He led ‘fanatical cult’ of home freezer owners

“Last year Americans ate nearly a billion pounds of commercially frozen foods. About a half-billion more pounds were stored in 5,000 cold-locker plants by some 1,500,000 U.S. families. The quick-freezing boom is growing fast. Last week magazine Writer Boyden Sparkes published a book predicting the next big move will be toward freezing and storage in the home (“Zero Storage in Your Home”).

“Many food technologists believe that after the war quick freezing will supplant canning and dehydration. To Zealot Sparkes, such speculation is overcautious. He asserts that food freezing may revolutionize the U.S. standard of living. City people will buy their food wholesale. People ‘in modest circumstances,’ Sparkes glows, ‘may eat cheaply such meals as heretofore were available only to rich gourmets.’ Farm families will have an easily preserved, tasty winter supply of their own produce.

“Author Sparkes has a 26-cubic-foot freezer on his North Carolina farm, keeps it stuffed with whole lamb carcasses, chickens, cream, sweet corn, grapes, strawberries, quail, pigeons…. He also keeps in touch with other members of the small but fanatical cult of U.S. citizens who own home freezers.”

— From Time magazine, June 26, 1944

Boyden Sparkes is a name familiar to followers of the Dare Stones saga — he wrote the 1941 Saturday Evening Post expose.  And he coauthored autobiographies for carmakers Alfred Sloan and Walter Chrysler, celebrity chef Henri Charpentier and heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean, last private owner of the Hope Diamond and last victim of con man Gaston B. Means.

Anybody know more about the wide-ranging Mr. Sparkes?

One thought on “He led ‘fanatical cult’ of home freezer owners”

  1. Henri Charpentier lived in East Rockaway, NY on Front St & Main St. across from my father’s ‘Canvas Shop where he made awnings and canvas covers for their boats. We lived right behind Henri’s Cafe. He made the best spaghetti & meatballs for us and I’m looking for his recipe especially his meatballs.
    If there is any family living in this area please contact me for e-mail chat.
    My name is Dottie (Higgins) Grant
    djmidnight209@aol.com

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