Today when you go to the movies, you can get all the popcorn you want with different seasonings for extra variety. But did you ever stop to wonder how popcorn became the most popular of all Movie Munchies?
Back in the silent era, popcorn wasn't a fixture at all in theaters. It could be purchased at other places like the circus or stage shows, but the concession area of a theater lobby didn't even exist. After all, no one wanted to hear munching and crunching during a silent film.
Glass title art by Harold Adler for freshly buttered popcorn.
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With the arrival of talking movies and the Great Depression, popcorn suddenly exploded, so to speak. Anybody could afford it with prices as low as five cents a bag, and vendors could get a space inside or outside a theater to give moviegoers a snack on their way into the theater.
Soon popcorn became a major cash cow for theater owners, who could spend $10 for a hundred pounds of kernels and sell over a thousand bags. Most popcorn was generated by hand at first, but during the labor shortage of World War II (which also saw sugar rationing that cut out popcorn's main competitor, candy bars), mechanical harvesting made popcorn faster and easier to make.
Concession cabinet and popcorn stand at the Iris Theatre in Hollywood circa 1946.
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This period also saw the rise of the National Popcorn Association, who made it downright patriotic with a manifesto called "Popcorn Is a Fighting Food!" Popcorn breeders (yes, there is such a thing) also combined several strains to increase popping size and physical appearance.
We still love these fluffy, buttery treats, and the next time you buy a bucket at your local movie theater, just think about all the hard work that went into making popcorn the number one movie snack of all time.
A '50s popcorn concession display at the Leimert Theatre in Los Angeles.
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(For some fun reading including rags-to-riches stories about Americans creatively selling popcorn over the years, we'd suggest checking out Andrew F. Smith's Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.)
What's your favorite snack at the movies, and why?
