Iconic Food Brands: How Betty Crocker, Sara Lee, and Duncan Hines Built Trust in American Homes

. Nancy May: Hey, . Sylvia, you know this episode is gonna make me hungry, but

before we go there, I wanna remind our listeners to subscribe to our podcast at.

Podcast, family Tree Food Stories, because as we say, every meal has

a story and every story is a feast.

And boy is this one a story,

A series of them, in fact, pretty cool stuff.

all about tradition.

Where does it begin?

Absolutely, and, we're talking about iconic traditions,

the icons of our food worlds that we grew up, that mom grew up with.

Well, maybe my, not always grandma.

It depends on how old or young you are,

I guess.

Yeah.

But people like Betty Crocker and Little Debbie and famous Amos.

I mean, there's so many iconic stories about food traditions and

where they all came from, and that's what we're talking about today,

Yeah, and you know it's now kind of an endless supply

of iconic figures in food because again, if you reach back far enough.

So many of them began in mom's kitchen or Grandma's kitchen, and

then they, or grandpa, and they caught the imagination and they

turned into an entire company.

but after all, we can relate to people better than you can

an inanimate grain of rice or a pea.

That's right and, you can see yourself and I'm sure this was

part of the marketing strategy, you can see yourself as Betty Crocker and it's

kind of neat to think it actually might improve your cooking skills

I'd like to perceive myself as Dolly Parton with

her new brand right now, so,

Uh,

but let's get going.

Let's start with little Debbie.

little Debbie, that cute little face that's all over, oatmeal,

cream pies, zebra cakes and more.

And by the way, my grandkids love little Debbie.

She comes out every year with these Christmas themed things.

A chocolate Christmas tree, a white icing Christmas tree.

And then we move on.

We get rabbits, I mean, they do it all right?

And so who was little Debbie?

I don't

know.

Tell me.

during the depression O.D., McKee-Fowler and his wife survived by selling 5 cent

cakes from the back of their vehicle.

How many times have you heard that story played out?

in 1934, they purchased a small bakery in Chattanooga, began making

desserts And in 1960 drum roll.

Little Debbie named after their granddaughter of the same name became

that emblem, that sweet little face on every box, every package, of, and, again,

it just made you think of being that little girl or feeding that little girl.

And so it just, it brought something charming to the product.

a little Debbie feeds Bob a little bit too much during holiday

season because he's like, he's like, your grandkids goes down the aisle.

Little Debbie's give me them now.

kinda like his Halloween character comes out.

well, they're so cute too, you know, and the cakes are so

cute, and I'm gonna have to cut back on that 'cause my kids always want

a little debbie cake with ice cream.

Oh, that's too much.

Kind of too much.

On the sugar, but, probably the most famous one is Betty Crocker.

Right.

I like Betty Crocker.

I who didn't grow up with the Betty Crocker cakes over the years?

Right.

well, here's an an interesting difference too, if you

wanna contrast her with little Debbie.

Little Debbie was purely an image that was used.

Betty Crocker went an extra step, even though she was only an image.

She was not a real person.

So in 1921, the Washburn- Crosby company later became General Mills

in 1928 was running, I love this.

I love this.

Was running a promotion in which customers who solved puzzle and sent in their

answers was a chance to win a pin cushion in the shape of a flower sack.

I love that.

A pin cushion,

I

Just what I need.

So, to their surprise, home cooks sent in their,

, inquiries along with their entries.

an opportunity, rose in the minds of some smart marketing agent.

So,

Well, you know, then the whole series ran in the Saturday evening

post, and I never saw one of those Saturday evening posts, but it just

seems so looking back at the whole thing.

Yeah.

do you actually know that they've created this character though?

Betty Crocker was not a real person?

No, she wasn't.

Had women audition as Betty Crocker.

So the real I say in quote, real Betty Crocker or the character has sort of

emerged over time and grown with the ages.

So from the, I guess through the World II and how she's evolved to a more

modern person, think that's pretty

Yeah, it is.

And you know, they set up Betty Crocker on radio.

that was another big thing that they did, the Betty Crocker

Cooking School of the Air.

Don't you love that?

Pre Julia,

she was a trusted source.

, much, to their surprise, people would ask for advice on cooking.

