Betty Crocker Pt. 1/2 - Betty and the Crockettes

How are Betty Crocker and Nolan Ryan similar? They're both great at beating batters! Har Har!
Todays episode deals with the woman, the myth, the made up legend herself, Betty Crocker. In our first episode we explain how a jigsaw puzzle lead to Bettys creation and the one woman who was the driving force behind the character at the start. We will talk about her radio shows, tv shows, and how Betty Crocker became known as part home maker, part radio therapist for millions of Americans during the great depression and the rationing of WW2.
Lots more to talk about in this first of two episodes of Oft Off Topic on Betty Crocker.

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Transcript

Shaun: 0:14

Betty Crocker, that famous cook that everybody knows and loves, Nate. What do you know about Betty Crocker? Is Betty Crocker real, isn't she Huh? We will actually find out in a few moments. Betty Crocker, yeah.

Nate: 0:25

I mean, like, because you mentioned doing this, I'm like, oh okay, the company. And then the way you've been talking is like time out, hold up, everyone, stop, shut up. Is this a real person? Like for real, like I mean I'm not, I don't believe it, but Ha, I'm not certain. I mean, it's not like I'm in my reality just enough that it's like a religion, like no. I have a Betty Crocker aist.

Shaun: 0:50

Oh, and then the sky's parted and there she appeared. Well, actually, this whole research got kicked off because I was like, hey, I want to make myself a pineapple upside down cake for Christmas and by chance, I just led me to learning about the history of Betty Crocker, because apparently she was one of the first people to put that recipe in a cookbook. I also learned during this experience that baking powder can go bad. Did you know that? No, idea.

Shaun: 1:12

I mean, I guess I noticed on the expiration date on there, but I didn't really take it seriously, yeah, but I mean, salt has an expiration date and you know that doesn't expire, but anyways, yeah, apparently, if it's because mine was dated to expire in 2020, and that was three years ago as of this recording, or four years ago now, I guess. So yeah, after four years, the stuff goes bad and your cake will not rise. I learned that the hard way, oh really.

Nate: 1:32

Yeah, there you go, yeah at least I didn't turn poisonous.

Shaun: 1:37

Right. Also, you just like mix of water and mustard. Gas just comes pouring out of your container, kills everybody in your apartment building.

Nate: 1:43

Cops come in. Oh, another case of the whole family being killed. Damn you, Betty.

Shaun: 1:47

Crocker, they spired baking powder once again. When will they learn? Anyways, we'll get our story started and we'll figure out about the story of Betty Crocker Right now. October 1921, minneapolis, minnesota. You started the Washburn Crosby Company of Gold Medal Flower fame. You know that flower that you just see at the store all the time it says gold medal flower. Yeah, these same people.

Nate: 2:09

Okay, yeah, I guess it took me a second. Actually I was like gold medal, but yes, sure enough.

Shaun: 2:14

Yeah, there's a big gold medal on the front and apparently I guess it won gold medals back in the day for flower. Anyways, the Washburn Crosby Company of Gold Medal Flower fame. They decided to put an ad on the back cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The ad was basically a bunch of puzzle pieces printed on a piece of paper and you were to cut this piece of paper apart and glue all those pieces back onto another piece of paper and mail in the completed jigsaw puzzle and you would win a prize. That prize would be a pin cushion in the shape of a bag of gold medal flower. Good promotion right there. Yeah, not only do you get people to mail in stuff to you, you also get to send them merchandise of your own. And it was also a huge success too. 30,000 people returned the puzzle and I got their neat little pin cushion bag Also.

Shaun: 2:52

On top of these people turning in the puzzle, they got a whole lot of cooking questions through the mail, a lot of people having questions on baking aspects like why does my cake crack on top or how do you make a one crust cherry pie. A lot of these questions were also due to the fact that there wasn't really a lot of standardization in the 1920s, like if you went to buy a cake pan, there was no standard 9 by 13 size. There was no 9 inch round. You just kind of had what pans you had on hand.

Shaun: 3:19

Also, stoves and ovens and the such too weren't really standardized back then. A lot of them didn't even have like temperature gauges on them and a lot of people were still cooking on wood stoves back in the day. So there were not a lot of recipe books outside like family recipe books and stuff like that. I guess People were confused during these times writing and being like hey, people at the Washburn Crosby company, we need help baking, and all these questions eventually overwhelmed their service lines and they were just like hey, it's set up just a sole question answering segment of our company.

