EXCLUSIVE: The incredible true story behind the new HBO show inspired by Julia Child

It was far from an auspicious moment.

On February 20, 1962, a fledgling public television station in Boston was airing a new instalment of the book review series I’ve Been Reading – and host Professor Albert Duhamel had an unusual guest.

She was a virtually unknown cookbook author who had recently co-written Mastering the Art of French Cooking and was embarking upon a promotional tour.

Despite being told she needed no props, Julia Child arrived with a hotplate, whisk and eggs, and in front of the camera showed viewers how to make an omelette “the French way”.

While most guests would come and go without making much of a dent in audience consciousness, the middle-aged 6ft 3in (190cm) woman with a distinctive quavering voice saw the station flooded with calls and letters asking for more.

And in that moment an unexpected star was born who would go on to shift perceptions of what a woman of a certain age could achieve.

Born August 15, 1912, Julia had always stood out rather than blending in.

Determined, quick-witted and the oldest of three children in a conservative, upper-middle class family, she was intended by her father John to marry well and settle down into the life of a devoted housewife.

But when Julia received a proposal from the scion of the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, one of the most eligible bachelors in town, she shocked everyone by turning him down.

“If I had to marry a conservative banker or lawyer, I would have played golf and tennis and I probably would have become an alcoholic,” she would later muse.

Instead, after World War II broke out, she defied her family and joined the Office of Strategic Services – journeying to far-flung destinations such as Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China.

“What is the saying about well-behaved women not making history?” muses Julie Cohen, co-director of Julia, a new documentary about the legendary trailblazer.

“Julia was a person who grew up in a very constrained atmosphere and just decided she was going to chafe against those restraints. And, as a result, launched off into the world and ended up finding both love and adventure.”

Love came care of American civil servant and foreign diplomat Paul Child, 10 years her senior, whom she met in Ceylon.

The couple married and settled in Paris after the war. And having grown up on a very unadventurous American diet, Julia would later say, “I hadn’t been turned on by anything until I got into French food.”

“Paul was a man of the world and Julia was much more unsophisticated,” director Julie says of the change that swept over the woman who would come to rule the cooking world.

“She didn’t know that much about different cultures and languages, art and sex and food. Paul was the one who taught her about all of that. It was a joyful and liberating introduction for her.”

Julia’s newfound passion for food saw her take yet another unexpected step for a woman of her era: as a war vet, she was eligible to enrol at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school.

And while teachers expected her to join the ‘home ec’-style sessions run specifically for housewives, she insisted on taking “real classes” alongside the men.

“Julia’s experience at Le Cordon Bleu was infused with sexism,” says Julie, explaining it was a time in which men ruled the kitchen while women were deemed too weak to lift the heavy pots and pans.

“And they got a certain vindictive glee in watching her when things went wrong.”

Ironically, it would be Julia’s reaction to making mistakes when cooking that would endear her to audiences all over the world after she later found fame.

When the couple returned to America, Julia dedicated herself to finishing the cookbook she’d started with her friend Simone “Simca” Beck in France. The pair would take 12 years to finesse it (being rejected by publishers along the way) before it hit shelves. Mastering the Art of French Cooking was a revelation to Americans upon its release in 1961.

At a time when frozen TV dinners, jello salads and tuna casseroles were deemed the height of sophistication, Julia’s step-by-step instructions for Americans to finally prepare the food of the country she’d fallen in love with would be credited with changing the culinary landscape of her homeland.

After her 1962 appearance on I’ve Been Reading, the station, WBGH, decided to make a three-part pilot called The French Chef with Julia.

Filmed on a shoestring budget with just two cameras, one continuous take and a cobbled-together studio kitchen, it led to a full series debuting on February 11, 1963.It would make its 51-year-old leading lady, with her fondness for wine and butter and a distinct joie de vivre, an instant star.

“In 1963 you just did not see women on television unless they were young and pretty – and in the background,” Betsy West, the fellow co-director of Julia, says of the achievement.

“To have this middle-aged woman with a vibrant personality come on and be so instantly popular really opened the eyes of television executives and opened the [possibilities] for women.”

“People just responded to what they were seeing,” adds Julie. “‘Oh my God, this is a person just being their boisterous, smart, funny self.'”

Viewers lapped up Julia’s warmth and genuine enthusiasm – as well as the fact she’d often make mistakes on air before teaching viewers how they could correct them at home, should they be in a similar position.

Throughout it all, Paul was her greatest supporter.

After quitting the United States Foreign Service in 1961, he segued into the role of his wife’s assistant – sharpening her knives, writing her cue cards, prepping her ingredients. And he watched with pleasure as she became a superstar.

“He could have been grumpy and morose, but he threw himself into the project of helping bring Julia to the world,” says Betsy of what was at the time an uncommon role reversal.

“He knew how incredible her cooking was, and he knew what an extraordinary person she was. So he was thrilled to have other people appreciate her, which for a man of his era was very unusual.”

As the show grew its audience, Julia continued building her empire, branching into spin-off shows and releasing more cookbooks that flew off the shelves.

She was the biggest star public television had seen, but in 1980 the network began to ease her off screen as executives worried about not only her gender, but her age. By now Julia was approaching 70.

This could have been the end for any other woman on television, but Julia was made of sterner stuff.

Rather than be phased out, she quit – and pitched herself to what was then the biggest morning show on national television, ABC’s Good Morning America.

From her first appearance she was a hit and, as a result, her popularity soared to new heights.

“It was groundbreaking,” Betsy marvels. “Julia was a very determined person and pretty confident – both in her abilities and pushing herself. And so she broke ground both for women and for older people.”

It was at this time in her life that she also found a new passion – advocacy.

In 1982 she ruffled many feathers when she decided to publicly support Planned Parenthood, travelling the country to lead cooking courses to raise money for the organisation. Furious anti-abortionists began picketing both the classes and ABC.

Yet Julia refused to be bowed.

In 1986 she was rocked by the death of her lawyer and long-time friend, Bob Johnson. A closeted gay man, Bob died of AIDS-related pneumonia.

Julia – who had a long history of homophobic comments behind her – was bereft, and her grief saw her do a complete about-face, throwing herself into championing AIDS awareness at a time when celebrities were being warned to distance themselves from such a controversial cause.

“If Julia had been listening to a PR person, they would have said, ‘No! Don’t do it!’,” Betsy says of the moves that could potentially have ended her career. “But if she believed in something, she just didn’t waver.”

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And that applied to staying on screen, too. After he suffered a heart attack and mini-stroke, Paul’s health had steadily declined. He passed away at the age of 92 on May 12, 1994.

“It was extremely painful for her,” Julie says of Julia’s private heartache. “But she was not a yesterday person – she was a tomorrow person. And even the death of her husband led her to think, ‘I am going to grasp life and grasp joy with everything I have.’ That painful loss really motivated her to move forward.”

She continued her public appearances, went on fronting her segment and, at the age of 87, launched a 22-part series with acclaimed French chef Jacques Pépin called Julia & Jacques Cooking at Home.

At 91 she began working on a memoir, and would have continued to push ahead had her body not finally failed her on August 13, 2004 – just two days shy of reaching 92, the age at which Paul died.

“People really had to look at Julia’s example and rethink all of their templates,” Julie says of the lasting effect Julia Child has had on the world. “She was inspiring to people in all sorts of ways.”

JULIA is available to watch On Demand on Foxtel from April 3.