0:01

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class,

0:03

A production of iHeartRadio.

0:11

Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly

0:14

Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

0:16

Tracy, did you know that I'm kind of obsessed with popcorn?

0:19

No? I did not know this. I love popcorn.

0:21

I love it too, like I love love

0:23

it. We talked about it behind the scenes. Yeah,

0:25

let's do I you

0:28

know, late lately, on and off

0:30

the last couple of years, I've been looking at whether

0:32

or not I should buy a glazing

0:34

machine to do like, oh

0:36

fancy one theme park style popcorn

0:39

fun. I always back off

0:41

of it and in a moment of like, you don't

0:43

need that. Part of it is because there's

0:45

only one person in my house that eats popcorn.

0:48

But the bottom line is that this and

0:50

a couple other things have made me think about like popcorn.

0:55

And we'll talk about it in the course of the episode.

0:57

But a lot of like what we know about popcorn

1:00

words, early phases, or

1:02

what gets repeated, a lot is flat

1:04

out false, right, so, at

1:06

least in modern culture. So I thought it would be

1:09

fun to pick apart popcorn through

1:11

the ages, because it goes

1:13

back very far but was not

1:15

necessarily as prevalent in place as we have been

1:17

told it was. And

1:19

then we'll talk about how it has

1:21

become a huge industry. Yeah.

1:24

I had not thought about the economics of why it

1:26

is such a profit industry, but

1:30

now I have, so we'll talk about all of that today.

1:32

Yeah. So the use of the word

1:35

corn in historical contexts,

1:37

at least some of the time, it can be a little

1:40

deceiving because corn

1:42

is a word that has historically been used

1:45

more generally to describe

1:47

all kinds of grain crops.

1:50

So today corn,

1:54

I want to say the big lump with knobs, but

1:56

that's from so long ago on the Internet,

1:58

it's already a very dated reference, just

2:02

the thing you know with ears. But

2:05

corn in translation of

2:07

the Bible, as having been in Egypt,

2:10

that was probably barley. Similarly,

2:13

in Britain, the word corn has been used

2:15

to refer to crops that could include both

2:17

wheat and oats. So if

2:19

you're reading really old historical documents

2:21

and there's a reference to corn, it

2:24

might not mean the relative

2:27

of grass specifically that

2:29

we call corn today. Yes,

2:31

because corn is grass. Corn is

2:33

grass. As for another reference

2:36

that cuts a

2:38

little deep, but it's fine. I feel

2:40

like many of our listeners will get it. The corn that

2:42

we think of today using

2:44

that word is a native plant species

2:47

to the Americas that, as

2:49

Tracy said, related to grass and popping

2:51

corn is a specific type of

2:53

maize, which is different from the corn you would

2:55

eat, of course, as corn on the cob or

2:57

in corn dishes where you eat the intact

3:01

popping corn has a husk that is four

3:03

times thicker than those other varieties,

3:05

and popcorn predates

3:07

the other corn types, although they are all

3:10

the same species, so you could

3:12

have flour corn, podcorn, sweetcorn,

3:15

dent corn, and flint corn. They're all

3:17

very close genetic matches to popcorn,

3:20

but slightly different that were developed over

3:23

time as crops for their

3:25

edibility, and according to

3:27

Andrew Smith in his nineteen ninety nine book

3:29

Popped Culture quote, by the time

3:31

Europeans encountered the New World in the

3:33

late fifteenth century, maze

3:35

was already a domesticated plant that did

3:38

not grow in the wild. Without human

3:40

cultivation, maze did not survive

3:43

yees. So, just to recap maze

3:46

one of the many many plants

3:50

native to the Americas cultivated

3:53

by indigenous people now enjoyed world

3:55

worldwide. Yes, the

3:57

science of how corn pops

4:00

really pretty simple. That thick wall

4:02

of the kernel encases a little pocket

4:04

of starch and moisture, and

4:07

when the corn is heated up, that moisture

4:09

inside causes the starch to liquefy.

4:12

Just as boiling water expands, so

4:14

does that liquefied starch, and it gets

4:17

that builds up enough pressure to break that

4:19

outer shell, rapidly expanding

4:22

and re solidifying into the fluffy

4:24

white popcorn that we're familiar with today.

