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Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
The story of a pantry shelf, an outline history of grocery specialties: a machine-readable transcription.
Behold--the Humble
Yeast
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Behold--the Humble
Yeast
Of the Modest Little Package That
Has Leavened Billions of Loaves of
Bread for Millions of Housewives--
and Now Is Spreading a New
Message of Health to Americans
Of the Modest Little Package That Has Leavened Billions of Loaves of Bread for Millions of Housewives-- and Now Is Spreading a New Message of Health to Americans
In 1866 a young man in Vienna named Charles Fleischmann received a letter from his sister in New York, inviting him to come across the ocean to see her married. Young Fleischmann probably didn't think twice before accepting that invitation, for hadn't all the young men heard about the wonders across the sea?
So, Charles Fleischmann came to America. He did not stay long this time; but he liked what he saw so much that he determined to come back--to a home this time, with all his goods and hopes.
Two years later, in 1868, Charles again saw friendly Manhattan. Destiny sent him on; he turned his face westward,
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followed the old pioneer route down the Ohio and settled--very permanently--in the good town of Cincinnati.
Charles Fleischmann had an idea. An idea to base his life on. The pioneer spirit that is in all great business men was in him. He would not build railroads, he would not build banks--he would build yeast.
He knew bakers and baking--since childhood he had known them. And in Austria he had especially studied that essential ingredient of bread, the yeast. The bakers themselves made the yeast (or got it from the breweries)--in convenient liquid form--of variable strength--uncertain--unreliable.
Charles Fleischmann determined to make a much better yeast--of uniform freshness, quality and efficiency--in a new convenient form. He determined to cultivate the "wild" yeast strains, improve the little yeast plant by selection until it would be a universally recognized product of quality.
The years have shown how this young man succeeded.
In 1868 he made and sold the first cake of standardized fresh yeast used by an American baker. In 1870 he organized the Gaff-Fleischmann Company, which began operations at Riverside, near Cincinnati. It was an uphill fight at first. Crude hand presses were used. Cooling devices were absolutely unknown; temperatures could not be controlled. It was a far cry to the great testing laboratories, the immense batteries of vats and refrigerators, the big, swift machines of any one of the Fleischmann factories of today.
The first crude yeast plant burned down in 1871. When it was rebuilt cutting machines were installed and the yeast was wrapped in foil, in pound packages for the baker and in smaller cakes for the housewife. Growth was rapid from the beginning. Today there are eleven Fleischmann factories in the United States and Canada. The Peckskill plant is the largest--the largest yeast factory in the world.
In the early '80s Mr. Fleischmann took over the Gaff interests and changed the name of the firm to the Fleischmann Company. Charles Fleischmann died in 1897. In 1905 the Fleischmann Company was reorganized with Julius Fleischmann
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as president. Julius was succeeded at his death, in 1925, by Joseph Wilshire.
Mr. Joseph Wilshire, PresidentFrom almost the very beginning the Fleischmann Company has been active in advertising. At first much educational work was necessary. When Fleischmann's Yeast was first marketed, naturally the baker was satisfied with the "slop yeast" he had always used. So, all the way through, the Fleischmann Company determined to sell the idea of better bread. Baking laboratories were installed, experts employed; experimental work in breadmaking was begun. The Fleischmann Company finds it profitable to help the baker without stint.
The first advertising aimed at the consumer was the campaign at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. Here were staged a number of practical baking demonstrations of Vienna bread and rolls. These were followed by an extensive house-to-house canvass to win the interest of the housewife. Women quickly saw that the new, clean, fresh yeast gave better results, and their demand, both for the yeast and the bread made with it, had much to do with putting the business on its firm basis.
Since this time the Fleischmann Company has been tireless in advocating better bread--and more bread. One of its most ambitious pieces of propaganda has been the familiar Eat more bread" campaigns. Much helpful literature has been broadcast under Fleischmann auspices. And there is that interesting Fleischmann institution, the training school for bakers.
Perhaps the most striking phase of the Fleischmann business is one of recent development--for it is one that has struck the public imagination: Yeast-for-health. Of course, yeast
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has been eaten for health for centuries. Physicians have long recognized its value. It is an old corrective for skin troubles. In Europe, especially, it was used also for constipation, stomach disorders and run-down condition. But it is only recently, following notable scientific discoveries and the consequent growth of general popular interest in right eating, that yeast has come into its own as a food.
It was only after the most careful preparation, after long experimentation by scientists and medical men that the Fleischmann Company ventured into the new field. But with a mass of data at hand and medical opinion friendly, it was decided to begin consumer advertising in newspapers and magazines in the spring of 1920. Yeast as a food for health was an overwhelming success from the beginning. Grateful users spread the news. It was this enthusiasm that facilitated the work. Now the experience of those who have eaten yeast is the basis for the advertising copy; the appeal is intensely human; the consumer tells his own story. The four familiar ailments which the product benefits are well-nigh universal; and Fleischmann's Yeast-for-Health has become a household word.
Much of the credit for the success of both Yeast for baking and Yeast-for-Health should go to the Fleischmann distributing service--to the 2,000 men who supply yeast to 300,000 grocers, 30,000 bakers and some thousands of soda fountains and cafeterias--the men whose devotion in time of crisis--storm or flood--has made Fleischmann service famous.
Two other products, Diamalt and Arkady, for the better quality of baker's bread, have been added to the Fleischmann line.
The place that Fleischmann's Yeast has made for itself in American life with the baker, the grocer, the housewife and more recently with the general public is a noteworthy tribute to the power of an idea followed out logically and to the rightness of progressive American business methods.
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