For a series of years in the 1960s "Hello Neighbor" was carried on both radio station
850 KOA-AM and
KOA-TV Channel 4. Through it,
KOA sponsored a community cookbook based on the call-in show. It ran 10:30 to noon Monday through Friday for most of it's existence. It had two hosts over those years. Host Merrie Lynn began in 1966 and was preceded by the original host Maxine Mulvey who did the program until 1962. Merrie stuck with the show for 10 years and ended up in the Colorado Broadcasting Hall of Fame. She also married a former governor of Colorado.She went on to have her own "Merrie Lynn Show" on
KOA-TV. She is probably the same Merrie Lynn that was on
630 KHOW-AM prior to 1963 also in Denver.
The cook books came out starting in 1960 and continued until about 1968. The one pictured above is from 1966. The ones below from 1960, 1962, 1965 and 1967. The program began in about 1960, and was broadcast usually from the
Elitch Gardens amusement park. It still exists but is somewhat modernized. The show had guests including the unexpected like Charleton Heston. It wasn't exclusively about cooking, it was also about other household-related paraphernalia.
The show ran until at least 1968 as there are no cook books that date after that. But other information puts the show as running until as late as 1974. Cooking shows are among the most poorly documented radio programs, so in these cases the most information we have is typically from the cook books they sponsored.
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What fun. My wife grew up on Deer Trail and didn't know Julia Child, but she knew Maxine Mulvey, Hello Neighbor, and her mom got the cookbooks from her sister in law as a gift each year.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to find your blog!
Thanks for this post. I was just looking at my 1962 version of the cookbook. Speaking of Denver radio, remember Evan Slack? He was the farm reporter. I can still hear his voice.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me more about Evan Slack, I'm not familiar.
ReplyDeleteWould anyone have a copy of the 1964 cook book. It was on a top spiral and the one page I love is missing. It is page 18 and 19 and the recipe is for the chocolate covered cherry cake
ReplyDeleteI moved to Colorado from Missouri in 1961 as a new bride who knew very little about cooking and especially high altitude cooking. "Hello Neighbor" was a wonderful program for me. I have the 1967 cookbook which is stained and dog-eared from many years of use. Does anyone know what has happened to Merrie Lynn? Was Lynn her last name?
ReplyDeleteMerrie Lhynn Junkin of radio fame, married Colorado Gov. Vanderhoff, however, they divorced after 2 years. I was looking for some sort of information on her, but unable to locate anything, other than the obituary of the former Gov, who died in September 2013. I have 4 of the cookbooks--gifts from my mother who was an ardent fan of hers and Maxine's. I was a teenager at the time.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, Merrie Lynn is my grandma! I've only recently discovered how famous she was - She had let me go through a few old photo albums of hers and I found a lot of wonderful photos and a lot of fan mail! She was recognized by the BPC Hall of Fame in 2002. She's retired now - living up in the mountains and enjoying life. Lynn is her second name - she has a different last name now I believe.
ReplyDeleteHi Lea- My name is Dana Mathios and I work for the Colorado Snowsports Museum. In hopes that you get this reply, I'd love to speak to you about your grandmother and some very fascinating ski footage of hers in our collection. Please contact me at dana@snowsportsmuseum.org or give me a ring at (303) 273-5810. Thank you!!!
DeleteShe died in the summer 2017. She lived in a cabin on Santa Clara Road that she owned for many years. She was known as Mary McNabb, at least from the first time I met her in the early 1990's. I knew then she had been Merrie Lynn. She worked for Homeland Security and was gone quite frequently. She worked closely with us on a road dispute with Geneva Glen Camp. I have 4 of her cookbooks which I didn't know I had until recently. The books had belonged to our neighbor who died in 1987. She's missed.
ReplyDeleteThe man who owned the company that made a cleaning solution called Formula 409 told me Denver was their best market because of Merrie Lynn who was their spokesperson in Denver, he gave her much of the credit for their success when they launched. He said they never found a broadcast personality who was as effective. I got to know her when I went back to graduate school at DU and she was in the Governor's Mansion, she was very welcoming and gratious. John Vanderhoof was a drunk, that's why she was forced to divorce him, she was not the reason he lost the Governorship, far from it, from what I could see. I'm grateful for whoever posted here, I found it through Google when she came to mind this morning when I was thinking about Formula 409 and the lack of such a powerful voice on Denver media today.
ReplyDelete