4:28

When popcorn is grown, every

4:30

step of the process is designed to ensure

4:33

that you get that fluffy, popped

4:35

finish. It is cured on

4:37

the stalk and then dried until

4:40

it reaches fourteen percent moisture

4:43

for a long time. The oldest example

4:45

of popcorn ever found was estimated

4:48

to be four thousand years old. And

4:50

these are small ears that were found

4:52

in the bat cave of Carlsbad Caverns

4:54

in New Mexico in the late nineteen forties

4:57

and early nineteen fifties. And we

4:59

say these are small ears,

5:01

we're talking about two inches long as the largest

5:03

of the collected specimens. The smallest

5:05

was reported as smaller than a penny, even

5:08

today, if you grow popcorn, those

5:10

ears are smaller than the other

5:13

kinds of corn we've talked about, but not quite

5:15

this tiny, So in any

5:17

case, very dissimilar from the ears of

5:19

corn that you might see today. But then in

5:21

twenty ten, far older

5:23

samples of popcorn were found in Peru,

5:26

and these were dated to six thy seven

5:28

hundred years ago, and they're really interesting

5:30

because in that case the popcorn

5:33

appears to have been popped while still

5:35

on the cob, not from separated

5:37

kernels. Delores Piperno,

5:40

who at the time was Curator of

5:42

New World Archaeology at the National

5:45

Museum of Natural History in Washington,

5:47

d C. Co authored a

5:49

paper on these samples that was published

5:51

in twenty twelve. It was titled

5:54

pre Ceramic Maize from Paradonis

5:56

and Juacapria to Peru. One

5:59

in interesting conclusion in this paper was

6:01

the statement quote, given

6:04

the scarcity and discontinuous

6:06

stratigraphic presence of maize

6:09

macro fossils and microfossils

6:11

at Paradonis and Juaca Prieta

6:14

and at other pre ceramic sites in the region,

6:16

we infer that this crop, both

6:19

its popcorn and flowery forms,

6:22

was not a primary food staple in the

6:24

local diet before about

6:26

forty five hundred to forty two hundred

6:29

CALBP. So, just in case folks

6:31

aren't familiar with that terminology, BP

6:33

is before the present and calb P

6:36

is calibrated before the present.

6:39

Yeah, that's a

6:42

type of year dating that you'll

6:44

see used in a lot of archaeological papers.

6:47

But although popcorn wasn't, according

6:49

to that paper, a particularly major part

6:51

of the agriculture of Peru, it is

6:53

now believed that popcorn was being actively

6:56

cultivated by people of the Americas

6:58

in other places as far back as

7:00

nine thousand years ago. Paperno

7:03

gave a statement in the press when this whole

7:06

article was published and became very

7:08

popular for a minute, that it was cultivated

7:10

from a wild grass known as tiacinde.

7:13

People that couldn't grow it likely traded

7:16

for it. This earlier version of

7:18

popcorn was also likely closer

7:20

to what's called parched corn today, so

7:22

in some cases it wasn't popping

7:24

exactly, but it was being used in

7:26

a way that it was dry heated, so it would

7:28

puff up slightly and become like a crunchy

7:31

thing. The Aztec culture

7:33

is often invoked in popcorn

7:35

discussion and for good reason. Popcorn

7:38

was used as food and also

7:40

as part of ceremonial practices. When

7:42

conquistador Hernan Cortes first

7:45

came in contact with the Aztecs, which

7:47

as we know, would ultimately lead

7:49

to the culture's destruction, he

7:52

became the first European to see

7:54

popcorn and noted its use

7:56

for eating, as well as being strung

7:58

on garlands that were used as jewelry

8:00

and headdresses and as decoration. The

8:03

automatopoetic word used

8:05

by the Aztecs to represent the

8:07

sound of the corn popping was

8:10

totapoka. Popcorn

8:12

was also closely associated with the Aztec

8:14

ring god Toscato. A Franciscan

8:17

friar named Bernardino de Sahagun,

8:19

who traveled to the Americas in the fifteen twenties

8:21

to convert the indigenous people there, wrote

8:24

of popcorn quote, they scattered parched

8:26

corn called momahito, a kind

8:28

of corn which bursts when parched and discloses

8:31

its contents and makes itself look

8:33

like a very white flower. They

8:35

said these were hailstones given to the god

8:37

of water. Now that's an interesting

8:39

quote because some translations of Sahagun's

8:42

words in this passage omit that

8:44

whole reference to the god of water, so it's

8:46

not sure if a translator added it later.

8:49

Some translations described the corn

8:51

grains instead as simply being like scattered

8:53

dice, and there's no mention of a deity. Sahagoon

8:57

made the effort to learn and understand the Nahua

8:59

language that he encountered, and to work

9:01

with members of the Aztec culture and gathering

9:03

information for his book General

9:05

History of the Things of New Spain. Jesuit

9:09

missionary Bernabe Cobo, who visited

9:11

Peru in the early sixteen hundreds,

9:13

also wrote of the practice of eating

9:16

popcorn there. Quote, they toast

9:18

a certain kind of corn until it bursts.

9:21

That corn, which was used in confection,

9:24

was called pisancaia. The

9:26

Spanish naturalist Felipe de Azara

9:29

described a grain he encountered in the Americas

9:31

in the late seventeen hundreds this way. Quote

9:34

it is boiled in fat or oil, the

9:36

grains burst without becoming detached,

9:39

and their results of superb bouquet, fit

9:41

to adorn a lady's hair at night without

9:43

anyone knowing what it was. I have

9:45

often eaten these burst grains and

9:47

found them very good. So

9:49

that's obviously an example of them being

9:52

popped on the cob. One of the reasons

9:54

that popcorn became a staple in so many

9:57

American cultures over time is its longevity.

10:00

Unpopped kernels or dried cobs of

10:02

them keep for a very very

10:04

long time, so they can travel and

10:06

store really easily. As

10:08

evidence of that longevity, botanist

10:11

Thomas Harper good Speed, founder

10:13

of the Botanical Gardens at University of California,

10:16

was given a gift by a colleague from Chile

10:18

in the late nineteen thirties. It was

10:20

pre Inca popcorn, and

10:23

good Speed's curiosity about them eventually

10:25

got the better of him, and he tried popping

10:28

them. In nineteen forty one, he published

10:30

a book titled Plant Hunters in the Andes,

10:32

and he shared the results, writing quote,

10:35

one evening at home in Berkeley, it

10:37

occurred to me to try an experiment with my

10:39

kernels of pre inca popcorn.

