Microwave ovens (aka radar cooking)
Like fire, the microwave oven cookery was discovered by accident. Follow the fascinating journey from science lab to American
home kitchens:
[1942]
[1947]
"A group of gourmets sampled the first radar-cooked dinner in American history here yesterday after watching a manufactureing company's
food consultant whip up a banquet on a radar range in what must be record time. Eat and run advocates among the diners were well
pleased not only with the food but by the fact cooking required only 3 minutes 45 seconds. Baked lobster needed 2 minutes 15
seconds. Broiled sirloin steak with bernaise sauce was prepared in 50 seconds. Grilled ham steaks were given 1 minute in the
oven. Hot fresh apple pie with melted cheese came out of the oven in 10 seconds."
"The housewife of 1952 will be able to stick a raw steak on a dinner plate, slide it in an oven that isn't hot and serve it, cooked
and simmering, 30 seconds later. And, in that not too distant golden age, there will be no need for potholders, tin pans and
aprons. The food gets very hot but the plates stay cool. There is no grease splattering and tin pans just won't work in the
new 'Radarrange'--a radar cooker. Its manufacturers say the device is the 'only new heat application to cooking since the
discovery of fire over 2,000 years ago.'...There are only a few in existence...because improvements are being made so fast that
a model can be obsolete in a couple of months. These few are on lease to hotels in Boston, Washington, Cleveland and
Buffalo. The company is working on models for Navy ships and Army airplanes and expects to have one ready for homes in three to
five years. Newsmen here saw--and enjoyed the results--of a radar range that turns out baked stuffed lobster and broiled chicken
in 2 1/2 minutes instead of 30. Diced potatoes take 25 seconds. Vegetables need no water and corn-on-the-cob needs only 40 seconds.
The not-quite obsolete model now is aobut the size of a domestic refrigerator and lined with aluminum. There's room for
eight chickens inside and a clockwatch button that automatically turns off when the cooking time is up."
[1949]
[1952]
[1953]
[1956]
[1959]
[1963]
[1965]
[2011]
Then I begin reading the instruction manual. It is surprisingly thin and full of pictograms. Direction number one is for something
called TrueCookPlus. This feature boldly claims to be the "first ever
way to microwave cook your food to perfection. Every time, in any size or power microwave oven anywhere in the world."
Really?
Instructions state the special TrueCookPlus code I need is printed on the package of my frozen foods. I examine my packages and find
no reference to this code. Either my food is old or this new microwave oven is just a tad in the future. I am offered the
option to download a "complete" list of all foods with their codes. Maybe later. I turn to the next instruction.
Quick settings for specific foods (popcorn, potato, frozen entree,
rice) are meant to make cooking easier. I wonder how it knows what kind of rice I am making but marvel at the fact it
will try.
Defrost comes in "quick" and "auto." I also have separate buttons marked "soften" and "melt." This setting has real potential
for anyone who's experienced the thick, nasty mucus coating of exploded butter. day.
Like the other microwave ovens before it, I approach my new machine with some awe and trepdiation. I muse upon the
thoughts of women 50 years ago welcoming their first RadarRanges. Corporate promises and personal
expectations were different in those days. Or were they? Change can be good.
[1966]
RADAR BURGERS?
[1968]
Who was Percy Spencer?
Paper cups
True or false: paper cups were initially promoted for convenience by large paper manufacturers in order to boost sales.
[1880]
[1891]
[1894]
[1907]
[1909]
"To the Editor of The New York Times: At soda fountains little children drink from poorly rinsed glasses which a moment before--owing to the haste with which drinks are served at large soda fountains--may have been in the mouth of an infected man or woman. I would suggest the use of some sort of paper cup, such as are used on one or two railroads. These cups are quite inexpensive and can be thrown away once they are used. On open paraffine peper cup could be placed in the soda fountain holders quite easily as a glass. "Sanitas." New York, July 3, 1909."