Nate: 3:46

Like a online or like a TV show or no, like a write in line. Yeah, a write in line, okay.

Shaun: 3:51

Yeah, a term line is a bad term to use because, yeah, mainly phone line pops to mind. But they just decided, hey, we're going to publish ourselves a cookie advice column and that way we can publish this, people will buy it and it'll be more advertising for us, yay. The first run of letters were answered by an all mail marketing team at the company and while they knew how to bake market products, they weren't really great bakers and they weren't really great at writing directions and everything. So the initial run out of answers were very, you know, uh jint, uh sanitize and kind of hard to read and very technical. So they decided, hey, most of the bakers out there are women. Most of the people writing in are women too. So we're going to get a whole, we're going to make a whole female service team based around this to answer the questions they sit.

Shaun: 4:35

Basically, they had a test kitchen there at the Washmore and Crosby company and it was all women cooks that worked there and they were the ones that made recipes, test them out and see how everything worked. So they basically got on a line with all these women and were like, hey, we're going to make you known as the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens and you are going to be the ones answering all these questions and people write in. And they decided on the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens because, well, betty Crocker isn't real now, you're right in that initial uh thought. But they decided, instead of being like the test kitchens at Washburn Crosby, it'd be better to call them the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens, run by Betty Crocker herself.

Nate: 5:09

Was there a Betty Crocker real person or just like a bunch of guys standing around going?

Shaun: 5:13

I don't know Betty Crocker why not Basically a bunch of guys standing around going Betty Crocker, why not? There you go? Yep, they called Betty because it was popular name at the time and they also found it warm and an inviting name that people liked and uh related to. And the last name, crocker, was in honor of the recently retired executive, william Crocker, from the company there you go. It was literally just a thing taking people being like what's a good welcoming name and one that we can honor our old boss, this choke prostitutes, death in front of them and not get us fired.

Nate: 5:40

Better name like Gertrude.

Shaun: 5:41

Mengele. This being the 1920s, that name would have made perfect sense, and then also like 1940s, people might be like whoops, we should probably change that. They just changed the last name from Mengele to Menge, and then that also didn't work later.

Nate: 5:56

So get the same PR firm as the BMW. It's like. Bmw is like what Nazis we've never heard of them.

Shaun: 6:04

That happened on the other side of the country, so all the women that worked for the Washburn and Crosby company were asked to submit a signature to be used for the Betty Crocker brand, and the winner was a secretary named Florence Lindbergh, and her submission is still the signature you see today. They picked it because, again, it looked friendly. Like the name. Betty Crocker sounded friendly, does Lindbergh?

Nate: 6:25

have anything to do with the other Lindbergh? As far as I know, no, okay.

Shaun: 6:29

No babies involved. No, no babies involved. And no Lindbergh cheese either. I don't think Ah, there you go, that's an obscure one, that was that one took me up guard.

Nate: 6:38

Like I guess there is cheese in there.

Shaun: 6:40

Yeah, lindbergh cheese is the really stinky one from the old Tom and Jerry cartoons apparently.

Nate: 6:44

Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's where I remember it from. When I think cheese, I always think of Walson Gromit.

Shaun: 6:49

Walson, I guess they do have a cheese thing, don't they?

Nate: 6:51

Oh yeah, dude's all about cheese. They flew to the moon just like to eat it.

Shaun: 6:55

Ha, it is made of cheese. So this new writing questions and answers setup came across at just the right time as Washburn Crosby's company's Eat More Wheat campaign was becoming huge success and more and more letters came flooding in. Soon the company proclaimed two million women have learned to make perfectly delicious small breads and pastries every time they bake, thanks to Betty Crocker.

Nate: 7:15

So the next man at the time were like women learning Ha, burn them, burn them all. Wait, wait, wait, it's in the kitchen, oh, okay.

Shaun: 7:23

Yeah, actually there is going to be a little bit of pushback coming up soon from a man on this. Yeah, so a little prophetic on your part. But for right now, it's 1924. Things are going well. And what's the next logical step? Well, radio, the Washburn Crosby company had just bought the radio station in Minnesota, and it was WLAG, known as the Call of the North. Well, they changed it to the name, to WCCO, and decided it was time to unleash some Betty on all of us. Enter Marjorie Houston, an employee of the Washburn Crosby.

