Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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GUEST LETTER BY RON TANNER Jean Frame: 1917–2012 J PHOTO: NASFT SHOWCASE ean Frame was such a central person in the history of the Specialty Food Association (formerly NASFT) that she had two retirement parties, 13 years apart. I missed the first but was honored to attend the second, at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. Of course, Jean picked the restaurant. In 1969, Jean decided to take a part-time job. The wife of noted artist Paul Frame, who designed the Lord & Taylor rose and illustrated hundreds of books, Jean enjoyed the theater and good food, in that order. Her friend, Edward Sajous, who as executive secretary led a fledgling association called the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc., asked her to come in for a few days and help organize the tiny office. She stayed for 28 years. When Sajous suddenly passed away in 1971, Jean was named executive secretary, a position that she would thrive in for the next 13 years. At the time, the Summer Fancy Food Show took place at the New York Coliseum. There was no Winter Fancy Food Show. The Show did not even belong to the NASFT; it was owned by a show management company under the direction of show impresario Charles Snitow. Jean continuously greeted the buyers to the Show, in person and in text. In 1974, she wrote: "1974 is a milestone year, marking the 20th year of consecutive NASFT Shows. In 1955, there were 70 exhibitors. Today there are 178, representing over 1,000 companies." Her directory column went on to tout the "Nations Together" seminar, a must for all retailers interested in promoting imported specialties. Jean led the Association grandly, growing the Summer Fancy Food Show into an event that no longer fit in the Coliseum and had to go on the road, to Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Chicago. In 1984, she wrote: "We are enormously proud to hold our 30th Anniversary Fancy Food and Confection Show in one of the most glamorous cities in the world—the Capital of the United States of America." She was the head of the NASFT when the first Winter Fancy Jean Frame Food Show took place in San Francisco in 1976. She encouraged the association to expand the Buyers' Blue Sheet and start a magazine called NASFT Showcase, the precursor of Specialty Food Magazine. She led the Association when negotiations between the NASFT and Cahner's Exhibition Group (now Reed) resulted in NASFT acquiring ownership of the Fancy Food Show. In 1984, Jean retired for the first time. But she could not leave the industry which she had worked so diligently to develop. She stayed on as the product editor of NASFT Showcase and served in that position until her second retirement in 1997. I met her when I came on board in 1987. On paper, I was Jean's (continued on p. 59) MARCH 2013 7