Duncan Hines (28 page)

They could not leave Massachusetts without walking through the doors of an old Hines favorite, the Toll House in Whitman, Massachusetts and tasting once again the magic of that restaurant's “lemon pie with four-inch-high meringue.” So they made a side trip to visit Hines's old haunt, and the visit gave Hines a chance to
introduce his friends, Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield, to his new wife. After their visit, Clara described the restaurant as the “most beautiful place in New England.” From there the couple made their way to Kingston, Rhode Island, about 30 miles from Pawtucket, where they dined on chicken and lobster at the Crossways, a New England tea room, before driving over to Weston, Connecticut, to dine on home cooking at the Cobb Mill Inn, where they were waited on, to their delight, by “butlers in a barn.” Late that afternoon they pulled into Norwalk, Connecticut, where they supped at the Silver Mine Tavern, a restaurant, “on a terrace overlooking an old mill pond.”
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There they spent the night.

Upon arising the following morning, they drove into New York City and checked into Hines's favorite hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria. Toward sunset they began a gourmet tour of the town that was to last for several days. To begin their journey into gastronomy, they first chose the restaurant Le Cremaillere, “where they had a leg of lamb for an entree and imported filet of sole cooked in white wine.” For their next meal they entered Giovanni's to dine on “minced clams in aspic, breast of chicken with truffles, gnocchi (which is similar to fried mush) and, for dessert zabaglione.” For their third restaurant, Hines and Clara chose Seman Brazilian Gardens where they sampled South American food. Their breakfasts, of course, were eaten at the Waldorf, delightful spreads which Hines could not stop praising. After three days of feasting on some of the finest cuisine in America, the couple elected to leave New York before they became permanently spoiled. Philadelphia was their next destination.

Once in the city of brotherly love, they sat down at the Bookbinders restaurant at 125 Walnut Street and ordered a sumptuous meal of red snapper chowder. It was so hot that day, though, that Hines decided to literally head for the hills—the Appalachian Mountains. While driving through the rich scenery the Pennsylvania mountains afforded, they stopped long enough to sample the culinary fare at the Harris Ferry Tavern and the Georgian Hall at Camp Hill. Toward sunset, they stopped in Cresson, Pennsylvania to sleep at the Lee Hoffman Hotel, which
had long been another favorite Hines haunt. That evening they remarked to one another that although they had fled Philadelphia for the coolness of the mountains, they now had the opposite problem: it was too cold. In fact, the mountain air was so cold that evening that they could not sit outdoors on the hotel porch after dark; they had not thought to bring their overcoats with them in the middle of August. The next morning Hines and Clara feasted on buckwheat cakes, Loretta Farms sausage, and small green onions before heading down the road to Pittsburgh, where Hines was scheduled to attend an autograph party; that afternoon he signed 700 books in three hours.

Much of the next day was spent driving; Hines and Clara put 465 miles on the speedometer in eight or nine hours as they headed for Chicago; Hines wanted to visit friends there. Upon their arrival, however, they found the climate too hot and humid for their taste and, after a night's rest, headed for another old haunt, one that Hines and Florence had frequently visited years earlier: Arthur and Nelle Palmer's Lowell Inn in Stillwater, Minnesota. Continually filling their plates with fresh brook trout, they stayed there until the weather cooled a bit. Upon their departure, Hines and Clara set out again for Chicago. This time the city's humidity was bearable, and it afforded them a comfortable visit with several of Hines's friends.

