If you walk to your kitchen pantry, there’s a high probability you have a box or two of cake mix there. Also highly probable that those boxes have one of two names on them: Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. Betty Crocker was a fictional character, but the other was very real—Mr. Duncan Hines. A Bowling Green, Kentucky native, Hines spent most of his career as a traveling salesman selling print. And he didn’t put his name on a box of cake mix until he was in his mid 70s!
Duncan Hines worked for a printer in Chicago, traveling the country during the first half of the 20th century. This required Hines to eat out at restaurants a LOT. With a lack of health departments, chain restaurants, or Yelp reviews, there was a certain amount of gastrointestinal roulette being played with every dinner stop. To combat this, Hines employed the help of his wife Florence, and began assembling a list of the best (and safest) restaurants across the U.S. The couple would share this list with friends and fellow travelers. They too could grab a bite at various mom-n-pops, diners, or greasy spoons knowing they were getting a good meal.
A New Career After 70
Duncan Hines’s list became so in-demand, he transitioned it into a printed guide called ‘Adventures in Good Eating.’ He was eventually able to leave his print sales job and even started to write a newspaper food column published across the country three times each week. Lodging reviews were soon listed in the book’s pages, and restauranteurs wanted to pay Hines to endorse their establishments.
After nearly two decades of publishing and growing the book, a NY bakery approached Hines about using his name on a line of bread and baked goods. Packaged food companies followed suit, and the licensed cake mixes launched circa 1954.
Want to hear more about Duncan Hines and other creatives whose plans didn’t quite work out as planned? Check out the Design Matters podcast with guest Seth Godin.
