About Helen Hutula

Family Background

Family

Work

Tat-L-Tale Cookie Jar

More Photographs

Her Family

Helen never married. She was very close to her sister Theresa, who was 9 years older than her, and to my grandfather and grandmother, Hjalmar and Hilma Huttula and their daughter Pauline who lived in the Aberdeen area. Helen moved to the Los Angles area in the early 1930's and had various jobs in retail before she supported herself as an artist. During the 1970's Helen moved back to the northwest from Los Angeles. First she lived near her sister Theresa until Theresa died in 1991. Helen's brother Dick, who was closest to her in age, lived in Elma, WA only about half and hour away. When she could no longer live alone she moved to Elma to be near Dick and his family and that is where she died in 1993 at the age of 94 years. Top

Her Work

When Helen was in her early 20's or late teens she had been working in Seattle, WA at Lachman & Sons, Wholesale Jewelry Company for an unspecified amount of time. She began as a stock clerk and ended her employment in complete charge of the jewelry department with a very good recommendation from her employer. This recommendation was dated October 1921 but she must have quit working there about a year and some months before that, judging by the dates on some other letters.

From Seattle she moved to Marshfield, OR, which is now Coos Bay, to work at The Hub department store. On February 7, 1922 she received a letter of recommendation from the company. She had been employed with them for about one and a half years, so she must have moved to the area during the middle of 1920 when she was 21. She must have been there with her friend Rose because there is a formal portrait of Helen and Rose on page 1 of the picture gallery, taken in Marshfield, OR. There is a blank in her history for the next 10 years.

I believe that Helen moved to Los Angeles in about 1932. There is a picture on page 2 of the picture gallery that commemorates the Olympic Games in LA in 1932. She also applied for a job at Gensler-Lee Jewelry Company in September 1933. This may have been the beginning of Helen's stay in Los Angeles.

From an article, in what I believe was a trade magazine, I learned that she began her artistic career as a decorator in the dress designing and pattern drafting field and then became a commercial artist. I have no record of what companies she was with at that time. She was also a very accomplished painter. She became interested in ceramics and began designing them, first as a hobby and then as a full-time business. At that point she began a business of her own designing ceramics. Her most famous piece is Helen's Original Tat-L-Tale Cookie Jar.

I know from this article that her pottery plant was located on San Fernando Road.

Pottery Plant -- 2007-9 San Fernando Road
Los Angeles 26, Calif.
Phone: Capital 1-8385 (221-8385)

Prior to that she worked in a small studio on Riverside Drive, which she quickly outgrew.

Early studio -- 2417 Riverside Drive
Los Angeles 26, Calif.
Phone: NOrmandie 240-91 (662-4091)

I found the following article cut out of a magazine or journal among her possessions after she died. This is how I learned that she worked for a dress designing and pattern drafting company. Top

(This is the article exactly as it was printed.)

Helen's Tat-L-Tale

“Cookie jars of all types have been placed upon the market by aspiring ceramists but, topping them all, in their originality of design and the rich beauty of coloring is Helen’s Tat-L-Tale, the clever creation of Helen Hutula who operates a pottery plant on San Fernando Road.

Miss Hutula was for several years located in a studio on Riverside Drive. The substantial increase of her business there from year to year forced her at length to secure and establish herself in the larger quarters she now occupies quarters in which she has had installed the most modern and complete equipment including overhead casting apparatus, rotating tables, convenient for handling the clay in the different stages of development; a big tunnel kiln, etc.

Leading up to her present responsible position as a manufacturer on a considerable scale, whose product is very widely in demand, were years of training, first as decorator in an establishment featuring dress designing and pattern drafting and, again, for a period, as a commercial artist during which she gained valuable experience through travel and contact with the public. Sensing the trend of the popular taste in decorative art she became interested in ceramics and took up modeling as a hobby. Inevitably the fascination of the craft grew and strengthened its appeal as she worked until, from a hobby, it developed into a business demanding her entire time and attention.

Manufacturing pottery for the trade she featured all the popular items, a line of small ware of a widely diversified character. With the advent of Helen’s Tat-L-Tale, however, the demand for that single item became so great that she found it necessary to discontinue some of the other ware and turn out more and more of the cookie jars to satisfy the requirements. Each member of the staff handling this product is personally trained by Miss Hutula before being allowed to attempt the actual work and to each of them there is appointed one definite task. She mixes her own glazes and has full charge of all laboratory work.

As a creation the Tat-L-Tale has a distinct individuality. Whether in her role of blond, brunette or redhead, she is a character. Five different patterns are developed in her costuming. Thirteen different color schemes are carried out. The dress, sometimes of a polka dot pattern, sometimes plain, and, again, giving the effect of striped or plaid gingham in soft or vivid color tones, has a voluminous skirt and tight fitted bodice with puffed sleeves to reveal fat, dimpled elbows.

The flower-bordered apron, the kerchief tied so snugly under the chin, the beribboned braids are all in character. Tat-L-Tale, with lips parted, and forefinger coquettishly upraised, might be ready at the very moment to impart to a kindred spirit some choice tidbit of neighborhood gossip. By means of a mechanical contrivance, set in motion when the cover is raised, the Tat-L-Tale becomes vocal—a crowning delightful surprise.”