Upon their departure a day or so later, they set off southward before coming to rest in Bedford, Indiana, where they retired for the evening. Early the next afternoon, after forty days of traveling, fifteen states, and about 6,500 miles, they pulled into the gravel driveway of their Bowling Green home. For dinner that evening, after gorging themselves on some of the nation's richest cuisine, they swallowed, in Hines's words, something simple: “ham hock, greasy beans, corn pones, and some of Clara's biscuits with new grape jelly—and,” he said “that sounds good, too.”
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The more Duncan Hines's recommendations were appreciated, the more an ever-growing cadre of admirers wanted to learn about him. In November 1947, he was featured in the widely-read general interest magazine
Coronet
. The article introduced him as the “gregarious Southerner” who, “through his lively interest in food
and people[,]…has influenced the eating habits of a nation.” The article's substance was drawn from an interview with him earlier that year in Tampa, Florida. On that occasion, the writer for
Coronet
witnessed a scene that was beginning to occur more frequently. Hines and Clara seated themselves at the table of an unnamed restaurant (most likely the Columbia, which was known for its Spanish and French dishes), ordered their dinner, and were quietly awaiting its arrival, when the house orchestra, a feature commonly found in the better restaurants of the day, struck up “My Old Kentucky Home.” Said the writer, “Waiters appeared with huge platters of delicacies—far more than Hines had ordered. As he unfolded his napkin, the dining room was vibrant with suppressed excitement. Everyone was aware that they were about to witness a performance of major significance—like watching Bobby Feller pitch or Arturo Toscanini conduct. They were going to watch Duncan Hines
eat!
' The attention he received was on a par reserved for royalty. It is not known what he did on that particular occasion, but there can be no doubt he was highly embarrassed by the spectacle of having all eyes fixed upon him as he plunged a forkful of food in his mouth. He didn't realize he had been spotted by the management. Although he preferred to walk into restaurants unnoticed, eat his meal, pay his bill, and leave, as the post-war years rolled on, those days were becoming increasingly rare. He was a celebrity now and had to accept the trappings that came with it. Nevertheless, he was amazed that people could be so interested in what he did for a living. Said
Coronet
, “His name has become a national byword; as author, publisher and unofficial arbiter of the American tourist's eating habits, his fan mail rivals that of a movie star.” Indeed, his mail by this time, if anything, was increasing in volume nearly every day. And there was no sign it would stop. The more people bought his books, the more mail his office received. By late 1947 Hines had sold nearly 2,000,000 copies of his books since 1936.
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In 1947 alone sales of his books totaled around 225,000 copies.
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He had become so popular he was now getting book orders from “people in India, China, South America, Australia, Europe—even Tahiti,” who told him they were planning
to make a trip to the United States and wanted to plan their vacations around the restaurants and inns he recommended.

