pancake turner

English

Noun

pancake turner (plural pancake turners)

1. (US) A spatula; fish slice; kitchen turner; cooking turner.
   • 2014, Penelope Casas, 1,000 Spanish Recipes, page 125:

     Use the pancake turner to flip to the other side, adding more oil if necessary, and continue cooking until set in the center but still slightly juicy within.

2. One who operates a sound-effect machine or record player for a business that broadcasts the music (or other sounds).
   • 1946 July 13, “AFM Puts Playland, Rye, on Unfair List; Picket N.J. Jukery”, in Billboard, volume 58, number 28:

     Because Playland, huge county-operated amusement park at Rye, N.Y., refuses to employ a union musician to flip the records which are played over its p.a. system, the spot is now on the national unfair list of the American Federation of Musicians. Place's addition to the list caps a twwo-year squabble with the union, dating from the death of Jack Cliffe, an old-time AFM-er who had served as official pancake turner since the park's establishment in 1928.

   • 1947, United States. Congress. House Committee on Education and Labor, Investigation of James C. Petrillo, the American Federation of Musicians, Et Al, page 203:

     Mr. Petrillo. Yes: we have an agreement with the chain companies that the men who put the records on ther machine must be members of the federation. Mr. Nixon. In other words, a platter— Mr. Petrillo. The "pancake turner."

   • 2009, Mark Coleman, Playback:

     The requirement was simple. If you use a record player in your studios, then you must hire a union musician to operate the turntables. Before the disc jockey, stations were compelled to acquire a flunky: the lowly pancake turner.

Further reading

• “pancake turner”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “pancake turner”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.