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PAGE 10 IDAHO SENIOR INDEPENDENT • FEBRUARY // MARCH 2019
Home&Lifestyle
GARDEN•REAL ESTATE•RECIPIES•DECOR•ANTIQUES
What, Me Cook?
called Frozen Dinners, Inc. (They sold their
BY RANDAL C. HILL product locally and under the odd brand name
of One-Eyed Eskimo.) By the early 1950s,
In the early 1950s, appliance manufac- American markets were already offering
turers began offering refrigerators with entrées of frozen steaks and pizzas, and
freezer compartments. Frozen fish, meat Swanson itself sold a popular frozen chicken
and vegetables began appearing in markets pot pie.
at about the same time. Also growing in By 1953 television sets could be found in
popularity was the unrelated phenomenon over half of the nation’s homes. Swanson —
of television. with much more marketing clout than the
Eventually all three coalesced into a con- folks behind One-Eyed Eskimo — promoted
cept that would radically alter the eating their frozen meals under the brand name TV
experience of the traditional American family. © mg7, BIGSTOCK.COM Dinners, with cartons that featured images
And it all started with lots of unsold meat. on an aluminum tray. Thomas experienced of a wood-grained television cabinet and
Accounts vary as to the actual develop- a “light bulb” idea moment and sketched a various knobs.
ment of so-called “TV dinners,” the most food-tray design on an envelope. When the heated meals proved too hot
frequently told involving an oversupply of Back in Omaha he presented his idea to to balance on one’s lap while watching tele-
260 tons of turkey meat in 1953. the Swanson honchos, glibly explaining, vision, another invention — the folding TV
Supposedly an especially warm turkey “Look, what if you put frozen turkey in tray — quickly solved the problem.
breeding season had resulted in a warehouse here and cornbread dressing in there and With more women staying in the postwar
full of surplus meat owned by C. A. Swanson sweet potatoes in there? Stick the whole workforce, frozen dinners proved to be a god-
and Sons of Omaha, Neb. To keep their prod- thing in the oven, and in less than half an send to many harried homemakers exhausted
uct from spoiling, Swanson used refrigerated, hour — no fuss, no bother — you’ve got by the day’s end. But women were often
turkey-stuffed boxcars that rumbled back and a meal!” still expected to fix dinner, and some men,
forth across the Midwest while the company The idea of cooking food and freezing it for resisting change, hated the idea of eating
frantically worked on a plan. later consumption wasn’t really new. A New once-frozen food rather than fresh.
Gerry Thomas, a Swanson sales executive, York outfit called W. L. Maxson had provided “Men said they would divorce their wives
had flown to Pittsburgh for a sales meeting meals consisting of meat, a vegetable, and a if they were served our dinners” Thomas once
earlier in 1953. On his flight Pan American potato for the navy during World War II. explained. “I got a lot of hate mail. They said
Airlines had served their passengers a hot In 1949 brothers Meyer and Albert we were ruining family life.” ISI
meal of meat, potatoes, vegetables and dessert Bernstein had started a Pittsburgh company
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