10:41

I placed a few on a pie tin and heated

10:44

them on the electric stove. Much

10:46

to my surprise, that corn, which had been

10:48

gathered nearly a thousand years ago,

10:51

popped as readily as did last year's

10:53

crop that had come in a box from the shelves

10:55

of the neighborhood cash and carry store. I'm

10:58

curious how he knew that it was pre

11:00

inca popcorn, right, he's taking

11:03

that that person's word for it

11:05

is yeah, okay, okay, that's

11:09

I had questions. And

11:12

of course these travelers from Europe

11:14

brought maize back home with them. Spain

11:17

and Italy were the first places it was introduced,

11:19

and then it made its way to Turkey. But for

11:21

a long time it was used to feed animals

11:24

and not humans. There were very

11:26

few instances of anyone in Europe

11:28

trying to pop it. When it got

11:30

to Asia, also through Spanish colonists,

11:33

it was adopted more readily as a food for

11:35

people, including in its popped

11:37

form. Yeah. I saw one mention of

11:40

like this one place in Romania that

11:42

there may be evidence that it had been popped

11:44

at one point. And of course, obviously

11:46

people eventually did adopt

11:50

maize and maize products

11:52

into their stuff. That's why we have things like polenta,

11:54

but not really

11:56

into it initially. While you have probably

11:58

heard that popcorn was served at the

12:00

first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony as

12:03

belooney, there is no evidence to support that claim.

12:06

There's a lot about the first thanksgiving

12:09

story that there are, and

12:12

specifically the idea of indigenous

12:16

people giving colonists popcorn

12:19

comes up in so much literature that

12:22

book I mentioned just a moment ago. It

12:26

goes through like this long list from like

12:28

everyone from like Jane Adams writing about

12:31

it to I think Thau at one point, like all

12:33

of these people that perpetuated this myth

12:35

and made it part of that like kind

12:37

of fuzzy, more lovable

12:39

story of how those

12:42

encounters worked. And it's like

12:44

there's there's literally nothing to support,

12:50

but there was some mention of

12:52

popcorn from colonists in

12:54

the mid sixteen hundreds. John Winthrop

12:57

Junior made a report to the Royal Society

12:59

of London in sixteen sixty two

13:01

that included popping corn

13:03

in his description of the ways that Native Americans

13:06

used maize, noting that they seemed

13:08

to turn inside out and become flower

13:10

like, but he also described the

13:12

resulting puffs not being eaten as

13:14

they were the way we think of popcorn, but

13:17

being ground after that or beaten

13:19

into a meal. One hundred

13:21

years later, Ben Franklin described a similar

13:23

process, with the popping being done in a

13:25

large iron pot with sand and

13:28

then the sand being sifted off before the

13:30

pounding into the meal step. But

13:32

popcorn among the indigenous people of the East

13:34

coast of North America doesn't

13:37

really appear to have been a very

13:39

big thing. It was more work to

13:41

grow and harder to use than other forms

13:44

of maize, so it kind of seems like it really

13:46

didn't get a lot of favor. Coming

13:48

up, we'll talk about reasons. It's tricky

13:50

to figure out exactly how popcorn

13:52

got a start in the United States

13:55

as a nation different from

13:58

the Americas as a region. We'll

14:00

take a quick sponsor break before we get

14:02

to that. Because

14:13

popcorn is inexpensive and

14:15

as we've said, long lasting, it became

14:17

somewhat of a novelty to a lot of folks

14:20

in the early United States once it

14:22

had formed as a country, although there isn't

14:24

actually a mention of actual

14:26

popcorn in writing until the eighteen thirties,

14:29

when it was mentioned in a periodical called

14:31

Cultivator, which was geared towards farmers.

14:34

According to Andrew Smith in pop Culture,

14:36

it's possible that in terms of European

14:38

descendant inhabitants of the US and the eighteen

14:41

hundreds, the practice of popping

14:43

corn might have even come from Africa.

14:46

As maze made its way across Europe in

14:48

the fifteen hundreds, it also moved south

14:50

into Africa, but this is purely

14:52

a theory. The way maze spread,

14:54

which was in some cases tied to the slave

14:57

trade, makes it actually pretty hard

14:59

to know who actually had

15:01

it and who brought the concept of popcorn

15:03

into the culture of the US. And

15:05

of course there was popcorn in South

15:07

America well before any of this, so

15:10

it may have just moved north. But there's

15:12

no real chain of evidence to clearly

15:14

identify how white men started

15:16

popping popcorn rather than parching

15:19

and grinding it. The ways

15:21

people popped popcorn in its early

15:23

adoption in the United States could vary

15:25

a lot. Some sound

15:27

kind of arduous. There was a way

15:30

similar to how it would be done today

15:32

by a lot of folks using

15:34

fat or oil in a kettle. Another

15:37

method was to toss kernels of

15:39

popping corn into the hot ashes

15:42

from a fire and then all

15:44

that give that kind of a stir to get

15:46

the kernels to pop pop. That meant

15:49

that you had to get the

15:52

popped kernels out

15:54

from the ash to eat it. And I'm

15:56

just not seeing how you don't wind

15:58

up with a mouthful of ash. Yeah, that's

16:00

a hard pass for me. Another

16:03

approach was a wire box method,

16:05

where kernels could be placed in a wire

16:07

container that was held over a fire, though

16:11

it may have taken a while to catch on.

