Trivia from Finding Betty Crocker

 

  • In 1945, Fortune Magazine name Betty Crocker the 2nd most popular American woman. Do you know who was #1? She has a few odd connections to Betty.

  • In the height of Betty’s popularity, she received 4,000 to 5,000 letters a day – including many marriage proposals.

  • Do you know what flappers, the Charleston, speakeasies and Betty Crocker have in common?

  • Betty Crocker’s radio show debuted on WCCO – a Minneapolis/St. Paul radio station in 1924. What do the call letters stand for?

  • Betty Crocker unexpectedly played matchmaker to a few lonely bachelors and Kitchen staff members.

  • To help the nation cope with the Great Depression, Betty’s people got to the heart of the matter with radio programs aimed at exploiting the food/love combination.

  • Betty had eight official portraits and many unofficial portraits. Which portrait had the longest reign?

  • At one point during World War Two, Betty’s company, General Mills stop producing flour, but that didn’t stop Betty from helping women with the home and home front. (Chapter 3)

  • Betty Crocker had some A-list celebrity connections throughout the 1930s and 1940s – including Bette Davis, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable and Joan Crawford. (Chapter 2)

  • Betty Crocker’s Cooking School of the Air is one of the longest running food programs in radio broadcast history. Any guesses to how long it was on the air and how many people registered for the class?

  • During and after the war, women wrote to Betty eluding to a sort of Kitchen Dystopia. Years later, another famous Betty – Betty Feidan wrote in her famous book The Feminine Mystique about “The problem that has no name.” Both Betties gave surprisingly similar advice.

  • At least 2 million visitors toured the Betty Crocker Kitchens in Minnesota. Read Chapter 6 to learn about the “gayest” kitchen and the reason the tours stopped.

  • Foodies sometime credit Betty Crocker cake mixes as the first to hit the market after World War Two, but several other companies had cake mixes before the war. In fact, Betty’s first mix was not for cake at all. Do you know what it was? (Hint: It was green)

  • In 1955, Norman Rockwell is commissioned to create his interpretation of America’s First Lady of Food.  Market research groups choose a portrait by Hilda Taylor instead.

  • In 1959, Betty Crocker Kitchens travel to Moscow for a cooking exhibition.  Betty’s kitchen is the setting for the infamous “Kitchen Debate” between Vice President Nixon and Soviet Premier Khrushchev.

 

 

Betty Crocker is a registered trademark of General Mills