- Articles on Barney Oldfield
- Barney Oldfield Scrapbook Overview
- Oldfield 1906
- Oldfield Suicide Attempt
- Barney Oldfield and Lincoln Beachey
- Barney Oldfield Autobiography - Saturday Evening Post
- Barney Oldfield's 1910 Land Speed Record
- The Vanderbilt Cup
- Oldfield's Late Career
- Barney Oldfield and the Indy 500
- Oldfield - Petersen Collection
- Various Oldfield Races & Items
- Tom Cooper
- Articles on Early Track Racing
- Sigur Whitaker Articles
- Atlanta Speedway
- Miscellaneous Track Races
- 1906 Benefit Race
- Oval Vs. Road Racing
- 24 Hours of Indianapolis
- 24 Hours of Brighton Beach
- AAA Articles
- Driver Profiles
- Ken Parrotte Research
- William Borque
- Yesteryear at the Uniontown Speedway
- Joan Cuneo by Elsa Nystrom
- Automobile Advertising
- Louis Chevrolet
- The First Mile-A-Minute Track Lap
- Non-Championship Oval Track Races - 1905
- The Lost Championship of 1905
- 1908 Track Racing
- Astor Cup - 1916
- Playa Del Rey Board Track
- 40's - 60's Feature Articles
- Early Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- IMS Construction
- Brickyard Personalities
- Good Roads Movement
- Early Indianapolis Auto Industry
- Joe Dawson
- Carl Graham Fisher
- Fisher Automobile Company Ads
- Allison, Newby and Wheeler
- Prest-O-Lite
- Ernie Moross
- 1909 Balloon Race
- Indianapolis Motorcycle Races - 1909
- First Auto Races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway - August 1909
- Failed 1909 Air Show
- Becoming the Brickyard
- December 1909 Time Trials
- IMS Planning - 1910
- March 1910 Indianapolis Auto Show
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway May 1910
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway Summer 1910
- Indianapolis Motor Speedway Aviation Show - June 1910
- July 1910 Race Meet
- Indianapolis Race Teams - Summer 1910
- September 1910 Race Meet
- Indianapolis Balloon Races - 1910
- First Indianapolis 500 - 1911
- 1913 Indianapolis 500
- Packard Speed Record
- Brooklands
- Dario Resta
- Indianapolis Harvest Classic
- Wheeler-Schebler Trophy
- Early Road Racing
- American Grand Prize
- Savannah
- Glidden Tour
- Pioneers
- Hill Climb Races
- Fairmount Park
- Coppa Florio
- Daytona - Ormond Speed Trials
- Beach Racing
- Horseless Age 1905
- James Gordon Bennett Cup
- Vanderbilt Cup
- Lowell Road Race
- The French Grand Prix
- 1908 - New York to Paris
- Cuban Road Race
- Cobe Trophy
- Obscure Early American Road Races
- The Cactus Derby
- Briarcliff, NY Road Race
- Isle of Man
- David Bruce-Brown Obituary
- A Woman's Ride In A Racing Car
- Mark Dill's Articles
Orville Redenbacher and Tony Hulman
Article Categories
Relevant Content
- Erwin "Cannon Ball" Baker
- Louis Schwitzer
- Empire Motor Car Company
- The Belond Special
- Indy 500 Pace Car Drivers
- Auburn Museums
- Pace Car Crash!
- ASPAR
- The Blue Crowns
- The First "500" Woman Driver
- More Sauerkraut
- You Ruined my Sauerkraut!
