Sweet or Salted?

The history of popcorn in the U.K.

“This will be simple”.

“Surely there’s not that much to say about popcorn in the UK, I probably won’t bother”.

“I fancy some popcorn”

These are just some examples of the things I thought while contemplating a piece around the history of popcorn. How wrong I was on all but one of those thoughts. I did want to start the Popped era with a little nod to my new namesake regardless of whether it was compelling or not. But in the process I have found myself in a rabbit-hole of cinema snack history I didn’t expect to go down.

I would firstly like to leave you in no doubt as to where I stand on popcorn. It is the cinema for me. The sweet haze that fills the auditorium is what movie-going all about. It’s a slight problem for my peers that I tend to finish my box before the film starts. I hadn’t realised it was abnormal until recently. Inhaling my food is step one of my cinema-going experience.

• Step One: Inhale food

• Step Two: Pre-Film toilet break

• Step Three: During-Film, hurried toilet break (Optional)

• Step Four: Cry during the credits, while the lights are still down

Just me?

A dramatic reconstruction of my cinema going experience

The History: A quick search didn’t get me anywhere…

Yes I can find out about the history of popcorn, no problem:

• Popcorn has been found in a cave in New Mexico that dates back 4000 years (Probably brushed off from a t-shirt after someone ate a box of it in the dark)

• It’s been used by the Aztecs in many ways, among them

  • Popcorn Garlands

  • Performing a popcorn dance

    • We’ve all been there.

• The US have been using it abundantly since the 19th Century as part of breakfast, as a street snack and it was popularised in cinemas there during The Great Depression.

  This is obviously a very quick account, you can find out more here.

But popcorn in the U.K? Nothing. This meant I had to look a little deeper…

My main port of call was to search the newspapers. Through some digging I found the first references in 1850 and 1851 in The Observer:

“[T]he produce of ‘popped corn’ - a favourite from the Yankees which will ‘astonish the natives’…the process of popping consists of subjecting the grain to a heat of 600 degrees Fahr. in a close vessel like a coffee roaster. This tears it asunder with a report like a pop-gun. In this state the corn is soft and agreeable to eat, and much more easy of digestion than in its crude state”¹

That last bit is all too true. I don’t know what they were doing trying to eat the hard bits.

Just like the US, popcorn was a working-class snack in the U.K. until around the 1930’s, when the “popcorn machines” started appearing, mainly for show in the UK it looks like. But in cinemas? I needed some proof.

Finds Along the Way

In 1957, a gang made a series of burglaries throughout cinemas in Birmingham. Hidden among the 2,000 capacity crowd during a horror double-bill (Godzilla King of the Monsters & House of Dracula!) the gang waited until lock-up before shoving cartons of popcorn, uniforms and carpet in front of the cinema’s safe to muffle an explosion before taking their loot.

“It was a take-it-easy raid. The gang took time off for refreshments before making their getaway”. Not popcorn though, they’d used that.

One of my favourites was from The Cheshire Observer from 1954 when they published this scoop:

The experimental use of a mobile tea urn is probably the most British thing I've ever read.

It also means that popcorn was definitely being sold in 1954.

Let’s go back a bit then. 1920s? Nothing. 30’s? Nope. This was taking longer than I expected.1940s? No…oh wait, hang on.

1949 - Coventry Evening Telegraph - Letters to the Editor (read in the most annoying voice you can conjure)

“Sir - Every cinema has the right to sell chocolate or other confectionary, but most of our cinemas to-day have turned into eating-houses.

One needs to have an extraordinary power of concentration to enjoy films in comfort at the cinema. I visited one where the management provide potato crisps, nuts and popcorns…Is it not time our cinema managers considered the comforts of their patrons, some of whom leave the theatre half way through the show [because of the] animal noises of people eating”.²

Bingo. Popcorn was definitely in a few British cinemas by 1949, nearly 20 years after the US. The delay is likely due to the war, where most things were rationed and hard to come by. It can also be partly due to the fact that cinemas wanted to replicate the special theatre experience, and popcorn was a snack on the streets so was not fancy enough.

From the 1950’s though, popcorn eating goes through the roof, as reports grow that cinema outlets in the US are showing $100 million of annual profits.

What were we eating before the 1950’s?

My lack of initial progress on the popcorn front made me look further in to what we were eating in our cinemas during the 20th century. I’m still tying up a few loose ends on that front so I’m just holding off sending out what I’ve found until I have everything.

I don’t know whether this is genuinely exciting, or just exciting for me, but there doesn’t seem to be that much on this subject, and I’m finding out bits as I go and collating a bit of a picture for you (and if anyone knows someone who may know some more, send them my way!).

So let’s go through this together over the next week or two so that you can impress everyone you know by telling them about tea urns and popcorn dances. Hmm, I’ve just lost all my subscribers haven’t I…

Bonus Features

Next week will be my first paid post! How exciting. If you missed the paid launch you can read it here.

The issue will be about the 1922 salesology guide for Butterkist sellers and all its hints and tips for their machine sellers, including how to get around the shopkeeper who “wants to ask his wife”.

See you next week!

Thanks for reading this week’s Popped. If you enjoyed it, unlike popcorn, why don’t you consider sharing it with friends? If you’re new here, please do subscribe :)

Gareth

1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/257874442/?clipping_id=130589815&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI1Nzg3NDQ0MiwiaWF0IjoxNjk0MTA3NDA0LCJleHAiOjE2OTQxOTM4MDR9.Hud4KsxUL7iwgQuRD_rSkIsEkjoREF_vJnROtZlC2jQ

2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/787045245/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/852074949/