That's why they started a hotline.

And not only that, but life lessons.

I mean, they trusted this image, this woman that wasn't real.

and it became a place where women could go and I'd say largely women.

And she was kind of the ideal.

What, femininity and all of that.

And And during the forties, Betty received 4,000 to 5,000 letters a day

Can you imagine receiving those

Oh, I

alone?

I

mean, forget letters.

well, I don't wanna forget letters 'cause it's kind of fun

to still get a letter today.

As long as it's not from an attorney,

There you go.

Or a doctor.

or doctor.

Right.

and this was during a time of World War I, rationing now.

so let's see.

It's World War ii.

World War ii, let's go Wars straightened out here,

I guess you could call her the, the, original social media

influencer of her time, kinda like Martha and maybe the Kardashians.

Right.

Do we put her in that same category?

I

Uh, now comparing her to them is kind of interesting, isn't it?

Because

Right,

bringing it forward.

They are real people and they use their realness to sell themselves.

But we'll talk about that here in a little bit.

' cause we're not gonna move through the ages, right?

We're

gonna go to,

Now we've got famous Amos, Wally Amos.

That's a really fascinating story

because it's a classic rags to riches story that I don't know too many

people know about because it's a little toss into wherever the cookies,

my crumble, I get my tongue wrapped

Like you're chewing a cookie.

yeah.

he founded Deus Cookies in 1975 at a bakery on Sunset Boulevard.

You know, he kind of went small , I love kind of cookies like this,

, the little bite size cookie.

I

love that.

I give

you're

got a big,

into big.

Okay.

I'm a tiny cookie, cause I'm kind of that too in real life.

but it was a family recipe, aunt Della, with only the best ingredients

and he was out in la so he, had a lot of investment from celebrities.

it was on Sunset Boulevard and that spread the word, but he

was of in the seventies kind of.

Interesting because he became a personality too.

He was interviewed.

Uh, what, what's the one I'm trying to come up with?

Um,

Larry King.

Yeah, I remember he interviewed everybody and, you'd get asked your

opinion on world affairs, like, anybody in the food business should

necessarily be commenting on that.

But that was what started.

well, I don't know.

I think a cookie does bring kind of a world affair.

Brings it all together,

could, maybe be a peace offering.

You never know.

but And then you had a kind of a fact wait about him, didn't you?

Yeah, so, Wally Amos, I remember seeing him speak somewhere a long

time ago, and a very engaging personality.

kind of felt like the guy next door type of

personality, but he was actually the first black talent agent

at the William Morris Agency.

he worked with some folks like Simon and Garfunkel and Marvin

Gaye and some really famous.

Talents of the day, but that's also where he got those artists involved in his shop.

So, or his, first store and the cookies, and that's of how it exploded.

But I always thought he started in, in Hawaii and he didn't start in Hawaii.

He's out in California,

I don't know why I connected him with Honolulu in that area.

Yeah.

you know, it doesn't hurt to have celebrities on your

side 'cause they can help.

Yeah, maybe we should find a a celebrity.

Hey, we need a celebrity.

We are the celebrities, come on!

celebrities Come

Yeah, you with your videos.

I mean, let's go.

but I know this is a personal favorite of yours.

Chef Boyardee.

You're always talking of

Chef Boyardi.

I love the story of Chef.

Chef Boyardi.

El El.

How do you pronounce his name?

You got it better than I do.

Boy Rd.

So it's, yeah,

there you go.

Boy Rd phonetically.

And he changed it to that so that we, Americans could figure

it out a little bit easier.

But he was born in 1897 in Piacenza Italy, came to the US in 1914.

He became the head chef eventually at the Plaza Hotel.

I remember the heyday of the Plaza Hotel.

in New York, absolutely.

I don't think the plaza has ever faded.

Tea at the plaza

is just delicious.

And what I, I love the discovery that we made.

'cause we're from a small town, right?

And your waiters are all college students, but there they had

like professional waiters.

I remember just being astonished by that.

That was pretty cool.

New York, big time professional.

They, are very impressive to see a group of professional waiters manage

a large event at the Plaza or the Waldorf or someplace like that, and

you don't hear the clinking of plates.

