Copyright by Audrey Russek 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Audrey Sophia Russek Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Culinary Citizenship in American Restaurants, 1919-1964 Committee: Jeffrey L. Meikle, Supervisor Warren J. Belasco Sally H. Clarke Janet M. Davis Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt Steven D. Hoelscher Culinary Citizenship in American Restaurants, 1919-1964 by Audrey Sophia Russek, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2010 Dedication For my parents Frank S. Russek, Jr. and Marianne M. Emerson who feed my mind and my stomach Acknowledgements A dissertation is much like a recipe. While there is one person who conceives of the dish, it takes a lot of seasoning, trial and error, and other cooks in the kitchen to help develop it into a pièce de résistance. I have many fellow cooks to thank. First, I would like to acknowledge my advisor, Jeffrey M. Meikle. His advice, accessibility, and consummate professionalism helped to make the process of writing a dissertation not only bearable but enjoyable. Without the extraordinary generosity of his time and energy during the summer of 2010, I could not have completed this dissertation. It was also a pleasure and honor to work with the other members of my dissertation committee: Janet Davis, Elizabeth Engelhardt, Steve Hoelscher, Sally Clarke, and Warren Belasco. I am grateful for their commitment to and encouragement of this project, as well their feedback and numerous letters of recommendation. I also sincerely appreciate their recognition of the importance of teaching and mentoring and their support of my interest in balancing the writing of this dissertation with my commitment to the classroom. The American Studies Department at the University of Texas at Austin has been a safe haven in the trenches of graduate school. Early on, Mark Smith and Julia Mickenberg offered useful feedback on my teaching and writing that I have carried with me. I would also particularly like to thank Cynthia Frese, Ella Schwartz, and Valeri Nichols-Keller. They not only helped me navigate the bureaucracy of a large state v institution, but they offered perspective, humor, and a reason to stop by the office. As mentors in other departments, Ann Daly and D‟Arcy Randall always treated me like a professional, a colleague, and a friend, and I am grateful for their wisdom and steady support. In one form or another, I have been in school for the last thirty-two years. Barbara Taylor, Ellis Turner, Bryan Garman, Ellen Piersen, and Bernie Noe have taught me what education, service, and lifelong learning looks like. Opportunities for research around the country would not have been possible without generous financial support. The American Studies Department and the University of Texas at Austin encouraged my original research with the Robert Crunden Memorial Award, the Louann Atkins Temple Endowed Presidential Fellowship, Professional Development Awards, and the Graduate Continuing Fellowship. The John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History at Duke University provided me with a Hartman Center Travel Grant, and the New York Historical Society awarded me the Klingenstein Research Fellowship, both of which allowed me to conduct three weeks of research at each institution. This project would not be nearly as complete without the sources uncovered in an array of libraries and archives, and I am tremendously appreciative of the staff at the following institutions for helping me to navigate the vast resources in their collections and letting me make countless photocopies: the Alice Statler Library at the City College of San Francisco; the Nestlé Hotel Library and Kroch Library at Cornell University; the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History at Duke University; the Baker Library and Schlesinger Library at Harvard University; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.; the Houston Public Library; the Library of Congress; the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle, Washington; the New York Historical Society; the Schomburg vi Center at the New York Public Library; the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library; the Shoreline Historical Museum in Shoreline, Washington; Texas Woman‟s University in Denton, Texas; the University of Alaska, Anchorage; and the Harry Ransom Center and Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, the Inter-Library Loan staff at the University of Texas at Austin tracked down a vast number of hard-to-find guidebooks, cookbooks, and pamphlets, for which I am eternally grateful. While research and writing are satisfying endeavors, at the end of the day it‟s time to leave the papers behind and enjoy the company of others. I am incredibly appreciative of family, friends, and acquaintances who offered their homes, meals, and even their cars to me during my out-of-town archival research trips. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the generosity and hospitality of Stephanie Acker, Denise Dunning, Chuck and Karen Lockyer, and Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Dyckman. Jerry Logan gave me the gift of staying home while he conducted remote research at the College of William and Mary and then painstakingly copied all of the digital photographs onto CD-ROMs. I am also lucky to have had such an incredible group of friends and fellow graduate students in Austin who have offered support, encouragement, and much-needed distraction. Paul Rubinson, Jeff Hales, Missy Olive, Vanessa Green, Jeff Sigafoos, Alissa Sherry, and Tasha Beretvas all modeled for me that there is life after graduate school. Anna Thompson-Hajdk and Allison Wright were my salt and pepper—they have read more versions of this dissertation than anyone else, and our weekly meetings not only motivated me to keep writing, but they led me on a treasure hunt of coffee shops and cafés around Austin. I am indebted to Amy Ware for letting me ride her wake. I cannot imagine a more generous, selfless, and committed friend. vii Finally, I would like to thank my family. My grandmother, Bettina Emerson, has been a lifelong model, showing me the potential for women with higher education, and she selflessly helped to support me and my cousins‟ education. My sister, Stephanie Magnell, peppered my inbox with interesting articles and job notices to keep me motivated and set up Skype calls so my nieces could feed me Cheerios through the computer screen when I needed a break. There are also those for whom “thank you” seems inadequate. My husband, Juan Arriaga, has been with me along every step of this crazy process. Every morning, when I was just too tired to get out of bed, Juan made me coffee and encouraged me to start the day. He has fixed my computer on countless occasions, worked alongside me late at night, and reminded me when we need to take a hike, climb a rock, or enjoy a delicious meal. I have never met someone who has worked as hard as he has to triumph over setbacks and achieve his goals, and his dedication and work ethic inspired me to complete this dissertation. My love for education is a gift from my parents. They have always believed in me and my potential, and they never once asked, “When are you going to be finished?” This dissertation is dedicated to them. viii Culinary Citizenship in American Restaurants, 1919-1964 Publication No._____________ Audrey Sophia Russek, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 Supervisor: Jeffrey L. Meikle This dissertation examines how the growth of the “dining-out habit” captured the American popular imagination in the twentieth century and suggests a rethinking of the social significance of restaurants in American culture by placing public dining spaces at the intersection of sensory experience, technology, and contests of power. In an urban industrial world where Americans found themselves saturated with sensory stimuli and innumerable choices, restaurants tried to create calm out of the chaos and uncertainty—including the social “disruptions” of changing gender roles, immigration patterns, and race relations— through manipulation of the built environment. Each chapter addresses struggles over power and authority and the material objects that represented this tension, from the technological regulation of air and sound or the monitoring of waitresses‟ physical appearance to representations of national and foreign heritage in themed restaurants and the role of guidebooks as instruction manuals for public dining throughout the United States. Central to this project is the complexity of racial, ethnic, and national identity as represented and performed in restaurants. Restaurants used thematic symbols of heritage, foreignness, domesticity, womanhood, and racial identity to generate idealized narratives of nationhood ix and performances of citizenship for American-born patrons, immigrant employees, and visitors from around the world as part of a national discourse of culinary consumerism. American restaurants contributed to the fabric of the nation‟s social character, and in turn, culinary citizens claimed restaurant dining as a badge of prosperity, privilege, and social authority. x Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1