Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man

by Mark Kurlansky

  Letterhead torn off of hotel stationery from the Taconic Inn—where Birdseye and Eleanor spent their honeymoon—pasted into his diary without comment (illustration credit 1.6)

  Clarence and Eleanor’s first home, which they had built in Muddy Bay, Labrador. (illustration credit 1.7)

  Stock certificate in Clarence Birdseye’s name for his original company in New York, Birdseye Seafoods, May 1923. (illustration credit 1.8)

  Birdseye with Eleanor and Henry, circa 1929. (illustration credit 1.9)

  Marjorie Merriweather Post, whose General Foods bought Birdseye in 1929. (illustration credit 1.10)

  Portion of ad for Birdseye Frosted Foods that ran in the March 2, 1930, issue of the Springfield Republican. (illustration credit 1.11)

  The Birdseye building in 1930, which has become a landmark in Gloucester Harbor (illustration credit 1.12)

  Birdseye riding one of his horses in West Gloucester, as seen in one of his home movies from the 1930s. (illustration credit 1.13)

  Birdseye chasing finback whales off of Gloucester with the tagging harpoon he invented, also from a 1930s home movie (illustration credit 1.14)

  October 7, 1944. Birdseye is feeding carrots into a machine that trims them to the appropriate size for dehydration. (illustration credit 1.15)

  Dehydrating carrots in the summer of 1943 in his laboratory on the second floor of the Birdseye building in Gloucester Harbor. Left to right: A. Pothier, Clarence Birdseye, and Helen Josephson Schuster. (illustration credit 1.16)

  Clarence Birdseye in his office in 1943. (illustration credit 1.17)

  The dining room of the Birdseye home on Eastern Point, Gloucester, in 1942 or ’43. Clarence Birdseye has his back to the camera, Eleanor is opposite him facing the camera, his daughter Ruth is to his left, and his son Henry is to his right. (illustration credit 1.18)

  Birdseye loved serving lobster to guests in his Eastern Point home and called it a “lobster feed.” This one was in 1947. (illustration credit 1.19)

  The Birdseyes in their home in Peru, winter 1954. (illustration credit 1.20)

  Birdseye feeding ocelots in Peru. (illustration credit 1.21)

  Birdseye in 1955 or ’56, after he returned from Peru. (illustration credit 1.22)

  Acknowledgments

  A big thanks to all of my friends in Gloucester for their support and interest. A special thanks to Sarah Dunlap in the Gloucester city archives for working with me and tirelessly sifting through records to separate fact from fiction. Thanks to those two great Gloucester institutions, the Cape Ann Museum and the Sawyer Free Library. Also much thanks to Maggie Rosa, who generously opened her files and address book and pointed me in several directions, and to other Gloucester people, including Dotty Brown, Lila Monell, Don Wonson, Janis and John Bell, Melissa Palladino, and so many others from the world’s best town.

  I could never have done this book without the kindness, generosity, and openness of the Birdseye family—Michael, Kelly, Gypsy, and especially Henry, who finally looked in his attic.

  Thanks to my brother Paul for helping me understand the treatment of a heart condition in Birdseye’s day. Thanks to Dylan Hixon for talking me through the freezing and melting properties of salt. Thanks to Jessie Cohen for first talking about this project, to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for its support, and especially to my great editor, Gerry Howard, for all his help and advice, enthusiasm and guidance. And thanks to Susan Birnbaum Fisher for all her help. And of course, thanks to the great New York Public Library. Where else could you look up Clarence Birdseye’s 1886 address in five minutes?

  Thanks to my agent, Charlotte Sheedy, for being my advocate and friend. And thanks to my tireless research assistant, Talia Kurlansky, and to Marian Mass, who are always in my heart.

  Bibliography

  BOOKS

  Amherst College. The Olio. Amherst, Mass.: Amherst College, 1908.

  Birdseye, Clarence F. American Democracy Versus Prussian Marxism: A Study in the Nature and Results of Purposive or Beneficial Government. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1920.

