personalities included notes of my progress and opened many doors for me.

…Paul Harvey, broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks, for his kind words about my work. …Ed Busch of WFAA, Dallas, TX and KSL-Radio, Salt Lake City, UT; Toby Gold of WSAY-Radio, Rochester, NY…

…Toni Harblin of WTNY, Watertown, NY; Fred Krell of WSGW-Radio, Saginaw, MI; Bunny Morse of WCMY-Radio, Ottawa, IL; Pat Rogers of WOAI-Radio, San Antonio, TX; Eddie Schwartz of WGN-Radio, Chicago, IL; and Bob Sweeney of WHIO-Radio, Dayton, OH.

Mom was a regular weekly guest on a lot of radio shows – mostly by phone, from the comfort of home. In fact, it was the “listeners” of her regular radio visits with Bob Allison who initially dubbed her ‘The Recipe Detective’. She further developed that into her own trademarked identity.

Her involvement with the world of radio actually came about without any specific intention of becoming a regular part of the broadcasting field but Mom was often told she had “a radio voice”.

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 10). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition).]

HI, NEIGHBOR! – BOB ALLISON’S “ASK YOUR NEIGHBOR”

[A daily recipe radio show.]

ONE OF THE NICEST things about being a writer is that you can work at home. Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, as soon as my kids were out the door to the school bus, I set up my $39.95 Smith Corona portable typewriter at the kitchen table…

I was one step away from the stove, refrigerator and recipes I was curious to test and write about. The view from the kitchen table included the front yard and the North Channel of the St. Clair River (part of the St. Lawrence Seaway to everyone else) – the riverside was [called] the front yard and the roadside was the back yard.

The old house had its faults, I’ll grant you, but nobody could refuse a view like we had, living on the banks of that river! There was always something going on outside, sufficient to inspire a feeling of well-being, which every writer must have to do their job well.

In keeping with “write about what you know best”, I could put every economical recipe I used to feed my family of seven to good use, sharing the Secrets with others. One of my addictions in those days was a daily recipe radio show called Ask Your Neighbor, hosted by Bob Allison over the WWJ-Detroit radio airwaves.

He always opened his two-hour show by saying, “if you have a household problem you cannot solve, then call… (and he’d give a phone number) …and ask your neighbor!” I called him frequently with answers to his other listeners’ recipe questions, until I became “a regular” on the show.

With Bob’s generous help in mentioning my monthly newsletter, my subscriptions began to climb to 300, and 400. I was finally showing a profit! That gave my husband, Paul, some relief from his skepticism that I would eventually outgrow my obsession with writing.

From Bob Allison’s listeners alone, Paul and I had received over 1000 letters in one day! When, 106 months later, we closed our subscriptions to the monthly newsletter, we were already serving over 15,000 subscribers and had probably returned subscription requests to over 10,000 people…

That’s when, like Dick and Mack McDonald, we decided that we did not want to “get big!” It is as much a thrill for me today [1982], to hear somebody on Bob’s “Ask Your Neighbor” show request that Gloria, “The Secret Recipe Detective”, try to duplicate a recipe, as it was for me, decades ago, when it all began.

Mom had so many happy memories from her association with radio. One was of a 1995 “working” road trip/vacation that she and Dad took to Branson, Missouri with the hosts and crew of another one of her favorite radio shows, Listen To The Mrs., which aired on WSGW-News Radio (Saginaw, MI), since its beginning in 1952, until 2019. Now, it’s a podcast!

MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 254). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition).]

THE TASTE OF THE TOWN!

WARREN PIERCE OF WJR – Radio, Detroit, was one of my first radio friends with whom I would visit on the air regularly, giving out recipe secrets from the food industry. When Warren had an evening show, we found that the listeners’ responses to the famous “make-at-home” recipes prompted some very interesting challenges…

Each time I offered Warren’s listeners one of the Detroit recipes, along would come requests for even more that I had not yet investigated. So, I would check out the new eating place, taste the house specialty and return to Warren’s show with the previously requested recipe. This is how most of the recipes in my collection were originally discovered…

My visits on the radio with Warren Pierce are still my favorite experiences in my recipe investigations. I would rather do a radio show with Warren, in fact, than television with anyone else. The audience is responsive and the feeling of having really shared something the listeners enjoy having is very rewarding.

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062253

Check out the Media Friends tab, on this website, for more “Thank You” notes from Mom to more of her media friends. I collected them from her various books and newsletters and combined them into a large post. Mom was always grateful for all of her media friends but especially for those in the radio broadcasting industry.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Mom entered and won many essay contests – some sponsored by radio shows. She bought her first typewriter with prize money she won from a 1963 contest she entered. She also won a maple stereo and radio set, from another essay contest, for her original story about picnicking in the snow, with a radio playing.

AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – Best Of The Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 294). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition).]

DIVIDENDS

EVERY SUCCESSFUL ACCOMPLISHMENT with my writing, after high school and the one year in college, was involved with recipes and cookbooks and restaurants. But I couldn’t see that it was a kind of calling. I saw it only as an interest that temporarily kept me writing and making a worthwhile living at it.

WDEE-Radio, in Detroit, gave me a portable radio or a recipe that took 1^st place in a contest they conducted – and in 1962, it was WBRB, in Mt. Clemens, that gave me a check for 1^st place in their recipe contest. Soon after that, Better Homes & Gardens sent me a check for a recipe in a contest they had conducted.

WJBK-Radio gave me a maple stereo and radio set for their most unusual experience while listening to the radio, in 1964, when I wrote them about our “Picnicking in the Snow”.

Again, the story was food related, including recipes for having a cook-out on the beach at Metropolitan Park in the middle of winter, with the radio going to keep us in the proper mood.

It was all leading to my eventual work in the food industry – but I couldn’t see that at the time. I could only see that I had to write and with any luck at all, luck would be when preparation and experience met opportunity. The opportunity was close at hand.

LAST THOUGHTS…

Thursday is National Be An Angel Day. Angels are very kind and good. Thus, it’s a day to recognize those who have been like angels to us, as well as being such to others. Coincidentally, next week is, similarly, Be Kind to Humankind Week (which is always the 25^th to 31^st).

#BeAnAngelDay

#BeKindToHumankindWeek

My grandma (Mom’s mom) used to repeatedly tell me that there are always angels, walking among us. People who are just kind and good, with no ulterior motive. For Mom, many of those angels are the people she met through her experiences in radio, for over 40 years.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at [email protected]. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective.

IN CLOSING…

In honor of August, being National Sandwich Month, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Outback Dark Bread Imitation”; as seen in her self-published cookbook, Restaurant Recipe Secrets (Secret Recipes^TM, Marysville, MI; Jan. 1997, p. 56).

This recipe was one of the free ones offered on this website, when Mike took care of it for our parents. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to share it.

#NationalSandwichMonth