Day 23 of Noirvember: A “Priceless” Thanksgiving

Vincent Leonard Price is known by many (including my own daughters, I learned today) for his horror movie roles and the “rap” narration he performed on Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit record, “Thriller.” For others – like me – he’s strictly a noir man, with standout appearances in Laura (1944), Leave Her to Heaven (1945), The Bribe (1949), His Kind of Woman (1951), The Las Vegas Story (1952), and While the City Sleeps (1956).

He was, as one columnist once termed him, “priceless.”

And Price was also a renaissance man of sorts; his 17-room mansion with his second wife, Mary, was a showplace for the couple’s eclectic art collection, and in 1950, Price was elected to the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles County Museum. The following year, he continued to enhance his reputation in the field of fine arts when he lectured at East Los Angeles College on “The Aesthetic Responsibilities of the Citizen,” and later donated 90 pieces of his personal art collection to the school. The Vincent Price Art Museum is still housed at the institution in Monterey Park, California, containing artwork valued at several million dollars.

During the next several decades, Price continued to evidence his passion for fine arts through a variety of methods; he demonstrated his impressive knowledge of art of the popular quiz show, The $64,000 Question; opened the Modern Institute of Art with such fellow art-lovers as Edward G. Robinson and Fanny Brice; worked for more than a decade as an art buyer for Sears Roebuck and Company; provided the narration for two art documentaries, Pictura (1952) and The Ancient Maya (1952); edited or authored several volumes on art, including I Like What I Know (1959), The Michelangelo Bible (1965), and The Vincent Price Treasury of American Art (1972); and served as a member of such art-related organizations as the Latin Arts and Crafts Board of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Art Council of the University of California at Los Angeles, the Whitney Museum Friends of American Arts, and the Fine Arts Committee of the White House. In concert with Price’s love for fine arts, the actor demonstrated a zeal for the culinary arts as well, and wrote, with his wife, Mary, three books on cooking, A Treasury of Great Recipes (1965), National Treasury of Cooking (1967), and The Come Into the Kitchen Cookbook (1969).

Whew!

To salute the culinary artist in Price, and to celebrate Thanksgiving the Noirvember way, I’m serving up a recipe from Price’s cookbook A Treasury of Great Recipes. It’s from the Thanksgiving Day 1963 menu from Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in South Sudbury, Massachusetts. Enjoy!

Cornmeal Muffins (makes 16 muffins)

1. Preheat oven to hot (400 degrees F).

2. Mix and sift: 1 cup cornmeal, 2 cups flour, 1 ½ tablespoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ cup sugar.

3. Gradually beat in: 1 ½ cups milk, 2 eggs well beaten, and 1 ½ tablespoons melted butter.

4. Bake in buttered muffin pans in the hot oven for about 25 minutes.

5. Remove from pans and serve warm.

Happy Thanksgiving, y’all – and join me tomorrow for Day 24 of Noirvember!

~ by shadowsandsatin on November 23, 2023.