Group 1 Proposal

Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press, 1999. The basics of popcorn, including the science behind the right popping kernel, as well as the history of the popcorn popper invented for street vending by Cretors

Geis, Sonya. "Flavoring Suspected in Illness: California considers banning chemical used in microwave popcorn." The Washington Post (May 7, 2009)

Grimes, William. "How About Some Popcorn with your Fat?." The New York Times (May 1, 1994) I thought that these two articles were pretty interesting, as they present the paradox of our current perception of popcorn. Popcorn is often marketed as a health food because it’s low in calories, etc. but when eaten with butter and salt, the way it most often shows up in our food culture today, popcorn is really just another junk food that should be avoided. Also, the issue of microwave safety comes up with popcorn, and could be used as a good example to talk about our current food world in both our tendency to make healthy foods artery clogging and to develop an addiction to anything that can be cheaply purchased and quickly nuked.

Gustaitis, Jospeh. The Explosive History of Popcorn. Academic Search Complete database

Hesser, Amanda. An Old-Fashioned Versatile Treat. New York Times. Academic Search Complete The introduction paragraph to the article, interesting enough, basically calls out hotdogs and hamburgers as being American imposters and lauds popcorn as the only trustworthy American food. Good stuff.

Kurlansky, Mark. The Food of a Younger Land. Riverhead Books, 2009. Gives a nice overview of the history of popcorn and highlights a pretty interesting Nebraska tradition- the annual popcorn festival; also includes recipes that involve popcorn.

www.crackerjack.com/history For Cracker Jack history, obviously.

Thoughts and summaries Origins of Popcorn and Early Use From Ben Franklin: Native Americans packed popcorn as lightweight food for travel (Kurlansky) -Archaeologists found in New Mexico kernels and cobs that had been popped in the 1st millennium BCE -Cortes and his men recorded seeing Aztecs use popcorn as ornamentation -John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, recorded seeing Native Americans make popcorn -Most likely a Native American invention (Davidson) - Hard flint corn grown by Native Americans and good for popping

The Basics of Popcorn Corn kernels have a starch casing that when heated expands and explodes Heat, closed pan, a little fat added Not all kernels pop and not all pop equally well Depends on moisture and starch content

“Pop” Culture Popcorn as an industry in America took off in the late 19th century in Chicago when Charles C. Cretors invented a machine to pop corn in large quantities (Fussell) Became a popular street and cinema food in North America (Fussell) Popularity rose in America during WWII when it replaced candy sent to GIs overseas as a snack food (Fussell) Theaters used popcorn in the Great Depression to draw in movie audiences Popular throughout Depression because price stayed at 5-10 cents Rob Blagojevich made popcorn Illinois official state snack Different takes on popcorn Like: Flavors: Caramel, cheese, etc. Cracker Jack (caramel popcorn and peanuts) invented 1890’s,          became more popular once prizes were added

Technology and Popcorn Jiffy Pop makes making popcorn at home easier and more popular The influence of the microwave: We’re really going to have to look into this one more- there’s just so much and we’ll have to narrow it down, but the microwave of course influenced the popcorn industry tremendously.

The Invention of the Popcorn Popper (Wyandot Popcorn Museum) Developed by Charles C. Cretors Peddler’s license from Chicago 1885 Turned peanut roaster into popcorn machine Decorated to attract street customers with smell and dancing monkey Premiered at 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago

Popcorn and Modern Health Concerns Diacetyl (Fake butter flavoring) causes bronchiolitis obliterans “popcorn worker’s lung” (Sonya Geis, Wash. Post) Saturated fat content of movie popcorn skyrockets after shift to coconut oil Same sat. fat content as 8 big macs in one large popcorn (Grimes, New York Times)

In high praise of our food: “Popcorn is a truly indigenous fast finger-food that links all ages, places, races, classes, and kinds in the continuing circus of American life. Popcorn is the great equalizer, which turns itself inside out to attest to our faith that colour is only skin deep and class superfluous.” Betty Fussell, 1992

I thought this quote from The Story of Corn is, all though probably exaggerated (okay certainly exaggerated) a good addition to the formation of our argument. We decided that we are arguing that popcorn is a truly American food, but we could also look into why popcorn is American but maybe not more regionalized or class-specific. Everyone seems to eat popcorn, across America and across socioeconomic barriers. This could be an interesting thought to explore.

