If I say Spry what do you think of? I'll give you a few moments to sort things out in your private filing cabinet.................I'm waiting...
If you're under 35 you might be thinking Spry is some sort of JavaScript software used for creating web pages. Uh huh, yeah...whatever.
Okay, most likely if you're under 40 something and literate you might be thinking:
If you're in your late 50s, or older, you might be thinking Crisco. Indeed that's what always crosses my mind. When I was growing up I thought Spry meant Crisco. It's the word both my mother and grandmother used. "Get the spry out, I'm making a pie." So of course I'd get out the can of Crisco. It wasn't until a short time ago that I found out they were two separate products.
Spry Vegetable Shortening
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spry was a brand of vegetable shortening produced by Lever Brothers starting in 1936. It was a competitor for Proctor & Gamble's Crisco, and through aggressive marketing through its mascot Aunt Jenny had reached 75 percent of Crisco's market share. The marketing efforts were phased out in the 1950s, but Aunt Jenny and her quotes like With Spry, we can afford to have cake oftener! have been reprinted. Though the product is discontinued there are anecdotal reports of it being used through the 1970s.
Dave Dube, MrCachet at the wonderful
Old Paper Art, gave me the cookbook shown below. Though I can't find a copyright date, I'm guessing it's from the late 30s to early 40s. The whole thing is just plain fun. There are a lot of good old recipes inside and the color reproductions of the food are actually palatable, which is so often NOT the case. But really what sparks my interest is the cover. The comic book style cover with the speech bubbles. As soon as I saw this I thought "Whoa, why was this style of advertising so popular way back when?" Over the next week I'll have examples to prove my point.
Click on images to see them larger.
Now think about it, there was no television for advertisers, but radio and newspapers were popular. The funnies, comics, were very popular. So why not combine radio with the funnies and you get...really bad comics selling stuff. Advertisers tried to be chatty with their customers, often times with really hysterical results. In this case...ummmm...do the men look like maybe they've just spread Spry all over their faces? Do they look a little too smiley? A little greasy? A little toooo friendly? "Wonderful Lemon Pie! Such flaky tender crust" Notice, no period following "crust". Me thinks this guy had more to say.
As to a color spread, this one isn't half bad. These cakes look edible, as do the brownies. Okay, sure everything looks a little too yellow, which considering the selling point of Spry was that it was "...so white. I just know it's purer." Side by side with Crisco, Spry was whiter, thus better. Who comes up with this stuff?
Click on image to see it larger.
Now here's something I've never heard of. Making up a pie crust mix ahead of time. Does anybody do this? I would think if it worked with Spry way back when it would work now with Crisco. But 4 pounds of flour? Who makes that many pies? What's the shelf life of this stuff?
Click on image to see it larger.
Well, Spry is long gone and soon those of us who think of Crisco when we hear Spry will be gone. Okay, not that soon. I should be around, if I'm lucky, for a few more decades. But, Crisco won. Spry is dead. Alas Spry I hardly knew ye.
Thanks Dave for adding such a wonderfully odd piece of ephemera to my collection!
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