While doing the research for my last post, “Pizza Isn’t Italian”, I accumulated extra material I didn’t use. So, this seems like a good place to show you some of it.
First up, enjoy the goofy goodness of a Shakey’s advertisement, circa 1962.
The “Right Hander’s Special”, with shrimp, mushrooms and olives, is presumably aimed at pre-Vatican II Catholics, when they still observed meatless Fridays. But, I’ve never heard that particular nickname for Catholics before, and Google doesn’t bring up anything useful. So, if you’re familiar with the mild slur “Right Hander”, let me know in the comments.
I’ve seen a couple of other Shakey’s menus from the early 1960’s and that pizza is sometimes referred to as a “Mad Merriment Pizza”, without the mention of Fridays or Lent.
Also, note the closing time: 3 A.M. on the weekends, in a town that was then 30,000 residents. People had more fun back in the day.
Speaking of fun, 60 years latter, 444 E. Santa Clara in Ventura is still a pizza restaurant, although it now belongs to PizzaMan Dan, proud owner of a pepperoni ‘Vette.
PizzaMan Dan’s store in Ventura closes at midnight on the weekends.
And now…Frank Mastro, the Johnny Appleseed of Pizza, whom I mentioned in my article, deserves more credit in the story of American food. His invention of the compact pizza oven probably did more to drive the spread of pizza nationwide than anything else.
A recent article in Pizza Magazine about Mastro and his son Vinnie, “The Pizza Kings: The Strange, Sad Story of Two Great Visionaries”, does much to set the record straight, for example, it seems likely that Mastro also invented the takeout pizza box.
He continued to fine-tune his pizza ovens, but that wasn’t his only innovation. Ferrentino believes her dad invented the pizza box, too. “He sold so much white craft paper and string—that’s what they used for takeout,” she says. “So he asked his manufacturers to make these cardboard pizza boxes. He had a hard time getting someone to make them. But he was always listening to his customers—they’d ask if this or that was available, and if it wasn’t, he’d try to get it made.”
Go read that article if you’re at all interested in pizza history, or 20th century commercial history.
Last item, after I posted the link to “Pizza Isn’t Italian” on the Eccentric Culinary Facebook page (go and like!), my friend Bryan left the following comment:
I was just talking with some friends how the 70s saw a burst of 1890s nostalgia. Some other food examples: Wendy's, Baskin Robbins (remember the old typography?), Fuddrucker's, Swesen's Ice Cream, Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, TGI Friday's, the Pringles logo, the flyers for Trader Joe's... I feel like the trend culminated in the opening credits for CHEERS.
He’s right! I was so focused on pizza that I’d completely forgotten that there was a burst of Gilded Age branding in the 1960s and 70s, and a lot of it was coming out of California (Swensen’s, Trader Joe’s, Baskin Robins). I’m tempted to blame all of this on Shakey Johnson and Shakey’s Pizza taking off, but that would be too easy. More likely, this nostalgia is a by-product of the 1960’s making everyone anxious and unrooted.
Gilded Age commercial nostalgia would be a good dissertation topic for an American Studies student.
As for Bryan’s very preceptive observation that the trend culminated in the Cheers opening credit sequence, all I can do is point to this brief news article from The San Bernardino County Sun, February 8, 1987
Forget Beacon Hill, the real Cheers bar was the Gay 90’s pizza parlor in Redlands, the same place that invented the cashew pizza! Yes, for whatever reason, the favorite speciality pizza of San Bernardino County is pepperoni, red onions and cashews.
Pizza isn’t Italian, it’s as American as banjos, pepperoni Corvettes, cashews and Norm! Take that, Associazione Vera Pizza Napoletana!