It's amazing.

They're so good.

And there's some of them in their fifties and sixties.

I mean, it was a career unlike here, although we're changing

a little bit, one of our.

Staff.

One of our front of house staff is like 67 and he's a favorite.

People ask for him, Lenny.

So Lenny kind of

is breaking the mold.

Yeah.

Lenny.

Oh, we love Lenny.

He listens to his

own too.

He talks about, okay.

but he did a lot of things.

He prepared a famous White House homecoming dinner for

returning World War One.

Troops.

This is back to the wars and which ones.

and it became the head chef at the Hotel Winston in Cleveland.

And his spaghetti dinners became locally famous.

And again, they became the thing, right?

how do you become the thing, Nancy?

You gotta become the thing that people want

and alright, we're a thing.

I love that we are a thing.

, But he opened his own place.

Ill Giardino.

Dalia, and the demand for his red sauce was intense, so he sent it home

with customers and reused milk bottles along with dry pasta and cheese.

So what happened next?

Maurice and Eva Weiner, they were in the grocery business,

helped he and his brother set up a canning operation in 1928.

So his name and his symbol were born and he made it phonetic.

So Chef Boyardee, his little m image there on all his packaging.

his likeness just became universal.

And during World War ii, he ran the plant around the clock

producing canned spaghetti.

It was so familiar and similar meals as a major supplier of rations.

And he sold the company in 1946, following the drop in

business, with the war ending.

So, you know, he checked all the boxes, right?

He was an immigrant, made good.

He was a White House chef.

He was a neighborhood entrepreneur and a wartime contributor.

Like, check, check, check, check, check.

This guy was amazing.

it's interesting of how many foods have become so

well known as a result of wartime.

Traditions.

it's not necessarily on the topic they we're talking about, but I believe Hershey

Bars and Coca-Cola became more famed as a result, and motorcycles too actually.

But we'll talk about that maybe in another show.

Food on the go.

Let's take a quick break because we have a few more iconic brands to

talk about that I think are pretty personal, We'll be right back because

we have this other story first.

Okay, Sylvia, so we just finished up with Chef Boyardee, but before we go on to

our next iconic brand, have you ever eaten Chef Boyardee d Spaghetti in the canned

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I loved it.

I'd probably love it today.

I haven't had it for a while.

you

I'd never had Chef Byardee I had SpaghettiOs and I would never eat that

really

That was disgusting.

SpaghettiOs?

SpaghettiOs as a kid, everybody had SpaghettiOs, and one day I remember

asking my mom, I need SpaghettiOs.

Have to try it.

Oh, disgusting.

But sorry, yeah, I prefer homemade spaghetti.

Is that because your mother was a really good cook?

Is

that because

No,

Huh?

no, it wasn't.

Sorry, Mom.

Because that happens sometimes.

I mean, if you eat food that somebody who's really good at it

makes it kind of shames some of the other food, even if it's from

a high-end restaurant or something.

, They just don't make it like some of the old cooks.

And maybe that's what happened here, that people loved his spaghetti.

So go and try it.

Nancy.

Give him another

try.

I'm gonna have to try Chef Boyardee.

I believe they're still around,

Oh yeah.

Our next iconic character is Sarah Lee.

before we start on Sarah Lee, I had a mentor years back.

Miles Kane, fabulous fellow, an attorney.

I, there's something about attorneys that gravitate to me.

You're an attorney, you just gotta love me.

It'll keep me outta jail, whatever it is.

But, he was a, good friend and advisor of the real Sarah Lee, who lived, I

believe, in Greenwich, Connecticut

okay.

Mm-hmm.

But, some of the stories were pretty fascinating, but you've

got a good story about how Sarah Lee

Yeah.

Sarah Lee was the actual 8-year-old daughter of Charles

Lubin, a Chicago baker.

Again, hitting on this idea of

a little girl and family and, I think one of his, sayings was, if you serve

it to your daughter, it has to be good.

I like that.

And so, in 1935, Charles and his brother, I love these

stories these origin stories, to buy a chain of bakeries and they

called it community bake shops.

So the rest is history.

He created and introduced a new line of frozen cheesecakes in 1949.

And he branded it.

As I said, if it serve it to your daughter, it has to be good.

