In 1924, Betty Crocker got a voice with the debut of the daytime radio broadcast Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, voiced and scripted for a decade by Marjorie Husted. Synonymous with baking, Betty Crocker actually started out as a "kitchen confidante," but she was never a real person. These names are probably all over your kitchen—but did they belong to real people? "He felt sorta strange about it," Marks told CBS News in 2005. In 1929, Betty Crocker coupons were introduced. In some ways, that was her appeal. Betty Crocker recipes and tips from the "Atomic Age" of the 1950s are of cultural interest. "[17] These portraits were always painted, with no real person ever having posed as a model. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. The character was developed in 1920 as a way to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. [15] The 1996 portrait of Betty Crocker, according to General Mills, was partially inspired by a "computerized composite" of "75 women of diverse backgrounds and ages. But the truth is a bit more complicated. It exposed Crocker for who she really was — an invention of an advertising department trying to sell flour. Surprising, then, that Betty Crocker isn’t actually a real person. Food and Wine presents a new network of food pros delivering the most cookable recipes and delicious ideas online. © Copyright 2020 Meredith Corporation. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be … But my neighbor does. Later it became a national broadcast, The Betty Crocker School of the Air, which ran for twenty-four years. Did she live and breathe like other well-known food icons like Colonel Sanders, Duncan Hines or Chef Boyardee? Betty Crocker's challenger Sara Lee: Real. [14], A portrait of Betty Crocker was first commissioned in 1936,[15] a "motherly image" that "blended the features of several Home Service Department members" that was painted by Neysa McMein. And I feel bad about being the bearer of bad news. She appeared for several years on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show,[12] and even had her own TV show, Betty Crocker Star Matinee. For over seven decades, brownie, frosting, Hamburger Helper and mystery fruitcake enthusiasts across the world have been asking the same question: Is the beloved, seemingly ageless homemaker Betty Crocker real? By 1932, this scheme had become so popular that General Mills began to offer an entire set of flatware; the pattern was called "Friendship" (later renamed "Medality"). In the back of the October 1921 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, a jumbled cut-out puzzle appeared alongside an ad for Gold Medal Flour, a product produced by the Washburn Crosby Company of Minneapolis. This content is imported from Instagram. Blanche Ingersoll followed by Husted were selected to portray Betty Crocker. or "How long I should knead dough?". For the signature, which would go on to adorn every letter, recipe, box of brownies and tub of frosting to this day, there was a company-wide competition. The name Crocker was an homage to William Crocker, one of the directors of Washburn Crosby. Normally, when questions were sent in, he would answer the letters himself while including recipes from the all-female home service staff down the hall. The first network Betty Crocker broadcast was on NBC in 1926. The show remained on network radio until 1953; most of the time the program was on NBC or CBS, but it was on ABC from 1947 to 1953. From our kitchens to yours, all the tips, advice and recipes you need to make life more delicious, from everyday dinners and desserts to special occasion feasts. In 1924, Betty Crocker acquired a voice with the radio debut of the nation’s first cooking show, which featured thirteen different actresses working from radio stations across the country. The first network Betty Crocker broadcast was on NBC in 1926. In 1928, Washburn Crosby merged with other milling companies to form General Mills. The Minnesota Historical Society revealed that the 1996 face of the brand was a blend of the previous Betty Crocker portrait and features from 75 contest winners. The character was originally created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921 following a contest in the Saturday Evening Post. Nearly a hundred years after Betty Crocker was "born," she is still giving out recipes, answering questionsand inspiring a new generation of cooks and bakers. [20][21], "Accomplished Alpha Delta Pi Members in Education and Science", "Adelaide Hawley Cumming, 93, Television's First Betty Crocker", "From Bold Suffragette to Betty Crocker - 150 Years of SAIC", "Betty Crocker's Absurd, Gorgeous Atomic-Age Creations The iconic brand's midcentury recipes evoke the era's peculiar optimism, encased in gelatin and smothered in mayonnaise", The General Mills Radio Adventure Theater, Hazard analysis and critical control points, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Betty_Crocker&oldid=989101587, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2012, Articles needing more detailed references, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Betty Crocker Soda Licious (discontinued), This page was last edited on 17 November 2020, at 01:45. [8], In 1950, the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook was published. [1] A portrait of Betty Crocker, first commissioned in 1936 and revised several times since, appears on printed advertisements and product packaging. The relatively small staff of Washburn Crosby received over 30,000 completed puzzles, all looking for their pincushion prize. Food & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group.