Nate: 7:53

You realize they had to change WLAG because of all the times it started and stopped. Waka, waka, waka, boo, it's lag. That's funny, boo. Yes, yes, I deserve that boo, yes, you do.

Shaun: 8:11

Anyways, back to Marjorie Houston. She is an employee of Washburn Crosby and her original role was leading a team of five people that would go over the baking questions mailed in to Betty Crocker and formulate the responses. If Betty was a real person, they weren't just writing it back being like, hey, this is the company, blah, blah, they would actually write back. They would actually be like, oh hello, dear, this is Betty Crocker just writing to say blah, blah, blah. Anyways, that was her job, was just writing back to people, and now she was suddenly tasked with writing the script for the radio show and also doing the voice of Betty Crocker at the local station, a job she would wind up having for the next two decades. The show not only dealt with cooking recipes and kitchen tips but also bled over into general household choreo and info getting stains out of clothes etc. Also here's kind of funny, apparently from Betty's first broadcast entitled Good Food, where basically she's going over how to properly feed your husband. Apparently.

Shaun: 8:59

In this first episode women get to learn that quote unquote a woman who produced unsavory meals risked dire consequences. They went on to say that quote if you load a man's stomach with soggy boiled cabbage, greasy fried potatoes. Can you wonder that he wants to start a fight or go out and commit crime? We should be grateful that he does nothing worse than display a lot of temper. Okay, is it just mirrors that sound anti Irish to you?

Shaun: 9:23

Yeah, it was the whole soggy boiled cabbage, greasy fried potatoes and going out and starting fights Right, that sounds kind of anti Irish, right there yeah anyways, Ladies, women goes to work, women goes outside, pick up a black guy, her friends like did you make soggy food for your husband?

Shaun: 9:42

Well, that explains all the problem. My excuse to do anything. Yeah, I beat and raped that bartender. My wife made me soggy potatoes. Oh well, case dismissed. Well, that's case dismissed. We're going to send your wife to prison. Then Times were different. Back then, the show was a hit and three years later, 12 different radio stations were broadcasting the Betty Crocker radio show and the script was being read by 12 different Betty Crocker's, which kind of might make things interesting too. If you're like a traveling salesman, you just start hearing different Betty Crocker's across the country, the plowing, lonely housewives and being like hey, do you know, there's different Betty Crocker's all over the world. They're just like shut up.

Nate: 10:18

Fuck you. You vacuum salesman, Yep exactly.

Shaun: 10:22

That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking. Whatever eventual topics on the show was how to get handsome young bachelors. They're basically talking about how women could find themselves a good husband and make a good wife. This actually got themselves a bump in male listenership because they wanted to learn what women wanted and how a man could be a good man. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. But this whole setup actually led to a bunch of marriage proposals to Betty Crocker being mailed in and, as the kids say nowadays, men simped for Betty Crocker back in the day, and times have not changed a whole lot. Really, yeah, basically, and eventually this did actually lead to a marriage, because when the marriage proposals went in and one of the ladies in the test kitchen read it, it was like, oh, this dude seems sweet. And eventually they started right, became pen pals and got married later.

Nate: 11:10

I mean, I hear about that, stuff like that happening, especially from back then. I'm just like dude, like you don't even know this person. I mean I mean, but then again, that's what happened my grandma and grandpa, my dad's side, like they knew each other for two weeks and then he, like she, ran off with them and got married.

Shaun: 11:27

Okay, yeah, she was probably escaping a horrible household as a child or something. Oh yeah, come to find out later on, yeah, yeah that's one of those stories. It's like, well, why'd you run off when you're 13? It's like, well, I loved him a lot. Then later on you find out it's like, oh yeah, the dad was titling him and the mom was now calling and all this bad stuff.

Nate: 11:43

I don't know, that's why you ran away. Yeah, I don't know that deeply, but no, she was escaped. She was like get me out of here.

Shaun: 11:51

Yeah for it. It wasn't so much I loved your grandpa, it was just he was away, out of my situation, he was there and he was the military, so you know yeah, it's always like think back to your grandparents and how much they loved each other.

Shaun: 12:03

It's like my grandparents were divorced, so I mean obviously not a lot of love there. Yeah, actually eventually to the Betty Crocker show kind of almost became like an early version of Dear Abby another fake person because people stopped writing in necessarily about a baking question stuff. We're just like, hey, betty, my children don't respect me and questions like that, and you know it just kind of go into little heart to heart talks. Good times for everybody.

Nate: 12:28

April. I think you should beat them more.

Shaun: 12:30

Pretty much, that's it. And if the beatings don't work, you just give them to an orphanage and let them beat them. Don't waste your time on a child you can't fix. Get rid of them, have another.

Shaun: 12:39

April 1927 and the Washburn Crosby company ran a promotion Send us 70 cents and we'll send you a small wooden box full of Betty Crocker's best recipes. This was actually huge success and laid the groundwork for the eventual Betty Crocker cookbook that would later come on. You can also find these small wooden boxes full of recipes for about 40 bucks online. For my quick East researching piece of vintage history, you can buy them off of eBay and the such, which I don't know, seems kind of cheap for something from back in like the 20s and 30s. But if they made enough of them, I guess they're kind of everywhere, true? Yeah, 1928 and the Washburn Crosby company merges with three other milling companies and General Mills is born. You ever wondering why General Mills is called General Mills? There you go. Initial stock offerings were $65 a share, or about $1,200 a share in today's money. Currently, general Mills is trading at $65 per share, or about $65 in today's money.

Nate: 13:31

Sounds like things didn't go very well. I first hearing like, oh, it's stayed the same, but then yet, just like you said, today's money versus yesterday's money.

Shaun: 13:40

Yeah, well, I'm guessing, if you bought 65, like one share back, way back when General Mills stock first came out it's probably split so many times you'd have 100 shares by now, maybe, or more, because you know stock does do that every once in a while. They're like hey, we're splitting our stocks. Now, instead of like 50 shares, you have 100. Yeah which is good and bad. Yeah, yeah, it's both good and bad. I am not a stock market expert. If somebody else is, feel free to fill me in.

Nate: 14:03

Me neither. Like I wish, like man, if I knew about the stock market I'd be in a lot better position than I am in now.

Shaun: 14:08

But right it seems like free money if you know what you're doing? Oh yeah, it kind of is too. If you like bet, if you like bet on the stock market very conservatively, you can usually make like five or 6% interest a year or gains a year, which isn't a lot. But I mean, if you could throw a million bucks at something, that's not nothing. I mean, I've been hearing some things.

Nate: 14:24

How like you need money to even try to do this, but how rich people basically get to keep their money. The one thing that really blew me away is rich people putting their money on life insurance and then so they put a million dollars in life insurance, right? Well, then they borrow from their life insurance and so they just keep on paying a back and the government. They can't tax it. If everything goes bad. It stays the same. If you die, then it goes to your family Like that's. How people are getting away with a lot of shit is by buying these life insurance policies and then borrowing the money off the life insurance policy Tracks.

Shaun: 15:02

Money Yay, money Yay. Like they say, the old saying is you have to have money to make money, that's exactly right. Yeah, I mean, don't have to, but boy, it sure helps.

Nate: 15:12

Yeah, I'm Jenny. You know I watch therapists and she obviously doesn't give me details, but she's definitely mentioned, like she has some well to do people and just like they don't even do anything anymore. They're like oh yeah, I, you know, bought this that the other company and I just kind of like go golfing all day and I just now, my money works for itself and that's exactly it.

Shaun: 15:33

Yeah, it's. Just once you get enough money you can just kind of live off your investments. Must be nice Be.

Nate: 15:38

my day is like okay, well, let me see your problems.

Shaun: 15:43

She's like see you Also, she's like I should charge more rates or raise my rates just for this one particular person, right? So we're at 1929 now and General Mills is in full force and they take one, marjorie Houston, and put her in charge of a staff of 40 and the Betty Crocker test kitchens are officially born. This is where recipes were dreamed up and tested until things got right. And this is actually kind of good timing, because the 1930s hit and the Great Depression comes about and Betty Crocker was right there to help people and basically their big thing also became a source of ways to make your money stretch. And also they, you know, be like hey, man, we know times are tough, everybody's poor. Here's the easiest way to make your like one pound of ground beef last for two months.

Shaun: 16:25

Not only that, they would give you tips for stretching your supplies and make your money last, but also they would start reading letters on the air about people's day to day struggles, being like hey, my husband just lost his job, we have 32 kids and no money, so on and so forth. And again, this is kind of like the dear Abby thing where people could listen and be like hey, my life is, all other people's lives are just as bad as mine. Everybody's miserable. Yay, I feel better now To have zy. Yeah, basically things were tough all over, man, as Cheech and Chong once said.

