Who Was Betty Crocker?

Like many of you I'm sure, I grew up with Betty Crocker in my kitchen. With all of her cooking products and cookbooks I would have never imagined that she wasn't a real woman. A few years ago I remembered someone telling me that Betty wasn't an actual person but just a name. Well boredom sunk in so I started doing some research and I was amazed to find it was true.

In 1921 The Washburn Crosby Company created Betty Crocker to give a more personalized response to consumer questions. The name Betty was chosen because it sounded warm and wholesome and Crocker was borrowed from a retired executive.

Surprisingly this fictional woman was the host of the nation's first cooking show, "The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air." Women from different cities became the voice of Betty for twenty-four years making it the one of the longest airing radio broadcast shows in history. People would sign up for the classes and try out recipes. Students would then mail in letters telling their results and receive a certificate. Although different women were doing the broadcasts the same script was used for each station.

Betty finally received a face in 1936 when an artist created an image made up from features of seventy-five real women. This image allowed consumers to believe that Betty Crocker was in fact a real woman. According to Fortune in 1945, she was voted as America's second most famous woman with Eleanor Roosevelt being the first.

In only twenty-four years, Betty Crocker had become a household name. As time went by Betty came into peoples homes in a new and exciting way with her own TV show, "The Betty Crocker Search for the All-American Homemaker of Tomorrow," with Adelaide Hawley staring as Betty. Betty was also becoming popular with her line of cookbooks and cake mixes. Over the years she has published over two hundred cookbooks, several food products, and even bake ware such as the "Betty Crocker Bake N' Fill" cake pans.

This non-existent woman has accomplished so much, more than most people ever do in their lifetimes. It is hard to believe that she never truly existed. But if you think about it although Betty Crocker doesn't exist, she reminds me of someone who has made a name for herself in the past few years... Martha Stewart.