Historic Betty Crocker - More Betty Crocker Scholarship History

Don't you just love it? Empowered young women winning scholarships from Betty Crocker and they didn't even need to be Home Economics majors nor take a home ec class. In fact, seasoned homemakers often struggled with the qualifying test. What I love about the unmatched history of Betty Crocker is how much it still draws people in. I mean, you're here, right? 😉 Betty's people keep sharing their stories and photos with me and I'm still here, preserving and keeping the history alive and relevant. Take note, marketing people, there's magic in this legacy brand, especially because it empowered more than not.

Vintage Betty Crocker Billboard

 

I really love this old billboard and the vague weirdness of the placement of Betty vs. the food. She's not holding up the pancakes but they are at shoulder height. And she doesn't look all that happy nor convincing that the pancakes will be perfect. See a full-res image here.

In case you're  wondering, I'm still hard at work on the new Betty Crocker project. It requires a lot of research, on top of the research I already did for my book and documentary film on Betty Crocker. If you would have asked me back in 2007 if I would still be researching Betty Crocker I would have stared at you blankly. Now today, I might do the same thing, but that's only out of exhaustion. (Happy exhaustion, I swear!)

Keep on being curious.

Let them Bake Cake, The Food that Built America on the History Channel, Season 5, episode 5

Production stills from the Let them Bake Cake episode on The Food that Built America on the History Channel. Literally the hottest set I've ever been on. But I survived and also survived being stranded in NJ because no planes could fly in the storms and then all the flights were booked up for 2 days. Met someone really cool on the way home and we became friends. It was quite the adventure. 

Author Susan Marks - behind the scenes of The Food that Built America

Author Susan Marks - behind the scenes of The Food that Built America

A friend of mine sat down to watch TV with her family the other day and was shocked to see me on her favorite show, let alone find out that I wrote a book on Betty Crocker. I think Betty is so much a part of me that I forget to tell people who didn't know me back when the book and the documentary film on Betty came out. 

Also, I think people associate me more with my documentary on The Nutshells Studies of Unexplained Death, John Waters and Frances Glessner Lee rather than Betty. Still, it's nice to work on many interesting projects. If you want to know more please visit my website.

BBC Radio 4 Podcast Digital Human and Betty Crocker

I was recently a guest on BBC Radio 4 podcast, Digital Humans, talking about AI and the how "synthetic humans" have been around for awhile, especially the most famous woman who never existed.

Listen here

Some of the Crockettes I discuss in the BBC interview

The paperback cover of my book

The reply letter my grandmother got from Betty Crocker

The "New" Betty Crocker Method of Making Cake: "400 Years in 4 Minutes" ...

I was lucky enough to interview some of the women featured in this "educcational film." It was kind of funny to them to "act like they were doing their jobs." I'm grateful that I got to conduct oral history interviews with so many wonderful Crockettes. They are, of course, not with us anymore. I'm a big advocate for honoring seniors and recording their stories! Have you asked your grandparents, parents or neighbors about what their life was like back in the day? Have you recorded their stories?

Betty Crocker Secret History

There was so much secret Betty Crocker history that I couldn't include in my book, nor my documentary film because it would have reflected negatively on the current brand. At least that was the fear at the time, mostly coming from lawyers. 

But that doesn't mean those stories are lost. They're in the process of being resurrected in a new way. Expect some intriguing secret history to come your way soon! And if there's an aspect you want included, please let me know!

Documentary film and book on Betty Crocker

One of my favorite moments from my documentary film on Betty Crocker - The Betty Mystique. If you want to see the whole doc, just reach out and I'm happy to send you a link.

Where's the Cake?

My first documentary film 

My master's thesis turned book on Betty Crocker