Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food

by Susan Marks

Book Overview

IN 1945, FORTUNE MAGAZINE named Betty Crocker the second most popular American woman, right behind Eleanor Roosevelt, and dubbed Betty America's First Lady of Food. Not bad for a gal who never actually existed.
"Born" in 1921 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to proud corporate parents, Betty Crocker has grown, over eight decades, into one of the most successful branding campaigns the world has ever known. Now, at long last, she has her own biography. Finding Betty Crocker draws on six years of research plus an unprecedented look into the General Mills archives to reveal how a fictitious spokesperson was enthusiastically welcomed into kitchens and shopping carts across the nation.
The Washburn Crosby Company (one of the forerunners to General Mills) chose the cheery all-American "Betty" as a first name and paired it with Crocker, after William Crocker, a well-loved company director. Betty was to be the newest member of the Home Service Department, where she would be a "friend" to consumers in search of advice on baking -- and, in an unexpected twist, their personal lives.
Soon Betty Crocker had her own national radio show, which, during the Great Depression and World War II, broadcast money-saving recipes, rationing tips, and messages of hope. Over 700,000 women joined Betty's wartime Home Legion program, while more than one million women -- and men -- registered for the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air during its twenty-seven-year run.
At the height of Betty Crocker's popularity in the 1940s, she received as many as four to five thousand letters daily, care of General Mills. When her first full-scale cookbook, Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, or "Big Red," as it is affectionately known, was released in 1950, first-year sales rivaled those of the Bible. Today, over two hundred products bear her name, along with thousands of recipe booklets and cookbooks, an interactive website, and a newspaper column.
What is it about Betty? In answering the question of why everyone was buying what she was selling, author Susan Marks offers an entertaining, charming, and utterly unique look -- through words and images -- at an American icon situated between profound symbolism and classic kitchen kitsch.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743265017
• ISBN13: 9780743265010
• Release Date: April 2005
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 8.6" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Interesting history on Betty Crocker

Interesting look upon Betty Crockers cultural impact through witty quips, and historical nostalgia. Must read for any vintage cookbook fan!

Finding Betty Crocker

When I got this book,I started reading it right away and it was so interesting that I could'nt put it down. It brought back so many good memories to me. Times I spent with my grandmother in the kitchen and watching her use her Betty Crocker cookbook and making such delicious recipes from it. I highly recommend this special book.

An amazing look at an enduring culinary and marketing history figure

Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food is the true story behind a commercial icon of 1950's homemaking - Betty Crocker. Created in 1921 as a "friend to homemakers" for the Washburn Crosby Company (a forerunner of modern-day General Mills), "Betty Crocker" was in fact the collective women of the Home Service Department who signed Betty's name. Betty Crocker's local radio show on WCCO expanded, as audiences across the nation learned to appreciate her money-saving recipes and wrote her nearly 5,000 fan letters a day. An amazing look at an enduring culinary and marketing history figure, illustrated with vintage black-and-white photographs.

Found Her

This is a delightful book! Susan Marks has researched it well, and tells the story of the selling of American women with clarity and humor. That our mothers were so shamelessly manipulated is appalling, but many good meals came out of it, and, in all honesty, Betty Crocker inspired many women to branch out and create their own recipes using mixes and prepared foods as a basis. It was a very pleasant read and a marvelous depiction of a period in the evolution of American women.

Loved This Book!

There's quite a bit of historical information in this book, but for the most part Marks keeps it a fun read. The letters she's chosen to include from Crocker's fans are funny and sometimes touching, and tell much about the power of this corporate icon.

Remarkably interesting and engaging "biography".

Betty Crocker may hold the distinction of being the first "virtual" corporate employee in American history. She has been seen and heard by millions on radio and TV. She has corresponded with uncounted thousands of America's 20th centaury housewives. In 1945, she was voted in a survey as the second most admired woman in the US after Eleanor Roosevelt. All pretty heady stuff for someone who doesn't actually exist. Betty Crocker was the invention of a corporate marketing effort. This is the story of how and why she was created and how, once created, she became one of the most successful marketing campaigns in American corporate history. One wouldn't think on the face of it that this story would make much of a book. One would be wrong. This is a fascinating story that chronicles not only the Betty Crocker story but also the development of corporate marketing in the US in the 1900's in general. The book also, along the way, provides a lot of insight into the mechanics of a modern food processing conglomerate as well as the ways in which American's were convinced to include a lot of processed foods into their diet by these conglomerates. It is an interesting, entertaining and somewhat nostalgic story. The times and issues that were the crucible for the creation of Betty are unimaginably bucolic in nature by today's standards. This is not only a book about Betty, but about our parents and grandparents as well. There are some shortcomings-the author tends to skip over things and becomes a bit too folksy at times, but these are quibbles-this, against all my expectations, proved to be a very enjoyable read. Highly recommended to one and all.