Born 150 Years Ago: The Woman Who Named Jell-O

Born 150 years ago today May Davis Wait (1874-1956). Just over a century ago, Wait’s husband, a sometime cough syrup manufacturer name Pearle, invented Jell-O; May’s the one who named it. When Pearle couldn’t get the backing for his own company, he sold the patent rights to the Genesee Pure Food Company, makers of Grain-O. That firm was soon absorbed by Postum, which grew into General Foods, which later merged with Phillip Morris, and then Kraft.

There are a vociferous few who find this dessert “terrifying”, “disgusting”, “unnatural” (all adjectives guaranteed overheard by this correspondent in the wild), or simply “depressing” (on account of being associated with prisons, hospitals, and provincial family cookouts where tossed salad is suspended in the stuff like bugs in amber). Yet, once Jell-O was hailed as a kind of modern miracle, and seen as a kind of emblem of the Space Age. It was a thing for astronauts and The Jetsons. Was The Blob inspired by Jell-O? If so, it fulfills the imaginations of both factions. Me, I’m agnostic on the topic. To me food is a thing you put through a hole in your face to quiet the urges of your stomach. Some of it winds up on your shirt front. People are always trying to change this about me, but they can save their breath to cool their porridge. That is, if the notion of porridge isn’t too vile for your tender sensibilities.

At any rate, there has always been a need to SELL Jell-o to at least one skeptical portion of the public. Certainly now the revenue stream takes care of itself, but it’s interesting to contemplate the heavy lift that was done to convince mass numbers of consumers to stick their spoons into artificially flavored gelatin. Initially there were product demos at county fairs, and print ads like the one you see above, featuring The Jell-O Girl and her Kewpies.

From 1934 to 1942, Jell-O was famously the sponsor The Jack Benny Program on radio, its merits preposterously sung by announcer Don Wilson, who spoke of its “real fruit flavor” and its utility in any sort of culinary or social situation. It’s impossible to listen to without asking “What do you take us for?” but they were relentless, and it must have worked on somebody. Look! Here’s Fanny Brice on the show:

On radio, Jell-O also sponsored The Kate Smith Hour,The Aldrich Family, and My Favorite Husband starring Lucille Ball. Starting in 1974, Bill Cosby became Jell-O’s principal spokesman on television. Naturally that all came crashing down 40 years later when Cosby’s sexual abuse scandal crested. Cosby went away; Jell-O, like so much gloop from outer space, survived.

For more on the history of show business,consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,And stay tuned for my upcomingElectric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.