Shaun: 16:52

Yeah, the better car is like.

Nate: 16:54

I know things are tough, but here's the best recipe to eat your children.

Shaun: 16:57

Yeah, exactly remember. The smaller they are, the less you have to cook them, because they're tender already, as once they're about like over 18, they're starting to get tough and leathery.

Shaun: 17:06

Yeah, like your boy Timmy will taste great with a little spice Right, tossing his shoes with him while you boil and let the leather soak into some of the flavors. You need that too. Also, what the Betty Crocker is big on helping people do is updating their old recipes for the modern convenience Disco, like we were talking earlier. There's like no standardized pans into the such. That's one thing Betty Crocker actually helped get going was standardized pans like the 9 by 13, the 8 inch pie pan.

Shaun: 17:30

Like I say before, that people just kind of had whatever pans are laying around. Standardization helped a lot of these recipes go along, because it would be a bummer under like take your 10 inch cake pan. All you guys like you know a bunch of like rectangle pans Right and also to right around this time was uh, more more people are getting refrigerators and stoves and that was kind of starting to change the landscape for people too, because again in the early days a lot of ovens didn't even have like a thermostat on there. You just kind of like went by, feel and guess on how hot your stove was. Or again, like wood stoves too. We're still big, true, no one can say that.

Shaun: 18:03

One could say that in fact, one did say that it was you 1933, and Betty Crocker's. Here's a. Uh, I guess this is her first cookbook, more or less, and it's called Betty Crocker's 101 delicious big bisquick creations as made and served by well-known gracious hostesses, famous chefs, distinguished epicures and smart luminaries of movie land. That is the entire title of the book. Would you like that one more time, nate?

Nate: 18:31

Yes, I would because I think I tuned out midway through. I.

Shaun: 18:36

Honestly, so did I somewhere about halfway through my god. This keeps going.

Nate: 18:40

I mean, give some of these fucking Light novels or run for their money, right? Here's the cooking book.

Shaun: 18:46

Here's cookbooks. Title again Betty Crocker's 101 delicious bisquick creations as made and served by well-known gracious hostesses, famous chefs, distinguish epicures and smart luminaries of movie land.

Nate: 18:59

You know, enter is like is there any?

Shaun: 19:01

anyway, we shorten that no yeah, they can just sort of be like as served by the Hoy Ploy or something like that. Just every word in that is important.

Nate: 19:10

You remove one word, the whole thing has fallen down the cards.

Shaun: 19:14

This thing is a masterpiece. How dare you?

Nate: 19:18

sir, question my title or by naming conventions?

Shaun: 19:24

That's the last time we hire Orson Wells to write our stuff.

Nate: 19:28

Now meet my son Stevens, steven Foster, who stands with two legs and also looks around and he Whatever.

Shaun: 19:38

But you get the point.

Nate: 19:38

It's urgent going for that. Yes, yeah, that point made a total, total fuck up.

Shaun: 19:47

So we are now in 1936 and a painting of Betty Crocker is commissioned and since she didn't actually exist, they did compel composite of some of the women who worked in the Betty Crocker test kitchens. They basically, they just I believe it was seven different guys. They just sort of like amalgamated them into one woman and we're like well, there you go, that's Betty Crocker. They would go on to update the portrait again in 1955, 65, 69, 72, 80, 86 and 96, and they all roughly look the same. From what I saw. I mean, they're slightly different. Like, oh, this one she's looking slightly to the left, this one slightly to the right.

Nate: 20:19

Yeah, I mean, I guess I mean they're trying, yeah, they're trying to make it to see fair enough.

Shaun: 20:25

It also helps too. When you go in front of the shareholders You're like, hey, new Betty Crocker, new look, yeah, whatever you see like big companies do stuff that seems stupid. I'm pretty sure it's just so they can go in front of their shareholders and be like local work cooking up Whoo and you know changes like, yeah, we're into the 1940s and World War two hits, and once again Betty Crocker is there to help.

Shaun: 20:45

Now she's readily dispensing advice relating to wartime rations and the best way to make those lasts. They also published the Betty Crocker cookbook of all-purpose baking, which also dealt with wartime ration recipes, and Apparently they decided to have a much shorter title for their next book. Just people do, people don't have time to read for five minutes.

