CNJ+ June 2023

HOW TV DINNERS CAME ABOUT By, Pam Teel

In the late 1930’s, a man from West Orange, NJ, named Wil liam L. Maxson, grew too much cauliflower in his New Jersey garden. Not wanting to waste it, he decided to cook it, season it, and freeze it. He was lucky to have a freezer compartment on his refrigerator because back then, not all refrigerators came with a freezer (back in the day, it was commonly known as the ice box). It was a whole year later when he took out the frozen vegetable and heated it up. He was surprised that it still tasted as fresh as the day he put in in the icebox. This was a big surprise to him and led him to start experimenting with freezing other foods as well. Born in 1889, in Minnesota, Maxson graduated from the An napolis Naval Academy in 1921, and served as a midshipman until 1935, when he resigned his commission and entered the private sector. Settling in New Jersey with his wife and three children, he founded the W. L. Maxson Corporation, and be gan churning out inventions. Some of his inventions included; a multiplying machine, toy building blocks, and a robot naviga tor that allowed airplane pilots to calculate their air positions in

In 1947, he also made an exclusive deal with Pan American Airlines and the Sky Plate was served on many commercial flights, but for civilian use, he repackaged and renamed the frozen dinners, the Strato Meal. Meanwhile, Maxson began marketing his frozen dinners to grocery stores and supermarkets and announced plans to ex pand his line of frozen meals to 50 items. He also made plans to sell his Whirlwind ovens to households as well, for $15-$25 dollars. His inventions were featured in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. By 1947, it looked like everything was go ing according to plan. A few specialty stores had even begun selling his frozen meals, but in July 1947, tragedy struck. Wil liam Maxson passed away following an operation. His three children had little interest in continuing his business. They sold off his inventions, thus bringing his company to an end. At least Maxson got to enjoy close to seven years of being the only frozen food company out there, but soon others followed. It was a good time. The war was over, veterans were buying

up new homes, wives didn’t have to work anymore. Most stayed home to take care of the children. Companies started to pop out frozen dinners all over. Quaker States Foods came up with frozen meals to satisfy the working man and busy housewife, all in a light aluminum tray and covered with an aluminum lid. Other frozen dinner companies sprang up, such as Frigi Dinner, Morton’s, Chum King, and Birdseye. Birdseye was freezing fish, and then eventually vegetables since the 1930’s, but since many people did not have a freezer, the idea never took off. None were as successful as Swanson’s. This was a trusted brand and they had the money to advertise, and advertise they did, when in 1953 they launched their own TV dinner. Rumor had it that Swansons was stuck with over 520,000 lbs. of frozen turkey parts left over from after Thanksgiving and they were trying to fig ure out how to get rid of them all. One of their salesmen, Gerry Thomas, on his return from a business flight, most likely a Pan American one, was served one of the Maxson Sky Plates on board and suddenly had an idea. He went back to the Swanson brothers and their multimillions dollar company, pitching the idea of making tv dinners, to use up all the frozen turkey parts. Many people credit him for coming up with the invention of tv dinners, but in fact, it was invented 10 years prior by William Maxson. Thomas did, however, get credited for being the first to call it a TV Dinner. Being that tv’s were a hot item of that era and everyone could afford one, and snack tables were selling out like hotcakes, people got into the habit of eating in front of the tv. The Swanson Company did some marketing and repackaged the cardboard box the dinner came in to look like a tv set. The first frozen food made by the company was a sliced turkey selection in gravy, along with some stuffing and a vegetable. During the last 5 months of 1953, they sold 5,000 frozen turkey tv dinners at 97 cents each. Guess they used up all those turkey parts. In 1954, there were 10 million sold. In 1955, 25 million frozen tv dinners sold. Swanson’s obliterated other companies. At the end of 1955, Swanson’s sold the frozen tv dinner division to Camp bell soup for some stock in Campbells. They no longer had any connection to the tv dinners. By 1960, Campbells made the tv dinners even more ap petizing by adding desserts. How many of you remember saving the dessert See DINNERS on Page 23 

flight. Maxson's success improved dramatically during World War II, when he invented the Maxson Multiple Gun Mount — a mobile pillbox that al lowed allied gunners to safely shoot down enemy aircraft during bombing raids. Over 4,000 were put into use against Germany and Japan. Maxson also thought of a better way to serve those in the military who were living off k- rations, condensed foods, condensed cereals, canned meats, and biscuits. He was already serving his guests at home with his frozen dinners, of fering different meal varieties to his guests. In 1944, Maxson decided to take his idea to the navy. He developed special three section plates containing a meat course and two servings of vegetables. The food was partially cooked, then fro zen. The navy signed a contract with him for the meals. They were quick and easy and best of all, tasty. Servicemen could choose from six different meals: steak, veal cutlets, ham steak, meatloaf, beef stew, and frankfurters with beans. To heat up his frozen sky plates, Maxson created the Maxson Whirlwind Oven. It was made of aluminum and steel and weighed 35 pounds. It heated the food using a 120-volt DC motor, a standard feature on aircraft during the 1940's, and could be powered by gas, kerosene, or electricity. The oven could hold six meals at a time and cook them in about fifteen minutes, half the time of a regular oven. Eventually, Maxson would go on to create a larger whirlwind oven for the Navy where they could heat up 120 dinners at one time. Maxson's secret was a fan installed in the back of the unit that circulat ed hot air around the food. At the time, it was special enough that Popular Science Magazine called it "magic." Nowadays, it's called "forced-convection," and it reduced cooking times in a couple of ways. By adding a fan, Maxson prevented hot air from accumulating in one section of the oven. Instead, it got spread evenly over the food. Moving the air also increased the rate of heat transfer between the air and the food. In an ordinary oven, food absorbs heat through the process of natural convection, the tendency of hot air to rise and cold air to sink. As hot air rises, its energy gets taken in by the food. As the air loses energy, it sinks back down again and gets warmed up by the heating el ement, which causes it to rise and transfer more energy: a typical convection current. Forced convection accelerates this process, blowing the air through a heating element and onto your food. This brings the food into contact with warm air faster and forces it away once it's cooled down.

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