THE GOOD PROVIDER: H. J. Heinz and His 57 Varieties

by Robert C. Alberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 1973

As Captains of Industry go, Mr. Heinz was a nice man. With a nice wife, Sally, and nice children and a pickle and ketchup and horseradish business that grew and prospered into a vast factory complex on the Allegheny where Harry Heinz provided his workers with a restaurant and rest rooms and a roof garden and a concert hall and even a swimming pool. Unlike the other ""Lords of Pittsburgh"" -- Carnegie, Frick, Mellon and Westinghouse -- ""the Pickle King"" with his reddish muttonchop whiskers, benevolent paternalism and Protestant work ethic made few enemies and many friends; he even supported the enactment of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act for which Alberts would like to give him a gold star or a medal or maybe just a big pat on the back. Indeed Alberts appreciates afl his virtues and good works including the six-storey neon pickle Heinz put up on Fifth Avenue and the reading room and bronze statues and porcelain vases featured in the Heinz Ocean Pier at Atlantic City. Presumably to get the flavor of the man he quotes (and quotes and quotes and quotes) from his diary excerpts: ""Bought a nice 1275-pound, seven year bay mare. . . . Lice destroyed 40 acres of cabbage. . . . Very busy training salesmen how to talk vinegar. My assistant can't warm them up on the subject."" Maybe the problem is that villains and exploiters make for livelier biography, because, like that assistant, we just couldn't warm up to the subject either. Too bland.

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION