September 21
Patricia Neal's Birthday

When Patricia Neal from Birmingham Alabama decided to go into show business, she had to change her birthname which was the same as the famous Academy Award winning actress's. So Patricia chose the name Fannie Flagg.Her life changed dramatically when she attended a writer's workshop featuring her favorite author, Eudora Welty. Embarrassed by her lack of education and her dyslexia, Fannie hid in the persona of a twelve-year-old girl in the short story Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man. She won the workshop contest and the story became her first novel. Her best known book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. was praised by Harper Lee and Eudora Welty and was on the New York Times list for thirty-six weeks. She subsequently wrote the screenplay with Carol Sobieski based on that book which became the film Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) starring Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates for which she received an Academy Award nomination.

Fannie began her acting career by writing and starring in a three-act comedy entitled "he Whoopee Girls. She started working in theater at thirteen by writing skits. Her big break came when she sold some material for a revue at "Upstairs at the Downstairs" in New York. The following week, late in 1956, she began her ten-year association with Alan Funt's Candid Camera, on CBS-TV., and she later became Funt's co-host on the syndicated 1970s weekly version of the show. .

During the 1970s, Fannie was a fixture on game show panels. She is best known for her appearances on the game show Match Game. Her acting credits include the Broadway production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean , Her film roles include Some of My Best Friends Are, Five Easy Pieces, Stay Hungry, Grease, and Crazy in Alabama.

Fannie is openly lesbian and was at one time the partner of author Rita Mae Brown, who outed her. Despite her openness regarding her personal life, Flagg removed a substantial portion of the lesbian content in the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe in order to make the film Fried Green Tomatoes more commercially viable.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients

4 to 6 green tomatoes
salt and pepper

cornmeal
bacon grease or vegetable oil

Instructions

Slice the tomatoes into 1/4 - 1/2-inch slices.
Salt and pepper them to taste.
Dip in meal and fry in hot oil about 3 minutes or until golden on bottom. Gently turn and fry the other side.