We’re wrapping up our theme week on the Real People Behind Famous Snack Brands! Today we’re talking about Orville Redenbacher. He wasn’t just a popcorn spokesperson, he was a food scientist! He started growing popcorn on his family’s farm in Indiana at the age 12. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in agronomy in 1928. He started his career selling fertilizer, but spent his spare time working with popcorn. In 1951, Orville and his business partner Charles Bowman bought a seed corn plant in Indiana. There they experimented with tens of thousands of strains of popcorn. Finally, they hit on the perfect hybrid, naming it “RedBow”, a combination of their last names. This new popcorn strain was light and fluffy, left very few unpopped kernels, and popped 40% larger than normal popcorn. Their product was popular regionally, but by 1970 they wanted to expand nationally. They hired an advertising agency in Chicago who recommended using Orville’s name for their brand of popcorn. Orville was hesitant at first, but it worked – by the mid-70s, they had a third of the unpopped-popcorn market. Orville starred in nearly all the brand’s commercials until his death in 1995. He was so iconic that many customers wrote letters asking if he was real or an actor. He responded by appearing on various talk shows to profess his identity. In 1995, Orville died in his hot tub after suffering a heart attack. His ashes were scattered at sea. Today, his brand is the top in microwave popcorn, kernels, and oils in the U.S. Learn more here.