[1911]
"Children in a dozen schools have been taught during the week how to construct a paper drinking cup of which is in every way serviceable and which does away with danger of contagion through use of a common cup...The cup is constructed from a sheet of paper about eight inches square. A unique method of folding provide a cup that may be collapsed or extended at will. It can be used six or seven times at least, and some pupils have employed the same cup for a week. Any sort of tablet paper may be used, but it has been found that an oiled paper or a foolsoap with glass lasts longest."
[1929]
"Vortex Mfg. Co. is the largest manufacturer in the world of paper drinking cups, soda cups and sundae dishes, with output in 1928 exceeding one billion cups. Vortex products are cone-shaped...The business started in 1911 with $25,000 capital...Its success has been due to able management; the invention of automatic machinery by Mr. Cesare Barbieri, the Company's consulting engineer; patent protection on machinery, processes and products, and the increasing public use of paper cups because they are sanitary and cheap. Health officials in many states are becoming increasingly active in enforcing laws and sanitary regulations pertaining to public drinking places and soda fountains. Vortex products...are in widespread use in factories, offices, stores, soda fountains, hotels, restaurants, oil filling stations, railroads, steamships, etc."
[1934]
[1963]
Hot cold cups
[1951]
Styrofoam cups
"Pack of 50 styrofoam cups, 7 oz for hot or cold drinks, 49 cents."
"Cups and glasses: the insulated cups cost the same as paper cups, but because they are Dylite foam plastic, they hold heat far better; won't burn fingers or mark
desk tops."
"In 1942, a Raytheon inventor, Percy L. Spencer,
noted that a chocolate bar melted in his pocket while he was testing a radar tube. The then cut a hole in a kettle,
inserted an electron tube and by 1949 Raytheon patented its 'Radarrange." Designed for restaurants, the early 1953 models
were oversized, cost about $3,000 and turned out bilious grey meat and limp french fries. They were duds for about a
decade, remaining alien to many consumers. The Irish cook of Charles Adams, Raytheon's chairman who turned his kitchen
into a proving ground, called the ovens 'black magic' and quit."
---"A Micro Wave of the Future, 1964," Wall Street Journal, September 14, 1989 (p. B1)
"Radar, the war-time magic ear, now is ready to move into the kitchens of America in the form of electronics cooking. Cleveland
newsmen were given a preview of the raytheon radarange by the Brandt Company, the first distributor of the
revolutionary oven which prepares food in a fraction of a jiffy...a raytheon magnetron tube is the heart of the
radarange. It is the same tube found in all radar sets. Since the cooking is done by radio frequency energy, the
radarange has a band of frequencies between 2,400 and 2,500 megacycles, authorized by the federal communcations
commission. Whereas radiant heating cooks from the surface inward, the radarange cooks all parts of the food
simultaneously. The rapid cooking does not permit natural oils and flavoring to esacape. There is no grease, smoke or
odors. The Brandt Company plans to lease the radarange to restaurants and hotel at first. But it probably won't be long before
mother can wait until she hears father come in the door evenings, then she pops the food in the radarange and has it on the
table ready to eat by the time her husband has his coat off."
