Orville Redenbacher: Popcorn that Outlived Its Name

What better way there is to make a name in business than to create a product that bears your own name. That is was American businessman Orville Redenbacher became known for.

Redenbacher was born on July 16, 1907 in Brazil, Indiana. His parents were William Joseph Redenbacher and Julia Magdalena Dierdorff. He spent his adolescent years in the family’s farm. There, Redenbacher was first exposed to business as a young man, selling popcorn from his car’s backseat.

After finishing his high school at Brazil High School the top 5% of his class in 1921, Redenbacher attended Purdue University where he earned his bachelor’s degree in agronomy. At Purdue, Redenbacher joined the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity which helped him hone his expertise in agriculture being an agriculture-oriented organization. Redenbacher also joined the Purdue All-American Marching Band and was with the university’s track team. After his graduation at Purdue in 1928, Redenbacher’s earliest employments were with the Vigo County Farm Bureau at Terre Haute, Indiana and at Princeton Farms in Princeton, Indiana.

At the start of his career in business, Redenbacher sold fertilizers although during his spare times, he worked with popcorn. Along with Charlie Bowman who became his business partner, Redenbacher acquired the seed corn plant George F. Chester and Son at Valparaiso, Indiana. They named the company “Chester Hybrids.” They tried thousands of hybrid strains of popcorn before they finally settled on one hybrid which they named “RedBow”.

At the advice of an advertising agency, Redenbacher and Bowman agreed to change the brand name to “Orville Redenbacher.” In 1970, Orville Redenbacher popping corn was launched and it instantly became popular everywhere. In 1973, Redenbacher appeared on national TV for the first time, long before his popcorn commercials hit the airwaves.

Orville Redenbacher owned one-third of the unpopped popcorn market by the middle of 1970s. Redenbacher sold the company to Hunt-Wesson Foods in 1976. In 1983, Hunt-Wesson was acquired by Esmark. In 1984, Esmark sold the company to Beatrice Foods. Beatrice Foods was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 1985. Kohlberg sold the popcorn business along with other old Hunt-Wesson businesses to ConAgra. In spite of all these movements, the brand Orville Redenbacher remained strong.