  Birdseye, Clarence, and Eleanor Birdseye. Growing Woodland Plants. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951.

  Carlton, Harry. The Frozen Food Industry. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1941.

  Davies, David, and Alf Carr. “When It’s Time to Make a Choice”: 50 Years of Frozen Food in Britain. Grantham, Lincolnshire: British Frozen Food Federation, 1998.

  De Sounin, Leonie. Magic in Herbs. With an introduction by Miriam Birdseye. New York: Gramercy, 1941.

  Dolin, Eric Jay. Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.

  Evans, Harold. They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators. With Gail Buckland and David Lefer. New York: Little, Brown, 2004.

  Foley, John. The Food Makers: A History of General Foods Ltd. Banbury, Oxfordshire: General Foods, 1972.

  Freidberg, Susanne. Fresh: A Perishable History. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.

  Fucini, Joseph, and Suzy Fucini. Entrepreneurs: The Men and Women Behind Famous Brand Names and How They Made It. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1985.

  Garland, Joseph E. Eastern Point: A Nautical, Rustical, and More or Less Sociable Chronicle of Gloucester’s Outer Shield and Inner Sanctum, 1606–1990. Beverly, Mass.: Commonwealth, 1999.

  Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason. Adrift on an Ice-Pan. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909.

  ——. A Labrador Doctor: The Autobiography of Wilfred Thomason Grenfell. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1919.

  ——. Tales of the Labrador. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916.

  Hammond, John Hays. The Autobiography of John Hays Hammond. 2 vols. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1935.

  Harden, Victoria A. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: History of a Twentieth-Century Disease. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.

  Kerr, J. Lennox. Wilfred Grenfell: His Life and Work. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1959.

  Leonard, John William, ed. Who’s Who in New York City and State. New York: L. R. Hamersly, 1907.

  ——. Woman’s Who’s Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914–1915. New York: American Commonwealth, 1914.

  Parkes, A. S., and Audrey U. Smith, eds. Recent Research in Freezing and Drying. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1960.

  Price, Esther Gaskins. Fighting Spotted Fever in the Rockies. Helena, Mont.: Naegele Printing, 1948.

  Rothe, Anna, ed. Current Biography: Who’s News and Why, 1946. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1947.

  Shachtman, Tom. Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

  Tressler, Donald. The Memoirs of Donald K. Tressler. Westport, Conn.: Avi, 1976.

  Tressler, Donald, and Norman W. Desrosier, eds. Fundamentals of Food Freezing. Westport, Conn.: Avi, 1977.

  Tressler, Donald, and Clifford F. Evers. The Freezing and Preservation of Foods. 2 vols. Westport, Conn.: Avi, 1957.

  U.S. Fisheries Association. Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Convention of the United States Fisheries Association. Atlantic City, New Jersey. United States Fisheries Association, 1924.

  U.S. Patent Office. Selected Patents of Clarence Birdseye.

  Williams, E. W. Frozen Foods: Biography of an Industry. Boston: Cahner’s, 1968.

  NEWSPAPER, MAGAZINE, AND JOURNAL ARTICLES

  Bald, Wambly. “Lion a Tidbit to Frozen-Food Genius.” New York Post, December 20, 1945.

  Birdseye, Clarence. “The Birth of an Industry.” Beaver, September 1941 (magazine of the Hudson’s Bay Company).

  ——. “Camping in a Labrador Snow-Hole.” Outing, November 1913.

  ——. “The Gravity Froster.” Refrigerating Engineering, November 1940.

  ——. “Hard Luck on the Labrador.” Outing, April–September 1915.

  ——. “If I Were Twenty-one.” American Magazine, February 1951.

  �
�—. “Looking Backward at Frozen Foods.” Refrigerating Engineering, November 1953.

  ——. “Postwar Problems of the Frozen Food Industry.” Meals for Millions. Final Report of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Nutrition, 1947.

  ——. Some Common Mammals of Western Montana in Relation to Agriculture and Spotted Fever. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers’ Bulletin, March 9, 1912.

