Olive S. Allen represented Crisco in 1924 with the publication of her book “Miss Olive Allen’s Tested Recipes: 200 Selected from many hundreds gathered from all over the world” commonly referred to as “200 Tested Recipes.” [links to reddit] In this booklet Olive is described as a real home cook with years of experience and a deep understanding of “the whimsical tastes of all types of people.” She managed kitchens at family hotels, businessmen’s clubs, canteens and army and navy clubs.
Early Life and Family Background
Olive’s roots are intriguing. Her father, a Civil War veteran from Agawam, Massachusetts, fought at Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and other significant battles. He married Susanne Bernard from Hericourt, France, in 1870, and Olive was born in Connecticut in 1873. The family later moved to Agawam, where Olive grew up with an older brother and two younger sisters.
As young adults, Olive and her sisters lived in New York City–Stella Allen Pratley, married, and Caroline L. Allen, like Olive, single. Olive worked as a cashier at the Criterion hotel in 1900, while her mother was employed as a live-in servant for a physician’s family at 675 State Street in Agawam. Olive often visited from New York.
Career Development
By 1903, Olive was in Northampton, Massachusetts home of Smith College where many renown cooking stars graduated, including Julia Child near 30 years later! It is more likely that Olive was not attending, but was catering, as it was said, “She catered to the taste of business girls and college girls.” In 1906, an “Olive Allen” illustrated S.C. Woodhouse’s book, “Too Good to Live,” though we need more information to confirm if this is our Olive.
Returning to New York City in 1909, Olive maintained strong ties to Agawam: In 1910, she hosted gatherings for friends, including Mrs. James Paton and Miss Carrie Patron of Southbridge, at her mother’s home there where she boarded with another retiree at 719 Main Street [now an Italian bakery]. Olive’s father passed away in 1914 after a long time in Chelsea’s Soldiers’ Home, Massachusetts.
In 1923, Olive developed recipes for Proctor & Gamble and hosted Crisco’s evening radio show in 1924, covering topics like Thanksgiving, Christmas Dainties, and Quick Breads and Donuts. She compiled “200 Tested Recipes,” sourcing recipes from across the globe, collecting them from famous international chefs, traditional home cooks, prestigious hotels, charming inns, and even skilled hunters and trappers. Before being published in the cookbook, the recipes were syndicated daily in newspapers in 1923. And Olive must have written more than the one Crisco article that we found in a newspaper!
Recognition and Legacy
In 1925 Olive S. Allen served as the only judge at a Crisco Baking Contest, and was introduced as the Head of the Home Economics Department of the makers of Crisco. Proctor & Gamble was based in Cincinnati Ohio, but since 1907 had a factory [website] at “Port Ivory” on Staten Island to manufacture Ivory Soap. Crisco debuted in 1911, and since the beginning, was located at the Staten Island location. My guess is that P&G also had a Manhattan office–which I have not found, but my belief is that Olive worked there and not at the factory location. At 52, Olive’s address was listed as across from Central Park, but perhaps this was the Crisco headquarters. Continuing to spend time with her mother during free time, in 1928 her mother visited with Olive for a two-week vacation in Greenbush-by-the-Sea. Where is Greenbush-by-the-Sea exactly?
One source said that it was Eleanor Ahern all along who was the Home Economist for Crisco. Perhaps. Olive’s title of Home Economist for Crisco was only mentioned once at the Baking Contest. But Olive did author the 1924 Crisco book and the re-issue of the book in 1930, she did host a radio show, and she did choose recipes syndicated as a series in newspapers, etc. By 1927, the fictional name of Winifred S. Carter took over Crisco’s cookbook recipes for Crisco. Was Olive S. Allen still working at Crisco after 1930? There is a good chance. We just discovered that she owned a vacation home on Bow Lake in New Hampshire and left plenty of Crisco remembrances [“many of the cookbooks, plaques, and the the metal stamps used on one of her awards. There was more stuff, but the house was robbed in the 60’s and some of her Crisco advertisings were stolen“]. She sold the home in the 1950s. We’re waiting to hear more.
Later Years
Given that Olive was raised in Agawam, a smaller town in West Springfield, a newspaper article may have been relating to her in 1931: there was a wedding involving a man whose parents and many others in the wedding party were from Springfield. Could the “Olive Allen of Flushing, NY” be our Olive? If so, she was living in Flushing, Queens, New York, back in 1931, and at some point, spent her summers vacationing at Bow Lake in New Hampshire until the 1950s.
Picture from Olive S. Allen’s booklet, 200 Tested Recipes. [reddit] We have yet to find a portrait of Olive.