16:13

Once popcorn was introduced to the

16:15

US in its fluffy form, it

16:17

kind of became a fad. Just a

16:19

decade after that reference and cultivator,

16:22

the word popcorn appeared in Bartlett's

16:24

Dictionary of Americanism, so over

16:26

a ten year period it had gotten really really

16:29

popular. Soon holidays

16:31

celebrated in the US started to have popcorn

16:34

associated with them, and kind

16:36

of all holidays, right, like we sometimes

16:38

think of popcorn garlands for Christmas. I don't think

16:40

a lot of people do that, but some still do, or

16:43

like popcorn balls at Halloween. But it also

16:45

became part of Easter traditions, just

16:48

popcorn, not in its candied forms Halloween

16:50

traditions, and this eventually

16:52

led to the development of the popcorn ball

16:54

that I just mentioned. So a mass of popcorn

16:57

held together by a sugarcoating not

17:00

only eaten as a treat, but they were also used

17:02

as decor. In some cases, you could even

17:04

buy molds and gadgets that would help

17:06

shape candy coated popcorn

17:09

into decorative shapes, so you could make a little

17:11

ornament by this. By the eighteen

17:13

sixties, popcorn recipes started

17:15

appearing in cookbooks. They often

17:17

included ways to make sweet treats or desserts

17:20

with it. It wasn't so much savory

17:22

stuff going on at that point. When

17:24

the steel plow was invented in

17:27

the mid eighteen hundreds, that made growing popcorn

17:29

even easier, and the crop became

17:32

even more popular. Became easier

17:34

to cut the stalks which were really

17:36

starty. This is what led to the development

17:39

of the corn belts. It was

17:41

during the latter half of the eighteen hundreds

17:43

that popcorn was also adopted

17:46

by healthy living advocates.

17:48

Dietitian Ella Kellogg, the wife

17:51

of John Harvey Kellogg, used

17:53

popcorn as a breakfast cereal, eating

17:55

it with milk. She thought popcorn

17:57

should be incorporated as a dish at just

18:00

about any meal. At that point,

18:02

popcorn was readily available in

18:04

just about every grocery, and it was also

18:06

routinely sold as a treat at sporting

18:09

events and circuses. In

18:11

eighteen seventy five, Frederick J. Myers

18:14

of Govington, Kentucky, filed a

18:16

patent for a corn popper that enabled

18:18

the user to keep from burning their hand

18:20

the handle of the device stayed cool

18:22

to the touch. His improvement

18:25

in corn poppers didn't involve any kind

18:27

of revolutionary materials or thermodynamic

18:29

tricks. You could just detach the handle

18:31

while the corn was over the heat source and then

18:34

reattach it to pull the poppedcorn out.

18:37

Ten years after Meyer's patent, Charles

18:39

Creeters enters the story, and he's a

18:41

significant figure in popcorn's

18:43

US history. Creators owned

18:46

a candy store, and as he sought to

18:48

expand his offerings, he ordered a

18:50

peanut roaster for his shop so he could

18:52

sell fresh roasted nuts alongside

18:54

his candy. He didn't actually

18:56

like the roaster, though, and started taking

18:59

it apart to see if he could improve on it somehow.

19:02

In the tinkering, Creators expanded

19:04

his vision to invent a new roaster

19:07

instead of just trying to fix the one he purchased

19:09

and didn't like. Around the

19:11

same time, he realized he could design a

19:13

machine that would pop popcorn as

19:16

well as roast peanuts, and that he could

19:18

use it to roast coffee beans. As well.

19:21

He ended up building roasters in a variety

19:23

of sizes to fit different needs. Creators

19:26

used steam to run his machinery, which

19:28

gave consistent power and

19:30

in the case of the popcorn, that meant it would

19:32

heat evenly and produce consistent

19:34

batches of white, fluffy popcorn.

19:37

He popped that in a mixture of lard

19:39

and clarified butter. The steam

19:42

was then used to keep the popped popcorn

19:44

warm. He was able to add seasonings

19:47

before popping, and that would stick to the kernels

19:50

as they exploded. Soon he was

19:52

selling roasting machines to other entrepreneurs

19:55

instead of selling candy. In

19:57

eighteen ninety three, Creators exhibited

19:59

at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

20:02

Popular Mechanics reported on the popcorn

20:05

machine on wheels that he had on display,

20:07

which was marketed to grocery stores, initially

20:10

as something that they could move in or out of the

20:12

building as proprietors wished. According

20:15

to that write up in Popular Mechanics quote,

20:17

this machine was designed with the idea

20:19

of moving it about to any location

20:21

where the operator would be likely to do a

20:23

good business. The apparatus,

20:25

which is light and strong and weighing, but four

20:28

hundred or five hundred pounds can be

20:30

drawn readily by a boy or by a small

20:32

pony to any picnic ground, fair,

20:34

political rally, etc. And to many

20:36

other places where a good business

20:38

could be done for a day or two. After

20:41

kind of a slow start at the expo where he

20:43

couldn't get people interested, Creators just

20:46

started making bags of popcorn to give away,

20:48

and then that freebee plus

20:50

the smell of popcorn popping, made

20:53

the crowd show up. He eventually

20:55

started selling the popcorn, and he made

20:57

a nice sum over the course of the exposition,

21:00

and the success of his popcorn sales also

21:02

inspired the sales of his mobile popcorn

21:04

machine, which he called the earn More,

21:07

and this launched an entirely new field

21:10

of mobile food vending. While

21:12

people have sold food on foot for

21:14

centuries, We've talked about it so many times,

21:16

this was new in that the food could be prepared

21:19

on the spot wherever the vendor went.

