June 2, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, invented in 1897, Jell-O quickly worked its way into the hearts—and stomachs—of Americans. In war and peace, in sickness and in health, from Greek houses to inflatable pools, Jell-O was there. Here to tell the story is Simon Whistler, host of the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister podcast, The Brain Food Show.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Invented in eighteen
ninety seven, Jello immediately worked its way into the hearts
and the stomachs of America in Warren p sickness and health,
from Greek houses to inflatable pools, Jello was there here
to tell. The story is Simon Whistler from the Today
(00:30):
I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister the Brain
Food Show podcast Let's Take a Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
For over a century, jello has been a pass of
American culture, and, according to a nineteen oh four edition
of The Ladies Home Journal, America's favorite dessert. Conveniently enough
named such in an advertisement paid for by Jello before
anyone was really buying it at all, I've had said
ever since then, it really has been one of the
(00:59):
most popular desserts in America. The story of this fruit flavored,
gelatin based icon includes good old fashioned American ingenuity, brilliant marketing,
and a wobbly start. Gelatin, the main ingredient in jello,
has been after dinner delicacy for the wealthy, dating all
the way back to at least the fifteenth century. The tasteless,
(01:20):
odorless protein is made by extracting collagen found in connective
animal tissues from boiled bones of animals, usually from cows
and pigs. It was and still is a time consuming
task to make gelatine. During the Victorian Age, gelatin was
extracted by boiling cow or pig hoofs in a giant
cattle for several hours. Next, the liquid would be strained
and the bones discarded. The liquid was then left out
(01:43):
for a day give or take to settle. After skimming
the fat off the top, flavoring was added, and of voila,
a gelatin dessert was born. By the early nineteenth century,
the dessert wasn't just popular with well to do Europeans,
but Americans as well. Thomas Jefferson was known to serve
gelatin desserts at aficial banquets in his Monticello, Virginia home
in the mid nineteenth century. Gelatine was so in demand
(02:06):
that there was a need to make the creation of
it easier. Who wanted to take time to boil cow
hoofs each time? He wanted a gelatine mold at the
dinner table. So in eighteen forty five, the already famous
inventor of the first American built steam locomotive, that Tom thumb.
Peter Cooper devised a way to make gelatin more accessible
by making large sheets of it and grinding it into
(02:27):
a powder. He applied for him was granted a patent
us Pattern four zero eighty four for a gelatine dessert
powdery called portable Gelatin, requiring only the addition of hot water.
Despite the future economic windfall that gelatine powder would provide,
Cooper didn't market it, not did much of anything with
his invention. He sold the powder to cooks on occasion,
but never commercialized it beyond that. In fact, he was
(02:49):
more interested in the production of powdered glue. Never quite
figured out that secret. Though, unlike jello, as most kids
find out early in life, glue does not taste fay
good blue. About thirty miles outside of Rochester, New York,
in the small town of Leroy, lived the married couple
(03:10):
of Pearl and May Wait. They ran a rather unsuccessful
cough syrup and laxative business. After years of this and
barely scraping by, they decided one day to branch out
into something that they knew better food. So, according to
the Chemical Heritage Foundation, after looking around for what to
work on, they found and obtains the patents for powder gelatine.
Of course, the main drawback of gelatine biz its lack
(03:33):
of taste. They found a fix for that by combining
it with something else they knew a fair bit about
making syrups. Thus they added a significant amount of sugary
fruit syrup using strawberry, raspberry, lemon, and orange flavoring. Their
product was now eighty eight percent sugar, but none of
that mattered, because now gelatine actually tasted good. They named
her and her husband's new favorite dessert jello, a combined
(03:56):
version of the words gelatine and jelly, both of which
derived from the Latin jelaire, meaning to congeal or to freeze.
As for the O parts, around this time in America,
it was simply a relatively popular trend to add O
to the end of your product name, not unlikely that
of preceding certain names with I in more modern times.
