Who could have imagined that cake could cause a Cold War Era international incident? Here’s a piece of [del]cake[/del] Forgotten History for the Dopers to nibble on.
The Operation Crossroads tests were the biggest media story of 1946, so it was only fitting that the dissolution of the team that produced the show would spark one final media storm. The entire function would have occurred without notice had it not been for the presence of a photographer from the prestigious Harris & Ewing Studio.[1] What triggered the controversy was a picture that the commander of the Task Force, Vice Admiral William H.P. Blandy, and his wife posed for with Rear Admiral Frank J. Lowry. In it, the so-called “Atomic Admiral” is seen cutting into an elaborately engineered “mushroom cloud”-topped cake (with token assistance from Mrs. Blandy) while Lowry looks on with a smile. The unusual pastry was there in the first place because of an order to an East St. Louis, Illinois bakery by Lieutenant John T. Holloway, a member of Blandy’s staff. “It was strictly a business request,” said Eugene Kuehn to the Associated Press at the time. Kuehn, with the help of a bakery supply salesman named L.Y. Stephens, designed the strange looking dessert and had it delivered by car to Washington.
Soviet Papers Comment on ‘Atom’ Cake
And it goes into Cloud Cukoo-Koo Land from there.
Read the link.
One must remember that this was near the time Admiral Halsey said, (when we are finished with them) “the only place Japanese will be spoken is in Hell!”
lieu
September 9, 2010, 4:43pm
5
Not only did the Ruskies close the cake gap, it wasn’t long before they were producing them like sausages.
Munch
September 9, 2010, 6:24pm
6
Hmmm…sausage cakes? I like the concept, but I’m going to pass.