Publications and Book Reviews

By: Art Louderback, chief librarian, Senator John Heinz History Center's Library & Archives

They Flew Proud
By Jane Gardner Birch
(Nappanee, Ind.: Evangel Publishing House, 2007)
Illustrations, bibliography, index, 190 pp., $35.00 hardcover

Traveling on Interstate 79, you may have noticed gliders and parasail flyers near the Grove City exit. This is what remains of Grove City’s important aviation history. The small Grove City Airport became part of a vocational education program to train pilots known as the Civilian Pilot Training Program in 1939. It was transformed during World War II as a vehicle to teach pilots for the war effort. The program trained nearly 500 pilots during the war. After the war, the airport slowly fell into disrepair and was finally replaced by a newer airport.

Nickelodeon City: Pittsburgh at the Movies, 1905-1929
By Michael Aronson
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008)
Illustrations, bibliography, index, xvii, 300 pp., $35.95 hardcover

One of Pittsburgh’s many innovations was the first motion picture house, the Nickelodeon. Aronson follows the emergence of the film industry in the city, describing the growth of new theaters and the industry itself. Many of the heads of Hollywood’s major studios came through Pittsburgh before they moved on to California. Much of the research for this book came from the Pittsburgh Motion Picture Bulletin, a unique local trade journal that captured the growth of film in the area.

The Heinz Tomato Ketchup Cookbook
By Paul Hartley
(Berkeley, Calif.: Ten Speed Press, 2008)
Illustrations, index, 85 pp., $12.95 hardcover

This is a good cookbook for cooks who want to use the most well known Pittsburgh food product: Heinz ketchup. Heinz ketchup is known and sold worldwide. Hartley has many interesting recipes interspersed with intriguing facts and trivia about the product. There are also classic advertisements and a timeline of ketchup bottles.