Duncan Hines

 

When I was at the store this morning, I picked up a couple of boxes of Duncan Hines brownie mix, which got me wondering whether or not Duncan Hines was a real person. As you are probably aware, Betty Crocker was a fictional character created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Crocker

Betty Crocker is a brand and fictional character used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes. The character was created by the Washburn-Crosby Company in 1921 to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. In 1954, General Mills introduced the red spoon logo with her signature, placing it on Gold Medal flour, Bisquick, and cake-mix packages. A portrait of Betty Crocker appears on printed advertisements, product packaging, and cookbooks.

The character was developed in 1921 following a unique Gold Medal Flour promotion featured in the Saturday Evening Post. The ad asked consumers to complete a jigsaw puzzle and mail it to the then Washburn-Crosby Company, later General Mills, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In return, they would receive a pincushion shaped like a bag of flour. Along with 30,000 completed puzzles came several hundred letters with cooking-related questions.

Realizing that housewives would want advice from a fellow woman, the company’s Advertising Department convinced its board of directors to create a personality that the women answering the letters could all use in their replies. The name Betty was selected because it was viewed as a cheery, all-American name. It was paired with the last name Crocker, in honor of William Crocker, a Washburn Crosby Company director.

The portrait of Betty Crocker was first commissioned in 1936. It has been updated seven times since her creation, reflecting changes in fashion and hairstyles.

Described as an American cultural icon, the image of Betty Crocker has endured several generations, adapting to changing social, political, and economic currents. Apart from advertising campaigns in printed, broadcast and digital media, she received several cultural references in film, literature, music and comics.

Aunt Jemima was not a real person, but a former slave named Nancy Green made a nice living by portraying her and demonstrating products for the Pearl Milling Company, which later became the Quaker Oats company. In 2020, the brand changed back to Pearl Milling Company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima

Duncan Hines, however, IS a real person.     

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Hines

Hines worked as a traveling salesman for a Chicago printer, and he had eaten many meals on the road across the United States by 1935 when he was 55. At this time, there was no American interstate highway system and only a few chain restaurants, except in large populated areas. Therefore, travelers depended on local restaurants. Hines and his wife Florence began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good restaurants around the country.

Hines and his wife Florence began assembling a list for friends of several hundred good restaurants around the country. The list became popular and he began selling the paperback book Adventures in Good Eating (1935), highlighting restaurants and their featured dishes that Hines had personally enjoyed in locations across the United States.

One such listing in the 1939 edition read:

Corbin, KY.   Sanders Court and Café
41 — Jct. with 25, 25 E. ½ Mi. N. of Corbin. Open all year except Xmas.
A very good place to stop en route to Cumberland Falls and the Great Smokies. Continuous 24-hour service. Sizzling steaks, fried chicken, country ham, hot biscuits. L. 50¢ to $1; D., 60¢ to $1

The book proved so successful that Hines added another which recommended lodging. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hines wrote the newspaper food column Adventures in Good Eating at Home, which appeared in newspapers across the US three times a week on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The column featured restaurant recipes adapted for home cooks that he had collected during his nationwide travels.

 The story of Duncan Hines has an interesting parallel to African-American history.

His first book, “Adventures in Good Eating” was first published in paperback form in 1935. Hardcover editions followed in 1948 and 1952, 

A year after “Adventures in Good Eating” was first published, “the Green Book” identified businesses that would accept Negro customers. It stayed in print until 1967, but was discontinued at that time because the Civil Rights Act of 1964 eliminated its need.

 By an amazing coincidence, 1936 was also the year that Betty Crocker was introduced to the public.

 https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Green-Book-travel-guide

In 1968, a movie about the Green Book title was released. It was nominated for 5 Oscar awards, and won Best Picture. The budget for the movie was a modest $23 million, but box office receipts eventually totaled over $300 million.

Green Book Movie Clip - Opening Scene (2019) | FandangoNOW Extras (youtube.com)

Although Duncan Hines died in 1959, a revied edition of his 4^th book was published in 2014,

As a rule, I try to limit my sugar intake, but those chocolate brownies are going to be mighty fine – and I can thank Duncan Hines for that.