October 23, 2021 – National Boston Cream Pie Day | National TV Talk Show Host Day

This Delicious Dessert Has An Identity Crisis. Welcome to October 23, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a confusing dessert and a talk show legend.  You may be confused when you order Boston Cream Pie and end up with a piece of cake.  Hardly anyone is disappointed, however, by the buttery layers of sponge cake, paired with pastry cream and a shiny coat of chocolate.  At the time the dessert was created, cakes and pies were baked in the same pans. Thus, their names became interchangeable.   This cake was the invention of a French pastry chef at the Parker House Hotel in Boston in the late 1800s.  What landed it on the map was the accessibility of a new ingredient: baking chocolate. Just about anything topped with melted chocolate was bound to be a hit! It became the official dessert of Massachusetts in 1996.   On National Boston Cream Pie Day, celebrate the sweet dilemma of the dessert with an identity crisis. Today there are many choices for watching TV late into the night. But for decades, the only show on air after the late news was The Tonight Show. It was so popular that a standup comedian’s appearance on the show could make or break their career. If host Johnny Carson asked a comedian to sit on the couch to talk… Well, that was being anointed for greatness. Some of the comics who were chosen include Jerry Seinfeld, Ellen Degeneres, and Eddie Murphy. So it’s safe to say that Mr. Carson knew what he was doing. On National TV Talk Show Host Day we celebrate an entertainer and a comedy kingmaker. I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.