Today we’re going on a ride down a rabbit hole, so buckle in.
This story begins in the 19th century with a figure whose name, at least, almost every woman of my generation knew…Fannie Farmer. Younger generations may not be as familiar with her, she was a real woman, not a corporate mascot. Farmer was the Principal of the Boston Cooking School in the late 1800s. Every time you read a recipe and it has measurements, lists of ingredients, then cooking directions, you are reading her specific influence. She was among a number of women who brought nutrition and food science into existence, with medicine and chemistry weighing in for the first time about what people ate affecting their well-being backed scientifcally. The Boston Cooking School Cook-Book was *the* text book on how to prepare foods…and for generations afterwards, editions of what became The Fannie Farmer Cookbook taught American women what and how to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
This morning I finished reading the text portion of the Cook-Book, and turned to the ads. For fun, I decided to see which of the companies listed still exist – so far Knox is it. We came across a company that no longer exists, but my wife suggested that it had become part of General Mills, and the ground fell beneath my feet. In the meantime, looking up things like Grist Mill Entire Wheat Coffee and The Pure Food Company’s (unrelated to the current one of the same name…) Cocoanut Butter…
“Health Springs From Cocoanut”
…I ended up reading the entirety of the General Mills Wikipedia page. Where I learned some amazing things. They had a “Aeronautical Research Division and Electronics Division.” Did they? Why? Well, according to Wiki, “The General Mills Electronics division developed the DSV Alvin submersible, which is notable for being used in investigating the wreck of Titanic among other deep-sea exploration missions.”
… Oh. Okay. Of course a cereal and food company would build submersibles. ????
It gets weirder.
“[General Mills] along with its subsidiary The Program Exchange, backed DiC Entertainment in syndicating the Dennis the Menace animated series.” So, of course GM sponsors cartoons, they sell cereal.
Of course my ears pricked right up at the mention of DiC, because they are most famous for one thing.
And there it was:
“From 1997 until May 31, 2004, General Mills sponsored and syndicated the first 82 episodes of the original Sailor Moon English dub …”
But wait, there’s more!
While talking about this on the Okazu Discord, longtime friend of Okazu Cryssoberyl had this to say:
“Some of you may know the name of a website called “Save Our Sailors”, which – when it wasn’t peddling “Prince Uranus” theories intended to degay HaruMichi – was concerned with keeping the English release of Sailor Moon on television. As part of these efforts, one planned idea was a “procott” of Kellog’s Pop-Tarts. Fans were supposed to all go out on a particular day and buy Pop-Tarts. Now, Pop-Tarts aren’t from General Mills, but after this “procott” happened, DIC, sponsored by General Mills, returned to syndicating the show. It was then claimed that the procott had been a success because it had drawn General Mills, Kellogg’s competitor, into the move. (Even though it very definitely had nothing to do with it.)”
We’ve talked about Prince Uranus here before, but I absolutely did not remember the Pop-Tart thing, but wife was amazed that she did!
So, as I told the class at Keio University just a few weeks ago…the answer to every question is Sailor Moon. Even, apparently, if the question is “Does this company which makes “Entire (i.e.whole) Wheat Coffee” from 1898 still exist?
Please enjoy the variety of eye-straining fonts on this ad from the Boston Cooking School Cook-Book, edited by Fannie Farmer for Imperial Granum cereal.
