Funny Business: July

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Better Than Sliced Bread

By Neil Michel

The headline “Smiling, Courteous Girls Serve You” on this 1932 advertisement for Philipp’s Bakery (originally published in The Sacramento Union) conjures images of angelic nymphs kneading dough and whistling happy tunes. But the ad was actually part of a campaign to promote the East Sacramento bakery’s home-delivery service. “If you live in the district our delivery trucks cover, be sure to take advantage of this unusual service,” it reads.
    It must have been unusual to have an automobile deliver anything to your home in 1932, let alone fresh bread, a staple food that was drawing long lines in many other parts of Depression-era America. Not only is the bread delivered, the ad continues, “Yes, it’s sliced!”
    The trio of courteous, smiling drivers were known to locals as “The Gerken Girls.” With doughnuts at 20 cents per dozen, and coffee cake wreaths and pumpkin pies for only 25 cents, it’s not hard to imagine why sisters Edie, Lacie and Marvel Gerken were so popular in 1930s Sacramento.
    These days, the mostly-female staff is still full of smiles, especially when owner Cindy Philipp scoops into the file cabinet for rich morsels of her bakery’s 87-year history (see “Couture Dessert,” page 60). But some things have changed. The bakery no longer delivers goods, pumpkin pies cost $14, and its ads focus less on the emotional state of the workers and more on its historic reputation for service and quality.
    But it’s still about family at Philipp’s. When Edie Gerken died this year, Philipp’s sent a pile of comfort food for a reception after the memorial service. The remaining Gerken Girl, Lacie, is 96 years old and takes her daily bread at an assisted-living facility in Woodland, where she is visited frequently by family. 

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