Thought for Food

Buster Keaton elevated pie throwing to an art form in the 1940s. Keaton developed all sorts of slinging styles ranging from "the catcher's pie throw" to the "Roman discus pie throw."

The first time he flung a pie was in the 1939 movie Hollywood Cavalcade. Alice Faye was his target, and Keaton practiced by throwing a wooden plate at a wall on which he'd drawn, with chalk, a circle the approximate size of Faye's head. Keaton even drove nails into the plate to make it as heavy as the real custard pie he would actually toss. He learned the hard way that a double-bottom crust was essential to prevent the pie from crumbling midflight.

If he was pieing a blonde, Keaton liked to use a chocolate, strawberry, or blackberry filling for contrast. For brunettes, lighter lemon meringue was the flavor of choice.

American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie)
from America's Back Roads
by Pascale Le Draoulec