The Woman with 7 Million Friends

If you baked, broiled, or basted anything in the late 1920s to the mid-1950s like as not, at some point you followed the advice or recipes of "Home Economist No. 1," Jessie Marie DeBoth. Perhaps one of her many cookbooks rested on your kitchen shelf. You may have clipped some of her syndicated weekly food columns from the newspaper, heard her recipe shows on the radio, or been lucky enough to attend one of her immensely popular live “cooking school” performances. Unlike her contemporaries Aunt Sammy and Betty Crocker, she actually existed. Yet she is almost unheard of today. We think she deserves a revival!

A native of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the titian-haired Miss DeBoth, who stood five-foot ten-inches tall, graduated from Ripon College in 1915. She received her home economics training at the Stout Institute in Menomonie, Wis, and had additional coursework at Northwestern University. But she attributed her culinary/homemaking skills and business sense to her mother, Mary Villiesse DeBoth and would later dedicate the Modern Guide to Better Meals (1939) cookbook to her.

Miss deBoth provided the recipes for the darling Frigidaire booklet (1927) above. It can be viewed in its entirety, thanks to the Duke University Digital Collections, here: http://http//library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa.CK0083/pg.1/

Possessed of a “rare sense of humor and scintillating personality,” Jessie began touring the country in the late 1920s with her “cooking schools,” which have been described “part Vaudeville act, part cooking lesson, part trade show.” A complete modern kitchen – and often a dining room and laundry as well –would be set up on the stage, with national and local businesses supplying the equipment and groceries in exchange for Miss DeBoth’s coveted endorsement. A good number of original recipes would be demonstrated over the course of 3 or 4 days. Between demonstrations local talent would provide musical entertainment.

Sponsored by newspapers, the shows were free, and they attracted women (and a few brave men) in droves. In Chicago 25,000 filled a stadium to capacity while thousands more had to be turned away. In New York, 28,000 attended sessions held at Carnegie Hall. Even in small rural areas, attendees would number in the high hundreds or more. With this kind of draw, in addition to her readers and radio listeners, it was with no exaggeration that she was later called “the woman with seven million friends.” So successful were her cooking school operations that Miss DeBoth was able to hire several representatives - although they could never quite duplicate her verve and natural showmanship.

Audience participation was a must at these events, with Miss DeBoth cracking jokes, leading sing-a-longs and encouraging volunteers to get silly with kitchen utensils. Refreshments were distributed in a novel manner – by pitching treats wrapped in wax paper from the stage into the audience. Prizes were awarded to “the first woman in the back to reach the stage” or “the one who sings the prettiest” or “the mother of quintuplets,” etc. All of the food prepared for the demonstrations would be given away, along with food baskets, appliances, and other valuable items. In the 1930s, her menus emphasized thrift and economy; in the wartime 1940s, she emphasized the war effort and food rationing.

Miss DeBoth typically wore a different ensemble and coordinating apron for every performance, to exemplify her belief that women “could look like ladies of leisure and still cook up a storm.” For her Southern California cooking school debut at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1937, for example, she wore a “dainty apron” combining magenta and violet over a “frock of the pastel shade and frivolous slippers of the deep tone.” Another time she appeared in “a light blue lace-topped frock with miniature apron of magenta and satin sandals repeating the two colors.”

She was also a firm believer in scientific cooking and modern methods. “Scientific homemaking has revolutionized woman’s traditional job,” she often remarked. “The old fashioned method of guessing amounts has now gone by the board. The up to date cook measures and weighs carefully. No more handful of this, a cupful (any cup) of that.” she said in a 1928 interview, “The kitchen today is a far cry from the old fashioned one. The modern kitchen, or kitchenette if you prefer – is really a laboratory. It’s scrupulously clean in all its appointments.” In the introduction to Modernistic Recipe-Menu Book (1929) she notes, “The business of homemaking is one which engages the attention of many million women in the United States. Yet it is only at the time of the present census-taking that the lawmakers have come to acknowledge it, and have consented to list every housewife as ‘homemaker’ instead of ‘unemployed.’ This is real progress.”

The 1930 federal census Miss deBoth refers to became public in 2002. The National Archives discusses the inclusion of the “homemaker” profession in its summer 2002 Prologue magazine, available here. The "housewife" designation was a big deal, and regarded as a huge advancement for women.

Miss DeBoth married late in life, to Carl Dreutzer of her home state of Wisconsin, in July 1954. Sadly, for a woman who worked so hard so that others might enjoy greater domestic harmony, her own wedded bliss was brief. Widowed in 1958, Jessie herself passed away on August 30, 1959. She left a legacy of thousands of recipes that we can enjoy creating in our vintage kitchens today.

Recipes from Miss DeBoth’s November 15, 1930 Cooking School session

Chicken Vegetable Loaf:
3 cups cooked chicken
1-1/2 cups small peas
1 cup diced carrots
1 small onion
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1-1/2 cups bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons chili sauce

Method: Beat eggs; add milk, chicken and other ingredients, mixing well. Turn into greased loaf pan or ring mold and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve with mushroom sauce.

Mushroom Sauce:
4 tablespoons shortening
1 teaspoon chopped onion
4 tablespoons flour
1 can mushrooms
1/2 cup liquor from mushrooms
1-1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Method: Melt shortening, add onion and let simmer gently until onion is tender. Add flour, stirring until smooth, then milk, mushrooms and seasonings. Cook for 5 minutes.

The Detroit News Press has an on-line article on Miss deBoth, along with more wonderful photos.