21:22

Other manufacturers of nut roasting machines

21:24

hustled to get in on this new popcorn

21:26

market by making poppers similar

21:28

to creets. The creater's company,

21:31

by the way, still exists today, and

21:33

it still manufactures concession

21:35

equipment of all kinds.

21:37

As Creaters was working on his popping

21:39

machine, commercially produced popcorn

21:42

became available at retail. Up

21:44

until the eighteen eighties, people who made popcorn

21:46

were usually growing their own or

21:48

getting it in places like farmer's markets,

21:51

but in the eighteen eighties the Albert Dickinson

21:53

Company started offering prepackaged

21:56

popcorn with the branding names of Big

21:58

Buster and Little Bust. Similarly,

22:02

other people besides Creators were working

22:04

to innovate in the corn popping arena.

22:07

One of Creeter's employees, C F. Dunbar,

22:10

left the company to start his own popcorn

22:12

machine business, and he invented a

22:14

machine that would pop the popcorn dry

22:16

without any oil and then pass it

22:18

through an automated butter dispenser. The

22:21

first patent for a machine that would coat

22:23

popcorn with a sugar glaze to keep each

22:26

popped kernel fresh was filed by a man

22:28

named James Voods. This machine

22:30

kept those popkernels separate from one another,

22:33

so each one could dry with the coating

22:35

without clumping up into a ball. Frederick

22:38

and Lewis Rookheim of Germany

22:40

developed a hand held popper that gave

22:43

them the capability to flavor each small

22:45

batch however they wished. The Rookheims

22:48

are also responsible for introducing an

22:50

enduring snack brand, which is Crackerjack.

22:53

Crackerjack, in case anybody

22:56

in our listening audience has not had it,

22:58

combines popcorn and peanuts. The

23:00

molasses coating Crackerjack

23:02

was such a huge hit that copycat recipes

23:04

started showing up in cookbooks

23:06

not long after its introduction. Once

23:10

again, because of the low cost, popcorn

23:12

has endured in popularity through various

23:15

economic downturns. During

23:17

the Great Depression, popcorn became one

23:19

of the few treats that families could still

23:21

afford. It was kind of an austerity luxury,

23:24

and it also meant that companies that sold popcorn

23:27

fared better during the Great Depression than other

23:29

industries as popcorn sales

23:31

continued to rise. The

23:33

depression also led to one of the most

23:36

common associations we have with popcorn,

23:38

and that's being a movie theater snack. This

23:41

was a cost effective way for theater

23:43

owners to offer some kind of snack that

23:45

overhead was very low. But

23:47

not all theaters were on board with the popcorn

23:50

boom. Initially, some of them

23:52

feared rightfully as Anybody

23:54

who has ever left a theater at

23:57

the end of a movie has seen that

23:59

it would make messes. Sometimes

24:02

people intentionally make bigger messes with

24:04

it. There had also just been

24:06

a push within the industry to create a luxury

24:09

experience that popcorn and other snacks

24:11

couldn't really match with. But

24:13

it was so popular already as a low

24:15

cost snack that popcorn sellers

24:18

started to pop up adjacent to theaters,

24:20

having moved there from sporting events and carnivals,

24:23

so patrons could buy a bag

24:25

on their way into the theater. Eventually,

24:28

theater owners recognized that they were losing

24:30

a potential revenue stream and started offering

24:33

popcorn in their establishments. In

24:36

many theaters, this began as a rental

24:38

arrangement with the vendors who had once been

24:41

outside, but overtime theaters

24:43

introduced their own snack counters and handled

24:45

their own concessions. And of course most won't

24:47

let you bring a whole bag of popcorn in with you

24:50

unless you're really sly, and then they're still

24:52

take you to do it. But you know, I'm

24:54

not going to comment on that anyway. Another

24:56

world event that further solidified popcorns

24:59

hold on the US the snack market was World

25:01

War II. Sugar was ration

25:03

in World War Two. It was one of the first things to be ration

25:06

The supply lines that the continental US

25:08

got sugar through were the Philippines, Hawaii,

25:11

Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands,

25:14

all of which were theaters of war, so

25:16

those supply lines were essentially cut.

25:19

Additionally, what sugar there was was often

25:21

sent overseas for troops. The

25:24

amount of sugar allowed through rationing was

25:26

half of what most households used on average.

25:29

Because of the sugar shortage, savory

25:31

popcorn once again had a surge of popularity

25:34

as a snack that was readily available and could

25:36

be eaten without sugar. Reportedly,

25:38

popcorn consumption in the US tripled

25:41

in the early nineteen forties. Coming

25:43

up, we'll talk about how the invention of television

25:46

caused popcorn's popularity to dip

25:49

for a little bit. But first we will

25:51

hear from some sponsors that keep the

25:53

show going.