---"Radar Range Time Saver," Marysville Tribune [OH], May 12, 1947 (p. 1)
---"Radar-cooked Dinner Pleases Gourmets," Times-Record [New York], May 21, 1947 (p. 1)
---"Radar Cooker Prepares Meal Without Heat," Anniston Star [Alabama], September 5, 1947 (p. 2)
"Radar cooking is being tested in Cornell's home economics college in a research project sponsored by the navy. The process
actually is dielectric or high frequency cooking but is popularly called 'radar' cooking because it operates on the same
principle. Results have been highly successful so far...The oven, all metal, has a glass window at the rear which admits high
frequency waves which are circulated by revolving antennae at the top of the oven. The product cooks all at once as the high
frequency waves set up friction within the molecules of the food. Oven glass or pottery containers must be used in radar cooking
because metal reflects the waves, sending them away from the food. With this unusual cooking method, the oven always is cool and
pot holders are not used. Pencil size holes in the oven door afford the cook an opportunity to watch progress of the food, but are
so sized and spaced that the high frequency waves cannot escape. The navy has contracted with Miss Kathryn Causey, research
associated of the school of nutrition, to test palatability, nutritive value, weight losses and bacterial count of ground
beef, lamb and pork cooked in the radar oven, as compared with those meats cooked by usual methods. So far, she reports, there is
little difference, except the radar oven doesn't brown meat...Baked goods such as bread and cake are a failure in the radar
oven. They rise so quickly the baking powder doesn't have time to act. Several flour mills are working on recipes adapted to high
frequency baking. Boiling eggs in a radar oven is disastrous. The eggs explode in three seconds. Miss Causey believes radar cooking
must undergo many revisions before the homemaker can use it. So far the equipment is too costly. An oven rents for $5 a day and will
retail at about $2,600. On to of that, timing is very important. Ten seconds over or under cooking may ruin the food."
---"Cornell Experimenting With Radar Wave Oven," Post-Standard [Syracuse NY], May 8, 1949 b(p. 2)
"Cook a Steak in 30 Seconds--The Raytheon Radarange uses radar magnetron tube to cook food in seconds instead of minutes,
minutes instead of hours. Food retain all their flavor, taste, natural juiciness and nutrietents. Radaranges are used by
the Pennsylvania Railroad and United States Lines--will be available for hotels, restaurants, lunch counters."
---Display ad, New York Times, October 29, 1952 (p. 17)
"Mansfielders enjoyed the treat of a lifetime last week at the opening of Tom McNew's restaurant at Fourth and Walnut. The
finest dinners and sandwiches were served lightning fast. McNew's has the distinction of being the first restaurant in
Mansfield with radar cooking...The new restaurant is open 24 hours a day every day except Tuesday...Kosher corned beef,
Virginia ham and prime ribs of beef are delicacies it is sometimes hard to find but not at Tom McNew's...McNew's restaurant is
completely different for it cobines the features of a cafeteria, sandwich shop and restaurant into one big establishment...The
McNew slogan 'A Meal a Minute' is a fact as you will discover..."
---"McNew's First With Radar Cooking," Mansfield News Journal [OH], May 4, 1953 (p. 13)
"Electronic heating, or microwave cooking, is only two years old, commercially speaking...It was long known by little used
induction heating....In 1953 Raytheon's engineers had adapted the electronic force that made radar to a range that will
cut hours from the housewife's cooking day. The company put out a 'radarrange' for restaurants, hotels and other
commercial establishments. It sold for $2,975--a tidy sum for a stove. Last year Raytheon licensed the Tappan Stove
Company to make the first domestic model. This year a license agreement was signed with the General Electric Company's
Hotpoint affiliate. Prices will run from $1,000 to $1,200. This is still high, but prices should drop as mass production
gets going."
---"What's Cooking? Electronics, Now," Alfred R. Ripser, New York Times, March 4, 1956 (p. F1)
"Just completed at the Robson's restaurant, 440-442 Main St. is the installation of the latest method of cooking equipment under the
direction of H.E. 'T' Robson, owner and operator of the popular eating establishment. Much of the cooking now at the local
restaurant is being done in a radar range...Every safety precaution has been taken by the manufactuer [Raytheon] so that
users of the equipment are in no danger from contact with the potent waves. When the door of the radar stove is opened the
equipment turns itself off automatically. It is the first such installation in this area of the state...Because of the newness
of the readar cooking method and its radical difference in applicaton, cooks at the local restaurant have gone through a
training program to acquaint them with the stove...Another innovation at the eating place was the installation of a new open
hearth broiler, which will serve as a companion for the new radar range."