So he, hit on that, you're gonna feed your kids well.

and later he changed the name of the company to Kitchens of Sara Lee,

and he sold his frozen cheesecakes to restaurants you find a lot of

times this stuff happened just as something else was happening.

This was an era when people started eating frozen foods.

We hadn't thought about that.

You know, probably the precursor to frozen dinners and that kind

of thing, but they were becoming popular, and so later he extended

his company to cakes, pies, breads, meats, with that 20th century ethos of

bathing, food, marketing, and warmth, wholesomeness, and a feminine touch.

Coziness, but you don't hear of food connected to

little boys, which is interesting.

Other than

I think of Bologna.

Oscar Meyer, my, my baloney has a first name.

I you think of little boys saying that for some reason.

I don't know, maybe I don't wanna get into that story.

But did you know that the Sara Lee company developed the first flash frozen process

that worked for baked goods in 1953?

I think that was really interesting because it's a brand, but they also

created this technology around the foods, which made them more available to us and

that grew beyond the brand of the Bake.

You mentioned cakes and pies and breads and meats, but they

also owned Kiwi shoe polish.

Haynes and the Wonder Bra, which I thought was pretty funny, right?

So I guess you can have your cake and push it up too.

Oh, the Wonder Bra, do they still

make

this?

Bra Cake.

What's, I don't even remember the Wonder Bra.

Does it have a special feature other

Oh, the Wonder Bra.

I don't know.

I think maybe that was Jane Russell that did the lift and separate

Oh, I love that.

Too much for food stories right

now.

Let's go on to Duncan Hines

this is a great one too.

In my neighborhood.

That's right.

Duncan Hines.

Now we've seen it for years.

I didn't even know this till pretty recently, that he's

an actual person and he didn't launch a food company in a sense.

But let me just tell a story really quickly.

He is born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was about two hours away from

Lexington He was a traveling salesman and he traveled the country and

had an obsession with cleanliness.

So he began to rate restaurants that sound familiar, and motels,

especially for cleanliness and quality.

He was, I think, a precursor to modern day dining and travel guides

that we rely on, which has now gone digital and all that stuff.

But in the forties, he licensed his name for products he promoted.

again, opportunity met the circumstances of the time.

This was when people began to.

Tour the country.

And they needed to know, right?

They needed to know what, was good and what wasn't.

And he was so obsessed and he would tell people, don't go to X, y, or Z

restaurant because it's not clean enough.

And, he could make you or break you.

he said his famous saying, more people will die by hit or miss

dining than hit and run driving.

wow.

Ooh, that's pretty scary.

Now I gotta tell you, this is one, that you know, something about

being from the Northeast Toll house Inn.

I do know that one.

about the Toll House Inn.

It sounds good, like.

So the Toll House Inn is in Whitman, Massachusetts and of, I

guess he used to come down from the northeast, from Boston area into the Cape.

so he visited the Toll House Inn and it was not too far from Bridgewater,

Massachusetts, which is where.

We didn't live in Bridgewater.

We lived in Rochester for a while.

When we moved, when I was in, in high school, and we would

go through Bridgewater area and we'd pass by the Toll House Inn.

and they were actually related to the Tollhouse cookies,

right?

Well, there's a debate about that, I think.

Yes, it's the tall house cookies there, but there's another one

in, they call the Toll House.

Over in Connecticut, in the Litchfield area that.

Well, they say they were the oldest Inn versus, the cookies.

But even still a toll house for those people who are listening and don't know,

a toll house of the day was where they would collect the toll just like you

would have tokens in the day and age and the easy passes that you have today.

And people don't think about tolls necessarily 'cause you just

drive right through them today.

And the fascinating thing is.

There's, there was a group of people, this is somewhat on the same concept of

Duncan Hines going on the side route.

There were a group of people who referred to themselves as Shun Pikers.

Do you know what a

Shun piker is?

A Shun Piker is somebody who shuns the tolls.

So you shun a turnpike and you go around the tolls and you go on the side roads

and the country roads, and you find places like the toll house in and hopefully

a little bit more cleany places to eat.

Not that the toll house isn't cleanly, but some of the things that Duncan Hines

So,

so that was a label for me.

