Comments on: The Road to Wellville

By: Mike Daisey and the Truth : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:46:14 +0000

[...] be telling a true story, but that charge turns out to be just artifice and manipulation–like Dr. Harvey Kellogg’s many electrical vibrators and stimulating devices. And nothing disgusts me more than this kind of professional dishonesty and [...]

By: J mcdonald

J mcdonald — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:07:51 +0000

Another trivia fact. John H Kellogg invented breakfast cereal to serve to attendees at his health center as an alternative to eggs and bacon. His brother W K Kellogg wanted to mass market the idea. A big court fight. WK won. JH the brains behind inventions and cereal died of rather modest means, his brother, a multi millionare.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:57:06 +0000

p.s.

Has anyone read Susan Grey’s _The Yankee West_, (UNC Press, 1996), set in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek vicinity, and about the cultural influence of migratory New Englanders on the landscape at the community level? I’m generally very skeptical of prevalent-to-even- hegemonic claims about Yankee cultural conquest from “Wyoming” (PA) to Willamette, but most cliches have at least some degree or kernel of truth in them. Maybe Historiann, who studies New England and has lived in the Old Northwest has a different take on this question.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:43:09 +0000

Huh. In childhood, I ate through at least ten acre-feet (a ten acre bowl filled a foot deep) of Kelloggs products without learning *any* of this interesting history. Even today, Special K is the official cereal of the Indyanna household and all you get on the box are perky weight-watching tips. I imagine the name “Battle Creek” would add yet another layer of backstory to the modern day cardboard empire.

By: Clio Bluestocking

Clio Bluestocking — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:40:10 +0000

Seems a lot of women back in the old days figured out that “room of one’s own” thing. At the Judith Sargent Murray house museum in Gloucester, they show a tiny little closet to which she would retreat to write.

Yeah, the Wellville movie was not good, trivializing and sensationalizing the kookier aspects at the expense of any understanding of the purpose or context of the sanitarium. It also served as a showcase for Anthony Hopkins’ cartoon of Kellogg.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:12:43 +0000

Thank, KC–I’ll stick to the book, then. (I really want to read his new one, too!)

By: Knitting Clio

Knitting Clio — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:00:10 +0000

I’ve read the book and seen the movie. I thought the book was among T.C. Boyle’s best — well written and pretty accurate (although because it’s satire, is over the top at times). The movie was not that good despite having a fine set of actors.