- "The British at Indianapolis" Book Review
- The Twin Cities Motor Speedway
- The Miami 12 Engine
- Thunder At Sunrise - Book Review
- Eddie Rickenbacker Paves the Speedway
- Montauk
- Rickenbacker's Pace Car
- Rickenbacker Buys IMS
- Cocolobo Cay Club
- Whitaker on Race Against Time and Death
- The Brickyard Crossing
- The Winningest Driver
- Ferrari
- Carl Fiisher Car Promotions
- Carl Fisher and His Elephants
- Carl Fisher, Master Promoter
- Sigur Whitaker Reviews "Master Driver of the World"
- Bessie Lee Paoli
- 1955 - Year of Tragedy
- Umbrella Mike
- Lucy O'Reilly Schell
- A Jeopardy - Type Question (Paula Murphy)
- The Astor Cup Story
- The Great Zoline Caper
- Sigur Whitaker on Prest-O-Lite
- IMS Radio History
- IMS Pagoda History
- Sigur Whitaker on the Golden Submarine
- The Fulford-Miami Speedway
- Book Review--Barney Oldfield, The Life and Times of America's Legendary Speed King by William F. Nolan
- Cummins, Part 2
- Cummins Special
- The Great Zoline Caper
- Book Review: Mark Donohue, Technical Excellence at Speed
- Why a balloon is painted on the side of a restroom at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Indy Autonomous Challenge
- Book Review: Victory Road: The Ride of My Life by Helio Castroneves
- Polo at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
- Tradition of the Indianapolis 500 winner drinking milk
- Kissing the Bricks Tradition
- Maude Yagle--Ahead of Her Time
- Speedway, Indiana
- Book Review: The Legend of the First Super Speedway
- The Great Speedway Heist (Almost)
- He Drives A Duesenberg
- The Miami Aquarium Inbox
- Hitting on all cylinders Inbox
- I've Got Your Back
- Book Review: Beast, by Jade Gurss
- The Year Team Penske Did Not Make the Indianapolis 500
- The Long Downward Spiral
- Book Review: Rick Mears Thanks. The Story of Rick Mears and the Mears Gang by Gordon Kirby
- 1941 fire in Gasoline Alley
- The Newby Oval
- Tony Hulman and the formation of USAC
- How the Indianapolis Motor Speedway became "The Brickyard"
- Book Review: The Legend of the First Super Speedway, the Birth of American Auto Racing by Mark Dill
- Creating a SAFER barrier
- Celebrating 50 years as Team Penske
- Carl Fisher's Turkey Run
- Duesenberg Sets Endurance Test Record
- When Mark Met Roger
- Book Review: Al Unser, Jr., A Checkered Past as told to Jade Gurss
- The Motorcycle Ride
- Wilbur Shaw
- The Duesenberg Days
Search
Featured Article
Image of The Week
The story of Orville Redenbacher and Tony Hulman, who in 1945 purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, goes back to 1900 when Anton Hulman, Tony’s father, married Grace Smith. The Smith family had a coal mining operation based in Terre Haute, Indiana. The mining operation expanded in 1924 south of Princeton, Indiana. Wanting to expand the Princeton operation, Smith and Tony Hulman purchased 12,000 acres of Indiana farmland including the mineral rights. This farm, operated under the trade style of Princeton Farms, became the largest farm in Indiana. They also had farming operations outside of Homestead, Florida.
Orville Redenbacher grew up in Indiana and by age 12 he was bagging and selling popcorn on the cob in 50-pound bags. He went to Purdue University, the nation’s premier research university for popcorn. After college, Redenbacher became the county agent for Vigo County (Terre Haute’s county). There he had a five-minute radio program on farm news and crop reports.
Redenbacher was hired to run Princeton Farms in 1940 for $4,500 annually plus 10% of the farm’s profits. He was one of the first Indiana farmers to plant hybrid dent corn which is fed to livestock. In his second year at Princeton Farms, Redenbacher planted hybrid corn developed by Purdue University scientists. Initially this corn was sold to processors for seed corn throughout the United States. Most of the corn produced at Princeton Farms was sold to J. A. McCarty Seed Company of Evansville, Indiana, one of the largest seed processors in the United States.
In the 1930s, the best popcorn was sold to movie theaters. Lower grades of popcorn were sold for home consumption as the consumer was very price sensitive. Going against conventional wisdom, Princeton Farms packaged their best popcorn for home consumption and sold it through grocery stores beginning in 1944. Hulman & Co., a grocery wholesaler owned by Tony Hulman, was undoubtedly helpful in getting the popcorn into grocery stores.
In 1946, Redenbacher developed a hybrid popcorn. It was a superior product because it could be harvested and dried on the cob rather than the kernels being separated from the cob by the combine.
Redenbacher left Princeton Farms, which had expanded to 18,000 acres, at the end of 1951 when he and Charles Bowman purchased the George F. Chester & Son Seed Company in Valparaiso, Indiana. Under their management, the company became the largest hybrid seed corn and soybean producer in the United States. In 1959, they hired Carl Hartman to improve the seed corn. By 1965, Hartman had produced a superior popcorn which was fluffier and lighter than others on the market. It also had a higher pop rate. Redenbacher and Bowman marketed this under the Redbow brand, a combination of their names. Unfortunately, it did not gain much market acceptance as it was higher priced than the competition. By 1970, Bowman and Redenbacher decided to stop selling Redbow to popcorn processors. Instead, they decided to market their own brand directly to consumers, which became Orville Redenbacher premium popcorn.
My book, Racing with Roger Penske, has been released and is available in both paperback and electronic versions. You can order it from your favorite bookseller, my publisher McFarland & Co., Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com. To thank you for purchasing the book, I have written a supplement for the 2021 racing year, The Importance of Deep Pockets and Earned Credibility. To receive, please send a copy of your receipt to racingwithrogerpenske@gmail.com.
If you know of someone who would enjoy this article, please forward it to them. If someone sent this to you and you would like to be added to my subscriber list, please let me know at sigurwhitakerbooks881@gmail.com.
If you would like to see previous blog posts, they are available at sigurwhitakerbooks.com.