Aunt Jemima - Fictional black female with a broad smile, bandanna and kerchief round her neck displayed on packages of  Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix and Syrup products first marketed by the Davis Milling Company in the 1890s. Nancy Green, a 59-year-old former slave and court clerk, portrayed the original Aunt Jemima at the Chicago World's Exposition of 1893. On radio, Harriette Widmer portrayed this fictional advertising spokeswoman. During the 1950s and '60s the image of the Aunt Jemima trademark was gradually modernized and in 1988, her 100-year-old image was given an overhaul. She still kept the traditional attributes of warmth, quality, good taste, heritage and reliability but discarded the bandanna and kerchief for a simple attractive look including gray-streaked hair and pearl earrings. Her character now looked more like the white counter part of Betty Crocker. The Aunt Jemima character was inspired by the 19th century song song "Aunt Jemima" performed by a vaudeville team of Baker & Farrell when they visited St. Joseph Missouri. Chris Rutt, a newspaperman and the inventor of a first self-rising pancake mix (along with Charles Underwood) saw their performance and hired an artist to create the image of Aunt Jemima based on the southern "Mammy" costume of apron and red bandanna worn by Baker in his act.  In advertising history, there were other black advertising characters. A black male character dubbed Uncle Mose (from the song "Old Man Mose") was created to help Quaker Oats sell their premiums for Jemima and Uncle Mose salt and pepper shakers. A black woman called Luzianne Mammy (with bandana and beefy physique similar to Aunt Jemima) was created by Wm. B. Reilly and Company to sell its Luzianne Coffee. The Cream of Wheat Company used the image of a smiling black man called Rastus (based on a real black waiter). And a pair of black twins known as the Gold Dust Twins (drawn by famed illustrator W. W. Kemble) appeared on boxes of Gold Dust Twin scouring powder in the early 20th century. TRIVIA NOTE: On Oct. 31, 1991, Howard Stern, the host of the controversial morning radio talk show produced at WXRK-FM in New York City was reportedly fined $600,000 by the F.C.C. for saying he masturbated to Aunt Jemima's. His exact statement "The closest I came to making love to a black woman was I, uh, masturbated to a picture of Aunt Jemima on a pancake box. I did it right on her kerchief" Allegedly, Stern has paid the more FCC fines than any other program in history.

      

The "New" Aunt Jemima

 

             

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