Margarita (1954); OT: Popcorn and the Movies (1945)

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MARGARITA

   I've posted earlier for "Margarita," but these latest LOS ANGELES TIMES citations are worth a look.

(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
1. CITYSIDE
GENE SHERMAN. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Dec 8, 1954. p. 2 (1 page):
   ROSARITO BEACH--In the afternoon you sip a Margarita and gaze pensively across the wide strand.  This is a sort of Mexican daiquiri belted hard by the international set at Acapulco.  Tequila, Cointreau and lemon juice.  Salt the rim of the glass like you sugar a daiquiri.
   They carry a big stick gently.  When sipped in the afternoon, they mellow the memory of morning and tinsel the prospect of evening.  I get the impression they were named for a sultry lady who was the toast of the foreign colony, although margarita is also Spanish for daisy.  And it figures.
(...)
   THE LOBSTER taquitos go well with the Margarita, very little hot sauce.


2. CITYSIDE
GENE SHERMAN. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Feb 8, 1955. p. 2 (1 page):
   Was introduced to the Margarita, tequila's answer to the Martini, while in Mexico some weeks ago.  Now informed the Margarita was invented by Mr. Johnny Durlesser, head barman of the Tail o' the Cock, in 1937.

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OT:  POPCORN AND THE MOVIES

   Andy Smith, famous editor of the forthcoming OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN FOOD AND DRINK, was in the NEW YORK TIMES on February 9th:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/nyregion/09RUBI.html
Samuel M. Rubin, Vendor, Dies at 85; Put Fresh Popcorn in Theaters
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: February 9, 2004

Samuel M. Rubin, who was known as "Sam the Popcorn Man" for making popcorn almost as popular in New York City movie theaters as jokes and kisses, died on Thursday. He was 85.

He died in Boynton Beach, Fla., his daughter, Karen Rubin, said.

Movies had prospered without popcorn until the Great Depression, when theater owners scrambled to make up for reduced ticket prices by turning to "audible edibles." The appetite of moviegoers was so great that from 1934 to 1940, the nation's annual popcorn harvest grew from 5 million to 100 million pounds.

Marty Winter, who worked for Mr. Rubin and in turn employed him over their careers of more than 60 years in the movie concession business, recalled that Mr. Rubin saw popcorn being made in Oklahoma City on a visit around 1930 and started selling it at concessions he controlled when he returned to New York.

But Mr. Rubin's daughter and another longtime business colleague, Carl Levine, said it was not until the early 1950's that Mr. Rubin began to sell popcorn in a major way. At the time, his company, ABC Consolidated, now part of the Ogden Corporation, had the refreshments concession for major movie chains in the New York metropolitan area, including RKO, Brandt and Loews.

Andrew F. Smith, the author of "Popped Culture: The Social History of Popcorn in America," said New York theaters were among the last to embrace popcorn, because it had a small profit margin, popping machines were a fire hazard and the snack seemed a bit déclassé. Charles Cretors, the president of C. Cretors & Company, which has made popping machines since 1885, agreed that New York was late to the popping game and suggested that part of the reason may have been that early popping oils contained lard, which is not kosher.

Mr. Smith said that popcorn was being sold in some New York theaters by the 1940's and that if Mr. Rubin began selling it in earnest in the early 1950's, he "was certainly not the first."

But Mr. Rubin was very likely the first to pop corn in machines on a widespread basis in theaters. He had begun by popping the kernels in Long Island City and trucking the result to theaters, but quickly realized that the smell of popping corn would not exactly hurt sales. Improvements in machines had lessened the fire danger.

A spokeswoman for the Popcorn Board in Chicago confirmed that ABC was a very large buyer of popcorn in the 1950's.
(...)


   The TIMES receives the evidence, then ignores it?
   Mr. Rubin was very likely NOT the first to pop corn in machines on a widespread basis in theaters.


(PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS)
Leeside
LEE SHIPPEY. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Jul 24, 1945. p. A4 (1 page):
   Ray A. Collins has a peeve against those movie theaters in which popcorn and candy bars are vended.

Farmers Market... With Fred Beck
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Jul 6, 1946. p. 2 (1 page):
   Of course it is almost impossible to get tickets to anything--and too much popcorn eating goes on at the movies.

STANDING ROOM ONLY
Groucho Marx. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Nov 17, 1946. p. C14 (2 pages)
Pg. 16:  MANY people are living in the balconies of movie theaters.  The loges are ideal for sleeping and so are most of the pictures.  In the lobby, you can purchase popcorn, Sen-Sen, chocolate bars and peanuts.

The Lighter Side
HENRY McLEMORE. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Nov 20, 1946. p. 12 (1 page):
   I have friends who speak just as knowingly of the popcorn at the Empire, the candy at the Cameo, and the chocolate cracwers (?--ed.) at the Bijou as world travelers used to discuss the pheasant at Hoercher's in Berlin, the venison at Lippert's in Prague, and the steak and kidney pie at the Colony in New York.

Popcorn and the Movies
JOHN H NASH. Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File). Los Angeles, Calif.: Dec 23, 1946. p. A4 (1 page):
   Popcorn is an American institution.  So are the movies.  The combination of both is the latest in public entertainment.  Quite a few theaters feature in their lounge the sale of fresh popcorn.