Remember When: Popcorn popped up in unexpected places!
Believe it or not, a newspaper reporter observed several passengers carrying “a sack of popped corn” as they boarded an interurban car, and reported it (6 May 1913 Daily Eagle). One lady had left her sack in the depot and ran back to get it. She caught the attention of the reporter and when asked about it the lady said, “If I don’t have my sack of popcorn, I am sure to get deathly sick riding on the interurban cars and I never go without a sack full of corn to eat coming and going.” She declared it was a sure preventative.
Butter-Kist Pop Korn was sold from a stand on Main Street next to C. W. Woodin’s Store at 123-125 W. Main St. by E. A. Witte in January 1915. His korn was popped in a sanitary way, on a dry griddle and then “butter kissed” with pure creamery butter. Witte sponsored a contest where each purchase earned coupons and two people with the most coupons won a “fine disc phonograph.” Misses Ella Weidleich and Helen Weaver were the winners (28 Feb. 1915 Daily Eagle).
Michael Zikas, a street vendor for several years, received a modern combination pop-corn and peanut roaster machine from Chicago and located it in the Flinn Saloon (14 Sept 1915 Daily Eagle). Also, J. M. Cochran had obtained a license (5 Oct 1915 Daily Eagle) to stand his ice cream candy and popcorn wagon on the NW corner of Main and Broad Sts. during the upcoming County Fair. Jack Lape was also a popcorn vendor at Main and Broad for nearly 50 years before he went out of business in 1939.
More Remember When: Not many buildings literally show their age!
O. L. Taylor, proprietor of Lancaster’s Majestic Moving Picture Theatre, announced they had installed an “up-to-the minute electric pop corn machine” (6 June 1917 Daily Eagle). It was installed in the lobby and had done “a land office business.” Patrons were “refreshed” by the pop corn while watching the shows. Barely three months later, however, he advertised the machine was for sale.
Reasons were not given for selling the machine, but a few possible clues were found in Popped Culture, A Social History of Popcorn in America by Andrew Smith, c1999. “To some theater owners, vending concessions were an unnecessary nuisance…much of the popcorn was tossed in the air or strewn on the floors…and most theaters did not have outside vents so they filled with a smoky odor.” For several reasons things changed by the late 1940s: “Annual popcorn sales in theaters reached over one million dollars. In some small, independent theaters popcorn paid the entire overhead. In some places it grossed more than admissions.”
Back in Lancaster in the 1930s, popcorn “shops” were opening. Mr. & Mrs. Frank D. Mathers from Marietta opened a “pop-corn confection store” at 110 N. Columbus St. (23 Oct 1931 Daily Eagle). He featured “caramel coated pop-corn” in a “big bag for a small dime.” Harry G. Gordon purchased this shop in Feb. 1933. By March 1 Gordon was offering fresh caramel corn, peanuts and a fine line of candies as well as a jig-saw puzzle exchange.
Two weeks after Mathers opened, another popcorn store opened at 137 W. Main St. next to the Lyric Theatre (3 Nov 1931 Daily Eagle). Richard Kincaid from Springfield, OH was offering several kinds of popcorn confections (popcorn brittle and popcorn balls) but featuring “Carmelcrispets.” Preparation was done in the front window and was visible from the sidewalk.
By Sept. 14, 1935 Yielky’s Hamburgers at 110 N. Columbus had installed a new popcorn machine and was making French Fried Popcorn, “the same, and only kind, made and sold at the Chicago World’s Fair.”
Fairfield County was also growing popcorn. Ed Mills of Pickerington was growing a black popcorn on his 45-acre farm in 1936 reported the E-G on Nov. 19. Curious shoppers purchased the product, and then returned for more because they liked the taste.
Perhaps the most recent “famous” popcorn man of Fairfield County was Harold Cooper of Sunny Farms near Carroll, Ohio. He began with one acre of popcorn in the 1950s, and by 1996 he had about 100 acres in popcorn. He prided himself on growing and processing his corn on his farm. He lived to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2019.
Today’s parents might want to heed this advice of 100 years ago:
Popcorn season approaches. When your children weary of their toy airplanes and mechanical dolls, buy them a corn-popper. The child that has never shaken the popper and watched yellow kernels explode into fluffy white popcorn, has missed one of the real joys of life. Hot and buttered, or candied into balls, it is as vital for a complete childhood, as Santa Claus or Charlie Chaplin.
-Daily Eagle September 12, 1922
Readers may contact Harvey at joycelancastereg@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Remember When: Popcorn was popping up everywhere in the early 1900s
