Why do we eat popcorn at the movie theater? The answer to this question can be traced back to during the Great Depression, when investors saw a chance to make a profit through selling popcorn at movie theaters. Other blog posts have already talked about the movie-making industry and what movies were like during the Great Depression, but here, I’ll talk about food with the movies.
Over 8,000 years ago, popcorn was cultivated in Central America from maize. It became a quite popular snack by 1848, and could be found at fairs, circuses, and other types of entertainment venues, except for at movie theaters. Movie theater owners didn’t want kernels or shells all over their beautiful floors, and they didn’t want crunchy sounds while a film played, so they worked hard to keep popcorn out of their venues.
But with the Great Depression came an opportunity. By 1930, movie theaters had 90 million clients weekly, and since a small bag of popcorn could be bought around five or ten cents, it was cheap enough for most people to afford. If you bought a $10 bag of popcorn, it’d be an intelligent investment, and street vendors took to the streets outside movie theaters in hopes of making money. In order to stop them, movie theater owners changed their minds and started to sell snacks themselves, with popcorn being the go-to.
So the next time you go to the theaters and get a bag of popcorn, remember, you’re eating it there because of the Great Depression.
I loved how the post related to our modern daily lives. I wonder if popcorn was part of the World's Faire in Chicago? Also I learned how profitable for the movies and popcorn vendors it is since popcorn seeds are fairly cheap and I know that the seeds can stay dry and preserved for a long time which is perfect for the times of Great Depression since there would be little effect on stock effect of supply and demand.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post about food in pop culture and how it's left positive impacts on the US economy. Adding on, I think that because popcorn was pretty inexpensive, this made people feel that it was like a nice extra indulgence for them especially during a difficult economic time. This could have been another reason for why popcorn gained so much popularity during the Great Depression and therefore its rising sales and profits helped the economy improve.
ReplyDeletesource: http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/popcorn-history/