How do you like my red bow tie? I'm not wearing glasses because my vision is good (having that third eye!), but I was trying to look like Orville Redenbacher. Redenbacher was raised on a farm in Indiana and began growing corn as a 4-H project when he was a boy. He began wearing bow ties in high school and got a BS degree in Agronomy (scientific agriculture) at Purdue University.
He worked as a school teacher and county agricultural agent, managed a 12,000 acre farm, and worked as a low-level executive in the fertilizer industry, but his passion was always popcorn. Redenbacher purchased a local corn seed business in 1951 with his business partner, Charles Bowman.(I think we know some Bowmans!) He spent the next few decades tinkering with more than 10,000 corn hybrids until he achieved what he believed was "the perfect popping corn" - popping fluffier than ordinary popcorn, with fewer unpopped kernels (which he called 'shy fellows'). Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn was introduced in 1965, and it soon made both men millionaires. Redenbacher’s first commercial aired in 1976, and he made countless commercials and talk show appearances until his death in 1995.
In 1885, Charles Cretors invented the first popcorn machine to pop corn in oil. It was orginally a peanut roaster, to which he simply added a top part for popping corn. By 1893, Cretors had created a steam-powered machine that could roast peanuts as well as pop corn. He took his new popcorn wagon to the midway of Chicago's Columbian Exposition and introduced the new corn product to the public. Cretors gave away samples of his new popcorn product and people began to line up to purchase bags of the hot, buttered popcorn. By 1900, Cretors introduced the Special – the first large horse-drawn popcorn wagon.
In the early 1900s, popcorn wagons, drawn by horses, were seen at nearly all festivals and fairs. In the Golden Twenties, the horse wagons were replaced by more powerful, horsepower-driven "popcorn mobiles." Cretors created the first popcorn machine with an electric motor; as a result, C. Cretors and Company holds one of the oldest active Underwriters Laboratories numbers (EA175) for electrically operated machinery.
As theater attendance grew through the 1920s, Cretors began designing machines that could pop and hold more of the product. Popcorn continued to grow in popularity through the Great Depression due to its low cost. During World War II, Cretors went to work for the war effort and became a government supplier. After the war, the company, as did all other manufacturing companies, faced a shortage of materials. Cretors introduced the Super 60, a popcorn machine with an all walnut cabinet. Today, the Cretors company is still designing new poppers and features to meet the new needs of theaters and concession stands.
If somebody "pops" the question about how popcorn works, you can tell them: When a popcorn kernel heats up, the moisture inside the kernel expands until the hard shell cannot withstand the pressure and explodes. This takes place at a temperature of around 240-260 degrees Celcius. In a fraction of a second, the overheated starch inside the kernel puffs up by the moisture pressure, forming a white fluffy solid and then immediately cooling off. Through the rapid cooling, it solidifies shortly before the final part of the ‘explosion.’ Popcorn is thus in fact nothing more than a tiny ‘frozen explosion.’
Native Americans had a less scientific explanation how corn kernels turned into popcorn: It was believed that little spirits lived inside the kernels, who, when their ‘homes’ were heated, were instantly disturbed and would angrily burst out of the kernels.
For the production of popcorn, only a certain kind of maize kernels can be used; they have to contain the needed moisture-filled hollows. Their main cultivation areas are the USA, Argentina, and the south of France; whereas the very best quality popcorn comes from Indiana and Ohio.
Popcorn contains plenty of fibers, potassium, vitamins B1 and B2, and energy-providing carbohydrates. What's more, there are no artificial additives or preservatives.
Do you have 8 minutes to watch Corny Concerto with Bugs Bunny, a very young Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd with his hunting dog? This was the first Warner Brothers cartoon ever to feature more than two of their major characters in starring roles!
If somebody "pops" the question about how popcorn works, you can tell them: When a popcorn kernel heats up, the moisture inside the kernel expands until the hard shell cannot withstand the pressure and explodes. This takes place at a temperature of around 240-260 degrees Celcius. In a fraction of a second, the overheated starch inside the kernel puffs up by the moisture pressure, forming a white fluffy solid and then immediately cooling off. Through the rapid cooling, it solidifies shortly before the final part of the ‘explosion.’ Popcorn is thus in fact nothing more than a tiny ‘frozen explosion.’
Native Americans had a less scientific explanation how corn kernels turned into popcorn: It was believed that little spirits lived inside the kernels, who, when their ‘homes’ were heated, were instantly disturbed and would angrily burst out of the kernels.
