Postcards: Fallon’s National Sandwich Queen

In September 1961, Fallon was abuzz with the news that one of its own had just won a national contest, receiving a prize most could only fantasize about. Helen Millward, who, along with her mother, Minnie Blair, and her husband, Bill Millward, owned and operated the local Spudnut Shop, had just become the National Sandwich Queen. The prize: a two-week, all expenses paid trip to Europe for two, plus $500.00 in cash (which went a lot farther in 1961 than it does today). Those who knew Helen were not entirely surprised that she had captured the national award. From her childhood on, she had been interested in cooking and had won a state-wide culinary contest while she was still in high school.

Millward (1910-2007), in an Oral History recorded at the Churchill County Museum in 1990, described how she developed her winning sandwich recipe: “I took a vacation in 1959 to Chicago and really it was just a chance to get away for three or four days but the shop could pay for it. I joined a restaurant association and went to the convention…. it was quite wonderful. I went by this display, and this was the fourth year of the national sandwich contest, and here was this dismal looking creation that had been sitting there for a day or two. One prize winner had slashed a hot dog, threw it in the fryer and it curled into a circle. It was served on a bun – a something dog. The lady that won used the famous sandwich that has corned beef and thousand island dressing and Swiss cheese on rye bread [Reuben]. I looked at all of them and thought I could do something better than that. I came home and I wrote for the entry blanks, I was going to make a sandwich that was cut like a cake and very fancy. I made it, but I also had a new oven and I wanted to try out my oven, I cooked a roast beef prime rib and I invited the teachers to come out. In Chicago I had had a roast beef cocktail made of thin sliced roast beef and sour cream and horseradish and I took my idea from that. I made it into a sandwich on rye bread. The teachers just loved it and they said it was better than that other one -- send them both in. So I sent them both in and at five o'clock it was time for the mail and it had to be mailed, it was the last day. I said to my mother, ‘I've got the recipe typed, what'll I call the damn thing?’ and she said ‘Atlasta Good Beef.’ I'm sure the name had a great deal of influence on the prize, but that was quite an experience.”

The name did not just spring from a moment’s inspiration. It had a history connecting it to Helen, her mother, and the Spudnut Shop. When Minne Blair moved from Tonopah to Fallon in 1924, she dreamed of purchasing a place to raise turkeys and a garden. She and her husband, Ernie Blair, decided to buy a parcel known as the Ferguson Ranch, roughly located between what is now the abandoned Cock and Bull restaurant on South Taylor Street (once the Spudnut Shop) and the canal, then extending west to include what is now Churchill County High School. When the purchase was finalized, Minnie was said to have exclaimed, “At last, a ranch!” And so, the land became the Atlasta Ranch, and her world-famous turkeys became Atlasta Ranch Turkeys. Helen’s sandwich carried the name forward and helped capture the attention of the judges.

Helen and her husband Bill embarked on a whirlwind of a trip, which they embraced with intelligence and gusto. Her itinerary included Copenhagen, London, Paris, Zurich, Lucerne, Venice, and Munich. 

“I had a wonderful trip and I was treated just royally. We met some Millwards going from Copenhagen to London and by chance they had made their reservations for their seat in May and we had made ours in September and I appeared at the airport first and they (the airline) gave us their seats. When they (the other Millwards) came they just raised holy heck, they wanted these particular seats. So we got to meet them and he was very snooty and we said we'd like to meet them, our name was Millward and their name was Millward but they were very disdainful. When we got to the airport in London they (the restaurant association members) met me with a Rolls Royce with a chauffeur. I was to be met everywhere with a chauffeur and an American Express man. They had brought me a bouquet of flowers that was this long (twenty-four inches). I had all this attention, I had a Rolls Royce with a chauffeur, all these flowers and I'm sure they (the other Millwards) must have wondered who in the heck I was.” 

Here are the ingredients for making Helen’s Atlasta Good Beef Sandwich, thanks to Karen Sustacha. I don’t know the exact proportions, so taste away: rye sandwich bread; sliced deli roast beef (Helen used prime rib); dressing (sour cream, Lipton’s’ onion soup mix, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper). Bon Appetit.

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