A RADIO STAR – MN Made Her & America Ate It Up

General Mills has some great products. One of the best marketing campaigns in history is probably that of Betty Crocker. Who didn't trust her? Who didn't want to be able to cook amazing meals and follow them up with some delicious desserts and baked delights like Betty?

BEST COOKBOOK EVER

Some of the best recipes I've ever run across have come from Betty Crocker cookbooks. I remember learning how to bake cakes, desserts, and meals out of my Mom's big red Betty Crocker Cookbook, which is still in circulation but is updated with new recipes for busy families. It was originally put out in the year 1950. It is now in its 13th edition. My Mom and I used that cookbook so much that the pages were falling out of it, and I bought her a brand new one, the same, many years later, just so we wouldn't ever lose those recipes.

RADIO STAR BETTY CROCKER

But did you know that Betty Crocker also had a radio program? It's true! She had one of the longest running radio programs in the history of the United States. The radio program was called 'The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air', and was on none other than a Minneapolis radio station beginning back in 1924.

The thing is...Betty Crocker wasn't a real person! No. I hate to tell you that, but Betty Crocker wasn't a person at all. She was voiced on the radio program by a woman named Marjorie Child Husted, who was one of the writers for the show. The popular radio program that started in Minneapolis became so popular in the state of Minnesota that NBC picked up the program and began airing it all across the country.

WHERE DID BETTY CROCKER COME FROM?

According to an online article and video, Betty Crocker was created from an advertisement that ran in the Saturday Evening Post in 1921. It was a puzzle; where readers cut out the puzzle and then, if they could put it together,r they would get a gift sent to them; a miniature flour sack pincushion! 3,000 people responded to the ad. So the company decided that they needed a person to respond to them, and started thinking about friendly-sounding names for their representative. Hmmmmm....Julie? Sharon? Beth? Nope. How about Betty? Yes! Betty sounds friendly. Betty sounds helpful and smart. Betty was their choice for a first name, and then they put it with the last name Crocker from a recently retired director. Betty Crocker was born.

DON'T FEEL BAD

If you're feeling like you've been taken for a ride, don't feel that way. In the end, there were a lot of women behind the scenes making Betty Crocker a household name, and she really was innovative for opening doors for women in radio, and in the workplace. Betty Crocker was the face of a hard working woman, who loved to help bring joy to your dinner table, so lets just remember our favorite Betty Crocker recipes, and enjoy the food.