pizza pie, 1950s style

 

Parade, December 31, 1950.

It's always interesting to revisit points in history when food we consider a common, everyday dish was considered new and exotic. Such was the case with pizza during the 1950s, when articles like this one from the American Sunday newspaper magazine insert Parade were not uncommon.

Here's a closeup of their recipe for a simple sausage and tomato pizza, which relies on prepackaged hot roll mix, which I imagine would have been like this present-day Pillsbury version. As far as these vintage recipes go, this one sounds edible but will not satisfy cheese lovers.

Demonstrating how to make a pizza on CBC television, 1957.

 

Mad #40, July 1958.

One of my favourite early looks at pizza as it became a North American sensation appeared in Mad magazine in 1958. Note that the least Italian-sounding name is the one diners are crowding into, though I'm surprised this pizzeria isn't called "Melvin's," given how frequently that name was used during Mad's first decade. 

This piece was written and drawn by Dave Berg (1920-2002), a comic book veteran who began contributing to Mad in 1957. He was best known for the long-running "Lighter Side Of..." column, which launched in 1961 and, by the time I began reading Mad in the late 1980s, was a throwback to a gentler time. 

I first read this piece in paperback form as a kid, and the repeating punchline about "getting icky sticky gook all over your new $49.50 charcoal-gray suit" was one my sister and I quoted for years. Method #1 is the closest to how I eat a slice, when I'm not being dainty and using a knife and fork. 

Unlike many 1950s fads, pizza's popularity continued to grow, so there was never a need for edible fire trampolines. 

One feature of late 1950s Mad you may have noticed in this piece is random sentences in the margins, which were soon replaced by cartoons drawn by Sergio Aragones. They often had a theme, which in this issue was matching classic literary titles with modern personalities. On this page, Jane Austen is paired up with segregationist Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, whose name lingers on in a classic Charles Mingus composition...

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Welcome back to the latest reincarnation of this 23-year-old blog. Last time, you may remember that I tried writing an entry a day, then switched over to Substack figuring it might be easier to build a subscriber base. I soon discovered that it wasn't the right platform for what I wanted to do with this blog, mainly due to the inability to go back and easily update a piece without sending it out again.

So I'm giving venerable old Blogger another chance. The weird part is that for some reason Chrome won't let me upload images, so I'm testing different browsers to see which one works best for this site - so far, Microsoft Edge is winning. Forcing myself to post daily didn't work, so entries will appear whenever. Don't expect perfect polished pieces of writing, more images and stories I've stumbled upon over the years that I feel like sharing on any given day.