Duncan Hines (12 page)

The second edition to
Adventures in Good Eating
was published early in 1937, and for the second year in a row, Hines lost money on it, but by a much smaller margin. The second edition, which now listed almost 500 new restaurants, sold 16,000 copies. “Aside from [his] traveling expenses and the cost of a tremendous personal correspondence, [Hines] managed to lose only $584.” The biggest factor for the much narrower loss on the second edition was his decision to raise the price to $1.50. In addition, as month followed month, word-of-mouth slowly closed the gap between
deficit and profit. He published a third edition of
Adventures in Good Eating
in the early summer of 1937, and from this point forward, his profit and loss ledger remained comfortably in the black, much to his relief.
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A look at some surviving invoices for which the E. Raymond Wright Company billed Hines for its printing services between August and December 1937 gives a glimpse into the nature of what it cost Duncan Hines to produce his guidebook. In mid-August, Hines ordered 1,000 copies of a booklet that he wrote entitled “A Frank Statement,” a publication that advertised his unimpeachable character. Hines gave these booklets away at appropriate opportunities in his travels to interested individuals and institutions. This was part of his continuing campaign to introduce and sell himself to the public. Wright charged him $34.52 for these booklets.
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Another order in late September for 5,009 additional units of the third edition of
Adventures in Good Eating
cost Hines $799.07.
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Hines had other printing expenses besides the book. A mid-November invoice for 1,000 questionnaires cost Hines $52.87. The purpose of these questionnaires was to obtain new restaurant information and to receive updated facts and figures on those establishments previously listed.
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Wright charged Hines similar or higher amounts for stationery and envelopes. In addition to what Wright charged him, his business expenses included, stamps, secretarial salaries, meals, and gasoline, as well as a host of other incidental expenses. Hines may have made some money on each book, but when his profit and loss statements are examined, it is easy to see that his income was not a stupendous figure. The money he earned from his venture was just enough to provide his wife and himself with a comfortable middle-class existence.

Although Hines increasingly found it harder to devote less time to the printing firm, Wright let his enterprising employee use his business address through at least December 1937. Although Wright was a stockholder, his meager $200 investment cannot fully justify his favorable treatment of his employee. Only a deep friendship can explain a business relationship like this one. On the penultimate page in the second edition of
Adventures in Good Eating
, Hines
wrote that “the publication of this book would have been a far less delightful enterprise without the enthusiastic cooperation of my business colleague, Mr. E. Raymond Wright…. Instead of regarding it as an intrusion, Mr. Wright could not have been more interested in it had it been his own project.”
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Hines did not officially leave the Wright firm until sometime after March 1938, when he could safely predict the continual success of his venture.
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The second edition of
Adventures in Good Eating
contained a few improvements over the first. Whereas the first edition listed 475 restaurants, the second edition listed 1,250. The interior pages were marked by a heavier, more serious-looking typeface. The new edition even listed Hines's home phone number on the first page: (MONroe 0006).
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A slightly altered introduction to the book written by Hines was included, which concluded with these words: “PLEASE NOTE. If you find any place listed in this book that should definitely be eliminated from future editions I shall appreciate your advice in detail.”
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Another new feature in the second addition was the listing of twenty-six of his “dinner detectives.” Those listed included Cameron Beck, the director of the New York Stock Exchange Institute; Gordon McCormick, a life-long friend; Gluyas Williams, the cartoonist; Forrest A. MacGibbon of Marshall Field & Co.; C.A. Patterson of
Hotel Monthly and Restaurant Management
magazine; and Frank J. Wiffle, secretary of the National Restaurant Association.
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This select group eventually grew to 300-400 volunteers who constantly monitored the restaurants Hines listed. Not only did they keep him apprised of the places he recommended, they were constantly searching for new discoveries. One of Hines's most enthusiastic dinner detectives was a young millionaire who, in the late 1930s, had the pleasure of traversing the ends of the earth for him, tirelessly searching for the best in mashed potatoes. The young man, a native of the western United States, frequently telephoned Hines at his home, always beginning the conversation by asking how the reprint of “our book” was progressing.
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The dinner detectives came from all walks of life. Corporation executives, bankers, and university professors were just a few occupations that comprised their ranks. One notable detective was Metropolitan opera singer Lawrence Tibbett, a figure popular with the public from the 1920s through the 1950s. Tibbett frequently traveled about America giving concerts. While he and Hines did not see each other socially, there was much correspondence between the two. Hines was always very grateful when Tibbett recommended a restaurant because he knew the opera star's refined tastes mirrored his own. Another famous dinner detective was radio commentator Mary Margaret McBride.
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With a daily audience of six-million listeners by 1948, McBride was network radio's most-listened-to host of women's programs.
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An attractive heavy-set woman who somewhat resembled Kate Smith, McBride began as a dinner detective in the late 1930s after she interviewed Hines on her CBS radio program. He always tried to appear on her broadcast when he visited New York. Hines had an entertaining persona and McBride was glad to have him as a guest. His genial, almost folksy, manner won him a larger following with every appearance. When he appeared on her program, his many years as a salesperson came in handy. Through the medium of radio, his well-modulated, gentle voice proved a useful instrument when he sold himself and his message to millions of listeners.
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Not long after the first edition of
Adventures in Good Eating
was published, it was prominently featured in a display window in Chicago's Marshall Field department store. Early in the summer of 1936 Warren Gibbs stopped through Chicago while making his seventeenth transcontinental automobile trip across America. While walking by the display window, he discovered Hines's book and immediately bought a copy. He wanted to test it as he made his way to New York. As a result, Gibbs undoubtedly became the most committed of all the dinner detectives. In the introduction to the second volume, Hines recalled Gibbs' enthusiasm for it: “When he read the descriptions I had written about places where he had been, he felt that here was something very much worthwhile for the tourist, for he had never found a travel guide recommending good
eating places upon which he could always depend.” Gibbs was so overjoyed at possessing the book, he took it to heart and made a point to visit as many places in it as he possibly could. After a few weeks, so impressed was he with Hines's uncanny ability to recommend nothing but superior restaurants, he visited him in Chicago on his return trip home.
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Gibbs told him, “You've got something worthwhile here. I've been to many of the places you recommend, and I quarrel with your judgment in only one instance. I had planned to do a book like this, but you've beaten me to it. The book fills a real want, and I'm willing to turn over to you all data I've collected.” He then offered to become a dinner detective. Hines warmly accepted and, as their discussion progressed, he appointed Gibbs his Western Representative for
Adventures in Good Eating
, Inc. and made him his West Coast book distributor. The only thing Gibbs accepted from Hines in the way of payment for his services came in the form of barter: “a bottle or two of rare liquor and a Kentucky country-cured ham.” Therefore, beginning in August 1936, Warren Gibbs drove at least 11,000 miles a year for Hines, and all for the love of letting others know where good meals were to be found.
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There were other restaurant sleuths, all of whom were ardent Duncan Hines supporters. One was Carveth Wells, the well-known explorer and lecturer affiliated with the Conoco Travel Bureau.
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Still another nationally-known figure was Julian Street, a gentleman who specialized in wines. Hines made good use of Street's knowledge of the vineyard. In each edition of the restaurant guide through 1946, Hines included a short, annually updated essay by Street on wines designed to help the prospective diner choose the best recent vintages.
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Although many of the era's celebrities were great resources, his best source for new outstanding restaurants came from the tens of thousands who annually bought his books. They recommended scores of new places for him to investigate, and they warned him when one of his listed establishments was about to change hands or was negligent its responsibilities.
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While the dinner detectives also discovered many comfortable lodgings for travelers to sleep, their primary interest was in locating excellent restaurants. Although hotels and motels had problems, those could be overcome; but an unsuspecting traveler could not overcome a fatal restaurant meal. Therefore, it did not matter that the dinner detectives emanated from all walks of life and practiced thousands of disparate professions. The social glue uniting their gleeful participation in assembling the contents of
Adventures in Good Eating
was their fear of the unsanitary kitchen practices found in restaurants across America. Why should anyone, they reasoned, have to eat from an unwashed plate or drink from a dirty glass or be served unfinished portions from another customer's plate? Why indeed?

