Betty Crocker Unveiled

'Her' Story, From 'Birth' To Present; Was She Real? Is She?

(CBS)  In 1924, Betty hit the Minneapolis airwaves. Within a year, her show went national, with actresses across the country reading from the same approved scripts. "Hello, everybody! Cooking school time again. …Gold Medal is the flour we recommend in our recipes," the actresses playing Betty would say.

Before long, Betty Crocker was sharing her recipe for everything from meatloaf, to marriage: "It's so nice to have a spouse who likes to bake."

Before Dear Abby, people looked to her for advice with love or with raising children, balancing the budget, even battling depression.

But it was during the Great Depression that Betty and her staff really rolled up their sleeves, offering recipes for leftovers and advice on how to make nutritious meals with less.

During World War II, it was Betty to the rescue, with tips on how to make do with rations.

So it's perhaps no wonder Betty's popularity withstood her 1945 outing in Fortune magazine.

The article "called her a fraud, called her a fake," Marks says. "I never found any documentation that said that they were trying to keep it secret. I found something in the archives that said something about how, and this is in the early '20s, if people asked for a photograph of Betty Crocker we should write a letter back saying that she doesn't like to have her photograph taken.

But real or not, for most folks, it didn't seem to matter.

"And many times," Marks continued, "they did know that she wasn't real. They just wanted that connection with someone who seemed to know it all. …Whether she was real or not, they could get a response back from her. And that actually helped her be -- to become almost real."

Some folks, such as author and culinary historian Laura Shapiro, argue that the fictional Betty Crocker is more in touch with reality than that other real-life kitchen icon, Martha Stewart.

"I would say that Betty Crocker is the real person," Shapiro asserts. "I think Martha Stewart lives in much more of a fantasy world that many people would love to have for themselves. Betty Crocker didn't deal in fantasy at all. …She was all about the real world."

Still, with time and technology, Betty has changed.

In the 1950s, her television personality seemed more concerned with selling cake mix than helping folks do it themselves.

"For instance," Shapiro points out, "she appeared with Gracie Allen on the George Burns and Gracie Allen show, and Gracie would say to George, 'I have to make something for my bridge club tonight. And I don't know what to do.' And George would say, 'Why don't you ask Betty Crocker?'

"And a moment later, a marble cake would materialize. And Gracie would say, 'This new Betty Crocker marble cake mix is so easy, even I can do it.' So, that was the message. It's so easy that even you, dumb, silly, frivolous, low rent housewife can make this cake.

"That is a very different message from the message Betty was pouring out in the '40s and the early '50s, about how you can really cook. You are the housewife with a respected occupation. You are somebody that people should admire and applaud."

And, Bowers observes, as that message began to disappear, so, too, did Betty Crocker.

"At some point in the late '50s, early '60s," Shapiro says, "Betty Crocker herself does not appear at all in these cake mix ads. You see a spoon dancing around in a little bowl. It's like there's no woman at all necessary."

Still, even today, the mere mention of Betty Crocker brings a smile to the face of folks who grew up with her: "Every Christmas," one admirer told Bowers, "we make the candle salad, with banana the cherry on top. It's a tradition in our family. And that's from Betty Crocker's children's cookbook."

Not to mention first-timers.

"She has a special place in the hearts of many baby boomers," Marks says. "But I do know that Betty's definitely changed with the times."

But her recipes haven't: from reliably cinnamonny snicker-doodles to creamy chiffon cake, everyone has a favorite.

Today, you can still ask "Betty Crocker."

"I called the Betty Crocker hotline once, for a cooking demonstration. I was going to use a cake mix. And I had never made one before, and I didn't understand one of the directions. And she answered, and she answered and answered my question," Shaprio recalls, with laughter.

"She does exist to this day as a source of authority. People will write to her or call her, hotline…and it's amazing, an amazingly long life for an advertising icon.

She continues to help folks not quite at home in their kitchens, people like Marks: "I'm not actually known for my cooking and baking but (there are recipes) I can nail each time. …In fact, I was an adult before I realized that you could make chocolate chip cookies without Bisquick.

Real or made up, Betty Crocker lives on, in our hearts, and in our stomachs."