We celebrated the life of actress and activist Marsha Hunt.
Marsha Hunt co-starred in 50 films between 1935 to 1949 including Pride and Prejudice starring Greer Garson, The Human Comedy with Mickey Rooney and the film noir classic Raw Deal opposite Claire Trevor. Unfortunately she was blacklisted in 1949, which brought her career to a temporary halt. She turned her attention to activism and supported the United Nations, gave lectures for the World Health Organization and worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless in Southern California. Later she found work in television and in 1960 she wrote and produced the documentary "A Call From the Stars" about the struggle of refugees. She lived to be 104 years old.
Recipe
This recipe is from the book "Famous Stars Favorite Foods", which was published in 1938 and edited by Fannie Sniff. Obviously we aren't going to call it by the original name of "Chocolate Indians". Instead I'll be calling it Marsha Hunt's Cake Brownies, because that's exactly what this recipe is!
Ingredients
3/4 cup sifted cake flour
1/3 cup butter or shortening
2 squares unsweetened melted chocolate
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnut meats
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder and sift again: Combine sugar and eggs, add the melted chocolate that was well blended with the butter, beating thoroughly together, then flour and baking power that was sifted, then add vanilla and nuts. Pour into greased pan 8x8x2 inches and bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) 35 minutes. Cut into squares before removing from pan. Makes 24 cookies. One additional egg and 1/2 cup dates, seeded and finely cut; may be added to the mixture if desired.
Special Guest
Roger C. Memos has worked in the television industry as a producer and archival researcher for over 30 years. He started his career at Entertainment Tonight and went on to produce talk shows and variety specials. In 2005, he won a Daytime Emmy for producing on the reality series “Starting Over.” He was associate producer on the feature documentary “AKA Tommy Chong” that went to Toronto International Film Festival. In 2010, Roger did archival research for the feature documentary “Jean- Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.” Roger directed and co-produced his first feature documentary “Marsha Hunt’s Sweet Adversity.” The documentary won “Best Documentary Feature” at the Burbank International Film Festival, The Studio City International Film Festival and the Sherman Oaks Film Festival. You can find it on DVD or Amazon Prime Video.
Video
Final Result
This is one of the rare cases when I made a recipe as published and didn't need to make any adjustments. These are very much like a cake while the Katharine Hepburn brownies are very gooey.
There are Marsha Hunt films available on DVD, Streaming and Turner Classic Movies.
On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to meet Marsha Hunt! She wrote a book about fashion called "The Way We Wore" and I got her to autograph my copy.
Larry Edmunds Bookshop has copies of "The Way We Wore" signed by Marsha! Get your copy while they last!
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