How many places of entertainment can you think of where popcorn is sold and eaten? ...At the Movies? - yes, but did you know
that it didn’t happen during the upstart years of theaters for some owners thought that the street popcorn vendor was a distraction to movie goers... At baseball games? - of course, who can forget the
infamous verse of "buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack" from the 1908 song Take Me Out to the Ball Game... Needless to say, one could and still can purchase popcorn
at many places including circuses, fairs and more!
In its early days, popcorn was sold in cities and towns all across America by street vendors. Many of these vendors were young men and boys who could make a pretty good living selling popcorn both popped (by the bag or shaped into balls or bricks) and unpopped. At a nickel a bag or 1¢ per popcorn ball, the profit in selling popcorn by an 1890s street vendor was said to be 70¢ on the dollar.
People of all ages ate popcorn and implemented its use in holiday decorations as well. For the home cooking adventurist there were recipes for making popcorn balls, candied popcorn, popcorn garnish for soup, "Pop-Corn" cakes, popcorn pudding, popcorn fritters, popcorn cereal, Cracker Jacks, chocolate covered popcorn and even popcorn brittle. Whew!
Early Popping Machines • C. Cretors & Co.
Please take notice of the 1907 "Combination Peanut & Popcorn" machine illustration above. C. Cretors & Company is one of the oldest manufacturers of popcorn popping machinery dating back to the mid 1880s. This company & its workers were corn popping innovators at the turn of the 20th century with new ideas of selling and making popcorn machinery. Steam powered vending carts to horse drawn wagons mounted with peanut roasters and corn poppers were their main line. In 1907 electric powered corn poppers made their catalogue debut. For $240 one could purchase a free standing steam powered combination peanut & corn popper model on wheels in 1913. After surpassing their 100 year anniversary, you can still see the Cretors name at your favorite entertainment places.
• Popcorn Trivia •
• Sears, Roebuck & Co. sold home corn poppers for 8¢ each and 25lbs. of popping corn still on the cob at 5¢.
• Popcorn balls were among the most popular confections in the late 1800s & early 1900s.
• During the holiday season popcorn made for wonderful decorations from Christmas tree garlands to fireplace mantel ornaments in Victorian homes. It also made for inexpensive gifts.
• Some of the popcorn flavorings used during the mid 1800s - 1920: orange & lemon juice, rose, peppermint, honey, vanilla, molasses and sugar.
• One could host a "Popcorn Frolic" with the helpful hints from a 1912 party book. The party room would be decorated in a happy pink and white popcorn theme. Popcorn was not only eaten, but was used for party favors and in the games played - "corn-drop", "popcorn races", "popcorn hunt" and so on.
• An old 19th century method of cooking popcorn: Pour kernels of corn into a kettle full of lard. When the corn popped after heating it was skimmed off the top as it surfaced!
• The first cookbook to mention popcorn was in 1846.
• One of the largest popcorn balls ever made was 12 feet in diameter in 1996. It used 2000 pounds of popcorn to construct!
• 1885 Pop-Corn Ball Recipe •
Popcorn balls could also be tinted with food coloring and some were even made with chopped nuts and graded cocoanut added to the recipe mixture.
A simple popcorn ball recipe: “To six quarts of pop corn boil one pint of molasses about fifteen minutes; then put the corn into a large pan, pour the boiled molasses over it, and stir it briskly until thoroughly mixed. Then with clean hands make the balls of the desired size.” - recipe from an 1885 book by W. H. Colman.
• Popcorn Links •
If all this reading on popcorn history has made you hungry for more fun check out the following links:
The Popcorn Board - A "Corn-ucopia" of popcorn information from fun facts, recipes, games, teacher packets and more.
Wyandot Popcorn Museum - nifty history and super photos of early poppers and more!
Free Popcorn Online Greeting Cards • Did you know that January 19th is National Popcorn Day? Why, yes it is! To celebrate this tasty day Click Here! to send your favorite person a free Popcorn Day greeting ecard from 123Greetings.com
For more historical popcorn trivia Click Here! to check out Linda Stradley’s wonderful What’s Cooking America website’s popcorn history page.
Popcorn History Sources
Special thanks to C. Cretors & Co. of Chicago for the super historical information they sent which has made a wonderful addition to our school programs here at Historic Heritage Square. Book sources: Andrew F. Smith, Popped Culture, A Social History of Popcorn in America: University of North Carolina Press, 1999 • Mary Dawson and Emma Paddock Telford, The Book of Parties and Pastimes: William Rickey & Company, 1912 • C. Cretors & Co., C. Cretors & Co. The First Hundred Years 1885 - 1985: C. Cretors & Co., 1985 • C. Cretors & Co. 1913 product catalogue.
These fun facts brought to you by the 1895 Rosson House at Historic Heritage Square in sunny Phoenix, Arizona. For historical trivia, optical toy flip books you can download & print, early recipes and more Click Here! to visit our Historical Fun links page.