26:04

Okay, we will finally get to an important

26:06

historical moment that actually hurt popcorn

26:08

sales at least for a little while, and

26:11

that's the advent of television. As

26:13

people adopted the new technology at home,

26:16

they made big use of it as an entertainment

26:18

investment, and as a consequence,

26:21

movie theaters saw a drop in ticket

26:23

sales and thus popcorn sales

26:25

also declined at this

26:27

point. In this moment, popcorn was usually,

26:30

though not always, a treat that people

26:32

would eat when they went out. People

26:35

absolutely did continue to make popcorn

26:37

at home, but that was no longer the primary

26:39

way that most popcorn was consumed. But

26:42

that shift to home entertainment brought about

26:44

by the rise of television shifted

26:46

things once again for popcorn two,

26:49

because then after a while, they

26:51

missed that popcorn, and it became more and more

26:53

common again for families to make popcorn

26:55

themselves at home to eat while watching

26:58

TV. Another

27:00

icon of popcorn's popularity

27:02

in the US was Orville Reddenbacker.

27:05

Redenbacker was born in Brazil, Indiana,

27:08

on July sixteenth, nineteen oh seven.

27:10

His parents were corn farmers, and

27:13

Orville grow up to work as a Farm

27:15

Bureau extension agent. After graduating

27:18

from Purdue University with a degree

27:20

in agronomy, he also

27:22

opened his own very successful fertilizer

27:25

company. But popcorn had

27:27

always been his favorite treat, and he had

27:29

dabbled for years with the idea

27:31

of creating a perfect popping corn.

27:35

By their early nineteen seventies, Reddenbacher

27:37

was ready to turn that hobby into a business.

27:40

He had developed a strain of corn that

27:42

he felt was absolutely perfect for popping,

27:45

and he partnered with a man named Charlie Bowman

27:48

to launch a company to sell it. And

27:50

the popcorn was originally named as a portmanteau

27:53

of the two men's names. It was called red bow

27:55

but by the time they started selling it it was

27:58

Orville Reddenbacker Popcorn. To

28:00

name change that he said was based on

28:02

advice from an advertising firm.

28:04

There's a very funny David Letterman clip

28:06

of him explaining this thing if

28:08

you ever want to go hunting for it online. It

28:11

was a very small company to start.

28:13

Orville initially was selling the popcorn

28:15

out of his car, but in

28:18

nineteen seventy two there was a huge

28:20

ad campaign. Orville

28:22

starred in the commercials right alongside

28:24

his popcorn, and soon he became really

28:27

well recognized. Although he was

28:29

so associated with the commercials

28:31

that a lot of people thought he was an actor

28:34

portraying the character of Orvile

28:37

Redbacker, not like actually the man

28:39

that the product was named for. Regardless

28:42

of whether consumers understood the importance

28:45

of the company's commercial spokesman,

28:48

Orville Reddenbacker, popcorn became

28:50

a huge seller. And then

28:52

there was, of course, the microwave

28:55

of it. So the microwave, which

28:57

we talked about before, was the brainchild of

28:59

Percy, who worked for Raytheon

29:01

Manufacturing Corporation, which producer

29:04

reported eighty percent of the magnetrons

29:06

used by the Allied forces in World War

29:08

II. In a meeting

29:10

where the executives of Raytheon were trying

29:12

to come up with ways to keep the company's momentum

29:15

going in peacetime, Spencer

29:17

suggested that magnetrons might

29:19

be used to cook food. Spencer

29:21

was really well respected. His work had

29:23

been what enabled Raytheon to produce magnetrons

29:26

at the scale needed to support the war

29:28

effort, so they took his

29:31

idea to heart and started experimenting with

29:33

food. We've talked before about

29:35

Spencer and that great story about how

29:37

he realized that microwaves could heat food

29:40

when a candy bar in his pocket melted

29:42

while he was working in the lab one day. Building

29:45

on that food lore, popcorn

29:47

didn't just benefit from the transition of

29:49

microwave technology into home use.

29:52

It was also an important part of developing

29:54

it. Percy Spencer used

29:56

popcorn to test what would happen to

29:58

it when it was exposed to the magne tron. After

30:00

this whole melting candy bar incident, he

30:03

said to have ended up with popped kernels flying

30:05

all over the lab. Although

30:07

the development of the microwave began in the nineteen

30:10

forties, it didn't really become widely

30:12

appealing to home consumers for several

30:14

decades. But once that new technology

30:17

was integrated into a lot of people's

30:19

household lives, manufacturers

30:21

sought ways to capitalize on it, and they

30:23

started developing popcorn specifically

30:26

designed for microwave use, and

30:28

microwave popcorn is one of those oddities

30:31

that was embraced by consumers really

30:33

quickly. Microwave popcorn

30:35

got a boost from the huge surge in fitness

30:38

enthusiasm in the nineteen eighties.

30:40

It's a pretty healthy treat. It has a low calorie

30:43

and sodium count, and it offers a lot of fiber.

30:45

So just as more and more households were

30:47

getting microwaves, a large portion

30:50

of those households were interested in popcorn.

30:52

Whether it was just because it's an easy tasty

30:55

treat or because they saw it as

30:57

healthier than other options. I

30:59

will say that sodium number can really

31:01

vary depending well. Popcorn

31:04

on its own right, no, very

31:06

little sodium, very little. But if it's

31:09

covered in salty butter, if with the

31:11

national salt, that changes. In

31:15

a nineteen eighty seven article in The

31:17

New York Times titled microwave key

31:20

to popcorn War, it was noted

31:22

that quote five years ago, microwave popcorn

31:24

did not exist. In nineteen eighty three,

31:27

the first full year that microwave popcorn

31:29

was available nationally, it generated

31:31

retail sales of fifty three million

31:34

dollars according to Packaged Facts,

31:36

a New York based consumer research

31:39

concern. Last year,

31:41

consumers popped and estimated two hundred

31:43

and fifty million dollars worth of the stuff

31:45

according to the Popcorn Institute,

31:48

a Chicago based trade group. Yeah,

31:50

that's huge growth over a five year period.

