Alfred Hitchcock cultural icon, master film director, storyteller, television host, foodie. And as Jan Olsson argues in Hitchcock à la Carte, he was also an expert marketer who built his personal brand around his rotund figure and well-documented table indulgencies. Focusing on Hitchcocks television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents 1955-1962 and the The Alfred Hitchcock Hour 1962-1965, Olsson asserts that the success of Hitchcocks media empire depended on his deft manipulation of bodies and the food that sustained them. Hitchcocks strategies included frequently playing up his own girth, hiring body doubles, making numerous cameos, and using food—such as a frozen leg of lamb—to deliver scores of characters to their deaths. Constructing his brand enabled Hitchcock to maintain creative control, blend himself with his genre, and make himself the multi-million-dollar franchises principal star.