By 1948 the postwar demand for his books had subsided to a manageable level. Although he still had representatives in the field selling them on a commission basis, business was steady enough to enable him to reduce his office overhead. By the end of that year, he employed only three full-time secretaries. He would, on occasion, hire two or three temporary workers for those occasions when things became hectic around the office, such as when the Williams Printing Company deposited a huge order of books at his doorstep, forcing his staff to quickly fill an enormous backlog of prepaid orders. But other than that, his office ran like clockwork. Hines's office manager, Edith Wilson, described him as “the perfect boss.” Said Wilson, “If the outgoing mail stacks up faster than we can handle it, he'll pitch in and help us wrap packages and seal envelopes.”
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After the war, so highly did the public come to regard anything Hines recommended that advertisers approached him to endorse nearly every product manufactured between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Market surveys demonstrated the sales power his recommendation would generate, and he was hounded daily by thousands of businessmen; they wanted—indeed, prayed for—his endorsement. Tempting offers came to him at every turn, many exceeded $1,000 just to say he
liked
a product. He turned them all down. Publishers for the last eleven years had regularly courted him, begging him to let them handle his books. They offered him generous contracts, one even offered to let him write his own contract, but Hines refused, saying that he feared “a publishing house would try to sell a million copies a year, thus glutting the market and killing future sales of new editions. So he refused all offers and kept the publishing ventures to himself.” He also refused to star on radio shows of the day; his rationale being that, once he succumbed to a show with a sponsor, he would lose his most valuable asset—his independence.
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In interviews he seemed unaffected by his nationwide recognition. He remained, at bottom, an unpretentious native of
the heartland who had just stumbled into a run of good luck. He was just being himself when he spoke with a reporter after sampling the food of a particular restaurant, cackling in his down-to-earth manner, “I ordered fried chicken and filet mignon…. You see, I was just sampling. I don't eat all the stuff, but honestly, this time I kinda stretched my belt because the stuff was mighty good. Then I filled up with coffee and apple pie, and while I think I could make a better pie myself, it was really quite satisfying.”
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Because of his folksy demeanor, his popularity continued to soar. His growing legion of fans continued to make pilgrimages to his Bowling Green home. So voluminous was this human traffic becoming that he was forced “to enlarge the parking space adjoining his home.” Since he and Clara were on the road nearly eight months of each year, few visitors actually met him. While not many who made the pilgrimage knew it, if they came on a holiday, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas, they were more likely to meet him.
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Many factors came into play after the war that contributed to the creation of the modern American tourism industry. Public roads improved. More automobiles were manufactured. Steel-belted tires replaced the inner-tube design. But the most important factor that energized it was the growing economy. When the war ended, America headed into a long stretch of domestic prosperity. Not only was the nation's economic health strong and vigorous, but as America advanced to become the greatest economic superpower in recorded history, its economic muscular might transformed the social status of its citizens. Thousands of families were unceremoniously swept into the American middle class. Wanting to validate, perhaps even celebrate, their new status, they indulged themselves in a variety of activities, one of which was popularly dubbed as “sightseeing.” And Duncan Hines was there to take full advantage of it.
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In early 1949 Hines published
Duncan Hines Vacation Guide
, an annually revised, pine-green-colored guidebook for those who wanted to travel across America and see its myriad natural and man-made attractions.
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The book's genesis originated from a
suggestion by a long-forgotten person in Hines's employ who believed it would be universally beneficial to assemble a travel guide for families who wanted to know what attractions were available across the country; such a book would be especially useful for families who wanted to escape the trappings of domestic life for a week or two and enjoy themselves. Since Hines had already told travelers where they could eat when they were hungry and where they could sleep when they were tired, it seemed only natural to tell them where to go to amuse themselves.
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The official title of his new publication was
Duncan Hines Vacation Guide: Good Places to Spend an Enjoyable Vacation
. In its introduction he wrote that he had “selected places accommodating twenty-five people or more” and had limited his “descriptions to places where one is likely to spend a week or more, and where more than merely sleeping accommodations are offered.” The book was intended for “those who want a comprehensive guide to places where people spend vacations.” Following his introduction, he wrote a descriptive essay on each of the forty-eight states, detailing the regional characteristics and the vacation opportunities of each.
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The
Vacation Guide
was modestly popular with the public; it made money but was not a great seller. A year later, when establishments were asked to purchase the
Vacation Guide's
second edition, many refused, because sales were slow and the public was not enthusiastic about them. “Why buy more?” they asked. It is easy to understand why they were unpopular. When potential book buyers examined a copy, the spirit of Duncan Hines was nowhere to be found. In fact, the book looked as if it was written by someone else—certainly not by Duncan Hines. Those reaching this conclusion were correct. Aside from the introduction, the
Vacation Guide
was not really written by Hines at all; its contents were put together by his office staff. They sent a questionnaire to selected parks and resorts and asked them to fill it out. When each was returned, the office staff copied the information it contained, and if it met certain criteria, the place in question received a listing. Said one secretary, since “it was [mainly] information about the
location, about the place, the rates and the hours, any of us could write
that
.” The most glaring omission from the book's contents were Hines's quips of humor and old-fashioned homilies. Therefore, it was not surprising to discover that the final result looked as if it had been written by a committee. Perhaps Hines was simply ahead of his time. While American families in 1949 were eager to travel about America in their brand new automobiles on newly paved roads, for some reason they did not seem to be ready for a book listing what to do with their free time when not eating or sleeping. Whatever the reason for the book's very modest success, this was about the only time Duncan Hines misjudged what the public would lunge to buy.
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