I would go,

no, I didn't.

you are Shun Piker.

Well, it's not that they're that they shun the laws, they just find alternative

routes because you could do that.

So you

I love that.

road as opposed to

That's a great way to put it.

Scenic route.

A scenic route.

so he made the place famous.

Now it didn't hurt that it was on their way to Cape Cod,

right?

And, he extolled their virtues and at one time they had 1500 to 2000 customers.

If you have a 1500 to 2000 customers in a period of time, that's pretty good.

I don't know if it was weekly, but

Well at

yeah, that's a lot

Right?

the food there made him say.

It is when I wish I had a hollow leg.

he was a man with, the quip, but his self-published guides were

sold for a dollar 50 each.

I love it.

And he sold, this is so cute.

He sold, recommended by Duncan Hines signs for $38 a year.

That was a lot back then lot back then.

in the twenties

but it made a difference apparently.

Then we haven't heard about this.

I'm surprised we haven't.

he continued lending his name, including to cake mixes and just as

ready to eat and prepare food again.

serendipity was arriving in the grocery store.

It was said that his endorsement or not could make it or break a

restaurant, and he made a lot of money.

So I mostly see the cake mixes.

So this is interesting.

He's really the precursor to the Michelin

Guide, which is all about tours and getting around, and a lot of

companies have money by starting out as tour guide type of companies with

really being traveling salesman.

I know family business who did that, that was and their grandfather who started

that is rather fascinating, but I. Didn't realize he started out as a tour guide

Yeah.

Interesting, interesting.

Sort of a little twist, right?

but anyway, you know, these were an interesting kinda a picking like these.

Interesting, iconic folks.

I mean, there are so many we could be covering, but I think the trending

that we started seeing, and if you go through the grocery store and you

think about this like we do, it's.

Interesting that at one time it was all, girls and women and it was about this

image they projected and make you trust them because you trusted your mom, right?

You trusted your grandmother and they carried that forward.

You would feed good food to your daughter.

Right?

And Aunt Jemima right?

all the pancake stuff.

there's just, it's an in endless supply.

And Colonel Sanders.

And that was an interesting one because Colonel Sanders was a real

person, but he went around, made speeches and all of that kind of stuff.

But what started happening more, I think, and it'll be

interesting to see how this goes.

Authenticity started counting for a lot and.

Each person with their flaws or companies with flaws and failures, origin stories.

Those were, were the good ones.

You know, we started our company in a garage.

We started our company in Grandma's Kitchen and then

depicting Grandma's Kitchen and.

Literally, spotlighting customers became more kind of what you do,

even if they're not real slick photographs, they're real people.

So stories around the product and that became the brand.

So do you think today that we've gotten away from some of that,

or are we really still more intrigued with, well, I'll ask you are, are

you more intrigued with what the product is or does the personality

of a brand character bring you in?

I don't think I'm as captivated by the

character, but who knows?

A lot of those is subliminal.

We don't even consciously make decisions, right?

. . Now, I'm not likely to go out and buy it, but I might say to my grandkids,

Hey, why don't you try this?

And it's because

I

became conscious.

Yeah.

I, you know, and so I don't know, you know,

We could do a whole separate show on serials as kids.

You think of every personality, Tony the Tiger, and what's the fruit loop guy?

Right?

or lucky Charms, because they're magically delicious.

I don't know what other people thought, but I. I was captivated

by Captain Crunch as a kid.

So, but we were not allowed Captain Crunch because that was basically dessert, right?

Not cereal.

But today we have other influencers we have real actors that are taking place.

We certainly have Martha, we have Jacques and Julia.

We have Ina Garden.

But they're not brands necessarily for the foods.

They have become characters.

I say characters, real life people that influence decisions of other

products as opposed to brand name.

Well, I shouldn't say that.

Martha does have her name on, some wine, which we have tried

and it's, what do they call it?

It's something.

like the, the incarcerated or something

like that.

wow.

Her and another couple of other characters, we tried it and it's

it's terrible.

I shouldn't say don't buy Martha wine because you might like it, but it was not

Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

yeah.

so yeah, I think one of the more interesting trajectories to see if more

people do it is the Ben and Jerry's, kind of thing, because they became

very controversial with their views.