  ——. “We Can Always Eat Crow.” American Magazine, July 1943.

  Burbank, Russell. “Frozen Food Site to Close.” Boston Globe, July 18, 1965.

  Burton, L. V. “Birdseye Demonstrates New Twenty-Plate Froster.” Food Industries, November 1941.

  Carlson, Scott. “Birds Eye Foods—A Short History of the Frozen Food Section.” Washington Business Magazine, May/June 2004.

  Erkkilla, Barbara. “Birdseye Produces Paper Pulp from Sugar Cane Stalk.” Gloucester Daily Times, September 6, 1955.

  ——. “Quality the Key to ‘Stick’ Future Birdseye Believes.” Gloucester Daily Times, September 6, 1955. Farrell, Morgan. “Quick Food Freezing Process Devised to Aid the

  Housewife.” New York Times, February 14, 1932.

  Harris, Herbert. “The Amazing Frozen-Foods Industry.” Science Digest, February 1951.

  Henshaw, Henry Wetherbee, and Clarence Birdseye. “The Mammals of Bitterroot Valley, Montana, in Their Relation to Spotted Fever.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Circular No. 82, August 3, 1911.

  Kahn, F. J., Jr. “The Coming of the Big Freeze.” The New Yorker, September 14, 1946.

  Kenyon, Paul. “About the Birdseyes … and More.” Gloucester Daily Times, April 14, 1978.

  ——. “Eleanor Birdseye, a Working Wife.” Gloucester Daily Times, March 5, 1977.

  Lee, Frank A., Robert F. Brooks, A. M. Pearson, John I. Miller, and Frances Volz. “Effect of Freezing Rate on Meat.” Journal of Food Science, September 15, 1919.

  Mallon, Winifred. “More Food Patents Won by Birdseye.” New York Times, May 3, 1947.

  Moore, Josiah J. “Time Relationships of the Wood Tick in the Transmission of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.” Journal of Infectious Diseases, April 12, 1911.

  Morgan, T. H. “Breeding Experiments with Rats.” American Naturalist 43 (1909): 183–85.

  Nickerson, Jane. “New and Better Way to Process Food by Anhydration Announced by Birdseye.” New York Times, November 14, 1945.

  Pennington, Mary E. “Refrigerated Trucks Essential in Sale of Frozen Foods.” Refrigerating Engineering, November 1940.

  Stiebeling, Hazel K., and Miriam Birdseye. Adequate Diets for Families with Limited Incomes. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication 113, April 1931.

  Tressler, Donald, Clarence Birdseye, and William T. Murray. “Tenderness of Meat.” Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 24, no. 2 (1932).

  CHRONOLOGY OF UNSIGNED ARTICLES

  Scientific American, April 21, 1860, 267 (Henry Underwood).

  “Underwood Cotton-Leather Belting.” Electrical Engineer, September 2, 1891, 271.

  “Lieut. Birdseye Wounded: Son of New York Lawyer Fighting with Canadians in France.” New York Times, October 30, 1916.

  “The Looting of the Pittsburgh Life and Trust: A Narrative of

  Astounding Effrontery and Rascality.” Insurance Press, May 9, 1917.

  “Birdseyes Get Jail Terms.” New York Times, March 6, 1920.

  “Postum to Get Freezing Process.” New York Times, May 8, 1929.

  “Postum Buys General Seafoods and Its Rights.” Gloucester Daily Times, May 9, 1929.

  “New Postum Name on Stock Board Today.” New York Times, July 25, 1929.

  “For the First Time Anywhere! The Most Revolutionary Idea in the History of Food Will Be Revealed in Springfield Today.” Springfield Union, March 6, 1930.

  “Mayor Praises Clarence Birdseye for Work in Refrigeration Field.” Boston Globe, July 8, 1931.

  “Sachs Tells Story of $12,000,000 Loss.” New York Times, May 21, 1932.

