FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Julia Child ~ January 12, 2015

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[Kathy in Alaska]

 

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~ Hall of Heroes ~

Julia Child

Info from this website and this website.

           

Julia Child: 1912-2004

Julia McWilliams Child was born Aug. 19, 1912, and was, she has said, "an adolescent until I was 30." One of her grandfathers left Illinois in 1849 when he was 16 to pan for gold in California. Her mother, tall and lively like Julia, had roots in New England. Julia grew up in Pasadena in a large house with drivers, gardeners, cooks and a kitchen that both she and her mother rarely saw or cared about. She played center for her private-school basketball team and enrolled in Smith College where she lived what she describes as a "butterfly life," driving her friends around in a Ford and graduating in 1934.

To many, Julia Child is the darling grandmother who taught Americans how to appreciate great cooking. Few know, however, that this part of her life came after a high-level stint in the OSS (a CIA precursor) during WWII. Julia Child became interested in military service when she joined the Red Cross after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Before then, Julia was becoming the Paris Hilton of her day -- she would stay out late drinking and socializing and, being from a privileged background, could afford to do so. Joining the Red Cross helped her focus her life on constructive goals. The new lifestyle appealed to her and the Red Cross became her first step toward serving her country.

Julia was eager to do more, but at 6' 2" she was too tall for other military service organizations. Refusing to give up, she a traveled to Washington in 1942 to explore her options. Soon she began working for the Office of Strategic Services. Although she has modestly claimed her duties were only clerical, her performance record suggests otherwise. By 1943 she had been promoted and was working with very sensitive intelligence material. That same year, she was recruited to travel overseas and help manage intelligence activity in WWII’s Pacific theater. Stationed in Kandy, Sri Lanka, she helped the OSS track data on a range of topics including troop movement and espionage. Julia helped coordinate the information necessary to plan the attacks on the Japanese-held islands in the area.

To some degree, Julia was to the service what “Q” was to James Bond -- although her duties didn’t involve undercover work, she helped develop supplies and techniques for spies and clandestine operatives. One of Julia’s first OSS teams was assigned the task of finding ways a spy stranded on a life raft could get water. One particularly unappealing strategy they experimented with was drinking water squeezed from a fish’s body. Unfortunately, the technique turned out to be useless.

Julia’s other surprising contribution to the OSS was a shark repellant. The United States had underwater mines that were being inadvertently detonated by sharks. The shark-induced explosions had two main downsides: There was one less mine and German U-Boats could chart the minefield’s location and know where to avoid. The OSS needed a way to keep sharks away from the explosives, so they turned to Julia. She and some coworkers cooked up a shark repellant that was used to coat the explosives. Unlike her fish squeezing technique, Julia's shark repellant seemed to be successful.

After her service in the OSS, Julia married Paul Child, an OSS operative she had worked with while in Sri Lanka. The two moved to Paris in 1948 where Paul Child worked for the U.S. Intelligence Service. Soon, she began attending the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and developed skill in preparing French cuisine. Julia's cooking interests and abilities grew steadily, and in 1961 she published her first cookbook: 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' It was this book and her subsequent television appearances that made Julia Child a household name, but the events were set in motion by her employment in a clandestine intelligence agency.
 

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Kate Smith ~ God Bless America

[Soaring Feather]

Julia was indeed a grand lady.

I remember one of her cooking shows - she was fixing chicken, she said, “Save the livers” - that phrase showed up on a late night show and became a staple for Julia.

[SandRat]

Yung - Yum.....

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...ready for the new week?

Did your choir perform well? Quartet? Bright and sunny day?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, mountainlion...she was an amazing lady.

How is your winter going? It’s horrible here....cold, warm, cold, warm.

[ConorMacNessa]

Recovery proceeding slowly. I expect to go in tomorrow, but we have an ice storm coming in - they set a two-hour delay for schools here at 5:00 this afternoon, and the storm is not expected to start until after midnight.

We have not yet installed the gate - I haven't been able to do much the last few days and we have had weather issues.

[left that other site]

Just a trio...our guitar player wasn’t feeling well. Probably a cold.

It rained, but we have a lovely tent now! :-)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Is that a fish?

[Kathy in Alaska]

She sure was. Good evening, HJ.

[SandRat]

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, workerbee...who would have thought. Quite a gain for the OSS.

[ConorMacNessa]

I always enjoyed watching her on TV - she was great at improvising when things did no go according to plan - probably got that from her background in intelligence work.

[left that other site]

I enjoyed her program too...and i don’t even like to cook! LOL!

She had a terrific sense of humor.

[dfwgator]

How many only know of her because of this classic SNL skit?

https://screen.yahoo.com/french-chef-000000398.html

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, EX...((HUGS))

Hope you’ve had a nice weekend.

[ConorMacNessa]

Good evening, ML!

*HUGS*

If I recall correctly, her shows were recorded at her home in Connecticut, and the overhead views were an innovation in cooking shows.

Her shows were informative and great fun - she was unpretentious, unlike some who now perform.

I have known for many years of her service in the OSS in WWII - like most of the WWII vets I have known, you would hear nothing of it out of her own mouth.

[left that other site]

It was one of the first thoughts that went through my head!

Bon Apetit!

[left that other site]

She was the first cooking show that “made it”. Now they have entire channels dedicated to food!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Off to Costco to pick up a cake. Back in a bit.

[ConorMacNessa]

A classic - I remember it well!