In addition, adding a letter allows a business to take
(04:18):
a common word and easily modify it to make it
easy to trademark. Another example from that time would be greino,
and in the modern times, of course, there's the iPhone. Unfortunately,
while pole and may were good at making Gello, they
lacked the capitol and experience to market their product. On
September the eighth, eighteen ninety nine, the couple sold the
formula patterns and the name Jello to their Leroy neighbour,
(04:42):
a rater Frank Woodwood, owner of the Genesee Food Company,
for four hundred and fifty dollars, which is about twelve
thousand dollars to day. Already a successful packaged food businessman,
Woodward knew how to sell a product. He addressed to
salesmen in fancy suits and ad them offer free samples
to homemakers. They employed every trick in the book to
get grossers to stock their shop wels with boxes of
Jello still in the Weaight's original flavors strawberry, raspberry, lemon,
(05:05):
and orange. Despite all of this, sales still sacked. At
one point, a frustrated Woodward offered to sell the product
line to another Leroy townsman for a mere thirty five dollars,
likeily for him, the person refused the offer. In nineteen
oh four, everything changed. With the help of newly hired
William E. Humblebore, Woodward decided to take some of the
money he earned from the more successful products he made,
(05:26):
including one that held a miraculous power to kill lice
on hands, and he invested it into ads for Jello
in the nationally syndicated Ladies Home Journal. The ad, costing
three hundred and thirty six dollars, featured a smiling, fashionably
croathed woman in white aprons proclaiming Jello Gelatin America's favorite dessert.
The ads were a roaring success, and your sales quickly
(05:48):
jumped to two hundred and fifty thousand, about six point
two million dollars to day. Soon, beautiful hand drawn pictures
showing pantry's stuffed to the brim with jello and kids
begging for the delicious dessert were marketing the product everywhere.
Woodwind began printing recipe books telling homemakers how to properly
prepare their jello. They handed out free jello moulds immigrants
(06:09):
arriving into Alice Island. They introduced the Jello Girl, played
by four year old Elizabeth King, the daughter of a
brilliant ad artist, Franklin King, who wouldward working for him.
With a tea kettle in one hand and a packet
of jello in the other, she declared to the world
that you can't be a kid without it. Due to
brilliant marketing, Jello became one of the most well known
brands in American history. In nineteen twenty four, understanding the
(06:32):
power of a name, the GENC Pure Foods Company became
quite simply the Jello Company. That same year, the company
hired the soon to be famous Norman Rockwell to draw
a colorful illustration depicting Jello with radio rising in prominence,
Jello became one of the first companies to advertise on
the new medium, with Jack Bennys singing to the whole
world in nineteen thirty four. Their new jingle, created by
(06:52):
the agency Young and rubikam j E.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
L Looll The Jello Program starring Jack Benny with Mary
Livingston and Bill Harrison his orchestra.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
By the mid nineteen seventies, formerly strong and steady sales
of Jello, including their pudding line, began declining, so they
hired the thirty seven year old comedian Bill Cosby to
be their spokesperson.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oo Jello Pudding Pops lou Yellow Pulling Pup. When Daniel
Cady new Jello Pudding Pups frozen pudding on a stick play.
That's right, and you know what else, when you eat it,
your mum won't.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Give you the old evil eye like.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
She does with some snacks, because she knows that this
is made with real pudding.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It worked, and Cosby brought Jello to new hypes. The
Cosby Jello relationship lasted for over thirty years and whiles,
according to Mary Cross's book A Century of American Icons,
the longest standing celebrity endorsement in American advertising history. In
nineteen sixty four, the plants in Leroy, New York closed
when the conglomerate General Foods now Craft Foods took over production.
(07:56):
But Jello is still represented in that small town with
the Jello Gallery and Museum dedicated to all things Jello
and now some bonus facts. J E L l O.
It's alive. Well, actually, technically Jello is alive, at least
according to a nineteen seventy four experiment performed by doctor
Adrian Upton. Doctor Rupton attached an EEG electro and cathlogram
(08:17):
machine to a dome of lime green jello. The jello
produced alpha waves much the same way and awaken a
life human would produce. This experiment set the media a
flatter as they like to sensationalize everything then as now.
But what doctor Upton was really trying to prove is
that an EEG should not be the only method used
to determine if a human is alive or not. And
(08:38):
now for another bonus fact. In two thousand and one,
Utah State Representative Leonard M. Blackham introduced State Resolution five.
