When Stan Musial wore street clothes rather than a St. Louis Cardinals baseball uniform, he looked like “the boy who really did eat his spinach and Wheaties, and did grow up to be a hero,” wrote a sports columnist more than 50 years ago. “Stan the Man” not only ate his Wheaties, he was a [...]
Posts Tagged ‘general mills archives’
» Happy National Cereal Day
General Mills is joining fans of our cereals around the U.S. today by celebrating National Cereal Day. Of course we make much more than cereal, but you could argue that our company identity is most closely tied to the Big G cereal brands. In honor of the “holiday,” I did some digging in the General [...]
» President Lincoln and the Washburns
With the marking in the U.S. today of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday – and the hubbub surrounding the award-winning movie bearing his name – it seems fitting to note the accomplishment of the Washburns, Lincoln’s contemporaries who changed the world in their own right. Cadwallader Washburn was the founder of General Mills, and is somewhat [...]
» Bugles in the “Mad Men” era
The character of “Betty” on “Mad Men” is getting a lot of attention for her choice of a snack on the show’s most recent episode. Did you see her eating Bugles? Since I’m a big fan of the show – and Bugles too for that matter – I decided to look into its history in [...]
» Sperry Pancake, the baby
When a bouncing baby boy arrived to the Pancake family of Portland, Ore., on March 29, 1947, his parents named him Sperry. The uncommon last name aside. His unusual first name also happened to be the same as the then-popular Sperry Company flour products. E.O. Boyer, Sperry division president in 1947, visited Portland that September [...]
» Famous Ferris Wheel engine, almost
Editor’s note: When we originally published this post on March 5, 2012, we passed along company lore from one of our early employee publications that suggested we once purchased and owned the engine that powered the Ferris Wheel at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. But it appears our company resources had the story [...]
» Bridges helped build our business
When a company has about 150 years of history – as does General Mills, and, as we say, “its predecessor companies” – there’s no shortage of stories, some of which center on aspects of life that few of us think about. Bridges might be on that list. We cross them daily, but it wasn’t until [...]
» One stone’s story
Here at the General Mills main office, hundreds of us walk past a heavy, hunk of history each day. It’s an old millstone, about two-and a-half feet in diameter, placed on the side of a high-traffic walkway between two of our buildings. A couple thoughts crossed my mind as I stopped to stare at it [...]
» Betty’s in her hometown hall of fame
Betty Crocker celebrated a big birthday in 2011, turning 90. But the city that Betty and General Mills call home has a few years on her. Golden Valley, Minn., marked its 125th anniversary this year and honored Betty at an event last Friday by inducting her into the city’s Hall of Fame. More than 250 [...]
» Flour power at Pillsbury
As manager of the General Mills Archives, all kinds of interesting materials show up in my mailbox. A recent one was the booklet, “The Story of Flour,” published in 1923 by the Pillsbury Flour Mills Co. Filled with photos, it includes references to wheat production dating back to 2700 B.C. in China. Pillsbury and General [...]
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