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Philip Spiess
Steve and Paul: White Castle History (Installment 2): When I read your Forum entry, Steve, I flew to my library (okay, I'm an old man; I trotted -- hmm, no -- I shuffled -- god, no! -- I staggered -- nope, I hadn't had that much Scotch yet, it was still early -- ah! I loped! -- uh, no, too lupine, and too Groucho Marx! -- no, now I've got it: I ambled casually, even cautiously, into my library, being careful not to step on or trip over the many stacks of piled books that were there on the floor, all of them first editions -- of paperbacks, of course) to check out, in my book on White Castle history (mentioned last night in Post # 3962), the matters of which you wrote. [Caveat: I do not know Professor Hogan; therefore, I do not know whether his book was his dissertation, a paid hack job shilling for the White Castle hamburger industry (Heidelberg College is not far from Columbus, White Castle's headquarters), or because he is a "foodie," or because it was a labor of love because he grew up with White Castles. Ergo, I am just reporting what his book says.]
On the Matter of Horse Meat: A whole chapter ("White Castle Goes to War") of the book is devoted to food, staff, metal (for the buildings), and other shortages due to World War II (I mentioned some of these in my last post; there were times when beef was quite unavailable, and White Castle had to rely on selling egg sandwiches or grilled cheese). But even after rationing was lifted by the Truman administration in the post-World War II era, certain shortages continued or came and went (for awhile). One such was beef (page 119): "In the wake of this controversy over holes and prices, White Castle also experienced a brief but potentially disastrous horsemeat scare. Old fears about the quality of ground meat were rekindled when an Indiana newspaper reported the arrest of several meat suppliers who were adding large quantities of horsemeat to their hamburger. Sales throughout the regional fast-food industry plummeted, forcing the closure of some of the smaller restaurants. . . . White Castle immediately ran large newspaper ads, reminding its customers that its patties were 100 percent beef, produced by the large and reputable Swift Company [Spiess note: this was not necessarily true under Swift or Armour in the 19th century; cf. Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and the work of Harvey Wiley under Teddy Roosevelt] under strict government supervision. . . . Nevertheless, much of the public stayed far away from all types of ground meat. . . . Because of its damage-control advertising, White Castle's sales suffered only marginally, but its operators were besieged by endless horseburger jokes. . . . Another customer ordered, 'Saddle me two to go.' White Castle endured the joking because its customers kept buying. . . . Just as the horsemeat scare was subsiding in the Indiana and Chicago area, rumors briefly surfaced in Minneapolis claiming that White Castle itself used horsemeat in its hamburgers. Sparked by an anonymous tip to the Minnesota State Heath Department, these rumors were quickly quieted when state inspectors found no supporting evidence." Five months later the trial of the horsemeat culprits took place. "Fortunately, White Castle's solid reputation for quality enabled it to survive the scare relatively unscathed."
On the Matter of Serving Black People: Of course, I was of high school age when I started going to White Castles by myself or with my father (before that, my father had just brought them home) to the White Castle in Camp Washington or to the White Castle on the northeast corner of Reading Road and East McMillan (?). I do not recall a time when I did not see African-Americans among the customers therein. Indeed, my father used to josh with some of them as we waited in line for our order. But to quote Professor Hogan (page 165): "Racial unrest and conflict more directly affected White Castle than other fast-food chains in the 1960s because most of the outlets of the leading franchised chains were located in predominantly white suburbia, whereas most of White Castle's restaurants were in urban neighborhoods that had become heavily African American since World War II. Although White Castle never segregated its restaurants and was long known among African Americans as a place where they would be readily served, a frequent complaint arose in the early 1960s that White Castle employed very few black workers. In fact, in many cities the company had no black employees, which was particularly troubling as blacks comprised an increasingly large percentage of White Castle's customer base." In short, after a brief New York City boycott in 1963, "White Castle actively started recruiting more black workers and soon achieved an acceptable racial balance in its workforce."
The Green Books: This seems the appropriate place to mention one of my birthday presents from my son last month: two editions of The Negro Motorist [later, The Negro Travelers'] Green Book: Guide for Travel & Vacations. Because the era of "Jim Crow" and segregation denied so many African-Americans places to stay, dine, drink, shop, enjoy night clubs, find welcoming barbershops or hair salons, or even utilize automotive service stations when they desired to travel, one Victor H. Green in 1936 began to publish this series of annual guides (much like the AAA and Duncan Hines guides for white folk in the same period) for African-Americans to find "safe houses" (almost like the "Underground Railroad" of a century earlier) where they would be welcomed when traveling throughout the United States. My son had purchased four in reprint and offered me two as my present; I selected the 1940 edition and the 1959 edition (yes, obviously still necessary in that year). Looking in both of them at the Cincinnati entries, I recognized, in the 1940 guide, none of the 5 hotels, 1 tourist home, 2 restaurants, 3 taverns, 1 drug store, 1 barber shop, or 2 beauty parlors listed (although I recognized most of their addresses). By the 1959 guide, out of 4 hotels listed, I recognized the Y.W.C.A. (but the Y.M.C.A. was not listed); nor did I recognize any of the listings of 1 tourist home or 8 restaurants (White Castle was not mentioned -- perhaps it was generally known?).
And Another Note for Paul on the Cooking of Those Burgers: From Hogan's book (pages 103-104): "In a further attempt to save meat [during World War II], [Billy] Ingram [White Castle's founder] also introduced a new method for cooking the hamburgers . . . referred to as "the New York style" for its place of origin, which differed from the old one in that the patty was flipped to cook on both sides. With this new method, onions were spread all over the griddle, and the patty was placed on top of them, with the buns directly on top of the patties. The reason for this change was both to save time by cooking all the sandwich components together and to minimize the waste from the patties, which broke apart while being flipped."
I could go on (as you know), but, as I've written too much already, I'll just say to Larry that Camp Washington Chili was one of my grandfather's favorite places to stop by for carry-out in the 1950s, as he worked nearby at the Reliable Castings Corp. on Spring Grove Avenue at the foot of Brashears Street.
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