Nate: 21:03

Yeah, they. They aired the opposite direction, cook, that's it.

Shaun: 21:08

Yeah, just cook. See more inside. Oh yeah, fun fact too. You know how you always hear about. You know you watch the old World War II movies and it's like, ooh, we're a fine with the rationing because it's better for the war and it helps our military. Well, that's all kind of BS. People lost their shit over rationing back then too. I don't need the ration. Yeah, people didn't even want us to go into World War II. Like half the country was against it. They're like let them deal with their own crap.

Nate: 21:29

I mean, that's like COVID, they're like oh my God, everyone's freaking about masking these whole new people and I remember reading about the Spanish flu. People were just as pissed and I saw I saw comic like old school political comics they were basically really pissed at the church because once again, the church was like you don't need a mask, let's all kiss, let's mouth kiss, as we're getting our communion Instead of bread, we're gonna have our priest spit in your mouth.

Shaun: 21:53

And this oaky mouth was invented. 1942, the first product under the Betty Crocker label is released. It was dried soup mix. Cake mix is one show for another five years. When Ginger Cake Mix was released in 1947.

Nate: 22:07

I love soup. I love soup. I have a weird thing about it. Like I have a problem thinking about soup as main dish. It's great, like when Jenny actually makes it and you know, like we have soup for dinner, I enjoy it, it's fine. But in my mind's eye, when I think soup is a side, exactly, it's a side.

Shaun: 22:24

The alliteration is even there too.

Nate: 22:29

She was like oh, I'm making a soup, but okay, and I was like you know what soup Like I don't necessarily want it. I just I mean, and when she makes it it's great. I just I can't get over the whole. Like really is the main?

Shaun: 22:38

dish. Salad is a main dish, or is that a side dish as well?

Nate: 22:42

I'm more comfortable thinking of a salad as the main dish because I don't know and I understand it doesn't make any effin sense. I understand that.

Shaun: 22:50

But there it is. So my next question is so do you call it soup and salad or salad and soup, since you used to consider salad more of the main dish?

Nate: 22:56

Oh, no, soup and salad always it doesn't matter, I can't.

Shaun: 22:58

I can't call it.

Nate: 22:59

Soup and salad the salad and soup. The salad's off to me.

Shaun: 23:02

It kind of does, doesn't it? Everybody says soup and salad, not salad and soup, even though salad and soup is alphabetically correct.

Nate: 23:08

I mean, I think maybe just like anybody who did say salad and soup, I believe they've been killed.

Shaun: 23:13

If not, they probably have, I think, in like 1974,. The government put out a big proclamation. A lot of people rounded up putting to camps.

Nate: 23:21

I was going to camps too. Big cover up back in the day. Just like the Japanese internment camps, this one was really hip-hop-shush.

Shaun: 23:31

You heard it first here on off-doll topic the scandal. Also, when I first saw ginger cake I was like that sounds weird. But then I realized gingerbread, yeah, makes sense. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, Because you don't think ginger-flavored cake, really no, I don't?

Nate: 23:46

I mean, yeah, I guess.

Shaun: 23:47

But then you think gingerbread. You're like oh yeah, that's just ginger cake. Yeah, yeah.

Nate: 23:52

I mean it just the term cake, it just I don't know, but I think cake. I think cake, you know, like happy birthday to you. There's frosting and there's stuff on it, but I guess cake is a kind of a sugary bread.

Shaun: 24:05

I think of that song Never there, a Lot Too.

Nate: 24:07

You know, and I'm sure maybe you've said this before, in Europe, subway can't call their bread bread. They actually got sued and they have to refer to it as cake Because of some of the sugar in it and stuff?

Shaun: 24:19

Yeah, because of the sugar content. Honestly, if they spin that right, they could actually get more sales out of that Right. They only sandwiched up balls enough to put their meats on cake. Fuck your health. Speaking of that ginger cake mix that was released in 1947, the original advertisement for this actually reads in big, bold letters across top, man beats mother-in-law and bloat in tiny letters with Betty Crocker cake mix making a better cake than her. Oh, I found that kind of funny. That is very funny, yeah.