  “Acquires Birdseye Electric.” New York Times, December 13, 1939.

  “Continuous Quick Freezer Developed by Birdseye.” Food Industries, September 1940.

  “Dinner, Frozen or Dried.” Newsweek, November 19, 1945.

  “Sylvania to Take Over Wabash.” New York Times, December 9, 1945.

  “Meet Mr. Birdseye—He Had a $22,000,000 Idea.” Look, April 30, 1946.

  “Birdseye Changes Pace, Now Raises Wildflowers.” Cape Ann Summer Sun, August 17, 1950.

  “Father of Frozen Foods Dies: Clarence Birdseye Dead at 69.” Gloucester Daily Times, October 8, 1956, 1.

  “Clarence Birdseye Is Dead at 69; Inventor of Frozen Food Process.” New York Times, October 9, 1956.

  “Clarence Birdseye Funeral Held Here.” Gloucester Daily Times, October 10, 1956.

  “The Inquisitive Yankee.” Time, October 22, 1956.

  “Tribute to Clarence Birdseye, the Father of Frozen Foods.” Quick Frozen Foods, March 1960.

  “Hooked on Fish.” Forbes, September 1, 1969.

  “Miss Marjorie Merriweather Post Is Dead at 86.” New York Times, September 13, 1973.

  “Growing Up a Birdseye—A Daughter Remembers Her Dad.” Link 9, no. 3 (2005).

  Cold Storage and Ice Trade Journal. Ice Trade Journal 38 (July–December 1909). Reprints from the collection of the University of Michigan Library, 2010.

  WEB SITES

  The Internet is full of inaccurate information on Birdseye, most of it feeding off each other. But there are a few useful sites:

  www.amherst.edu (for information about the Birdseyes at Amherst)

  www.birdseyefoods.com (for Birds Eye corporate history)

  www.foodreference.com (for a food time line)

  www.library.hbs.edu (for a list of deals involving General Foods)

  Illustration Credits

  Frontispiece: Courtesy of the Birdseye family. Birds Eye® is a registered trademark of Pinnacle Foods Group LLC.

  Insert:

  i1.1 Courtesy of Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID.

  i1.2 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.3 The Rooms Provincial Archive Division, VA 95-20.2. Dr. Grenfell and his dogs, 1912, International Grenfell Association photograph collection. The image has been cropped.

  i1.4 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Clarence Birdseye (AC 1910) Journals [vol. 3], pp. 42–43. Used with permission of the Birdseye family.

  i1.5 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Clarence Birdseye (AC 1910) Journals [vol. 3], pp. 42–43. Used with permission of the Birdseye family.

  i1.6 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Clarence Birdseye (AC 1910) Journals [vol. 3], pp. 42–43. Used with permission of the Birdseye family.

  i1.7 The Rooms Provincial Archive Division, VA 16–21. The Bungalow, Muddy Bay / Rev. Henry C. Gordon, [1921–1922], Henry Cartright Gordon fonds.

  i1.8 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.9 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.10 World-Telegram Photo/C.M. Stieglitz. The New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).

  i1.11 From the Springfield Sunday Union and Republican, March 2, 1930; p. 20 A. Birds Eye® is a registered trademark of Pinnacle Foods Group LLC.

  i1.12 Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA, USA.

  i1.13 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.14 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.15 © NMPFT/Hulton-Getty/Science & Society Picture Library. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

  i1.16 Cape Ann Muesum, Gloucester, MA, USA. Birds Eye® is a registered trademark of Pinnacle Foods Group LLC.

  i1.17 Courtesy of the Birdseye family. Birds Eye® is a registered trademark of Pinnacle Foods Group LLC.

  i1.18 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.19 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.20 Courtesy of the Birdseye family.

  i1.21 Courtesy o
f the Birdseye family.

  i1.22 Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, MA, USA.

  About the Author

  Mark Kurlansky is the New York Times bestselling author of many books, including The Food of a Younger Land, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Salt: A World History, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, and The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell. He lives in New York City.

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