Just Call Me Orville: The Story of Orville Redenbacher

Based on extensive interviews and archival research, this book traces the career of Orville Redenbacher, the popcorn king,  from his agricultural studies at Purdue University to his emergence as an American advertising icon. Born in Brazil, Indiana, in 1907, Orville began his lifelong obsession with the development of new strains of seed at Purdue where he earned a degree in agronomy while also playing in the All-American Marching Band. After experimenting with thousands of varieties, Orville and his partner Charlie Bowman launched Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn in 1970. Through a combination of shrewd marketing and a notably superior product, the partners controlled a third of the market for popping corn by 1976, when their Chester Hybrids business was sold to Hunt Wesson Foods. While the company gradually became absorbed into the food giant ConAgra, Orville Redenbacher prospered as a larger-than-life brand spokesperson and a symbol of wholesomeness and fun until his death in 1995.

Author: Robert W. Topping
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Published: 06/15/2011
Pages: 132
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.50d
ISBN13: 9781557535955
ISBN10: 1557535957
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Business
- History | United States | State & Local | Midwest(IA,IL,IN,KS,MI,MN,MO
- History | United States | 20th Century

About the Author
Robert W. Topping was a Purdue staff member and alumnus, and was the author of three published books about Purdue University. He was also a former newspaperman in Michigan and Indiana.