---"Robson Restaurants Using New Radar Cooking Units," Conshocton Tribune [OH]. Jne 21, 1959 (p. 8)
"Talk story about the first self-service, microwave restaurant in the world- Tad's, at 18 East 42nd St. The patrons put
frozen food into a tableside microwave oven. The average length of time a customer will have to wait for the food to be
reconstituted is two minutes. Mr. Neal Townsend, one of the owners of the restaurant, predicted that a few years from now
there'll only be two kinds of restaurants left -very expensive ones, like the Four Seasons, and microwave reastaurants,
like this one, whose prices compare favorably with ordinary cafeteria prices."
---Brendan Gill, The Talk of the Town, “Self-Help,” The New Yorker, March 9, 1963 (p. 34)
"A single slice of piping hot apple pie topped with a wedge of melting cheese served 15 seconds after being ordered or a
complete turkey platter ready to eat less than to minutes after removal from refrigerated storage are not fantasies of the
future. These are but two of many fully or partly prepared dishes that can be ready for service in less than two minutes
with the aid of a microwave oven. Although microwave ovens have been manufactured for abut 15 years, their acceptance and
use in homes and restaurants has been limited. This is due partly to high costs and slow realization that they are
adjuncts to conventional cooking methods rather than replacements for regular ovens...Airlines have probably been the
biggest users of microwave ovens, thought experiments in other food service operations have been tried. Two years ago,
the Frank G. Shattuck Company, which operated Schrafft's restuarants, installed a Thermowave oven in one of its
restaurants. Favorable response by employees and customers led to installation of similar ovens in five other Schrafft's
restaurants. Because of its compact size (18 1/2 wide by 24 inches deep), simple plug-in electrical needs and presetting
features, the Thermowave oven lends itself well to ounter operations, particularly where the kitchen is removed from the
service area. The food on a service plate is placed on a turntable inside the oven, and a temperature sensing device
determines when the food is fully heated. The dish can be removed with the bare hand because microwave energy passes
through any insulator such as glass, paper, china and some plastics without heating them. When the oven is operating, the
turntable revolves slowly to ensure even heating throughout the food. A wide selection of foods can be prepared in a
central commissary for shipment, frozen or refrigerated, to an outlet with a microwave oven for "reconstitution."
Schrafft's commissary supplies hamburgers, French-toasted sandwiches, beef pie and apple pie with cheese for microwave
menu listings. ..Thermowave ovesn are also part of many of Schrafft's commercial fod operations both in waitress-service
situations and customer-operated vending machine operations. The feeding of employes through vending machines is an
increasingly popular method in small companies and especially for those companies on a 24-hour schedule. Complete dishes
on dispoable paper or plastic dishes are stored in a refrigerated vending machine to be released when coins are inserted
and then heated in an adjacent microwave oven. The New York State Pavilion at the World's Fair includes customer-operated
Thermowave ovens near the snack counter. Manufacturers of the unit forsee the day when hospitals and other institutions
will use microwave ovens to provide a greater variety of hot meals."
---"Microwave Ovens Win Acceptance in Restaurants," Jean Hewitt, New York Times, April 13, 1965 (p. 40)
I just purchased a brand new microwave oven. This is my fourth one since 1981. The last one lasted about a decade. Like most folks,
I don't replace appliances on a whim. I do it because the old one is broken. Like most folks, I am bewildered by the
vast array of
selections in the small appliance aisle of my super-sized discount store. Consumer
Reports would have been a good idea, but I was already at the store. I make my choice based on price, size, and color and hope
for the best.
My new oven is 1200 watt ("standards" are generally 1100 and 700 watts) and 1.2 cu ft
capacity. It is sleek, silver and futuristic. It has a child-proof lock like the car. Set up requests zip
code to adjust for altitude. I think: wow these things have come a long way. I am liking this new machine.