This legislation declares that Jello brand gelatine be recognized as
the favorite snack of Utah. It passed with only two
dissenting votes. The resolution was popular because jello is well
known to be a favorite among members of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Six, otherwise known as
(09:00):
the Mormons. Sales figures are released by Craft Foods in
two thousand and one revealed that Salt Lake City, Utah,
had the highest per capita jello consumption of anywhere else
in the country. Due to this, the Mormon Corridor region
in Utah has been given the nickname the Jello Belt.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
The story of Jello, one of America's favorite desserts. Here
on our American Stories
And we returned to our American stories. Invented in eighteen
ninety seven, Jello immediately worked its way into the hearts
and the stomachs of America in Warren p sickness and health,
from Greek houses to inflatable pools, Jello was there here
to tell. The story is Simon Whistler from the Today
(00:30):
I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister the Brain
Food Show podcast Let's Take a Listen.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
For over a century, jello has been a pass of
American culture, and, according to a nineteen oh four edition
of The Ladies Home Journal, America's favorite dessert. Conveniently enough
named such in an advertisement paid for by Jello before
anyone was really buying it at all, I've had said
ever since then, it really has been one of the
(00:59):
most popular desserts in America. The story of this fruit flavored,
gelatin based icon includes good old fashioned American ingenuity, brilliant marketing,
and a wobbly start. Gelatin, the main ingredient in jello,
has been after dinner delicacy for the wealthy, dating all
the way back to at least the fifteenth century. The tasteless,
(01:20):
odorless protein is made by extracting collagen found in connective
animal tissues from boiled bones of animals, usually from cows
and pigs. It was and still is a time consuming
task to make gelatine. During the Victorian Age, gelatin was
extracted by boiling cow or pig hoofs in a giant
cattle for several hours. Next, the liquid would be strained
and the bones discarded. The liquid was then left out
(01:43):
for a day give or take to settle. After skimming
the fat off the top, flavoring was added, and of voila,
a gelatin dessert was born. By the early nineteenth century,
the dessert wasn't just popular with well to do Europeans,
but Americans as well. Thomas Jefferson was known to serve
gelatin desserts at aficial banquets in his Monticello, Virginia home
in the mid nineteenth century. Gelatine was so in demand
(02:06):
that there was a need to make the creation of
it easier. Who wanted to take time to boil cow
hoofs each time? He wanted a gelatine mold at the
dinner table. So in eighteen forty five, the already famous
inventor of the first American built steam locomotive, that Tom thumb.
Peter Cooper devised a way to make gelatin more accessible
by making large sheets of it and grinding it into
(02:27):
a powder. He applied for him was granted a patent
us Pattern four zero eighty four for a gelatine dessert
powdery called portable Gelatin, requiring only the addition of hot water.
Despite the future economic windfall that gelatine powder would provide,
Cooper didn't market it, not did much of anything with
his invention. He sold the powder to cooks on occasion,
but never commercialized it beyond that. In fact, he was
(02:49):
more interested in the production of powdered glue. Never quite
figured out that secret. Though, unlike jello, as most kids
find out early in life, glue does not taste fay
good blue. About thirty miles outside of Rochester, New York,
in the small town of Leroy, lived the married couple
(03:10):
of Pearl and May Wait. They ran a rather unsuccessful
cough syrup and laxative business. After years of this and
barely scraping by, they decided one day to branch out
into something that they knew better food. So, according to
the Chemical Heritage Foundation, after looking around for what to
work on, they found and obtains the patents for powder gelatine.
Of course, the main drawback of gelatine biz its lack
(03:33):
of taste. They found a fix for that by combining
it with something else they knew a fair bit about
making syrups. Thus they added a significant amount of sugary
fruit syrup using strawberry, raspberry, lemon, and orange flavoring. Their
product was now eighty eight percent sugar, but none of
that mattered, because now gelatine actually tasted good. They named
her and her husband's new favorite dessert jello, a combined
(03:56):
version of the words gelatine and jelly, both of which
derived from the Latin jelaire, meaning to congeal or to freeze.
As for the O parts, around this time in America,
it was simply a relatively popular trend to add O
to the end of your product name, not unlikely that
of preceding certain names with I in more modern times.
