"1970s" news and stories

A while ago I bought a few cookbooks by Graham Kerr at a junk shop. Those of you out there of a certain age will remember him as TV's Galloping Gourmet. I have yet to cook any of the recipes in any of them. I'd had all but forgotten about them until the other day when I picked up the Volume 5 Television Cookbook and a decades-old page from a women's magazine containing the ad seen here fell out.

It's got a Peter Max-inspired graphic and copy that extols the nutritional benefits of "Delicious Wonder Bread!" I was pretty certain that this ad was circa 1970. Thanks to the, er, wonders of eBay and other auction sites I was able to confirm this. Seems that around that time Continental Baking had a print campaign involving pictures of boys and girls saying how big they wanted to be. My favorite ad has a picture of a kid with a black eye and bears the headline, "Bigger than Kevin."

Perhaps when I great around to cooking some of Kerr's recipes I'll try the recipe for John Wayne's Cheese Casserole that appeared on the same page. With all its green chiles, eggs, cheese and tomatoes its sounds like some sort of manly 1970s quiche.

Diets are always all-the-rage. Today and yesterday and likely into the future, fad diets seem to generate the most hype. Grapefruit-only yesterday, low-carb today, and who-knows-what for tomorrow.

Weight Watchers, however, has stood the test of time and, in my opinion, is one of the more reputable diet "systems," but back in the 1970s, they were serving up some very odd suggestions for "diet foods." Take a stroll through the 1970s Weight Watchers card gallery over at Candyboots. While I'm sure many of these things were created based on the thought that celery and fruits like melon were healthy, I just can't get over how they were prepared. Chilled Celery Log? Melon Mousse? And my personal favorite - the Frankfurter Spectacular. Though I still do have to wonder how a giant molded ring of liver pate is "diet food."

Thanks, we think, for the tip, Rachel B.!

[photo: Candyboots]