We find one print reference to a commercial product trademarked "Radar Burgers." They sold for 25 cents (no package
size/weight indicated) as advertised in the Billings [Montana] Gazetter, January 13, 1966 (p. 22)
"The convenience of the Radarange Microwave oven in your home. A new, better and quicker way to prepare food. The Radaragne is
completely new. It has never been available for use in the home. You cook with microwaves, not conventinal dry heat. The
second you open the door of the Radarange you are opening up a new, more convenient way to food preparation. It is exciting,
dramatic and allows many short cuts and time savings that you never dreamed possible. Say good-bye to the old-fashioned
metal pots and pans. You do not use them when cooking in the Radarange! You can cook food, in family portions if you want,
on dishes made from glass, palstic, yes, even paper. Imagine, now after-meal clean up of pots and pans!...In just a short time
you will be using the Radarange for most of your food preparation. It will become the center of most of your food preparation.
In fact, it will help you prepare 75-80% of the foods that you serve your family."
---Amana Radarange Microwave Cooking Guide [Amana Refrigeration:Amana IA] 1968 (p. 2)
[NOTE: This is the original cookbook accompanying the radarange. It offers dozens of pages of cooking tips along with
recipes. If are interested in additional information please let us know. Happy to scan, mail or fax.]
"Dr. Percy L. Spencer, retired senior vice president of the Raytheon Company...and a well-known inventor...held more than 130 patents,
among them the application of microwave energy to medical diathermy, high-frequency devices and electronic tubes. He developed the special tubes that made possible
the proximity fuses introduced in World War II. For this work he received the Naval Ordnance Award. Dr. Spencer was the fifth employe to joing the then infant
Raytheon Company in 1925. Perhaps his first accomplishment was to help in developing the first gaseous rectifier tube that made the radio a common household
plug-in applicance. An article in the 'most unforgettable character' series in the Reader's Digest in August, 1958, described Dr. Spencer as 'an orphan who never
graduated from grammar school, he has demonstrated that nothing is beyond the grasp of a man who wants to know what is going on, and who feels a sense of
responsibility for doing something about it.' Dr. Spencer was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Massachusetts and by Nasson College
in Maine. He also held an honorary degree from the University of Maine. He was a fellow of the American Academy of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers."
---"Percy Spencer, Inventor, Dead...," New York Times, September 8, 1970 (p. 35)
False. Paper drinking cups were promoted by 19th century public health officials to stave off diseases festering in public drinking venues. The water was
generally fresh. The fountains were sometimes questionable. The public drinking cups were swarming hotbeds of communicable disesase.
School children regularly shared cups that were not properly sanitized between drinks. Hospitals, military messes, railroads,
hotels, soda fountains, factory cafeterias, vending machines, and picnickers quickly embraced the inexpensive sanitary disposable paper cup. In the 1920s,
Congress announced they were using paper cups in their cafeterias; confirming government committiment to resolving serious sanitation issues.
Hot-cold cups were introduced in the 1930s;
styrofoam was available to the general public after WWII. New York City's ubiquitous blue
Greek design paper coffee cups first surface in the early 1960s.
"Patent folding drinking cups, 14 cents"
---Advertisement for E.J. Lehmann's, Chicago Daily Tribune, July 11, 1880 (p. 12)
"The now popular on omnipresent "nickel-in-the-slot machine" has only come into practical use within the past four years...Since 1888 there have been about 4000 patents issued for these machines, which
have been classed under the head of "coin-controlled apparatus," and this class has been divided into twenty-four sub-classes. About the same number of patents have
been issued in England and a large number in Germany. Almost everything can now be obtained from these automatic clerks or, waiters. A person can drop a coin, either
a penny or a nickel, in a slot and procure a cigar, cigarette, or piece of candy, or have his boots blacked, see a horse race, game of baseball, or get a glass of soda,
lemonade, mineral water, a cup of tea, a cup of coffee..."
---"A nickel in the slot: Ancient idea modernized for practical commercial purposes," Washington Post, April 19, 1891 (p. 15)
[Vending machine history notes here.]
