Kate Aitken

Kate Aitken (April 6, 1891 – December 11, 1971) was a Canadian radio and television broadcaster in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. As Mrs. A, she was one of the most famous hosts on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in her era.[1]

Early Life

Aitken, born Kate May Scott, was the first of seven children of Anne (nee Kennedy) and Robert Scott in Beeton, Ontario.[2] She worked as an entrepreneur, teacher and journalist both before and after marrying local businessman Henry Aitken in 1914. Kate and Henry had two children, Mary and Anne. Henry ran a mill and Kate established a poultry farm and canning business.

Career

In 1923, she set up a “Country Kitchen” in the Women’s Building of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto.[2] She subsequently taught cooking, including at the Canadian National Exhibition, where she served as director of the Women's Division from 1938 to 1952.

Until 1928, she worked for the Ontario Department of Agriculture speaking to rural women about farming.[2]

Radio Broadcaster

She was offered a radio show in 1934, when a broadcaster at CFRB in Toronto broke her leg and the station manager needed an emergency replacement. The show was syndicated to other radio stations, and was eventually picked up by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1948. From 1945-1957, Aiken aired three radio broadcasts a day and in 1950, an estimated 32 per cent of Canadians listening to the radio were tuned into Kate Aitken when she was on the air.[3]She was so popular that she received 260,000 letters, 150 speeches during the course of a year and 22 secretaries to manage the workload.[2]

She was supervisor of conservation for the Consumers Branch, Wartime Prices and Trade Board during World War Two. In August of 1945, she took a six-week tour of the British Isles and the Continent at the invitation of the British Ministry of Food. The goal of the tour was to learn how Canadian women could help alleviate food shortages in the UK.[2]

Aitken primarily covered homemaking subjects such as cooking and etiquette, but also did some documentary journalism, including a profile of Hungarian refugees in 1956. Also, in an era when research was difficult and time consuming, Aitken would find answers to difficult questions, explaining to one Saskatoon woman the procedures for moving herself and her assets to the USA to be with her American husband. Aitken also became an early host on CBC television, and wrote newspaper columns and books. When not covering homemaking, she also interviewed powerful world leaders such as Benito Mussolini, Hitler, King George VI, Mackenzie King, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lester Pearson.[4] In 1927, when meeting Mussolini, she talked him into an order for Canadian wheat.[5]

In 1950, Maclean's published an article about Kate Aitken, entitled “The Busiest Woman in the World.”[6]

She retired in 1957, but continued to work for UNICEF, and served on the CBC's board of directors. She published her childhood memoirs, Never a Day So Bright, in 1957.[3] She died in Mississauga in 1971, having lived for many years on property that she ran briefly as a spa, on a bend of Mississauga Road, south of Streetsville. She is buried in Beeton United Church Cemetery.[2]

Legacy

In June of 1973, 1,000 people gathered in Beeton Park, New Tecumseth, Canada as the Beeton Women’s Institute placed a plaque in memory of Aiken.[7]

References

  1. ↑ One of Canada's best-known radio voices and a traveller who covered more than 2 million miles, Globe & Mail. December 13, 1971.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Elizabeth Driver (5 April 2008). Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949. University of Toronto Press. pp. 806–. ISBN 978-1-4426-9060-8.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Kate Aitken: Mrs. A in Paris". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  4. ↑ "Stalin, Mao and your mother’s fruitcake". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  5. ↑ "Kate Aitken: Notable women of 1948". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Kate Aitken: The jetsetter". Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "And now here's Mrs. A... Kate Aitken's Story". virtualmuseum.ca. Retrieved 27 April 2015.

External links