The 1950s: When Pizza was New and Exotic

The closest business to my house is a pizza place, and there's another pizza outlet next door to it. It's hard to believe there was ever a time when pizza wasn't ubiquitous in America, but when I was a child, the only pizza available was in a kit from Chef Boy-Ar-Dee. In the 1950s, Americans outside of major cities were mostly unfamiliar with pizza. Travelers wrote about it, and it was gradually introduced to the more rural parts of the country. However, to eat one back then, you had to make it yourself. That could go wildly off the rails in some cases. See more newspaper clippings and some advice for making this strange new food called pizza at Boing Boing.