31:53

That article also noted that Orville

31:55

Reddenbacher, who at that point was the undisputed

31:58

king of home use popcorn brand for more

32:00

than a decade, was suddenly in competition

32:03

with companies like Pillsbury, General

32:05

Mills, and Nabisco, which had all

32:07

launched their own microwave popcorn products.

32:10

The article then quoted then GM

32:12

of General Mills Donald Newtson as

32:14

saying of their microwave popcorn pop

32:16

secret quote, this is easily the

32:19

hottest microwave product General

32:21

Mills has ever introduced. The

32:23

article also mentions cost and that even

32:25

though microwave popcorn costs more than

32:27

twice as much as regular popcorn, consumers

32:30

seemed to be happy to pay that for the convenience.

32:34

But we should note that though Reddenbacher had

32:36

competition, and that was the whole crux of this article,

32:39

that brand, which was owned by the Beatrice

32:41

Company in nineteen eighty seven, had been

32:43

selling microwave popcorn since nineteen

32:45

eighty three, and it was still the leading brand

32:48

on the market when Orbal Reddenbacher

32:50

died in nineteen ninety five, his popcorn

32:52

accounted for forty five percent of

32:54

the market. Citing market

32:57

experts, that article also predicted

32:59

that a few brands would survive and

33:01

thrive, but all other microwave popcorn

33:04

makers would fall away. This

33:07

was way off base given the situation

33:09

at most grocery stores these days,

33:12

where there are dozens of options for

33:14

microwave popcorn and many

33:16

other products. Also

33:20

ay off base was a quote from Deborah

33:22

A. Koom who was manager of popcorn

33:25

popper manufacturer West Bend

33:27

Company. According to her quote,

33:29

microwave popcorn is a fad. It will

33:31

last until people read labels and realize

33:34

what chemicals microwave manufacturers

33:36

put into their popcorn. Microwave

33:39

popcorn did lose some market

33:42

share to pre popped popcorn

33:44

in the early twenty teens, but

33:46

it's still around. It's not a fad. Popcorn

33:50

is, in fact, such an enduring treat that

33:52

it enabled some movie theaters to stay

33:54

afloat even when no movies were showing

33:57

during the early days of the pandemic. Twenty

34:00

twenty three rate up at Sirius Eats, the

34:02

co owner of a theater in Parkridge, Illinois

34:05

named Dave Loomos talked about

34:07

his company's use of popcorn to maintain

34:09

business. He said, quote, we had our doors

34:11

closed and no income coming in. We

34:14

decided to do curb side popcorn pickup

34:16

to see how it would go, and we've been doing that for

34:19

the past couple of weeks and it seems

34:21

like it's well received. That's

34:23

very smart, in my opinion. I think so too.

34:26

Popcorn once again had a huge surge

34:28

when the COVID nineteen pandemic began

34:31

because people wanted to replicate movie

34:33

night at home. Grocery Store

34:35

popcorn sales ROSA reported thirty

34:38

percent. In twenty twenty one, the

34:40

global popcorn market was estimated

34:42

to be worth five point two billion

34:45

dollars. It's expected to

34:47

continue on a growth trajectory

34:49

into twenty thirty. One

34:51

of the largest drivers today is the

34:53

ready to eat popcorn market and

34:55

particularly gourmet flavors

34:58

of pre popped popcorn.

35:01

Oh, popcorn, I love you, mm

35:03

hmmm ah.

35:05

I will talk in behind the scenes on Friday

35:07

about popcorn. Yeah, Ada,

35:10

super will. I'm excited popcorn.

35:14

I have a listener mail from our listener,

35:16

Trenna. tRNA

35:18

writes, Hi, Tracy and Holly. First,

35:20

of course, I am a longtime listener and fan, but

35:22

first time emailer. I love the podcast

35:24

and often listen when I'm driving for a number of

35:27

hours, so I get both episodes and the

35:29

behind the scenes all in one swoop.

35:31

I'm finally writing because it seems that all

35:33

of the stars aligned to compel me to say how

35:36

thankful I am for your podcast. As

35:38

a history major, I loved hearing the behind the

35:40

scenes, so to speak, regarding the famous people

35:42

of our past. So, just after

35:44

listening to your episode on Vinnie Reem, I went

35:46

to Washington, D C. For a friend's birthday.

35:49

I really wanted to see the statue,

35:51

but unfortunately all of the tours

35:53

of the Capitol Building were sold out. Instead,

35:56

I spent many an hour touring all of the monuments

35:59

and tributes include Washington Memorial,

36:01

Lincoln Memorial, World War One and two memorials,

36:03

Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial,

36:06

African American History Museum, which is

36:08

an amazing museum if you've never been. That's my input.

