Marilyn Kaytor
Encyclopedia
Marilyn Kaytor was an American
journalist
, editor and author internationally known for writing about cooking, style, and fashion.
. Her father, Arno Hugo Miller, was formerly a clerk in the Chicago Stock Yards and, later, a banking executive. Her mother, Dorcas Harvey Miller, was, at one time, a stenographer in an automobile factory. She attended local schools. In October 1951 she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in home economics
from the University of Illinois
. In 1952 Kaytor moved to New York City to attend graduate school at Columbia University
.
Soon after Kaytor began her career as one of the first journalists to write about food for a mass audience. In the early 1950s she started writing about international cuisine and cooking for newspapers and magazines. This led to a position at Look
magazine, a popular bi-weekly general interest publication.
During the 1960s, Kaytor hired prominent photographers from the fashion world to work on her photo shoots. Among these were Irving Penn
, Hiro
, and Arthur Rothstein
. The visually stunning food layouts were artistic enough to be added to collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
and the Library of Congress
.
At a time when Americans were just starting to wake up to foreign cuisine, notably French
, she told a mass audience about cooking international dishes. She presented stories on food from the West Indies to the Balkans
. For example, when Julia Child
was beginning to make French cooking popular, Kaytor, in 1963, wrote that more than any other culture in the world, the French “have elevated cooking to a fine creative art.” She said, “good food and wine, plus good company and conversation, are as important to the French as the quality of the music they listen to and the paintings they look at.”
, New York
, the Los Angeles Times
, Bon Appétit
, The Saturday Evening Post
, Pageant
, and many others.
In 1975 Kaytor wrote “21” The Life and Times of New York’s Favorite Club. The 175-page illustrated book was published by the Viking Press
to wide acclaim; it remains the definitive book about the 21 Club
.
In 1981 Kaytor traveled to the White House
to write an article for the New York Times about the Family Dining Room
. She described First Lady Nancy Reagan
’s taste: “Yellow is the predominant color, and she has added furniture from her California home, colorful fabrics, needlepoint pillows and a gallery of pictures of family and friends.”
. Maulding later became an anesthesiologist, practicing in Carbondale
.
Kaytor's second husband was painter Albert Kaytor, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
, whom she met at the University of Illinois
. They were married on Feb. 9, 1952, at Queen of All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
. The couple lived in Brooklyn after their wedding. Albert Kaytor, an instructor at Pratt Institute
, rose to become associate art director for CBS
. He died in 1963.
Kaytor became involved with author and journalist Robert Ruark
at this time. She lived in Ruark’s villa in Palamos
, Spain
, and the couple was planning a wedding in 1965 when Ruark died in London of complications from alcoholism. Ruark left his Spanish estate to Kaytor, a bequest that was unsuccessfully challenged by Ruark’s family in court.
Kaytor was married and divorced at least one other time: in the late 1960s to Manhattan art dealer Walter Randel.
, on the Upper East Side
of Manhattan
. Kaytor had lived in the apartment for about thirty years. Firefighters were called to an apartment fire and found Kaytor’s body in bed. The New York Medical Examiner’s office determined that Kaytor had died of natural causes, yet the fire department determined the source of the fire was likely caused by Kaytor smoking in bed.
Kaytor’s remains were returned to her home state of Illinois
for burial.
Following Kaytor’s death, some of the contents of her apartment were sold at auction by Doyle New York
. Among these were twin elephant tusks that had belonged to Robert Ruark for $25,000; an Andy Warhol
piece, Untitled (Gold Shoe) sold for $205,000; and a second Warhol ink and watercolor, Untitled (Floral Still Life), for $145,000.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, editor and author internationally known for writing about cooking, style, and fashion.
Life and career
Kaytor was born Marilyn Miller on July 26, 1929, in Kinmundy, IllinoisKinmundy, Illinois
Kinmundy is a city in Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 892 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Kinmundy is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....
. Her father, Arno Hugo Miller, was formerly a clerk in the Chicago Stock Yards and, later, a banking executive. Her mother, Dorcas Harvey Miller, was, at one time, a stenographer in an automobile factory. She attended local schools. In October 1951 she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in home economics
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
from the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
. In 1952 Kaytor moved to New York City to attend graduate school at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Soon after Kaytor began her career as one of the first journalists to write about food for a mass audience. In the early 1950s she started writing about international cuisine and cooking for newspapers and magazines. This led to a position at Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine, a popular bi-weekly general interest publication.
At Look magazine
For 12 years Kaytor was Look's food editor. In the era before there were professional food writers, Kaytor stood out. She conceived the ideas for her articles, traveled to scout locations, gathered props, tested recipes, and styled the photo shoots. These took her around the world.During the 1960s, Kaytor hired prominent photographers from the fashion world to work on her photo shoots. Among these were Irving Penn
Irving Penn
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.-Early career:Irving Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from which he was graduated in 1938. Penn's drawings were published by Harper's Bazaar and he...
, Hiro
Hiro (photographer)
Yasuhiro Wakabayashi, professionally known as Hiro, is an American commercial photographer. He was born in Shanghai in 1930 to Japanese parents...
, and Arthur Rothstein
Arthur Rothstein
Arthur Rothstein was an American photographer.Rothstein is recognized as one of America’s premier photojournalists. During a career that spanned five decades, he provoked, entertained and informed the American people...
