Uncle John's Great Big Bathroom Reader by Bathroom Readers’ Institute Page A
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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the demon became so angry that it exploded. (Another version: the demon escaped in the explosion).
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Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s fish was named Livingston.
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• Popcorn was introduced to European settlers at the first Thanskgiving in 1621. Chief Massasoit’s brother, Quadequinea, arrived with a deerskin sack of popcorn. It was part of the feast, but the next morning some was leftover—so the Pilgrims ate it with milk and sugar forbreakfast. They had no way of knowing they had just eaten the first puffed breakfast cereal.
• Settlers learned about popcorn from each other and from local Native American tribes. For 250 years, it remained a homegrown treat—not a national phenomenon. Farmers planted a few rows of popcorn for their children or to share with their neighbors. At first, they called it popped corn, parching corn , or rice corn. Finally, around 1820, it became popcorn.
THE POPCORN BOOM
It wasn’t until the 1880s that popcorn moved from the family kitchen to the public market. In 1885, C. Cretors and Company of Chicago patented a popcorn machine. Soon street vendors were selling bags of popcorn all over the country.
In 1893, Chicago celebrated its 100th birthday with a world’s fair, the Columbian Exposition. The firm of F.W. Rueckheim and Brother opened several booths at the fair, selling a new treat made of caramelized popcorn and peanuts. When the fair closed, Rueckheim decided to package and sell it on the national market. He called it Cracker Jack—contemporary slang for something first rate. “Before long,” says food historian John Mariani, “Cracker Jack was a staple at baseball games throughout America.”
Over the next 20 years, a number of other innovations kept popcorn interesting for vendors and consumers. For example:
• In 1914, an Iowa farmer developed a new strain of popcorn that left only about 2% of the kernels unpopped (until then, as much as 30% of the kernels were duds). The more efficient popcorn made it possible for vendors to keep selling bags at 1-5¢ each—and still turn a profit.
• In 1918, a company named Butter-Kist added a new twist—and a lot more calories. Their popcorn machines squirted melted butter on the popcorn after it was popped.
But the two innovations that really established popcorn in American culture were the movies...and the microwave.
AT THE MOVIES
Today, popcorn is synonymous with moviegoing. But for a while, theater owners resisted the idea.
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Los Angeles reportedly has more judges than all of France.
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In the early 1920s, during the reign of silent films, street vendors would park their popcorn machines outside theaters, and movie patrons would buy a bag or two before entering. At first, owners objected because they had to clean up the mess. Some even refused to let customers bring popcorn into their theaters. But disgruntled movie buffs simply walked to another theater with less rigid standards.
The lesson wasn’t lost on an enterprising popcorn entrepreneur in Chicago. He developed a commercial popper, and convinced several theater owners that they could make a profit by installing it in their lobbies. The profits would more than pay for the cost of cleaning up the mess.
Saving Hollywood
He was right, of course. In fact, some historians credit popcorn with saving the movie industry during the Great Depression. Money was so tight that theaters had to resort to gimmicks to attract customers—like “dish nights” (free dishes) and “ladies nights” (girlfriends or wives got in free), etc. This cut into profits so deeply that without the extra revenue from popcorn stands, many theaters would have closed.
To a lesser degree, the same conditions prevail today. About $3 of every $4 the customer pays for a movie ticket goes to the distributor (although there’s a sliding scale; if the movie is popular enough to have an extended run, the percentage to the distributor is reduced). Often, the difference between a
----
Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s fish was named Livingston.
----
• Popcorn was introduced to European settlers at the first Thanskgiving in 1621. Chief Massasoit’s brother, Quadequinea, arrived with a deerskin sack of popcorn. It was part of the feast, but the next morning some was leftover—so the Pilgrims ate it with milk and sugar forbreakfast. They had no way of knowing they had just eaten the first puffed breakfast cereal.
• Settlers learned about popcorn from each other and from local Native American tribes. For 250 years, it remained a homegrown treat—not a national phenomenon. Farmers planted a few rows of popcorn for their children or to share with their neighbors. At first, they called it popped corn, parching corn , or rice corn. Finally, around 1820, it became popcorn.
THE POPCORN BOOM
It wasn’t until the 1880s that popcorn moved from the family kitchen to the public market. In 1885, C. Cretors and Company of Chicago patented a popcorn machine. Soon street vendors were selling bags of popcorn all over the country.
In 1893, Chicago celebrated its 100th birthday with a world’s fair, the Columbian Exposition. The firm of F.W. Rueckheim and Brother opened several booths at the fair, selling a new treat made of caramelized popcorn and peanuts. When the fair closed, Rueckheim decided to package and sell it on the national market. He called it Cracker Jack—contemporary slang for something first rate. “Before long,” says food historian John Mariani, “Cracker Jack was a staple at baseball games throughout America.”
Over the next 20 years, a number of other innovations kept popcorn interesting for vendors and consumers. For example:
• In 1914, an Iowa farmer developed a new strain of popcorn that left only about 2% of the kernels unpopped (until then, as much as 30% of the kernels were duds). The more efficient popcorn made it possible for vendors to keep selling bags at 1-5¢ each—and still turn a profit.
• In 1918, a company named Butter-Kist added a new twist—and a lot more calories. Their popcorn machines squirted melted butter on the popcorn after it was popped.
But the two innovations that really established popcorn in American culture were the movies...and the microwave.
AT THE MOVIES
Today, popcorn is synonymous with moviegoing. But for a while, theater owners resisted the idea.
----
Los Angeles reportedly has more judges than all of France.
----
In the early 1920s, during the reign of silent films, street vendors would park their popcorn machines outside theaters, and movie patrons would buy a bag or two before entering. At first, owners objected because they had to clean up the mess. Some even refused to let customers bring popcorn into their theaters. But disgruntled movie buffs simply walked to another theater with less rigid standards.
The lesson wasn’t lost on an enterprising popcorn entrepreneur in Chicago. He developed a commercial popper, and convinced several theater owners that they could make a profit by installing it in their lobbies. The profits would more than pay for the cost of cleaning up the mess.
Saving Hollywood
He was right, of course. In fact, some historians credit popcorn with saving the movie industry during the Great Depression. Money was so tight that theaters had to resort to gimmicks to attract customers—like “dish nights” (free dishes) and “ladies nights” (girlfriends or wives got in free), etc. This cut into profits so deeply that without the extra revenue from popcorn stands, many theaters would have closed.
To a lesser degree, the same conditions prevail today. About $3 of every $4 the customer pays for a movie ticket goes to the distributor (although there’s a sliding scale; if the movie is popular enough to have an extended run, the percentage to the distributor is reduced). Often, the difference between a
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