Silent star Marie Prevost serves up a tasty summer salad.
Marie Prevost was a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty and starred in several light comedies. Director Ernst Lubitsch cast her in three of his comedies The Marriage Circle, Three Women and Kiss Me Again. In the late 20s, Prevost was beset by personal problems including being let go from Warner Bros, the death of her mother and the collapse of her marriage. She was relegated to supporting roles and co-starred in several pre-codes including Three Wise Girls with Jean Harlow, Paid starring Joan Crawford and Ladies of Leisure opposite Barbara Stanwyck. Prevost suffered an untimely death due to her battle with alcoholism, weight problems and depression. She died in poverty and this prompted the founding of the Motion Picture & Television Country Home, which continues to this day.
Recipe
This recipe is from the Photoplay Cookbook of 1927 issued by Photoplay Magazine.
Fritzi Kramer of Movies Silently boldly goes down roads I don't dare to travel. She made the mayonnaise dressing and said the results were pretty awful. Click HERE to read all about it.
In any case, Laini and I decided to focus on the fruit salad part.
Ingredients
1 can white Royal Anne cherries
*(We couldn't find them at my grocery store and had to settle for regular cherries.)
4 slices of pineapple
1 lb. of malaga grapes
1/2 cup filbert meats (Now called Hazelnuts.)
We made our own whipping cream and added a bit of orange zest.
Directions
Drain cherries and pineapple. With knife pit cherries and re-fill with a filbert. Cut up the pineapple into small pieces. Cut grapes in half and remove seeds. Place in large mixing bowl and fold in whipping cream.
Special Guests
A native of Austin, Texas, Laini Giles grew up the daughter of bookworms, and became a Nancy Drew devotee early on. When she realized there might be no escape from hairy tarantulas and bad guys with guns, she decided to write about them instead, finishing her first mystery novel with custom illustrations when she was eight.
A graduate of the University of North Texas, she put the writing on hold for a while when real life got in the way (i.e.—she met and married her Canadian husband and headed north for maple-flavored goodies and real beer). She highly recommends moving to another country and not being able to work for a year for finishing any novels you may have laying around.
Laini lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her cat, Lily.
Video
Final Result
This turned out well. It tastes much better than it looks! As you can see in the video, I ate lots of it. It was easy to make and a perfect fruit salad for the summer season.
Unfortunately there aren't lots of Marie Prevost silents on DVD, but you can find Ernst Lubitsch's The Marriage Circle and several of the pre-codes where she has supporting roles. Her films turn up on Youtube from time to time as well.
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