. The visually stunning food layouts were artistic enough to be added to collections in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
and the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
.
At a time when Americans were just starting to wake up to foreign cuisine, notably French
French cuisine
French cuisine is a style of food preparation originating from France that has developed from centuries of social change. In the Middle Ages, Guillaume Tirel , a court chef, authored Le Viandier, one of the earliest recipe collections of Medieval France...
, she told a mass audience about cooking international dishes. She presented stories on food from the West Indies to the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. For example, when Julia Child
Julia Child
Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...
was beginning to make French cooking popular, Kaytor, in 1963, wrote that more than any other culture in the world, the French “have elevated cooking to a fine creative art.” She said, “good food and wine, plus good company and conversation, are as important to the French as the quality of the music they listen to and the paintings they look at.”
Writing career
For almost forty years, Kaytor wrote about food and style. Despite the demise of Look in 1971, Kaytor continued to sell freelance articles. She wrote for the New York Times, EsquireEsquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
, the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Bon Appétit
Bon Appétit
Bon Appétit describes itself as "a food and entertaining magazine" and is published monthly. Named after the French phrase for "Enjoy your meal", it was started by M. Frank Jones in Kansas City in 1956...
, The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
, Pageant
Pageant (magazine)
Pageant was a 20th-century monthly magazine published in the United States from November 1944 until February 1977. Printed in a digest size format, it became Coronet magazine's leading competition, although it aimed for comparison to Reader's Digest....
, and many others.
In 1975 Kaytor wrote “21” The Life and Times of New York’s Favorite Club. The 175-page illustrated book was published by the Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
to wide acclaim; it remains the definitive book about the 21 Club
21 Club
The 21 Club, often simply 21, is a restaurant and former prohibition-era speakeasy, located at 21 West 52nd Street in New York City.-Environment:...
.
In 1981 Kaytor traveled to the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
to write an article for the New York Times about the Family Dining Room
Family Dining Room
The Family Dining Room is located on the State Floor of the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. The room is used for smaller, more private meals than those served in the State Dining Room. Today the president uses the Family Dining Room less for family and...
. She described First Lady Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
’s taste: “Yellow is the predominant color, and she has added furniture from her California home, colorful fabrics, needlepoint pillows and a gallery of pictures of family and friends.”
Personal life
Kaytor's first husband was fellow Kinmundy native Richard Maulding. They were married on June 8, 1947. The couple, both graduates of Kinmundy-Alma High School, briefly attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale before transferring to the University of IllinoisUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
. Maulding later became an anesthesiologist, practicing in Carbondale
Carbondale, Illinois
Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, in the state of Illinois, within the Southern Illinois region. It is located at the junction of Illinois Route 13 and U.S. Route 51, southeast of St. Louis, Missouri, on the northern edge of the Shawnee National Forest...
.
Kaytor's second husband was painter Albert Kaytor, of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, USA. It is bounded by Sunset Park on the north, Seventh Avenue and Dyker Heights on the east, The Narrows Strait, which partially houses the Belt Parkway, on the west and 86th Street and Fort Hamilton on...
, whom she met at the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
. They were married on Feb. 9, 1952, at Queen of All Saints Roman Catholic Church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Fort Greene is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Part of Brooklyn Community Board 2, Fort Greene is listed on the New York State Registry and on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a New York City-designated Historic District...
. The couple lived in Brooklyn after their wedding. Albert Kaytor, an instructor at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
, rose to become associate art director for CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. He died in 1963.
Kaytor became involved with author and journalist Robert Ruark
Robert Ruark
Robert Ruark was an American author and syndicated columnist.- Early life :...
at this time. She lived in Ruark’s villa in Palamos
Palamós
Palamós is a town and municipality in the Mediterranean Costa Brava, located in the comarca of Baix Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain....
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and the couple was planning a wedding in 1965 when Ruark died in London of complications from alcoholism. Ruark left his Spanish estate to Kaytor, a bequest that was unsuccessfully challenged by Ruark’s family in court.
Kaytor was married and divorced at least one other time: in the late 1960s to Manhattan art dealer Walter Randel.
Death and legacy
On Oct. 20, 2007, Kaytor was discovered dead in her second-floor apartment at 111 East 79th Street79th Street (Manhattan)
79th Street is a major two-way street in the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. East 79th Street stretches from East End Avenue to Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, where it enters Central Park through Miners' Gate...
, on the Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Kaytor had lived in the apartment for about thirty years. Firefighters were called to an apartment fire and found Kaytor’s body in bed. The New York Medical Examiner’s office determined that Kaytor had died of natural causes, yet the fire department determined the source of the fire was likely caused by Kaytor smoking in bed.
Kaytor’s remains were returned to her home state of Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
for burial.
Following Kaytor’s death, some of the contents of her apartment were sold at auction by Doyle New York
Doyle New York
Doyle New York is one of the world's largest auctioneers and appraisers of fine art, jewelry, furniture, decorations and other specialty categories. Located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Doyle offers approximately forty auctions each year...
. Among these were twin elephant tusks that had belonged to Robert Ruark for $25,000; an Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
piece, Untitled (Gold Shoe) sold for $205,000; and a second Warhol ink and watercolor, Untitled (Floral Still Life), for $145,000.