In addition, adding a letter allows a business to take
(04:18):
a common word and easily modify it to make it
easy to trademark. Another example from that time would be greino,
and in the modern times, of course, there's the iPhone. Unfortunately,
while pole and may were good at making Gello, they
lacked the capitol and experience to market their product. On
September the eighth, eighteen ninety nine, the couple sold the
formula patterns and the name Jello to their Leroy neighbour,
(04:42):
a rater Frank Woodwood, owner of the Genesee Food Company,
for four hundred and fifty dollars, which is about twelve
thousand dollars to day. Already a successful packaged food businessman,
Woodward knew how to sell a product. He addressed to
salesmen in fancy suits and ad them offer free samples
to homemakers. They employed every trick in the book to
get grossers to stock their shop wels with boxes of
Jello still in the Weaight's original flavors strawberry, raspberry, lemon,
(05:05):
and orange. Despite all of this, sales still sacked. At
one point, a frustrated Woodward offered to sell the product
line to another Leroy townsman for a mere thirty five dollars,
likeily for him, the person refused the offer. In nineteen
oh four, everything changed. With the help of newly hired
William E. Humblebore, Woodward decided to take some of the
money he earned from the more successful products he made,
(05:26):
including one that held a miraculous power to kill lice
on hands, and he invested it into ads for Jello
in the nationally syndicated Ladies Home Journal. The ad, costing
three hundred and thirty six dollars, featured a smiling, fashionably
croathed woman in white aprons proclaiming Jello Gelatin America's favorite dessert.
The ads were a roaring success, and your sales quickly
(05:48):
jumped to two hundred and fifty thousand, about six point
two million dollars to day. Soon, beautiful hand drawn pictures
showing pantry's stuffed to the brim with jello and kids
begging for the delicious dessert were marketing the product everywhere.
Woodwind began printing recipe books telling homemakers how to properly
prepare their jello. They handed out free jello moulds immigrants
(06:09):
arriving into Alice Island. They introduced the Jello Girl, played
by four year old Elizabeth King, the daughter of a
brilliant ad artist, Franklin King, who wouldward working for him.
With a tea kettle in one hand and a packet
of jello in the other, she declared to the world
that you can't be a kid without it. Due to
brilliant marketing, Jello became one of the most well known
brands in American history. In nineteen twenty four, understanding the
(06:32):
power of a name, the GENC Pure Foods Company became
quite simply the Jello Company. That same year, the company
hired the soon to be famous Norman Rockwell to draw
a colorful illustration depicting Jello with radio rising in prominence,
Jello became one of the first companies to advertise on
the new medium, with Jack Bennys singing to the whole
world in nineteen thirty four. Their new jingle, created by
(06:52):
the agency Young and rubikam j E.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
L Looll The Jello Program starring Jack Benny with Mary
Livingston and Bill Harrison his orchestra.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
By the mid nineteen seventies, formerly strong and steady sales
of Jello, including their pudding line, began declining, so they
hired the thirty seven year old comedian Bill Cosby to
be their spokesperson.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Oo Jello Pudding Pops lou Yellow Pulling Pup. When Daniel
Cady new Jello Pudding Pups frozen pudding on a stick play.
That's right, and you know what else, when you eat it,
your mum won't.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Give you the old evil eye like.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
She does with some snacks, because she knows that this
is made with real pudding.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It worked, and Cosby brought Jello to new hypes. The
Cosby Jello relationship lasted for over thirty years and whiles,
according to Mary Cross's book A Century of American Icons,
the longest standing celebrity endorsement in American advertising history. In
nineteen sixty four, the plants in Leroy, New York closed
when the conglomerate General Foods now Craft Foods took over production.
(07:56):
But Jello is still represented in that small town with
the Jello Gallery and Museum dedicated to all things Jello
and now some bonus facts. J E L l O.
It's alive. Well, actually, technically Jello is alive, at least
according to a nineteen seventy four experiment performed by doctor
Adrian Upton. Doctor Rupton attached an EEG electro and cathlogram
(08:17):
machine to a dome of lime green jello. The jello
produced alpha waves much the same way and awaken a
life human would produce. This experiment set the media a
flatter as they like to sensationalize everything then as now.
But what doctor Upton was really trying to prove is
that an EEG should not be the only method used
to determine if a human is alive or not. And
(08:38):
now for another bonus fact. In two thousand and one,
Utah State Representative Leonard M. Blackham introduced State Resolution five.
This legislation declares that Jello brand gelatine be recognized as
the favorite snack of Utah. It passed with only two
dissenting votes. The resolution was popular because jello is well
known to be a favorite among members of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Six, otherwise known as
(09:00):
the Mormons. Sales figures are released by Craft Foods in
two thousand and one revealed that Salt Lake City, Utah,
had the highest per capita jello consumption of anywhere else
in the country. Due to this, the Mormon Corridor region
in Utah has been given the nickname the Jello Belt.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
The story of Jello, one of America's favorite desserts. Here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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