Savage Renewal: Hollywood Health Foods Gourmet Recipes of Hawaii

I picked up this little beaut in an antique mall in Los Angeles a couple years ago. It's an October 1963 promotional brochure for Hollywood Health Foods, purveyors of fine safflower oil-based products such as margarine, mayonnaise, and well, oil. It features "55 EXOTIC RECIPES Based on Traditional Island Foods" (for example: Cheese 'N Pineapple Pupus, which are chunks of pineapple, dipped in mayonnaise, and rolled in cheddar cheese and coconut -- yum!). It's also got a bunch of great, full-color photos of spreads of luau-licious delicacies, with safflower oil products strategically placed. Special bonus: "Story of Hawaiian Foods & Polyunsaturates","How to Give a Luau","Background of Hawaiian Fresh Fruits" and "Gourmet Tour to Hawaii". Partners in the brochure include the Fruit Shippers of Hawaii and Pan American World Airways.

Enjoy!

:up: 35 cents, but a bargain at any price. Check out Diamond Head in the distance!

:up: I love the artwork in this booklet. This is a great summary of the view of Hawaii in the '60s: "Hawaiian cooking is as exotic and entertaining as a Pacific cruise -- and just as American as our 50th State!"

:up: "A variety of 'Pupus' or Hawaiian hors d'oeuvres is set on sands of Waikiki Beach, to Hula accompaniment." How very elegant. And a bottle of SAF-FLOWER OIL is a must for any trip to the beach.

:up: Note that the aforementioned Cheese 'N Pineapple Pupus actually call for not just mayonnaise, but luau mayonnaise, which is described on this page as being mayonnaise mixed with pineapple juice and maraschino cherry juice, blended to a "smooth pink color." Yum!

:up: A Hukilau! With Lau Lau! Of course, made with Hollywood Health Foods 100% Saf-flower Oil Margarine.

:up: The recipes on this page actually look pretty edible. How boring... moving right along...

:up: "Be sure to have the Hawaiian music playing in the background -- maybe someone knows the hula!"

:up: Hmmm... more edible foods... let's keep moving...

:up: This could be where your mother learned her pineapple thumping technique. Has anyone actually seen canned poi at their mainland supermarket? Was that really common in the early '60s?

:up: In the '60s, it wasn't a salad without the mayonnaise. Also, note the beverages: carrot juice & sherbet, but no spirits. Bah!

:up: When visiting the local papaya farm, don't forget to bring your own box of 100% Safflower Oil Margarine!

:up: I love this whole paragraph: "With this new enthusiasm for fresh Hawaiian fruits, Island growers and shippers are working around the clock to open new volcanic jungle lands to production. New packing and shipping facilities are appearing and with expansion of jet transportation to additional islands, the mainland housewife can look forward to a most rewarding and flavorful future in the Hawaiian fresh fruit industry -- as exotic as the Polynesian islands themselves."

:up: The whole Hollywood Health Foods lineup. Thank you, Hollywood Health Foods!

Great find, Humuhumu. Gotta love that product placement in the photos !

Nice find. Thanks for the great pics.

I was always under the impression that one "throws" a luau- not "gives" a luau. Shows what little I know...

Mmmmmmmmmmm.... Coconut Pudding and Molokai Fruit Squares!!!!

Mahalo Humuhumu!

What's Hawaiian for "Polyunsaturates"? :)

Those same recipes and photos can be found inside this cookbook distributed by the Richfield Petroleum Co.:

I have a copy with a nearly identical cover of the Richfield Petroleum Co but it is published by Pacifica House and the writing on the bottom says 180 Traditional Island Recipes and Luau Favorites, History of Hawaiian Cuisine and Cooking Methods, 16 Pages of Full Color Polynesian Food Photographs. The funny thing is they seem to have added the bottles of Safflower oil in Humus copy. In my edition they are mysteriouslly missing other than that the photos are identical. Did they have photoshop back then?

That's so strange! I'd love to see the other photos, and see which ones are obviously doctored. "Exclusively for Richfield" -- hmmm....

This brochure brings back a lot of memories. Even though I grew up in the '70s and '80s, my parents were stuck in the early '60s and were greatly influenced by ideas like those promoted in this brochure. My Mom always had a bottle of Hollywood Health Foods SAF-FLOWER OIL for baking, and we used their Mayonnaise, too, as it was supposed to be healthy. My Dad always longed for Hawaii, even though we lived in the freakin' hot Palm Springs desert with no air conditioning!

On 2006-05-02 11:42, Humuhumu wrote:
That's so strange! I'd love to see the other photos, and see which ones are obviously doctored. "Exclusively for Richfield" -- hmmm....

Here they are for comparison...

and this is the same part of the beach on a photo that was taken by Gecko on the Waikikian Thread.

Crazy, man, crazy! Here are close-ups of mine:

Hey! I just noticed that the stance of the man throwing the net out to sea is slightly different in each photo -- looks like when they did the photo shoot, they maybe took some photos with the Hollywood products, and some without, so they could use the photos for other things?

Critiki - Ooga-Mooga - Humu Kon Tiki

[ Edited by: Humuhumu 2006-05-02 17:09 ]

Also the papayas were replaced by lemons and safflower oil in that net throwing photo. Now I want to know if Ookoo lady's Richfield Petroleum Co copy has a can of premium gas by the fruit.

Amazing! Thank you for sharing. I need to scan more of my great mid-century finds...

I just got my first Hawaiian Cookbook yesterday. I have plans to make the Polynesian Meatloaf, Cornish Game Hen on Pineapples, and a few other goodies. :wink: