In this episode we feature accomplished food writer and pie maker, Cathy Barrow. Cathy shares how in her younger years, she was driven by her interest in Hollywood stars and New York socialites. So when Andy Warhol comes to dinner at her family’s home, this would be her chance to become a star!
In this episode we feature accomplished food writer and pie maker, Cathy Barrow. Cathy shares how in her younger years, she was driven by her interest in Hollywood stars and New York socialites. So when Andy Warhol comes to dinner at her family’s home, this would be her chance to become a star!
Story District's podcast brings you hilarious, heartfelt, and thought-provoking true stories told live on the Story District stage. Host Amy Saidman goes behind the scenes with the storytellers to hear more about what it takes to tell a great story.
In our third season, we bring you I Did It for the Story. All new episodes will feature true stories told live on the Story District stage and insights about storytelling from Host and Story District founding director, Amy Saidman.
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Andy Warhol: Starmaker with Cathy Barrow
Amy Saidman: What's up everyone. I'm Amy Saidman and this is I did it for the story, the podcast for people who love storytelling. I'm the director of story district. At Story District, we help people like you become great storytellers on stage, at work, and in life. And in this podcast, you'll hear some of our very favorites, true stories told live on the Story District stage.
In this week's episode, we feature Cathy Barrow, a food writer, cooking teacher, and pie maker. For over a decade, Cathy was a regular contributor to the Washington Post's food section, and she's written for many other publications. She's also written several books, including This first one is so hard to say.
I'm going to try Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Practical Pantry. It's like a tongue twister. She's also published Pie Squared, When Pies Fly, and my favorite title, Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish. We're so glad we got to have Cathy on our stage, and I'm excited to share her story with you now. So let's get to it.
This week's featured storyteller, Cathy Barrow.
Cathy Barrow: I was born in Toledo, Ohio. From the moment I could walk, I was planning my escape. I fueled this with a pretty constant diet of old Hollywood movies and Life Magazine. Back in the 60s, Life Magazine was kind of like Instagram, where it was filled with aspirational photographs. For me, that meant... Hollywood stars, New York socialites, and Jackie Kennedy.
You see, I felt certain that I was destined to be a star. So I studied those pictures for my future in Hollywood. I had a lot of time on my hands. My mother was an English professor at the University of Toledo. She taught six sections of freshman English. So she was really busy. But I treasured those pictures.
Every week, we would sit down and we would watch The French Chef together. Julia Child brought us together in our TV room, where Mom would sit with a pad of paper and a pencil to capture the recipe. You know, if you didn't do that, you had to send a self addressed stamped envelope to WGBH in Boston. It would take a month for the recipe to come to us.
but we had no patience for that. So mom would write, was that a half a teaspoon? And I'd say, yes, that was half a teaspoon. She'd have it all down. Afterwards, we would go to the kitchen. We wouldn't necessarily cook that recipe, but we would cook something. And these were some of the most wonderful moments of my childhood.
So, all of this really came together. My desire to be a star, my fascination with celebrity. and my interest in cooking the night that Andy Warhol came to dinner. Now, you may wonder what Andy Warhol was doing in Toledo, Ohio, in 1966. He had gone through his soup can phase, he'd gone on to Maryland, and now he had joined with the Velvet Underground to do something called performance art.
He had said to anybody in America that he would bring this performance art to their city if they would pay him. My mother's students, desirous to be out of Toledo perhaps, um, were very interested in getting Andy there. So they held bake sales and car washes and everything else to raise the money. So Andy was coming to Toledo and for my mother, this was an opportunity for a dinner party.
Dinner parties in the 60s, kind of a competitive sport. My mother went every weekend with my dad, dressed in a fancy dress, and dad had a suit on. They would drink imported wine, they would eat fancy food. And this time, it was her party, with a person from New York. So the table was all set. Mom had planned for weeks.
There were lists on the refrigerator. She'd practiced the food.
For me, I'd done some planning too. This was my ticket out. Obviously, Andy Warhol would take one look and see the star within. So the night of the party, my mother is wearing a long black caftan, it had primary colored circles on it, her hair's up in a French twist, I had a little gold dress with white collar and cuffs, my favorite, and I was serving.
It was the cocktail hour. My mother was famous for her frilled toothpick with a piece of salami, a piece of cheese, and an olive. She put it on the platter and out I went to the living room. I'm working my way through the living room, basically aiming for Andy. Shock of white hair, thick glasses, this slim tie.
I was definitely going to spend some time over there, so I get close to him. I offer him an appetizer. I'm looking. Does he see? Can he tell? Is that star quality shining out of me? I went back to the kitchen. It was time to serve dinner. The plate was made, and I carried them out one by one. And we got to Andy, and I sat down his plate, and I stood there.
Maybe a little too long, can he tell? At this point I decided, certainly he wouldn't be rude and disrupt the dinner to talk to my mother about me, maybe later. I went back to the kitchen and through the swinging door watched the party continue. All the people around the table were extolling the virtues of Toledo.
I think I saw him roll his eyes. When it came time for dessert, mom came back to the kitchen. She'd been planning Cherry's Jubilee. That was a fairly common dessert at the time, simple but fancy, if you get it. It was sweetened cherries, doused in liquor, lit on fire, and then spooned while still flaming over the vanilla ice cream.
Mom had the cherries ready, she had the booze, she had the matchbook, she doused it in liquor. As she lit the match, my timid mother stepped back, stepped back, lit the match, tossed it across the room. We watched it arc up in the air, extinguish, and drop into the cherries. One. After another, there were a dozen dead matches in the top.
Mom, I've got this. I plucked those matches out, I grabbed the matchbook, threw more booze on there, lit it on fire. I was so triumphant. My mother was so relieved. She took the bowl of flaming cherries into the dining room. Everybody went, Whoa! You know, that's what people do when you carry something on fire into a room.
I was sent to bed, certain that Andy would mention to my mother that it was time for me to get to Hollywood. But when I woke up in the morning, she didn't say anything to me. So I waited, maybe he was going to write a letter. Weeks went by, nothing. But one day, I was sitting in the TV room, I was looking through my beloved Life magazine, and I hear my mother in the kitchen.
I don't know, Barbara, I guess this is performance art. How am I going to tell my students? What do you think? I knew she was talking about Andy. I rushed to the kitchen, Mom, Mom, what is it? Barbara, I have to go. Cathy, I have something terrible to tell you. I had no idea what it could be. Cathy, that wasn't Andy Warhol.
He sent an imposter. An imposter? Wh why would he do that? What? I don't under I but oh. That's why he didn't know I was a star. It wasn't the real Andy Warhol. Do you think if it had been, I'd be a star today? Thank you.
Amy Saidman: No doubt Andy would definitely have seen Cathy’s star power, if only it had really been him. Thank you so much to our storyteller, Cathy Barrow. This story was a great example of trying to find what to tell a story about it all. Right? So some people think, oh, I don't have any stories to tell, but if you just dig a little, you can find it.
And one of the biggest questions you want to ask yourself is. What mattered to me? What was a thing that I was invested in that I cared about, that I wanted? That is a question we ask all the time in our classes and in our coaching. And you might be surprised what you remember or what you rediscover.
So this was a story about when she was young. It's not something she necessarily thinks about all the time. It's not the most defining moment of her life, but at the time it mattered. So it actually doesn't matter, you know, in terms of choosing a story, it doesn't need to matter to you now. It just needed to matter to you at some point, and then it is your job as the storyteller to get us to understand your point of view to relate to why it mattered to you.
So, you know, I personally think Cathy does a great job of doing that. I was totally invested in her becoming a star, but also. in this dinner going well and her impressing Andy Warhol. And so she got me to care and that is your job as a storyteller as well.
So I hope this story is getting you to think about your own stories.
Story District can help you. We have classes, coaching and consulting online and in person. You can visit our website, join our mailing list. And follow us on social media. In the meantime, subscribe to this podcast, tell your friends about it. And please, if you have the time and you're feeling good about this, this episode, leave a review until next time I'm Amy Saidman, and this is, I did it for the story.