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Kate Aitken

For busy housewives in postwar Canada, Kate Aitken's singsong voice was a welcome diversion from their everyday duties. Three days a week, Mrs. A and a rotating cast of male sidekicks shared advice on cooking, child care and fashion and offered a perspective on the broader world of women and politics. Only eight Kate Aitken programs from 1948 to 1950 survive, but they allow a glimpse into an era when "women's programming" was its own category at CBC and the ads were just part of the conversation.

Kate Aitken: Meet the Mowats

Broadcast Date: Dec. 14, 1949

With only a dishpan for laundry, an old iron stove to cook on and 250 pounds of dehydrated potatoes to eat, life above the Arctic Circle was hardly an enviable setup for a young wife. Fran Mowat lived that way for six months with her writer husband Farley, and on this 1949 broadcast they're Kate Aitken's guests. Farley tells Kate about the north  – "the most beautiful country in the world" – and the dwindling 37-member tribe they met there.

Kate Aitken: Meet the Mowats

• Farley Mowat wrote about the Inuit people he encountered in the North in his first book, People of the Deer, in 1952. The book was based on a series of six talks he had sold to the CBC and read on air in 1950.
• In this clip, Mowat uses the word "Eskimo" to describe the aboriginal people of Canada's Arctic. That term fell out of use in the 1970s in favour of "Inuit," an Inuktitut word meaning "the people."
• Farley and Fran Mowat's marriage ended in the early 1960s after Farley met and moved in with Claire Wheeler, who became his second wife in 1965.

Kate Aitken: Meet the Mowats

Medium: Radio

Program: Kate Aitken

Broadcast Date: Dec. 14, 1949

Guest(s): Farley Mowat, Fran Mowat


Host: Kate Aitken, Johnny Scott

Duration: 14:37

Photo: Gilbert A. Milne, CBC Still Photo Collection

Last updated:
April 3, 2008


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MediaTitle and dateDescription
Radio
14:23 		March 31, 1950
Kate Aitken: Mrs. A in Paris 		The focus is on French fashions as Kate Aitken broadcasts from the City of Light.
Radio
14:37 		Dec. 14, 1949
Kate Aitken: Meet the Mowats 		Mrs. A interviews a young writer, Farley Mowat, and asks his wife Fran how she managed meals and housekeeping in a bush tent way up north.
Radio
14:38 		April 13, 1949
Kate Aitken: Eye on Princess Margaret 		In this Easter program, Mrs. A shares a recipe for glazed ham and tells listeners how Princess Margaret spends her time.
Radio
13:15 		Jan. 17, 1949
Kate Aitken: The jetsetter 		Mrs. A broadcasts her show from Vancouver as she embarks on a whirlwind world tour.
Radio
14:37 		Dec. 31, 1948
Kate Aitken: Notable women of 1948 		On the last day of 1948, Kate Aitken salutes an international roster of women of the year.
Radio
14:31 		Nov. 19, 1948
Kate Aitken: Sunday dinner 		Kate shares a chicken recipe and polls the music charts across Canada.
Radio
14:46 		Oct. 22, 1948
Kate Aitken: The audience asks 		Mrs. A addresses listeners' questions on topics ranging from emigrating to the United States to the size of eggs.
Radio
14:27 		Sept. 27, 1948
Kate Aitken: No blue Mondays 		"Your women's editor," Kate Aitken, brings news and views to Canadian homemakers.
Radio
4:21 		Sept. 27, 1948
How a nursery school is born 		CBC Radio's domestic maven Kate Aitken profiles a successful nursery school in this 1948 clip.
Radio
1:46 		Sept. 27, 1948
Mrs. A's cold remedy 		One of Kate Aitken's cures for the common cold involves briskly rubbing your hands together.
10 results available