"Yours today - the foods of tomorrow!" - leaflet issued by Birds Eye Frosted Foods for the New York World's Fair, 1939
One of many advertising and publciity leaflets issued in conjunction with the New York World's Fair of 1939 is this for Birds Eye Frosted Foods declaring the products the food of tomorrow, indeed "a fairy tale - a dream of tomorrow" available today. Powerful stuff and interestingly showing an already very wide range of product lines available under the brand.
The origins of the company go back to Clarence Frank Birdseye, a food scientist based in the US who developed processed for the greatly improved freezing of fish products. he formed his original company in 1922. In 1929 he sold out to a combine that was to become the massive General Foods of whom the Birds Eye Frozen Food Company was a subsidiary. As can be seen the range of foods that were successfully forzen so as to allow storage, transportation and, defrosted, used grew.
The market for frozen "convienience" foods was simply based on both retailers who had freezers to sell the products and consumers who had freezers to allow for storage of them frozen. The US, even in the 1930s, appears to have had a greater percentage of households with such equipment - the market in the UK was later in developing post-war as consumer uptake of fridge and freezers finally took off. Indeed it appears that the UK subsidiary was the one that developed the coated fish finger that many associate with the brand name that is still used, albeit the righst being owned by multlple companies world-wide.
"Yours today - the foods of tomorrow!" - leaflet issued by Birds Eye Frosted Foods for the New York World's Fair, 1939
One of many advertising and publciity leaflets issued in conjunction with the New York World's Fair of 1939 is this for Birds Eye Frosted Foods declaring the products the food of tomorrow, indeed "a fairy tale - a dream of tomorrow" available today. Powerful stuff and interestingly showing an already very wide range of product lines available under the brand.
The origins of the company go back to Clarence Frank Birdseye, a food scientist based in the US who developed processed for the greatly improved freezing of fish products. he formed his original company in 1922. In 1929 he sold out to a combine that was to become the massive General Foods of whom the Birds Eye Frozen Food Company was a subsidiary. As can be seen the range of foods that were successfully forzen so as to allow storage, transportation and, defrosted, used grew.
The market for frozen "convienience" foods was simply based on both retailers who had freezers to sell the products and consumers who had freezers to allow for storage of them frozen. The US, even in the 1930s, appears to have had a greater percentage of households with such equipment - the market in the UK was later in developing post-war as consumer uptake of fridge and freezers finally took off. Indeed it appears that the UK subsidiary was the one that developed the coated fish finger that many associate with the brand name that is still used, albeit the righst being owned by multlple companies world-wide.