Popcorn was already popular when Cloid Smith started selling it out of his home in Sioux City 110 years ago. It was cheap; it was tasty. And it’s been eaten in the Americas for thousands of years in a variety of ways.
Archaeologists working in Peru found the remains of ears of popcorn dating back 6,700 years. The Wampanoag popped corn for the first Thanksgiving in 1621. Its kernels have hard, starchy shells containing moisture, which converts into steam when heated, causing the kernels to burst open.
Cloid Smith grew up around fields of popping corn in northwest Iowa, but had no real interest in it until he was in his 40s. Young Smith followed a different path, first studying to be a pharmacist, then finding success as a traveling salesman peddling veterinary supplies. In 1899, he and some business associates started a local phone company, which grew to cover parts of Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, as well as much of western Iowa. In 1912, Bell Telephone bought the company, and Smith used some of his profits to buy farmland in Sac County, which he rented out to a tenant farmer who grew popcorn.
Unhappy about the low price his tenant farmer was getting for the corn, Smith took over the preparation and packaging in 1914, starting the American Pop Corn Company in the basement of his house. Within two years, he opened a factory for the company on the outskirts of Sioux City.
Smith brought determination and ambition to his popcorn business and aimed to ensure his Jolly Time brand sold only quality kernels. But there was a problem: Popcorn didn’t travel well. The kernels dried out, becoming unpoppable duds. Cardboard boxes don’t help retain moisture; glass bottles are better but break in shipping. Plastic packaging was still in the future.
In 1925, Smith found a solution, sealing his kernels in metal containers that kept them fresh on store shelves. The innovation vastly improved the popped-to-dud kernel ratio, and Smith started advertising Jolly Time with the slogan, “It’s guaranteed to pop.”
Ninety-nine years after they were first introduced, the metal containers are now collectibles, replaced by plastic and other packaging material. But the American Pop Corn Company is still in the same location in Sioux City, still owned by members of the Smith family and still producing Jolly Time.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s 2024 Bread & Butter special issue.