"It is a very dull week in the reform business that does not witness the advent of one or more new projects...One of the latest reform movements originating with the medical profession is the individual drinking cup. The agitation began in the churches, with a discussion of the dangers incident to the using of a common chalice at communion services. Already a number of churches have adopted the plan of individual chalices, and the reform is spreading. It is taking a wider range than that of religious bodies, for doctors and many others are now opposing all promiscuously used drinking cups. Numerous medical societies are discussing the subject, and in so doing are successfully exploiting the germ theory. The Homeopathic Society of Philadelphia is especially conspicuous in this movement. At a recent meeting it adopted resolutions in the Quaker City to discontinue the use of common cups in the public schools. It has also asked the railway companies to take the public drinking cups out of their cars and out of the railway stations. The Philadelphia homeopaths have in view a sweeping change--the entire abolition of the common drinking vessel and the inauguration of individual vessels. They would have the ladles removed from public pumps and hydrants in streets, hotels, steamboats, theaters, and all other places of public resort. A necessary condition of life, or, at any rate, of comfort, under this plan would be the carrying about of a drinking vessel by every person. The drinking cup would be individualized as much as the toothbrush or packet handkerchief. One of the doctors has already suggested water-proof paper cups to be kept at schools. He says they would be so cheap that they could be destroyed as soon as used. No movement of this kind can be carried into effect at once, but if, on thorough investigation, this is deemed wise and expedient, it will be generally adopted. There will be no difficulty in providing cups at insignificant cost that can be slipped into a vest pocket. There is little room for doubt that diseases are spread by the common use of drinking vessels."
---"Individual Drinking Cups," Washington Post, November 18, 1894 (p. 4)
"A handy folding drinking cup of waterproof paper comes in a flat, folded package that fits in a vest pocket. When opened it forms a cylindrical vessel bound with wire and having a wire handle. It holds about a cupful of cold water, milk, tea or medicines. It can be used to hold hot liquids, but can only be used once, or at most twice. A cup filled with cold water stood for eight hours without injury and was then dried, refolded, and used again several times. It is useful in traveling, in camp and in the sickroom--Women's Home Companion."
---"Paper cups," Boston Daily Globe, March 31, 1907 (p. SM1)
"Another new step in the universal fight against disease has been made in the adoption by the bureau of charities of the individual drinking cup machine, a device which does away with the old time common drinking cup, so often a means of disease communication. The bureau purposes to install the machines in the poorer quarters of the city, where cleanliness and sanitary conditions about drinking facilities are unobtainable. The danger from the drinking cup handed from hand to hand and used by scores of persons in a single day has long been recognized by physicians and health authorities throughout the country...The individual drinking cup machine guards against these evils by presenting each drinker with a brand new white paraffin paper cup. The device is automatic and may be equipped with a coin operating adjunct if desired. In some places fountains have been established where for a cent dropped in the slot one may obtain a clean cup filled to the brim with ice cold water. The machine is made of white enamel with a bottle of water inverted in the top like an ordinary cooler. The cups are manufactured by an automatic process and are not touched by the hand until they are filled, ready for use...School-children, particularly in the poor districts of large cities, have been the chief victims of disease spread by old fashioned cups, and this has resulted in the establishment of the "bubble fountain," similar to those The Tribune recently placed on the streets of Chicago, and the introduction of individual cups. In many schools each child is supplied with a paraffin cup, and this is replaced as soon as it becomes soiled."
---"Busy Inventors Who Seek to Prolong the Lives of Careless Human Beings," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 23, 1909 (p. H6)
?
