cooking mit gas

[scottp]

Was there someone in particular who is credited with turning "cooking with gas" (doing something fast, efficiently, with great results) into the German/Yiddish "cooking mit gas"? Or should I say, popularizing it. It seems to have been a little bit of a catch-phrase-- branching off from another catch-phrase.
My mom (born 1925 in Illinois) brought it up. She had some older German-American relatives, but I'm thinking maybe somebody in radio or movies liked to use the phrase?
Of course there is a sickening Holocaust image which comes to mind now, spoiling the cuteness of the German OR Yiddish version-- whichever it would be.
Just the other day, I heard a skit from "Good News of 1940" where Lou Holtz and Fanny Brice are among the "British" characters, and "Now we're cooking with gas!" is one of the lines.

[Moose Hatrack]

Is is safe to assume that "Cooking with Gas" was an advertising tag line for natural gas utilities or maybe LP gas suppliers? I've heard a variation: "Now you're cooking with Skelgas" (Skelly petroleum, not Red Skelton).
My grandfather used to say, "Now you're cookin' on the front burner" when thing were proceeding exceptionally well.

[scottp]

And there's "We're putting it on the back burner for now" which means giving something a lower priority, or delaying further work on it.

[Moose Hatrack]

Finally got around to googling "cooking with gas" and our suspicions are correct.
Advertisers wanted you to know that you don't have to gather wood, light a fire and wait for a gas stove to heat up.
Then in the second half of the century we were told we could "live better electrically".
I have a Chambers range with which one can "cook with the gas turned off"