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For the serious collector of 1930s newspaper history, Depression-era cooking ephemera, or the golden age of American food journalism, here is a genuine recipe card page from the Los Angeles Times Home Service Bureau, dated February 8, 1933.
This charming perforated folded insert (printed on distinctive red stock) features Valentine’s Day-themed recipes created under the byline of the legendary Marian Manners, Director of the Times’ newly established Home Service Bureau. Titled “Sweetmeats for Sweethearts,” the page includes delightfully playful, heart-shaped dishes such as:
• Emerald Ring with Brilliant Settings (avocado ring with fruit)
• The Ruby & The Diamond (bread cutouts with ham, cream cheese & pimientos)
• A Hearty Plate (heart beets, filled veal hearts, “Heart Strings” shoestring potatoes, and “Warm Hearts” baking powder biscuits)
• Sweethearts of Mine (elaborate layered Jell-Well gelatin mold with cottage cheese, pineapple, ginger ale & mayonnaise)
• My Valentine (cupcakes dressed as doll-skirted valentines)
Each recipe is complete with brand-name product placements (Calavo avocados, Durkee’s Mayonnaise, Borden’s, Jell-Well, Swansdown Flour, etc.) and ends with Marian Manners’ signature preparation credit.
The History of Marian Manners – America’s First “Celebrity Cook”
Marian Manners was not a real person but one of the most beloved pseudonyms in newspaper history. Launched by the Los Angeles Times in 1931, the name was chosen by publisher Harry Chandler in honor of his wife, Marian. The first woman to embody the persona was local cooking instructor Ethel Vance Morse, who served as Director of the brand-new Home Service Bureau — the direct precursor to the modern LA Times Food section.
Marian Manners quickly became a household name, offering practical recipes, household tips, and solutions to the “thousand and one intermediary problems” facing housewives during the Great Depression. She taught massive live cooking demonstrations (one 1939 seminar drew over 7,000 attendees to the Shrine Auditorium!), ran recipe contests, and helped readers navigate everything from economical meals to elegant entertaining. In 1939, Fleeta Louise Hoke succeeded Morse in the role and later became the paper’s first official Food Editor, carrying the Marian Manners legacy into the 1960s.
This 1933 clipping captures Marian Manners at the very beginning of her 30+ year reign — a perfect snapshot of early 1930s domestic science, clever food styling, and the rise of the newspaper “celebrity cook”
In good condition for age, has some minor damage to top left and right corner.
Please see photos for details and feel free to make an offer.