---"Paper Soda Water Cups," New York Times, July 5, 1909 (p. 6)
"The public drinking cup to-day goes out of existence all over this [New York City] city. To drink out of one which may not have been removed is a misdemeanor, an act for which an arrest can be made without a moment's notice. The new provision of the Board of health's Sanitary Code, which upsets custom, reads: 'The use of a common drinking cup or receptacle for the drinking of water in any public place or in any public institution, hotel, theatre, factory, public hall, or public school, or in any railroad station or ferry house in the City of New York or the furnishing of such common drinking cup or receptacle for use in such place is hereby prohibited...The same to take effect on and after the first day of October, 1911.'"
---"Unlawful to Drink from a Public Cup, New York Times, October 1, 1911 (p. 16)
---"Taking a Sanitary Sip from a Homemade Paper Cup," Chicago Daily Tribune, April 29, 1911 (p. 3) [Includes folding diagram & instructions.]
"The order late last month by Speaker Longworth closing the lunch counter at the House cloakroom on the warning of a naval surgeon that it was unsanitary has been rescinded in compliance with the demands of members. The Speaker conferred with his advisers, medical and otherwise, and it was decided that the lunch counter might be recommissioned on condition that it comply with modern rules of sanitation. Under the old order, the cloakroom dispensary used common drinking cups in supplying coffee and sandwiches were sold unwrapped. Now coffee is served in individual paper-mache cups and all sandwiches are carefuly encased in paper wrappers."
---"House Regains Lunch Counter Under Sanitary Reform Rules," New York Times, February 6, 1929 (p. 1)
---Display ad, New York Times, August 16, 1929 (p. 32)
"A guest list more distinguished than usually graces a formal White House dinner was represented today at a 'hot dog" luncheon given by President Roosevelt at his
cottage, located two miles from the Summer White House...The guests, ranging from prominent ones to chauffeurs, found paper plates, paper cups and knives and
forks and filed past the tables in line."
---"President is Host at 'Hot-Dog' Feast," New York Times, September 23, 1934 (p. N1)
The classic New York City coffee cup (blue & white Greek design) dates to the 1960s:
"They're everywhere, stacked high behind counters in diners, on the cover of the Manhattan phone book and in the hands of the homeless. Like yellow taxicabs,
they represent New York City. And unlike so many cab drivers, these omnipresent city icons project an unfailingly polite image. "We are happy to serve you" is the
phrase printed on the side of the blue paper cups. Frank Padia, a 43-year-old business owner, has never stopped to acknowledge the cups' message, their origin or
even why he drinks coffee. As he stepped out of Tom's Restaurant -- the Upper West Side diner made famous on "Seinfeld" -- he held a cup of extra-strong Greek
coffee capped with a lid. "No, no, never thought about them," he said. "I guess because they've been around so long and because you see them all over the place."
"We are happy to serve you" is in Greek letters above three steaming cups of coffee and between two pillars. There's also a Greek vase, and the blue and white colors that have made the cups instantly recognizable to New Yorkers since the Sherri Cup Company introduced the "Anthora" design more than three decades ago.
"The design has been around since 1963," said Wayne Meadowcroft, Sherri's vice president of sales and marketing. "At the time, most of the diners and delis were
Greek-owned, so the design, which was by an employee, Leslie Buck, was a natural."'
SOURCE (includes photo of classic cup design): NY Cup Company.
[1932]
"Hot coffee in paper cups had been served all around..."
---'"Blue' Forces Delay Attack, Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1932 (p. 10)
"Hot and Cold Cups,"
---restaurant supply auction inventory announcement, Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1951 (p. 20)
[1963]
"Dixie 9 ounce hot and cold cups, 80 count cold, 48 count hot, your choice, 88 cents."---display ad, Los Angeles Times, September 1, 1963 (p. F8)
[1967]
"Beer...sold in styrofoam cups."
---"Anaheim ready for baseball revenue year," Jack Boettner, Los Angeles Times, April 9, 1967 (p. OC1)
---display ad, Walgreen's, Chicago Daily Defender, May 25, 1967 (p. 9)
---display ad, Wall Street Journal, March 6, 1967 (p. 13)
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