Shaun: 24:48

Also, apparently these cake mixes were not so popular first when they came out, because apparently baking a good cake was considered the true test of a woman's homemaker abilities back in the day. And if a woman all of a sudden could just make a cake out of a box, then what kind of woman is she, nathan? What kind of woman is she? Uh, smart and busy one. That would be my first thought too. Yes, but nope, according to men back then, that meant that they were lazy and unable to perform as a housewife.

Shaun: 25:15

So Betty Crocker kind of got a wind of this uh, train of thought and they decided, as a good middle ground, they would take out the powdered eggs that they put in the mix and force you to add your own eggs. And they were just like, okay, well, here now they have to learn how to crack an egg, you happy. And also, too, they gave you a bunch of garnish options for baking stuff. Fancy, you know, like hey, shred a bunch of ginger or whatever and put it on the top, kind of thing. So I was going from like being like, oh well, it's obviously just no talent to make cake, be like, well, she can make garnishes for it. So obviously she's a homemaker. I don't know, it's stupid, yeah, but it was a thing.

Nate: 25:47

Don't fuck with the cake itself. Think about the other things I know.

Shaun: 25:50

Yes, exactly, I mean, I think that's what makes cake mixes they are indeed handy, yeah.

Nate: 25:54

I prefer. I mean, I'm fine with the cake but honestly, for me the main thing about the cake is the icing. If I had an icing made of nothing, but if I had a cake made of nothing by icing, I'd be fine it's called the tub of icing Nate.

Shaun: 26:06

Yeah, I know. Yeah, nothing stopping you. There's no law against eating it straight out of the tub. I mean the household.

Nate: 26:12

Yeah.

Shaun: 26:14

Although dad's been in the bathroom for a real long time and we keep knocking and he keeps telling us to go away. Oh, he's in there just eating a can of frosting with his bare hand. Yeah, I'm not a sacred.

Nate: 26:22

shame At my age, I shouldn't do that anymore, yeah. Although I do my middle Ella or I be my middle child? She fucking does that Like we. I discovered in the back of the fridge a icing container and I opened it and it was almost all gone and I'm like I know we have a headache. Hey, why the hell?

Shaun: 26:43

So just every once in a while we'd walk by back. Oh, frosting, take a spoon full of it and just go on her merry little way.

Nate: 26:49

And she does this and she doesn't like dude, if you're going to do it, fucking commit, like, get rid of the evidence. Like that's one thing about these kids, I a lot of times they don't get away with stuff because they're like you have to learn the art. If you're going to do something bad, you've got to cover it up Like don't, like you're never going to get away with any crimes. I'm not that. I'm not that I'm trying to like have my kid do crimes, but it's just like if you're going to do a crime, fucking try not to get it. Try to get away with it. You're going to try not to get cut.

Shaun: 27:20

They'll find out that they have been getting rid of the evidence. You'll come across this giant stash of like weed and booze in the corner of the basement or something You're like oh wow, they were actually keeping the things under wrap, good for them Like you, idiot.

Nate: 27:31

We, yeah, you caught that because we let you.

Shaun: 27:34

Yeah, you were all like, I'm both angered and proud of my children at the same time.

Nate: 27:40

But you caught the stuff. That's all good and well, but yeah, like you sucker.

Shaun: 27:45

Anyways, after a boxed cake mixes that came boxed frosting mixes, which I didn't know is a thing Just powder that you mix with water, I guess, and you have frosting Soon. It was said that half the cakes in America were being baked with Betty Crocker cake mixes. I don't know if that's an actual like statistic they had or if they're just kind of spitballing, but yeah, works good for an advertising campaign. Oh, yeah, I mean why not?

Nate: 28:06

I mean, lord knows, advertising campaigns haven't lied yet.

Shaun: 28:10

Ha. It is the most honest profession in the world as an advertising manager. So we're in 1945 and World War Two is over, and Fortune magazine names Betty Crocker the second most recognizable woman in America. Apparently, from polling they learned that 90% of American households knew of Betty, second only to the original Georgia Bulldog herself, eleanor Roosevelt. Among other things, this resulted in Betty Crocker receiving 4,000s of letters a day asking for homemaking help, and each week, among those 4,000 letters, she would get an average of 4 to 5 marriage proposals.

Nate: 28:42

I mean just, even if they're like oh, even if, okay, betty Crocker existed and she got a random ass letter being you don't even know what she looks like, like what do you? You know? She shows up, she's like oh, I'm gonna take this one. She shows up and she turns out. She's just like Picture of her.