Well, they came outta the sixties and the seventies, which

was kind of that time and error.

, And I agree, Ben and Jerry's has done a lot to change the thinking of food from

not just a brand, but standing for a

meaning something

Then what is

So, and they, although they sold their business, they

still get into, I'll call in quotes,

trouble.

and then you've got Dolly Parton today, as I mentioned earlier.

Dolly Parton is doing her stuff and.

Doing really good things from a give back perspective with some

of the foods that she's created.

Although I have to say, when Dolly stuff first came out, we were walking

down the grocery store aisle at one day and I looked at the box and it's this.

God awful bubble coming pink.

It's just, I mean, it's, it's the, it's the worst caricature

you could see of Dolly ever.

Just bad drawing.

And I said, what on earth were these people thinking about?

And there happened to be like one of the grocery clerks that was

walking by me and he stopped.

He turned at me and he laughed and he said, you know, when those products

came into the store, Every one of us in the store said the same thing.

What were they thinking?

But.

I've met people and talk to them and said they absolutely love it.

A friend out in California who I would never think would be

gravitated to pink bubble gum dolly with bad yellow hair on a box.

So it's really good.

So, um,

go figure.

Or the

packaging

she mentioned, the box cakes were

Very very good.

Well, interesting

out.

So.

I haven't made a box cake.

If I'm gonna make a cake, I'm probably gonna make it from

Yeah, I know.

And I,

It's not that difficult to

yeah, the problem with the cake is you gotta have

somebody to feed it too, and

so you don't eat

your

Well, I, I, I agree.

I agree.

I will have to say, I convinced Bob, earlier this year to not

buy the box of pancake mix.

He said, we gotta buy it.

You gotta buy the pancake mix.

And I said, Nope, we don't need to buy the pancake mix.

And he says, why?

I said, because you can make it from scratch.

It's like three ingredients.

And he's like, no it's not.

I said, yes it

is.

So he said, well prove it.

So I did.

And he's like,

oh, look at that, tastes just as good, if not better.

I said, well, it better

yeah.

' Nancy May: cause I made it.

not ultra processed.

Yeah, well who knows where our flour comes from,

but you're absolutely right.

yeah.

Before we go, I wanna mention one other kind of product that I

remember, and I don't know if you remember Annie's Mac and Cheese.

Do you remember

Annie?

yeah,

Annie started as her focus was on organic and sustainability and

health, and I think she's still around.

She's not that old, up in the New Hampshire area.

A bit of an introvert, but she created the iconic, the little

Bunny, and people loved that.

Oh yeah.

the idea that it was, it was a boxed food, but

I think

that's true and

I, I've gotten, gotten that for my kids is she makes a mac and cheese.

So if I make her mac and cheese, I have to hide the box.

' cause my kids are addicted to

Oh yeah, we need to do a whole show on, on mac and cheese because Kraft

has really had a very difficult time.

They used to be almost a hundred percent of the market, like 99.9%.

They are now down quite a bit because of, Great companies like Annie that have come

along and made some very interesting, delicious macs and cheese, but

I'm not a mac and cheese person

I am, I'm not either.

Uh, it's amazing to me that it's on every menu and, you know, my

kids like the fashioned stuff.

I don't know

Yeah, I think that's a great trend that, we haven't

forgotten some of our, our history and our roots, whether they be

commercial brands or not, but there's something about the nostalgic and the

tradition of bringing everything back, even in a brand name

product that mom and dad

used that so brings it

back home.

Mm-hmm.

Interesting.

Yeah, so before we go, please remember to like and

subscribe a show at Podcast dot family tree food stories dot com.

I'll say that a little slower.

Podcast Dot Family Tree Food Stories Dot Com.

And of course if you're on Facebook, you'll always see me doing the Weekly.

Hello, it's Nancy, your podcast at Family Tree Food Stories.

They're a little fun to take a look at because every meal has a story

and every story is a feast and there's so much more in store that

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

We're having fun.

Send in

ideas.

We'd

love to hear

things you always want to know.

and let us know what your favorite brands are because

we'd be curious to know as well.

eat up and enjoy.

' because every meal has a story and every story is a feast.

Take care.

Bye-bye.