FW: FW: Calzone, Sausage Pizza (1947)

[Frank Abate]

Yes, Fred is right about Frisbee.  There was, and is, a brand of pies in CT,
such as apple, blueberry, etc. (not pizza), called Frisbie (note spelling).
The company was based in Bridgeport; I don't know if the company still
exists, or if the brand name is merely used by some other company.  Their
pie plates were long ago used as flying disks, reputedly by Yale students.
This led in some fashion to the invention of the plastic disk called
Frisbee.

There are various sites on the web that talk about this, though I am not
sure how accurate the details are.  But I am confident about Frisbie pie
plates in CT being the ultimate Frisbee (if you will).

Other famous products with a Connecticut connection include Wiffle Ball,
invented and still made in Shelton, Silly Putty, invented by a CT scientist,
and the space suits used by NASA, developed and made near Hartford by
Hamilton Sundstrand (formerly Hamilton Standard).

Frank Abate
author, "Connecticut Trivia"

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Fred Shapiro
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 1:09 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: FW: Calzone, Sausage Pizza (1947)


On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Frank Abate wrote:

> Barry's details and dates below are instructive, and blow away the claim
> (which I never believed anyway) that the first pizzas were made in New
> Haven, a local myth in Connecticut.

There is also a local myth hereabouts that the hamburger was invented at
Louie's Lunch in New Haven, but evidence for the 19th-century existence of
the term "hamburger," furnished by historical dictionaries and by Barry's
researches, disproves that one as well.

I think the local claim that "frisbee" originated in New Haven is
authentic.

Fred Shapiro


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