36:11

Harriet Tubman Museum in Cambridge, in many

36:13

more places. My last tour that I

36:15

crammed in that day I was leaving, but I

36:17

could not leave without seeing Arlington. I

36:19

took a two hour walking tour that included

36:22

JFK Memorial and his Brothers

36:24

and Justice Ginsburg, Thurgood Marshall,

36:26

and many more. I was disappointed

36:29

to not see any statue, but our

36:31

tour guide pointed out a grave site and asked

36:33

anyone if they knew who they were. It

36:35

was Jimmy Doolittle and I was like horsehack

36:38

dating myself here because of course I

36:40

listened to the episode. I took a picture

36:42

of the tomb to include in this email, just to send

36:44

you thank you so much for what you do.

36:46

I love listening to the funny parts of the story

36:48

and how you both crack up at the sillier side

36:50

of things. So to that end, my poor

36:53

old kiddy died last year after a very long

36:55

life, so I'm including a picture of another funny

36:57

episode from my past background.

37:00

My husband and I had two dogs who were BFFs

37:02

forever. When the older one, Mac died,

37:05

my poor little miniature Docsin was heartbroken,

37:07

following me everywhere. So I had the bright

37:09

idea of adopting another docs in to

37:11

keep him company. I found a rescue

37:14

on a website and thought she was adorable. We

37:16

went out to meet her with Winston to see

37:18

if they were compatible. They appeared to get

37:20

along well, so I said we will take her, at

37:23

which point the rescue center told me about

37:25

her mother. Apparently the two

37:27

were living in a car with a bunch of other dogs

37:30

and they were all rescued and no one had

37:32

come forward for the mother, who she had been with her

37:34

whole life. Yep, you guessed it. I'm

37:36

a sucker, so I said, give me the mom too. I

37:39

love you for this. Well two weeks later,

37:41

I'm sitting on our sofa and the younger one goes

37:43

crazy, running all over and up and down the stairs,

37:46

pulling down the afghans and blankets, and I

37:48

didn't know what to think about. Thirty minutes

37:50

later, I hear a muling noise.

37:52

I got up to look, and yes, you guessed it, there

37:55

was a puppy on the couch. I called

37:57

to my husband calmly, I'm sure, honey,

38:00

I have a problem. After back and forth

38:02

about yes, really, there is a puppy on our

38:04

couch, he dove in and helped deliver

38:06

the rest of the pups. Of course, it was a Sunday,

38:08

so no vets were open. In the end, we navigated

38:11

the delivery of three puppies within

38:13

two days. One of my best friends came over and

38:15

said how cute the puppies were. Then she looked

38:18

at the mom and said, I'll have one of hers. I

38:20

said she's not pregnant, and my friends said, yes, she

38:22

is. Sure enough. My husband took

38:24

mom to the vet the next day, and four puppies were

38:26

in our future. So long story, short,

38:29

we went from one dog to ten dogs in about

38:31

a month. Here's a picture of my miniature

38:33

docs in with the puppies. Who doesn't

38:35

love a snuggle. Looking forward to seeing you

38:37

in Indianapolis, Trena. One,

38:40

I love you for taking care of all of these

38:43

bibbis. Two, I love you for adopting a

38:45

mom. That's always my thing on Mother's Day. Adopt

38:48

the mom. Animals they don't get taken in the

38:50

puppies and kittens always do and they often sit

38:52

in shelters, So hooray for you. Thank you

38:54

for that. And also I have been at a

38:56

puppy delivery and it's a lot of work, and like

38:58

my hat is off to you, so

39:01

thank you so much for accidentally segueing

39:03

us to being able to talk about our live show in

39:05

Indiana. Yeah're going to be at the Indiana

39:07

Historical Society on July nineteenth,

39:11

so if you would like to see stuff you missed in history Class

39:13

live, it is a seven thirty to

39:15

eight thirty PM show at the Eugene and Maryland

39:18

Glick Indiana History Center. It

39:20

is thirty dollars if you're a member. It's twenty

39:23

dollars if you're only going to the show. There's another

39:25

option for a slightly more expensive ticket

39:27

which also includes a meet and greet, so we

39:29

would love to see you there. If

39:31

you would like to register for this show and come and see us

39:33

in Indianapolis, we would love to see

39:35

you. You can do that at www

39:38

dot indianahistory dot org slash

39:40

events and you'll see it right there,

39:42

and we will be there, and Trent and

39:45

I will hug you for taking

39:47

care of all of those dogs, because

39:49

thank you for doing it. They're so cute. This

39:51

is also the wonderful mystery

39:53

and surprise sometimes of adopting rescue

39:55

animals from shelters. Different

39:57

shelters have different levels of care they're able

39:59

to give before adoption. Sometimes

40:02

you get a surprise. One of my previous

40:05

cats, who is no longer

40:08

with me, was the

40:10

mom and they had found homes for

40:12

all the babies, and then Villain

40:14

l came to live with me for

40:16

the next decade ish.

40:19

More than that, she was a cute little shy

40:21

thing. Yeah, yeah,

40:23

so thank you. If you want to write

40:26

to us about your adventures

40:28

in touring historical sites or with

40:31

animals and surprise puppies, which I'm

40:33

just gazing at this puppy picture, It's like a

40:35

dopamine hit, It's so good, or

40:38

anything else you want to talk about. You can write to

40:40

us at History Podcast at iHeartRadio

40:42

dot com. You can also find us on social

40:44

media as missed in History And if

40:47

you would like to subscribe to the podcast and you haven't,

40:50

you can do that on the iHeartRadio app

40:52

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

40:59

Stuffy and History Class is a production of

41:01

iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

41:03

from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio

41:06

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

41:08

listen to your favorite shows.