Have you ever wondered how TV dinners came into being? You can blame Swanson Foods, of Omaha, Neb., for creating an almost entirely new industry. Other people, other companies also had something to do with it, but Swanson's put the turkey on the TV trays.
It happened about fifty years ago. TV was just becoming popular. And turkey was the focus of most Thanksgiving dinners. Swanson's had marketed a chicken pot pie that was fast making a place for itself on grocery shopping lists.
About 40 years earlier a fellow named Clarence Birdseye had gone to Canada as a researcher for the U. S. government. Among other things, he noticed that when Eskimos went fishing they put their catch in very cold seawater as soon as it was off the hook, and the fish froze almost instantly. Best of all, when it was thawed and prepared for the table it tasted as if it had just come out of the water.
The Swanson Company had been engaged in marketing frozen foods for several years, using boxes for meats and vegetables which had to be thawed and otherwise prepared before they could be eaten.
When the company became the proud possessor of several hundred tons of frozen turkey, management decided that something had to be done -- and quickly! Gilbert, one of the Swanson sons, noticed, so the story goes, how hard it was for people to balance dinner plates on their laps while watching that new phenomenon -- TV. The problem was evident. There had to be a solution.
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A Swanson salesman noticed the new serving pieces an airline had developed -- an aluminum tray with compartments for each item on the menu -- and took one home with him. He showed it to one of the Swanson sons, and told him how a complete meal could be readied in less than a half hour, with very little cleanup needed after the meal. A company in the East had developed a pre-cooked meal for the World War II armed forces. Swanson decided to make one for the family market. They did, with a startup run of 5,000 turkey dinners, which sold for less than a dollar.
The new TV dinners caught on rapidly. Many women had gone outside their homes to work during World War II, and many of them really enjoyed the new freedom. Swanson's had the answer. New meals were added to the line and the rest, as they say, is history.
There've been changes made along the way and the original products may not even be available, but the idea won solid approval and has become part of the American way of life.
Don Miller, a longtime resident of Willmar, was president of the Kandiyohi County Historical Society for 32 years and is still active with the organization.
