Search for more ice cream and soda fountain recipes! The Chronicling America historic newspapers online collection is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program and jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities.The Ice Book, published in 1891, describes the history of ice cream before it reached “the pinnacle of summer refreshment” in its American version (page 3), and offers an impressive selection of recipes (from page 20).
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A piece from 1921 bemoaned the cost of ice cream sodas, blaming soda jerks’ high wages and excessive laundry bills, and overly elaborate soda fountain designs. Good hygiene was a major concern, as the alarmingly-titled To Stop Dirty Soda Fountains from Spreading Disease and Death outlined in graphic detail, and with gruesome illustrations.
It was important to have the “ fountain clerk dressed in white coat and apron never allow him to wear soiled linen.” Newspapers devoted many column inches to the ice cream soda. Cleanliness was paramount, both for the apparatus and for uniforms.
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Instruction manuals like Rigby’s Reliable Candy Teacher (1909) laid out what a soda fountain proprietor should know and do. It’s not surprising that the job was sometimes a career stop for aspiring actors – mid-century stars Danny Kaye and Alan Ladd both worked as soda jerks. “Shake one in the hay” was a strawberry milkshake a “Ninety-nine” was the head soda man. “Twist it, choke it and make it cackle” meant a chocolate malted milk with egg. Harold Bentley’s article includes a long list of soda jerk jargon. Their slang fascinated customers and academics alike. They were often personable, ebullient young men who entertained patrons with their repartee and mixology skills. The servers, or soda jerks, became as much a part of the experience as the drink itself (the term comes from the jerking motion used to operate the fountain). Customers flocked to the drugstores where they were sold. In 1936, Harold Bentley, a scholar at Columbia University, wrote “the soda fountain has become an institution in this country like the public school, the movie, or baseball.” The opening page of his article, Linguistic Concoctions of the Soda Jerker ,** describes how British students were far more interested in visiting soda fountains than famous New York landmarks.Īs with many new fads, a whole culture grew up around the ice cream soda. Seeing drugstore soda fountain and soda jerk as synonymous with America isn’t new. Japanese-American farm workers have an ice cream soda on weekly trip to town, July 1942 Russell Lee, photographer Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division
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