The other idea that just “popped” into my mind is that we could maybe look into those tins of popcorn that are divided into regular, cheese, and caramel that everyone ate as kids- they’re huge and a lot of the time decorated for Christmas, etc. They seem to be very culturally prevalent, which could be interesting for our project. Plus I have very fond memories of those big old popcorn tins. I promise no more terrible popcorn puns.

Group 1 Proposal
Michael Sullivan, Candice Roland, and Kristen Perry

In this paper, we propose to delve into the history of popcorn. This seemingly simple and even mundane snack food bears with it a long and storied history. Its nature and discovery are of no small importance. We will try to inform the reader about its birth and first encounter with Europeans and from there its rise in popularity and the uses in those early times. The project will chronicle its spread and introduction into the modern concept of snack food. How it came to be so uncontrovertibly linked with the movie theater. We plan to explore the rise of brand names and how such a simple commodity can create such a large industry. We will also look at the formation of 'American Favorites' and the nature of brand recognition in the grocery aisle. And finally, we will look at its variations in flavor (cheese, toffee, caramel) and marriage with technology.

During the process of our research, we expect to encounter certain issues and questions that we will address in our paper. Some of these might include where the first version of popcorn originated, how it traveled from shore to shore and was spread throughout various cultures, who invented the method of “popping” popcorn or even the first popcorn “popper”, and how popcorn became incorporated into many modern traditions such as being strung along a wire and wrapped around our Christmas trees. Other important issues might include nutritional benefits that might have led to the Native Americans including it into their diet, why popcorn has remained such a prevalent food choice throughout history, and why it is such a popular item in many of our cupboards today.

We plan to use a large variety of primary sources, particularly in the first days of popcorn as a 'American' food. This form of 'magnifying glass' will give us good insight into the grassroots activity that shapes all American foodways. Publications from the late 19th century around the time of the development of the modern popcorn popper machine are fairly abundant and useful for learning about contemporary reactions to this technology and the history of its inventor, Charles C. Cretors. We will use similar cultural publications from the 20th century, like newspapers and advertisements from magazines, to study how popcorn became a national phenomenon during the Great Depression and the following decades, how it was used to boost movie theater audiences, and how the popcorn industry was radically changed by the invention of microwave popcorn and earlier methods to market home-popped popcorn to consumers. Many recent newspaper stories are available about the health issues associated with modern popcorn, from the saturated fat of movie popcorn to the lung disease linked to the fake butter flavoring added to microwave bags in the popcorn factory.

Our secondary sources will probably include food encyclopedias, which serve as good starting points for further research and sources of basic information, and books such as Betty Fussell’s The Story of Corn, which is an excellent history of corn and includes great detail about popcorn’s origins and development, including its social context. These secondary sources will give us some much needed hindsight and a broader view of sweeping cultural trends.

The importance of this simple food is not to be overlooked. The significance of it lies not only in its prevalence in our everyday lives, but in how it influences our view of the world. Food in general has this importance, it is the most basic link to our past. Popcorn specifically, is a very firm connection to the very first people to set foot in America. Its ease of preparation and its nature as a blank canvas for variation mean it will never go out of style but at the same time, will never become too modified that we cannot look at it and see its past. We can even examine how the American tradition of popcorn and movies has spread abroad, and use this to examine the spread of American culture in general. To study this is a great way to understand how cultural icons develop. It is a perfect model of something that has become so ingrained in our worldview that we don’t even think about it anymore. That is why we have chosen to study it. That is its significance.