Alexis Nguyen / Staff reporter
Popcorn has been a popular snack for years, and most people can’t resist the buttery, savoury, salty snack. Popcorn is usually associated with movie theatres, as it is the most served snack at the concession stand.
However, a lot of people don’t know how popcorn ended up being a snack for the theatres, or how popcorn is grown and produced.
According to the article “How Popcorn Became the Premier Movie Theater Snack” by Tai Gooden, the corn started as a wild grass called Teosinte, originally grown, and traded by Indigenous people in Mexico. It likely came into the United States through trading and quickly spread among Indigenous communities across the U.S. before colonization.
At the time, popcorn was an essential part of many cuisines in North and South America because of its nutritional value, and it only needed fire to be popped, making it very valuable.
Previous popcorn plants had resembled parched corn, also known as corn nuts, which is a snack made by heating kernels with low water content in a frying pan. Parched corn is crunchier than popcorn but has a similar way to cook it as popcorn, causing people to compare the two.
When settlers came the U.S., they had learned how to grow corn and incorporate it into their diets. Since then, popcorn has been grown in very specific ways after years of carefully cultivating different strains of corn. The process usually involves growing the corn for popping, letting it cure on the stalk, picked, the dried until the kernels have only 14% moisture left. This way, when the kernels are exposed to heat, the moisture inside expands, causing the kernel to burst.
Popcorn then became a popular snack at fairs and carnivals, as it was cheap for customers to buy, from Maura Lieberman’s article “Why Is Popcorn the Default Movie Theater Snack?”. For the vendors, it was cheap and easy to make, as kernels did not cost very much and required very little equipment to make.
People started to by popcorn and bring them into movie theatres as their snack, however the theatres did not like it because the theatres had expensive carpets and didn’t want popcorn crumbs going into the carpet. Also because movie theatres were meant to be relatively quiet, and popcorn is quite a loud snack. Another reason is that movies at the time were silent and had text on the screen, so only those who were literate could go see them, and popcorn was not considered as a “luxury” snack.
During the Great Depression, many Americans craved cheap entertainment as escapism, and since movies with sound were starting to be phased in, more of them started to go to the movies. Most people would start sneaking snacks into the theatre to enjoy while watching their movie, including popcorn as it was the most inexpensive snack at the time.
Vendors started to sell popcorn on street carts outside of the theatres, before the theatres allowed them to sell inside the lobby of the theatre for a small price. When popcorn got super popular, theatres started to cut out the middleman by selling the popcorn themselves directly to customers.
The movie industry was booming during the Great Depression and expanded even more during World War II. Sugar was extremely expensive during World War II and had a very short supply, so candy and soda were not snack options for most people. Popcorn was still inexpensive, and by then the association of popcorn and movie theatres has already been established.
In today’s world, popcorn remains as a movie theatre snack, and is a relatively cheap for theatres to make. However, the prices are very high at the concession stand because it is the main source of profit for the theatre, as they had to split ticket costs but could take all the profits from the snacks.
Popcorn has been around for years with an extensive history as a very easy and cheap food to make. The snack gained its popularity through movie theatres and is now considered a classic movie snack as the buttery taste and smell is difficult to resist.
Sources:
Why Is Popcorn the Default Movie Theater Snack?
A Brief History of Movie Theater Popcorn
Why Do Movie Theaters Serve Popcorn?
The History of Popcorn: How One Grain Became a Staple Snack
Why do popcorn and movies go together?
How popcorn became the premier movie theater snack
Why Do We Eat Popcorn at The Movies? Why do Movie Theaters Sell Popcorn?
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