Shaun: 28:58

There's that portrait of her maiden like 1940 or whatever.

Nate: 29:01

I guess, but no one said it was recent.

Shaun: 29:03

You know, she shows up, she's 95 years old.

Nate: 29:07

Yeah, 95 years old, 640 pounds. She's like hey, you said you wouldn't marry me.

Shaun: 29:14

People were lonely back then. I guess, yeah, I guess it's like people go on internet dates without meeting people too.

Nate: 29:20

So I mean also, I guess you know, since Betty Crocker you think she'd be loaded.

Shaun: 29:25

He's like well, I this is true. Yeah, they're probably going for the money and I miss a whole percent of shots.

Nate: 29:30

You don't take. I can tolerate 95 year old, 600 pound woman if I'm going to get millions of dollars. Yeah right, be air to the Betty Crocker empire, right? I mean, realistically, how much longer do I need to suffer for this? I mean she might die before the ceremony.

Shaun: 29:44

I think great Antonio is one of those people that wrote in a marriage proposal, taking one of those famous shots that he always took down the field.

Nate: 29:50

You know what, now that you say that, I refuse to believe otherwise. That happened, that's a fact, it actually happened.

Shaun: 30:00

I absolutely love that idea. The great Antonio is just like I'm going to marry Betty Crocker you just watch and his existing wife that he's married to is like I keep telling you. Check out our great Antonio episode for more on that. Ok, and here's a fun fact that I just kind of threw in there. Why? Because it's interesting. 1946 and General Mills establishes their aeronautical research division with chief engineer Otto C Winsen, obviously good American brother. This division developed high altitude balloons. In conjunction with the United States Navy Office of Naval Research. They helped develop the Skyhook balloon, which is a name I recognize, but I'm not sure what it is Batman. Batman Sounds good.

Nate: 30:40

Batman. Which one was it? It was Dark Knight. He had the Skyhook. That's how he escaped. He went to Hong Kong and he fought all those guys in the building and he got the guy and the Skyhook came in and grabbed him and hauled him away. So he got back to Gotham City and dropped the informant off. You are welcome.

Shaun: 30:55

I just think there's a giant like hot air balloon looking thing flowing through the air with, just like Batman just hanging off it with one arm and under his other arm, just to be right there, Just like it's probably all the way from Hong Kong slowly all the way over to Gotham on the Pacific Ocean. It's been four months.

Nate: 31:10

He gets back the guy's death from starvation.

Shaun: 31:13

Batman's arms are just massive from holding the entire time.

Nate: 31:17

I'm so tired.

Shaun: 31:18

Here's your informant. He didn't make it, neither did I. He dies on the spot.

Nate: 31:25

He was like the original marathon. He's like here's your guy.

Shaun: 31:31

Did the original marathon run or die at the end of that?

Nate: 31:34

From what? According to the story, there was a battle, Maybe the marathon was a battle. There was a battle marathon and the dude, like an unnamed soldier guy, ran back. They ran 26 miles for everyone and then it formed them the victory and dropped dead. And now it's like people do that all the time. My guy must have been an asshate.

Shaun: 31:54

You hear 26 miles, you're like wow, that's a lot. But then you see people are running for like 70 mile marathons. It's weird stuff like that. Granted, it's only a couple of days, but still people run all day. That would be fair.

Nate: 32:05

If I was forced to run 26 miles, I would drop dead at the end too.

Shaun: 32:10

I would probably make it about halfway, find some little village and be like I'm just going to stop here and start a new life. Thank you, I died.

Nate: 32:17

They can't track me. Yeah right, there's no app that's going to find where I am. I'm going to start a new life right here. They'll figure it out. Eventually. The battle's won, yeah.

Shaun: 32:26

Eventually, the stone tablets will make their way down the road.

Nate: 32:29

Yeah, I mean like the battle was one, they're all dead. It's like not like people are going to like not talk about it.

Shaun: 32:35

And that's going to do it for the first half. On our episode about Betty Crocker, stay tuned next week when we discuss when the original Betty Crocker quits and why, stories from the Test Kitchen, the Black Betty Crocker and what products Betty Crocker has brought us and some fun facts about them. And finally, we get Nate ranting about Star Wars and the way only he can do this, and much more on our Betty Crocker conclusion.