Sometime in 1937 Florence Hines went to the doctor and was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. A Christian Scientist,
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she sought no surgery for her troubles and accepted her coming demise as part of the natural order of God's world. Evidence shows, however, that the last year of her life was not spent in agony on a couch or in a bed. Surviving hotel receipts indicate that she accompanied her husband wherever he went, and their travels were frequent and extensive. The final months of Florence's life was one in which no expense was spared. The moments Hines shared with his wife were no doubt ones that were forever cherished by him long after she departed.
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Hines's travel log shows that on 10-11 April 1937, he and Florence were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, visiting several restaurants, most notably Mader's German Restaurant, of which Hines had high praise. He wrote in his guidebook that Mader's was:

unique, not because it is a German restaurant, but because it serves the unusual traditional German dishes you never find in so-called German-American restaurants, [e.g.,] Deutscher Apfel Pfannkuchen, and many others. One of the most popular,
Munchner Kalbshaxen, Deutscher Speckbraten with dumplings, which even the most fastidious enjoy, is fried pork shanks (weighing at least two pounds) with sauerkraut. The shanks are parboiled first and then fried to a beautiful golden brown. Wonderful! And, too, each glass, dish and silver sparkles with cleanliness; they are thoroughly washed and sterilized after each serving.
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Hines so greatly enjoyed Mader's pig shanks, branding them “the best I've ever found,” that he frequently arranged to have a dozen sent to his home.
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One week later (17 April), Hines and Florence drove 40 miles west of Chicago to Geneva, Illinois, to dine at the Mill Race Inn, a pleasant restaurant surrounded by a peaceful setting. The following day (18 April) they drove to Aurora, Illinois for an elaborate feast. They followed this trip three days later with one to nearby Winnetka, Illinois, where they enjoyed the gastronomic amenities of The Hearthstone House near Green Bay Road. This air-conditioned restaurant was, in Hines's words, “one of the outstanding eating places in the Chicago area, managed by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Robertson. Their staff of women cooks is famous…. Evenings you will enjoy a delicious chicken or steak dinner—a man's size meal—with a variety of hot breads and jam…. An unusual treat at luncheon is the Hearthstone fruit salad with their famous French dressing.
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Hines raved about that fruit salad for years, declaring it to be the best he had ever devoured. The following day (22 April) he and Florence took another day trip, this time for a hearty feast in St. Charles, Illinois. On 28 April they were back in Geneva, Illinois, to dine once again, this time at the Little Traveler at 404 Third Street.

Beginning April 30 and continuing through 2 May the Hines took an extended culinary tour, one that led first to Detroit and Cleveland and then back to Chicago, a journey that covered 740 miles and one which left them sated for a fortnight. Not until 15 May did they venture out again, this time to pay another visit to the Hearthstone House. Two days later (17 May) they visited
Bensenville, Illinois, then located 20 miles west of Chicago but which has now been swallowed by urban sprawl. That evening, at the corner of Church and Green Streets, they dined at Plentywood Farm, a rustic restaurant which was “a low log house at the end of the lane with a porch facing a garden.”
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The next day (18 May) they took another short trip, this time to enjoy the culinary joys to be found in suburban Lake Forest, Illinois.