Betty Crocker ascended to ‘rock star’ status in the 1940s

In 1945, Fortune magazine named Betty Crocker as the second “best known woman” in the entire United States, runner-up to Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933-45), wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

That’s quite an honor for the nonexistent Ms. Crocker, who had been dubbed “America’s First Lady of Food.” Betty Crocker was and still is the fictional grande dame of General Mills, based in Minneapolis, Minn. 

Marjorie Child Husted, was the primary voice of Betty Crocker on the radio, was concerned about the welfare of women as homemakers and their feelings of self-respect. “Women needed a champion,” she said. “They needed someone to remind them that they had value.” 

“I guarantee a perfect cake every time you bake cake…after cake…after cake,” Betty said. 

On television, actress Adelaide Hawley appeared as Betty in the George Burns and Gracie Allen comedy series. George would say: “I don’t know how to bake a cake, Gracie, but here is Betty Crocker to show us how.”

 

In 1954, General Mills gave Betty Crocker “a brand.” It was the classic Betty Crocker signature in white lettering imposed on a red spoon. Instantly, the spoon assumed the role as Betty’s “kitchen helper.”

 

In 1954, General Mills decided that Betty’s official portrait, painted in 1936, needed a touch-up. Six well-known artists, including Norman Rockwell, were invited to paint fresh interpretations of Betty Crocker. The one chosen, by illustrator Hilda Taylor, was a softer, smiling version of the original image. (Rockwell’s painting came in second.)

 

Hilda Taylor's Betty Crocker

 The faces of Betty Crocker have continued to change with passing generations. The seventh version in 1986 “portrayed Betty Crocker as a professional woman, approachable, friendly, competent and as comfortable in the boardroom as she is in the dining room.”

The bouncy white bow on her blouse generated a reaction from Betty’s fans. They were “worried the bow might catch fire if she bent over a hot stove.”

 

In 1996, painter John Stuart Ingle gave the eighth (and current) Betty “an olive skin tone that could belong to a wide range of ethnicities,” said the General Mills archivist.

 

To celebrate the 100-year birthday of the creation of the Betty Crocker aura in 2021, General Mills published a collector’s edition cookbook with Betty Crocker’s all-time favorite 100 recipes. 

Cathy Swanson Wheaton, executive editor, was responsible for selecting those recipes, and she told reporter Rick Nelson of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that it was a daunting task. 

“Bettycrocker.com has 12 million visits each month – it’s one of the largest food websites out there – and our customer service department gets a million questions a year,” Wheaton said. 

A lot of recipes came from those two sources, plus the nearly 400 cookbooks that General Mills has published since “Betty was born.”

“We’ve given clever new twists” to some of the old recipes, Wheaton said. “Ingredients and methods have changed and improved over time. It didn’t make sense to share the old recipes…when people cooked vegetables to death.” 

Also, “our taste buds have moved on. We expect more flavor combinations these days,” she said. 

“The new cookbook helps consumers see that Betty’s still relevant. She’s not your grandmother’s Betty Crocker. She has that history, but she’s still going forward and still has great ideas. She trends with the times.” 

“My blood runs ‘Betty red,’ and so I’m super-honored that I can keep up the traditions,” Wheaton said. “She lives in the hearts of all of us who represent her.”